***image1*** SFR: You've run New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts in Santa Fe for two decades now and BODY-which is really six businesses in one location-is about to celebrate its second anniversary. Do you ever get exhausted?
LP:
It's funny you ask that. I helped start a company called Quiksilver back in Hawaii in the '70s so I've been in business for so much of my life. I've never noticed anything but work.
How did you wind up running the NMAHA?
By default. I'd been living in India on and off for 10 years. I got really sick and met someone in India and he said, 'You need to go to Santa Fe and heal yourself.' I was very sick. I was in a coma. So I did that. I just came here and I'm still working with that healer. And then I met my ex-husband. And I said to him, 'I'll give you five weeks to organize this school.' And I'm still running it! He left a long time ago.
What makes it a world-class school?
It started up in 1979 as a school of vibrational healing. There was no massage, it was all color healing, sound healing, all vibrational. When you go there you can tell. There's a vibration in an anatomy class or a communications class and that vibration changes people's lives.
What do you mean by a vibration?
I mean a consciousness. It's so subtle, but when I say to you, 'Here's your chai,' and I just walk off, that's different from my saying, 'You know, this chai has no caffeine and it's made from a traditional recipe in India and it's got the five main digestive herbs so when you're drinking this it really pumps your organs up for digestion and gets you ready for the day.' That's a vibration, a consciousness, and there's a passion around that. When, for example, you're teaching anatomy and physiology, that's very dry. But when the teachers are teaching, they're always teaching from a vibrational, somatic level that feels true to them. So, for example, they might say, 'The body gets six hours of passive exercise in a one-hour massage. That's six miles of walking,' versus, "When you get a massage it's really good for you."
And you opened BODY because…
It's pretty simple. I wanted to create something for the community that wouldn't be a spa only or yoga only. Something for the community to gather around. Something for everybody who's living in Santa Fe and something that reflects the highest possible quality at an affordable price. And that's the business model I used at the academy. And politically and socially I think that's the wave of the future. I think that's what will heal business models.
You sound like an advocate for the living wage.
My feeling is that anything that has to do with government deals with the lowest common denominator, the minimum. I always look at the law as something you never break but something you don't necessarily follow. Because if you follow the law to its letter you'll be living at the absolute minimum of existence. And so I look at it like, when my employees are making $8.50 an hour, the $5-$10 an hour they're making in tips means they're making a good wage. And I'd rather see a business charge more money for the food and pay their employees. I just like the European system in which a business is responsible for its employees.
And that's a lucrative business strategy?
Not at all. I'm losing money. But I believe in it philosophically and I'm trying to get it to where I'll at least break even. Because for me this isn't really about making a lot of money, it's about doing something in the community, making a paradigm shift, even if it's a teeny one.
Is it difficult to be a businesswoman in this town?
I think because I've had my nose to the grindstone since I was 13, I've not seen that there's been a downside to being a woman. When I went to osteopathic school in France there were very few women there because there was such a prejudice against women doctors. And when I showed up in France, all the doctors were like, 'No.' And I was like, 'Oh, when you meet me, you'll say yes.' So I showed up with my little boots on and my miniskirt and it worked for me. I think it could have happened that way for other women but the women couldn't get through the door because they'd have frumpy dresses on and practically a mask and, I'm being a little facetious, but they were like, 'I want to be taken seriously and therefore I'm going to be as ugly as possible.'
That was, in a way, a feature of the women's movement in the '70s and '80s.
Right! Let me just resist everything inherent in being a woman because I want to be taken seriously as a woman. And I was like, let me indulge in everything there is to being a woman and see where it gets me! [But] being a woman in business has had more upsides than downsides. I think because I really like men, I really like business and I really like women so I don't come in with an attitude. I'm just like, 'OK guys! Let's go!' And then the other thing is I really allow myself to have fun. The point there is allowing for the chaos to be stirred up. I think that women by nature are really good at allowing for chaos.
Is this allowance for chaos what makes your endeavors successful?
I don't view myself as successful at all. But if that were true, the word would be allowance. And I would also say that that drives a lot of the people around me crazy. Because they'll say 'This doesn't make sense,' and I'll say 'I know! What's up with that?'
