PODCAST: Conspirituality 325: Long COVID Profiteers

[Kalliope]

Haven't listened to it yet, but in this latest episode from the podcast Conspirituality they discuss among other the FACLON trial, the PACE trial, Lightning Process and more.

Conspirituality

www.conspirituality.net

 

[Trish]

I hadn't come across Conspirituality podcast before.

This is what their home page says:

Investigating the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.

Their about page

Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis.

At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon.

As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia.

Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.

They name the 4 people who run the podcast. They are a couple of authors, a cult survivor and a Tik Tok influencer.

 

[Chandelier]

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Podcast Episode Description​

Conspiracy theorists have decided Novak Djokovic has long COVID — despite no evidence — because he's become an anti-vax icon courted by RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz. So we thought it was high time for a long COVID update.​

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Derek looks at a new Boston Children's Hospital research on viral reactivation, as well as the findings of a 2026 meta-analysis pooling 200,000+ participants.​

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Matthew surveys the Canadian LC landscape, where insurance-industry money is quietly funding McGill's Institute for Transforming Healthcare and McMaster's FALCON trial, testing the pseudoscientific "Lightning Process" on Long COVID patients, led by researcher Dr. Jason Busse, who has deep insurance-disability ties.​

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Finally, Julian unpacks Phil Parker's Lightning Process — Ericksonian NLP dressed as neuroscience, with roots in hypnotherapy, cult techniques, and pure "neuro-bollocks."​

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Show Notes​

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Kennedy Hires Covid Vaccine Skeptic to Look at Dubious Claims of Military Deaths​

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A New Brunswick woman's account of being left to find her own way with long COVID​

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Canadians frustrated by long COVID as they grapple with its effects​

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December 2023 release on Canadians' experiences with long-term COVID symptoms​

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Fourth Report on longer-term symptoms among Canadian adults​

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"Dealing with the Fallout": post-COVID condition's continued impact​

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Survey record confirming the CCAHS was a one-time collection​

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RFK Jr.'s workforce cuts wiped out federal tracking of key health data​

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Trudeau kept Harper's health care funding formula​

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2025 National Health Expenditure Trends snapshot​

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Canada Health Transfer deductions for non-compliance are declining​

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Carney refuses to commit to enforcing the Canada Health Act​

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Canada's affordability crisis and health care​

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Ontario should join Alberta in challenging the Canada Health Act​

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Alberta's new health system structure under Premier Smith​

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Alberta's "Bill 11" and Ford's hospital privatization​

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Union concern over Saskatchewan's move toward privatization​

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McGill launches initiative to strengthen Canada's healthcare system​

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Sectoral Asset Management's healthcare-investing focus​

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Manulife launches Global Longevity Institute committing $350M by 2030​

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Manulife advances longevity leadership in Canada with support for the National Institute on Ageing's landmark survey​

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National Institute on Ageing releases 2025 Ageing in Canada Survey​

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FALCON study​

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Petition calling to pause McMaster's FALCON trial​

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Original 2011 PACE trial publication​

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Peter White's ties to Swiss Re​

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The PACE team's insurance-company consulting work​

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The yawning gap in ME/CFS research funding​

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Trial By Error: BBC Takes On The Lightning Method​

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Can Lightning Method Help Kids with CFS?​

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[Trish]

I listened to the whole podcast. You can see the topics covered in the list Chandelier posted. It was pretty good. The format is 2 men discussing a range of issues that at least one of them had researched pretty well. Turns out at the end part of their interest is the mother of one of them has had ME/CFS for many years, did LP, bought in to the whole 'you are now recovered' story and after some time relapsed badly.
Discussion of LP, its use of NLP, the SMILE trial, the Jason Busse LP trial was thorough and accurate.

 

[Chandelier]

Turns out at the end part of their interest is the mother of one of them has had ME/CFS for many years, did LP, bought in to the whole 'you are now recovered' story and after some time relapsed badly.

Wow, that makes for a good motivator to study these topics.

I know that there’s FNDnope.org by @cstruter .
But is there an anti-Recovery Norway website that collects stories of pwME that got worse by all the Brain Retraining and CBT/GET approaches?
When newspapers link to Recovery Norway they could be forced to also link to this site.
Using the whole bothsideism argument for us.
What do you think, could that be a worthwhile project?

I remember a fraud listing website that described The Lightning Process, Recovery Norway, DNRS, ANS Rewire, Gupta, etc.
However, it went down and is now apparently run by scammers and unsafe to visit:

Luckily, there’s a backup from 2023:

Fraudlisting

Find relevant information about "cure-all" programs for ME/CFS such as "The Lightning Process", "DNRS", ANS Rewire and more.

web.archive.org

 

[Trish]

But is there an anti-Recovery Norway website that collects stories of pwME that got worse by all the Brain Retraining and CBT/GET approaches?

There's this one with specifically anti LP stories.
https://lp-fortellinger.no/en/lp-stories/
Thread:
LP-fortellinger - Norwegian website sharing information and experiences about Lightning Process - now available in English