phil parker

Trial By Error: Deja Vu All Over Again with Proposed Lightning Process Study in Norway

31 May 2022 by David Tuller

By David Tuller, DrPH

It’s déjà vu all over again in Norway with the Lightning Process (LP). Earlier this month, a national research ethics authority, NEM, postponed a decision on a proposed LP trial until at least June. The trial has already been approved by a regional committee. The NEM had been expected to decide at its May meeting but did not.

This is the second go-round for this saga. Last year, a previous and also inadequate trial proposal was approved at the regional level but rejected by NEM—and after a similar delay from the expected decision date till a subsequent meeting. At that point, NEM determined that the proposed trial was fraught with conflicts of interest and potential bias. However, this year’s designated committee has new members who might assess the project differently, despite its ongoing deficiencies.

Trial By Error: Some Lightning Process Updates

13 July 2021 by David Tuller

By David Tuller, DrPH

A Final Round in Norway

Lightning Process supporters got some bad news recently when a Norwegian national research ethics panel rejected a proposed study because it was poorly designed and fraught with conflicts of interest, as I wrote about here. But that wasnâ€™t the end of the drama.

Although the ethics panel’s decision was meant to be final and not subject to appeal, the study team appealed anyway, sending a long letter to the ethics panel defending the trialâ€™s methodology and disputing the charges of conflicts of interest. The ethics panel agreed to take up the issue one more time. After another review, the panel reinforced its initial action by firmly rejecting the proposed study a second time. The ethics panel has made clear that it is not categorically against research into the Lightning Processâ€”just this inadequate effort.

Trial By Error: The Lightning Process Strikes Again

27 August 2020 by David Tuller

By David Tuller, DrPH

The Lightning Process was founded more than two decades ago by Phil Parker, a British Tarot reader and specialist in auras and spiritual guides. The LP, as it is often called, could be described as â€œa neuro-physiological training programme based on self-coaching, concepts from Positive Psychology, Osteopathy and Neuro Linguistic Programming,” as Parker and colleagues did in a 2018 paper. It could also be described as a potpourri of woo-woo. Take your pick.