Sacred Spark is the compelling true story of a child affected by mercury-poisoning and his minister-mother’s decade-long battle to restore the light in his eyes.
Sacred Spark is also the inspiring story of Rev. Sykes’ work with the United Methodist Church to pass the first global resolution advocating the elimination of mercury from medicine. As such, Rev. Sykes helps her church ignite a social justice movement on par with historical faith-based campaigns against child labor and slavery.
Sacred Spark is a pragmatic and compassionate call for putting the well-being of children first. Parents and physicians demanding safer vaccines will find clarity to support their informed choices, as well as inspiration and guidance to become advocates for children.
Rev. Sykes weaves into a seamless whole several strands of fast-paced and engrossing narrative: her family’s horror in witnessing their happy toddler slip into autism; her victories in appropriate and landmark biomedical treatments for her son; her attempts to find precious allies against a corrupt and protected industry; the success of empowered parents to enact state bans on mercury and to approach Attorneys General across the country, and her own family’s lawsuit defeat on a procedural technicality against a pharmaceutical company.
Readers are taken behind the scenes – from the Simpsonwood United Methodist Retreat Center in Norcross, Georgia, (where a closed-door meeting between government officials and pharmaceutical companies was convened one week before congressional investigations into conflicts of interest between the two began in 2000) – to the floor of the Institute of Medicine meetings in Boston and Washington, DC, where Rev. Sykes passionately challenges committee members to abandon their blind trust in how vaccines are manufactured and approved and embrace instead the clarity of medical ethics that would put children first.
In stark contrast to the stubborn failure of the federal government to act on behalf of the nation’s children, Rev. Sykes brings her cause to The United Methodist Church and her denomination responds with the strength and support of its 11.5 million members in a global resolution advocating the elimination of mercury in medicine.
Cited extensively throughout the book are scientific studies supporting mercury’s causal role in autism, as well as the internal transcripts from the IOM and Simpsonwood meetings and government emails (available through the Freedom of Information Act).
Sacred Spark seeks to answer, as well as raise, such questions as: How does a parent or practitioner initiate the reforms necessary to protect minds from mercury? Why do the Hippocratic Oath and the Right of Informed Consent apply to all parts of medicine, especially vaccination? How do we counter the argument that a mercury-containing vaccine is better than no vaccine at all, as global dissemination of mercury-containing vaccines to the Developing World continues? Why do the public and media believe mercury is out of vaccines when there has never been an official recall or ban and more has been added with flu shots?
h e a l t h • a r t • p o e t r y • l i t e r a t u r e
Nancy Stodart, publisher
Sacred SPARK
by Rev. Lisa K. Sykes
A Minister Mom’s Quest to
Restore the Light in Her Son’s Eyes
Inspires Her Church to Protect
Children from Harm and
Ignites a Global Debate About
Autism and Childhood Vaccines
Foreword by Lenny Schafer, Editor, The Schafer Report
Epilogue by Mark Geier, M.D. Ph.D. and David Geier
$22.95 paperback
ISBN # 978-0-971-78064-4
316 pages
CHILDREN FIRST using safe vaccines and drugs clearly marked as having NO THIMEROSAL (Mercury)
BIOGRAPHIES
“If you have ever wondered if one person can make a difference, or if you question whether women in the church carry influence in today’s political climate, or if you need confirmation that a network of women in congregations is engaged in issues that affect our world, this is the book for you.
Rev. Sykes’ journey from private pain to public advocacy is a testimony to the claim of God in her life and of God’s care for women, children and families the world over.”
–Harriett Jane Olson,
–Harriett Jane Olson,
Deputy General Secretary, Women’s Division
United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries
“Sacred Spark is a wonderful, amazing, heart wrenching, inspiring story. I loved it!”
–Michael Manning, Parent
“When one in six American children has a behavioral or developmental disorder, clinicians and researchers must consider environmental triggers in the context of genetic predispositions when formulating differential diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Rev. Sykes takes you on a journey of personal anguish, political action and professional advocacy that reads like a novel and is punctuated with sobering quotes from current times that stand in stark contrast to sacred writings and the wisdom of the ages.”
–Elizabeth Mumper, M.D., FAAP,
Medical Director, Autism Research Institute,
CEO, Advocates for Children, Founder, RIMLAND Center
Photo: Lisa K. Sykes
and her son, Wesley Sykes
NEWS UPDATE
The US Court of Claims' (Vaccine Court) ruling on March 12, 2010, that "Thimerosal (mercury) doesn't cause autism" has been made by employees (Special Masters) of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, an agency currently defending itself in federal court for failing to do the safety studies required by law before marketing this same Thimerosal in vaccines and other drugs. Would that the world understood the "special masters" who make these rulings are neither judges nor unbiased.