I thought that readers of this site looking for CFS/ME cures would be interested in the comment from Ashok Gupta quoted below, which was left on the article Whoops here we go again.

Ashok Gupta sounds like a really nice polite young man, so please read his comments.

Firstly though I want to share my reasons for being so pedantic at times, which generates the articles I write:
One day some years ago as I lay on the settee, in my nest, I read of someone suffering with CFS/ME and paying a complete FORTUNE for a treatment that didn’t work for them. I felt so incensed on their behalf but what was more annoying is that they didn’t really know what they were paying for, or what the ‘cure’ was. Being a Health Practitioner myself I have always been trained to explain the treatment processes, and what the patient is paying for, and, above all, not to make claims that may not happen for that individual – the operative words to use were ‘may help’. So began my campaign to unearth the roots of supposed CFS/ME cures. At the time (several years ago now) I found Phil Parker’s process particularly elusive.

I received the comment from Ashok Gupta and I think it is only fair that all should be able to read what he says. Ashok has had sight of this article for his approval and permission before it went ‘live’.

His medical paper makes interesting reading and can be found in the Medical Hypothesis

Please see also The Perrin Technique as the two therapies seem to be saying similar things: The symptoms of an overactive sympathetic nervous system in response to psychological stress You can click on this link and scroll down to Precipitating Factors and point Number 1 to find the relevance I am making and then read what Perrin says about his theories. Perrin’s theories can also be found in the Gibson Inquiry blog which was set up to list all the contacts and reports that were made for the Gibson Inquiry on the state of research into CFS/ME.

My personal feeling is that although some kind of psychiatry/cognitive behaviour therapy/counselling/Gupta Amygdala Retraining is useful and appropriate for CFS/ME patients and probably absolutely everyone whether they are ill or not, I do believe it is a physical trigger in the way that Perrin describes that got CFS/ME people ill in the first place.

But that is the age old question – which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Here is Ashok Gupta’s comment:

Dear Marianne,

My name is Ashok Gupta from Gupta Amygdala Retraining, and after having read the article, I would like to clear up a few points here. Firstly I am very open about the medical paper which I wrote, and it is published on my website here:
CFS Recovery

Secondly, let me clear up the idea of “mind retraining”. I can’t speak on behalf of the Lightning Process, but in the processes in my DVD programme, I want to make it absolutely clear that the only person doing the retraining, is the person who has the condition. There is no hypnotherapy involved in the programme, and instead it is about the patient becoming more aware of the patterns which keep their body in an imbalanced state.

You clearly state in your article that: ”…I find that God and the Bible help me understand myself and my behaviour. I have found myself perceiving a mode of my behaviour and wondering why and looking at ways to change it.” This could not be a better description of my DVD recovery programme. I help people understand the modes of brain activity which are keeping the body ill, and once that awareness has dawned, it is up to the patient to “look at ways to change it.” I offer examples and tools to be able to retrain it which can be edited by the patient to suit their own needs, but they are always in control, and the therapist is not brain washing the person – nothing could be further from the truth – that is an old view of these therapies. If it was that easy we wouldn’t need therapy anymore – it’s always the patient that is making the changes.

I agree with you Marianne, that people can become aware of their own patterns and change them themselves. However, wouldn’t it be nice if a person got a helping hand in this regard, especially from a former sufferer? So many of my patients, once they get well, say to me, “I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out before, now I’m better it seems so obvious! I wish I hadn’t wasted those years not knowing about this.”

None of my patients have ever felt they have been brainwashed, because it doesn’t work like that. The therapist has no control over the patient, it is more about educating the patient, like a training programme. In a job, you would go on a training programme to learn about how you could improve something about your behaviour, or do something in a better way. No-one would ever say that is brainwashing, the trainer doesn’t control your mind. It is helping you to do something better through educating and retraining your own mind through what you have learnt.

I hope that clears up the situation concerning my programme, and that it is very different to how you are phrasing it within your article,

Warm regards
Ashok Gupta