Observations placeholder
Hit by lightning
Identifier
000413
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Hypnotherapy scripts – Ronald Havens and Catherine Walters
This case [is] of a man who was referred with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Over the course of the previous 3 years he had undergone a marked change in personality, become delusional and experienced visual hallucinations.
When asked to focus upon his symptoms while in a light trance state, this man reported that it felt as if his head had been blasted with electricity. He then related this feeling to an incident wherein he was in fact struck by lightning. Although this event had occurred only days before the onset of his early symptoms, neither the client nor any of his physicians or therapists had postulated a causal relationship.
A neuropsychological evaluation revealed considerable residual organic impairment consistent with a massive high voltage electrical discharge over the surface of his cortex. His presenting symptoms of suspicion, grandiosity, confusion and emotionality, abated once he had obtained a realistic description of the nature and location of his problems. After rehabilitation training provided him with alternative coping strategies, he returned to his family and a productive life.