CRPS to Doing Things "I Never, in a Million Years, Thought Possible"

Prior to taking the Lightning Process, I felt hopeless. I had been diagnosed with CRPS, a rare neurological disorder, that I had somehow developed in early 2017, and which was made much worse after a needless surgery on my foot in the summer of 2018. The pain had spread from my left foot all the way up my leg, eventually reaching all of my limbs.  Everyday was an immense physical and emotional challenge. I was on the maximum dose of Gabapentin, Low Dose Naltrexone, had undergone an expensive experimental treatment in Italy, ketamine infusions, and many other self-prescribed medications. I couldn’t walk unless I wore a very cushioned, special brand of running sneakers, and I thought it would be that way for the rest of my life –– if I was so lucky.  In short, nothing was helping, and everything seemed bleak. 

When I learned about the Lightning Process after a chance talk with a stranger on Facebook, I was incredibly skeptical, thinking to myself: this sounds like some New Age snake oil.  Weeks later –– after none of the “normal” treatments were helping –– I thought: what do I really have to lose? I then began reading about neuroplasticity, about other hopeful stories, about the power of our thoughts on our physical well-being, and these concepts started making sense to me on a very practical level.  I decided to go for it. 

I took the LP seminar in October of 2019, and immediately started to feel a sense of hope.  Amanda was amazing from the start: encouraging, hopeful, and never wavered from her belief that I could get better, even when I had my own private moments of doubt.  And thus, after doing the LP a lot over the following weeks and months, I too started to believe, and my circumstances began to change rapidly. 

After one month, I was off of all Gabapentin (I was taking 12 pills per day prior to the LP).  A couple of weeks after that, I was off all medications completely. I began taking hot yoga classes, going to the gym regularly, I moved cities, started writing and journaling again, got back into the workforce and, just a few short months after the seminar, attended a music and yoga festival in a remote Costa Rican jungle, where I camped outdoors and walked and danced all night barefoot/ in sandals/ a beat-up pair of sneakers the entire time. I would’ve never, in a million years, thought that to be possible, and yet it actually happened! 

Today, I can say I am pain free, and am able to do just about anything anyone else can do, and probably more. I continue taking hot yoga classes nearly everyday, use the LP as needed, and remember that I absolutely, forever and always, have a say in my own health. The LP has been incredibly healing, and I’m grateful everyday that I took a chance and signed up.  A big thank you to Amanda Ashley and Phil Parker for changing my life! 

Henry Newman
New Mexico

2021 UPDATE from Henry:

I am out doing my HIIT workouts in the park in sometimes sub-freezing New Mexico temperatures and it's quite exhilarating and never a problem. I hike, I mostly wear what footwear I like, my legs and arms feel healthy and muscular, and those are facts that I sometimes take for granted or forget altogether.

But the end of the year had me reflecting on some of what happened in 2019, realizing that I got through that and then also got through 2020 and, if I can do that, I know I am totally in the clear. I am fine and will always be fine –– I withdrew from a life of infusions, pills, doctors, psychiatrists, Facebook support groups, CBT sessions, and just the generally insufficient ways (for me, at least) of 'managing' something instead of actually saying "hey, I don't accept what is happening" and actually changing it. And that is thanks to the Lightning Process, and definitely you.