LESSONS FROM THE LIGHT

Starr’s debut memoir delves into the world of alternative healing.

When co-author Mulkey’s friend, a nurse, told him in 1994 about a Native American healer named Myra Starr, he thought that Starr might somehow be able to help his granddaughter Lindsay, who’d suffered from cystic fibrosis for most of her young life. Mulkey was “desperate for a miracle,” and Starr was already gaining media attention as a healer attuned to angels and the spirit world. Although Starr failed in Lindsay’s case—the child eventually died—Mulkey was sufficiently fascinated that he took on the task of helping to tell Starr’s story from her point of view. Her life story takes up the bulk of this book, starting with the near-death experience that, she believes, put her in touch with heavenly beings who sent her spirit back to her earthly body and gave her new healing abilities. The book affectingly conveys Starr’s sense of rebirth: “An awakening stirred within me, as if I’d come from the deepest of sleeps, and I was able to view life in a way I’d never done before.” After a series of enlightening incidents (and stumbles), Starr learned more about both her mission and her powers, and quickly realized that she was a “channel” between her heavenly guides’ wisdom and the mortal world. She soon gained a large clientele seeking guidance on everything from marital troubles to dietary problems. She also mastered the art of meditation, which “helps us to get out of our own way so that we may feel our basic connection with everything else,” and the book includes some specific meditation instructions for beginners. Overall, the book does an effective job of explaining Starr’s very human refinements of the spiritual forces she claims are guiding her.

An optimistic story about a woman helping people regain spiritual balance in their lives.