A bolt of lightning in movies, TV and literature is often portrayed as a message from the heavens, a catalyst for great destruction or transformation. 

In real life being struck by lightning usually leads to any number of physical and cognitive symptoms… usually leaving the person irrevocably changed in some way.

Cellist Zoë Barry had not 1, not 2 but 3 close encounters with lightning within 6 months. Her work The Nervous Atmosphere explores the after-effects.