Starr Fuentes

[qirin]

posting this here because I cant post to "frauds," tho I am pretty sure she is illegit.  a friend of mine became involved with her a few years back, probably paid a lot of money for training.  when I looked at Starr's website, I was particularly disturbed by her claims to be able to cure cancer, and the exorbitant fees she charges for it.

although she doesn't say so in her bio, in various places she claims to have lineage to "mayan healers."

http://www.starrfuentes.com

[bonestyx]

I'm sorry to hear that your friend got scammed...

Red flags went up for me without having to look too far into her site.

Anyone who calls themselves a 'master' something is typically far from master of anything.

On top of that, anyone who claims it is themselves who is doing the healing is clearly not aligned with anything higher than their own self-interest. Woe be to them!

[TRIBALMOONS@yahoo.com]

As if she wasn't scary enough, this man is even scarier!

http://www.starrfuentes.com/aboutart.html

"Art Jackson has had the good fortune to connect with superb teachers. He spent 17 years studying under the great Lakota Medicine Man, Red Eagle, where he learned Indian ceremony and philosophy. Husband and apprentice of Curandera Starr Fuentes , the renowned teacher and healer,  Art has dedicated his path to carrying on the ancient and sacred teachings and spiritual traditions from around the world and bringing them to the forefront of modern reality.

After graduating from SWTSU in San Marcos with a Master's in Psychology and a minor in Biology, Art became an instructor in a Wilderness Camp in East Texas where he established nature and herb walks. Having an affinity with nature leads Art to do things in a simple, gentle way. This provides him with the foundation to make information become knowledge.

Art feels that experience is the best teacher; his classes are hands-on, experienced-based learning. Classes are designed to be fun, challenging, and boundary-expanding. The energy of the group and the physical activity blend to give you "aha!" experiences. For a truly mind-altering experience, try a firewalk with Art. This ancient practice teaches you to expand your mind and do things you never imagined possible!"

[frederica]

She does psychic surgery also.  Here is a site with some of James Randi films on that subject.  http://www.skepdic.com/psurgery.html

[educatedindian]

Qirin, we generally start a new person being researched under Research, then move them to Frauds if the evidence shows them to be. A few people tried to use NAFPS before to smear someone they didn't like or disagreed with.

But I share your attitude towards her. Unless she claimed to be the reincarnation of Christ or Buddha, her ego could not be any bigger. And the way she uses claims about her family is appalling.

From her own site:

"Starr Fuentes is a miracle worker..."

Such modesty.

"...capable of healing the energy of cancer and the energies that manifest as chronic disease."

That is beyond appalling. It also sounds to me to be very illegal to make such a claim. Anyone harmed or who has lost someone due to her phony treatment should take all criminal and civil court actions available to them.
 
"Being initiated into a long lineage of healers......"

Lineage means ancestry. If she's from a long line, she doesn't have to be initiated.

"...Starr Fuentes has sought to broaden her knowledge by studying with Masters and attending Mystery Schools from around the world."

Mystery schools aren't secret, apparently. Esp when there's money to be made.

"After years of study with healers, masters, curanderos, and shamans..."

Conveniently, she never names them.

"Starr has been leading seminars for several decades now, and is known throughout the world as a fountain of knowledge, compassion, and honesty."

Come on. Not many have ever even heard of her. And anyone can spot lies in every paragraph.

"She has 52 certifications and can teach over 400 subjects."

Again, conveniently none named. Anyone claiming to be an expert in that many subjects probably has only a shallow knowledge.

"When Starr's not traveling the world, she resides at the Divine Intervention Dome in Hot Springs, Arkansas"

That "divine dome" made me think of an old Star Trek episode...one where some aliens thought God was named "The Picard."

That center of Indiannness, Hot Springs. Actually it's a cut rate tourist spot.

And look at the sick way she exploits her family's tragedies and does her best to smear them at the same time.

"Starr was born in the inner city...Alcoholism ravaged her parents' lives, and Starr spent her childhood hungry, cold, and abused, the victim of physical neglect and sexual violence. Starr's only sister committed suicide at the age of 13, when Starr was only six years old....

Psychic abilities were as common as was alcoholism in her family...

When she was 13, Starr left home and began supporting herself by becoming a waitress at a truck stop....She knew she had a few choices - drown herself in alcohol like her parents had done"

Also note there's not one single way to track down any of the people she claims taught her, and that her claims contradict themselves all over the place.

"Starr made her first journey to study with a master in Colombia."

Master of what? Martial arts? Neither NDNs nor curanderos call themselves masters.
 
"From there, she went to Mexico City, then on to study with the Mexican curanderos in Vera Cruz, where she spent three years with her main teacher, Esperanza."

You know, that's not exactly an uncommon Mexican name. And Veracruz is full of the Mexican equivalent of snake oils salesmen, women dressed like the stereotype of gypsies wandering the beaches, reading the palms of tourists.

"Starr traveled the world studying with shamans in South America and Mexico..."

If they called themselves shamans...

"barefoot doctors in China, lamas in India, and witch doctors in Africa."

Is she still living in 1950? That's insulting and racist to call African healers that.

"She studied Tantric sex in India to heal herself of her sexual traumas, becoming a master in her own right."

Uh, that's nor what tantra teaches about. Not at all.

Her book is not exactly impressive. Her publisher puts out books on UFOs and zombies, and actually tell people not to send in submissions in crayon. (I swear I'm not making that up.)

Looks as though there have been complaints of her being a fraud before.

-----------------

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=126047
psychic scam: what to do?
I have a friend whose mother and sister are involved in a psychic who is causing serious problems with the friend's family. The psychic has really sowed some seeds of discord with the family, so that "non-believers" in the family are finding themselves distanced from the mother and sister. Now the psychic is predicting the end times, the collapse of U.S. society, and has told all her clients that in the near future she will tell them when to take all their money out of the bank "for safety".
Obviously, the mother and sister have paid money to the psychic already, for seminars and readings and such. Besides the family problems, I think there may be issues just around the corner with this psychic having "advice" about what these people should do with all their money.....
The psychic is Strarr Fuentes.

-------------------

And some tarot card believers think Fuentes is lying in her readings and not even using a deck since she refuses to say which kind of tarot deck she uses.

http://www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/t-61290.html

[C_from_Wpg]

posting this here because I cant post to "frauds," tho I am pretty sure she is illegit.  a friend of mine became involved with her a few years back, probably paid a lot of money for training. 

I just finished looking at Starr Fuentes' site.  I was also disturbed by the claim to cure cancer.  I have a friend who is paying money for "training" from a woman who calls herself a "shaman" and that's what first caught my eye in your post.  My friend is also getting treatments of some kind from the shaman (not for cancer).  I am curious about the outcome of your friend's training.  Was your friend trained to "heal" people, and, if so, does she in turn make a living practicing some sort of alternative healing technique?  Was your friend hurt by this experience in any way (besides financially)?  I think that the more people know about how these "alternative medicine" practitioners operate, the easier it will be to stop them from hurting people.  It seems that many of these so-called healers are also exploiters and distorters of one traditional spirtual tradition or another (several, usually, it seems).
Anyway, I *would* love to see Starr Fuentes' passport!   

[qirin]

C,

the person who received training from starr is more of an acquaintance than a friend, so I don't have as much information as I would like.  my friends and I were out of contact with the young lady in question until one day she turned up in new york city teaching a seminar on starr's behalf.  after that she moved to LA and put up a website up that detailed the different services she offered, some of which ostensibly involved an "ancient alphabet of healing handed down by the mayan masters."

I contacted her shortly after she moved to LA and she told me she had "decided to stop doing healing for now."  I was curious why she might have done this, and whether she still believed that starr can cure cancer (which she had previously said), but since we're not close didn't feel comfortable asking her these things.  since then she has moved back to new york city and enrolled in graduate school, but the last time I talked to her she still seemed very interested in all things metaphysical.

I know another person who is involved with a practice called "total body modification," who has paid a lot for various seminars and has tried unsuccessfully to support herself with her practice.  I think these things basically work the same way that pyramid schemes do.  the person at the top is the only one making money, by tricking people into paying for a teaching that is the "new thing" and is going to change the world or whatever.  they say, basically, in five years people practicing this technique will replace doctors, so you should get in on it now and take part in the transformation.  a lot of "healers" cross over into the "healing training" racket, probably because there is more money in it.

[Defend the Sacred]

a lot of "healers" cross over into the "healing training" racket, probably because there is more money in it.

That way they don't have a stream of clients complaining that they weren't healed. And when their students say they can't heal anyone with the techniques they paid to learn, the teacher can blame it on a lack of talent (or lack of spiritual purity) in the student.

Though those types also tend to blame lack of healing not on their lack of skill, but on lack of spiritual advancement of the person needing healing. It's part of the whole "you create your own reality" thing. I've literally heard some of this ilk say, "You/they must not really want to be well."

[Beth C.]

09-17-13  I am posting because I have been taught by Starr Fuentes and received prayers for healing from her.  I went for self-improvement, especially my physical health.  Each time, I got more than my money's worth.  If you do not like her website, try something of hers or contact her directly to find out if her services are beneficial for you.  Beth C.

[educatedindian]

Beth, could you be more specific? What you say is vague and closer to trying to post an ad for Fuentes.

Obviously before one tries anything from Fuentes or those like her, they should look at who she is and her claims. And seeing that she claims to heal cancer, charges a lot, and does the long ago debunked psychic surgery scam, one should be extremely careful about falling for her.

So what did she do for you, exactly? How did you meet her? And I assume she charged you quite a bit also.

[Beth C.]

Hello.  I apologize for replying in January 2014 after you asked me a question to be more specific in September 2013.  I have been away from the website and just saw your question.

I did not mean to sound like I was "posting an ad".  Since the other comments said they were going by her website only and had not experienced any services, I said for them to try it and then say if it worked for them or not.

You asked: "So what did she do for you, exactly? How did you meet her? And I assume she charged you quite a bit also."  Below is a much more detailed description of just one of the situations that I physically benefited from Starr's and her students' services.  Because I am very thrilled with the results, it will probably sound more like an ad then my previous post.
 
In January 1997, in my late 30s, I suffered a detached eye retina.  I immediately went to the eye doctor, had surgery, had my eyes covered and lived in the dark for 30 days, was on lots of pain medications.  At the end of the 30 days, my eye doctor had healed my physical eye organ but I was not able to see and I was still on several pain medications.  I was trying to figure out how to function for the rest of my life, when a friend called who had recently taken a several month class from Starr Fuentes.  I told her what happened to me and she said let's try the technique she learned called Divine Intervention.   Over the course of the next 12 months, my friend, Starr Fuentes and several other of Starr's students did Divine Intervention on my eyes.  My friend worked on me most.  Sometimes it was one or 2 students, sometimes it was several students working on me.  Frankly, any time someone was available or needed clients to practice on, I made myself available.  Over the months my eyesite returned in stages: 
1st the pain went down til I was off the pain meds completely.
2nd my vision went from solid black to shades of black to greys to colors.
3rd my left eye and right eye went from one or the other seeing to both of them  working at the same time as a team.     
4th The constant stabbing pain through my temples, like an icepick through my temples, finally completely went away.
5th My eyes got more and more depth of focus.  Meaning everything went from very flat and this object is near me and that one is far away. 
6th my focus improved over every month.
7th I could see enough to work again.  And got full time employment again. (Secretary)

When I stopped having sessions, my eyesite was 1200 in my left and 900 in my right.  It would have gotten better had I continued.  I stopped because that was all I could handle at the time.  I had come to learn that my vision, my seeing, my eyesite was very effected by my beliefs and thoughts.  As my site improved, I had to face personal beliefs and thoughts.  I had to emotionally and mentally self improve as my site came back.  Starr did not tell me this.  I realized it over the months of recovery. 
 
Did it cost me a lot?  Not to me.  I can see now.   In cash, it cost what I could afford.  My friend's rate was 25 cents per session.  Now that was a friend!  When I was a client for DI student training classes it was $38 per session.  When I started working again, I paid each person's rate.  Some were $65 per session some up to $125 per session.  Starr and her students worked on my all the time. 

What did it cost me in non-cash?  More.  I had to give up my ego, I had to give up my drama, I had to give up living in fantasyland.  I had to become responsible for myself and my actions.  And more than anything, I had to put action to get results.

Thank you for listening.  So that is why I say, try it and then decide if its for you.  If you don't like the listed price of something, ask if they are other ways you can do it cheaper.  There are many, many ways to get yourself healthy and to get solutions to what seems impossible.  It is up to you to find a way that works for you.  And when you start looking, you will find so many ways are out there.  You can get where you want to go, the trick is deciding which ones you want to try. 

[Epiphany]

Beth, I'm sorry you went through physical health problems in the past, glad you've recovered. You say Starr and her students healed you. I see this entirely differently.

You had a detached eye retina, fortunately you went to an eye doctor, had surgery, and then were in recovery. Excellent, I'm glad you got to a doctor.

After 30 days your vision had not returned and you were on pain meds. What did your doctor tell you at that point? My guess is that your vision was expected to eventually return and that your need for pain meds would eventually diminish.

You then were involved with Starr and her students. I believe their attentions seemed to help you only because of the placebo response. You were given something different to think about, you were told they would heal you, understandably it probably was reassuring to have these people pay close attention to you and your recovery.

All while the effects of the actual surgery you'd had proceeded on course. In other words, even without Starr's actions, I believe you would have had the same recovery.

What you paid Starr in money for was not the recovery of your vision. You paid for performances. Sessions for 65 - 125 dollars can add up. Especially because they are for faith performances.

As for what you learned about yourself during recovery, you did not need Starr for that.

I think Starr has you hooked.

[Beth C.]

Your comments bring up areas I did not address and so I will be more specific to answer those.

You wrote: "After 30 days your vision had not returned and you were on pain meds. What did your doctor tell you at that point? My guess is that your vision was expected to eventually return and that your need for pain meds would eventually diminish."   My answer: 1st, I believe my eye doctor did everything he could.  I do not believe there was any malpractise at all.  After the 30 days, when he checked me again, he said there was nothing more that he could do or I could do and that I needed to go to the local blind school and get a dog and a cane.  Also, that since I still had so much pain after 30 days, I would probably be on pain medication for quite some time, may be years, maybe the rest of my life.  I did not think to get another opinion at that time.  I was too freaked out by what he said and what seemed to be my options.

You wrote: "...then were involved with Starr and her students. I believe their attentions seemed to help you only because of the placebo response."  My answer:  I am sorry I did not say this in my earlier email.  I did not state the obvious.  Every time I have had sessions, I "felt something".  (And the stronger/more experienced/more quantity of practitioners, the more I "felt something".)  For me, "felt something" I would describe as an overwhelming feeling of love all through my body.  I right away I felt much happier.  I right away I felt much less pain in different parts of my body.  I felt the worry/nerves fade away.  I watched through my eyes, my eyesite improve in different ways.  These 'felt something" feelings stayed will me for several hours after a session. 

So let me also add: Earlier I suggested people try it before deciding.  I was assuming that when they tried it, their session will be like my sessions.  Because I now realize I am assuming, I will take that suggestion back.  But I do not know how people will be able to decide unless they experience for themselves.  Inexpensively and non-harmfully of course.  Perhaps asking a Divine Intervention teacher to let you know when they need people for their students to practice on would help for some financially.  (Sorry if this part sounded like an ad.)     

You wrote: ..."you were told they would heal you, understandably it probably was reassuring to have these people pay close attention to you and your recovery..."  My answer:  Yes, it was very reassuring to have people paying attention to my recovery.  I felt that I had support.  I had a place/space to go that I would get better.  HOWEVER, no one... not Starr or any of her students...ever said they would heal me.  They always said...they held the space.  The recovery was up to me.  To me, that meant me and God/the Universe/higher power.  I believe a had a miracle.  I did not believe in miracles before my experience.  Now, I believe everyone has miracles all the time. 

You wrote: "...All while the effects of the actual surgery you'd had proceeded on course. In other words, even without Starr's actions, I believe you would have had the same recovery."  My answer:  I can not tell you if I would have had the same recovery without the Divine Intervention.  The physical bodies we have from nature are amazing at recovering from injuries over time.  In my situation, I only made noticeable progress after I had sessions.  Noticeable progress for me was my eyes did not work as a team before one session and they did afterwards.  Noticeable progress for me was I needed 6 pain killers a day, then after a session I only needed 5.  Then after another session a few weeks later I only needed 3. 

Again about the cost, was that a lot of money?  To me, no because I can see again.

Does this mean it is for everyone?  No.  I suggest if you are looking for solutions and something calls to you or catches your attention, check it out.  Inexpensively and non-harmfully.  Then you will know.  To me, it is like the movie "Contact".  Jodie Foster's character experienced something and so to her it was real.  To many in the movie, they did not experience it personally so it was not real/not possible for them. 

Thank you for your time and considering my entries.   Because we believe differently, we probably won't talk more.  If anyone has more questions, I will try to check this site over the next days/weeks to respond.     

[Odelle]

Wow, this is quite a line (or, rather, pages and pages of lines)!

The one thing I'd say is that boasting of studying with "barefoot doctors" is not what she thinks it means. From Wikipedia:

Barefoot doctors (Chinese: ?; pinyin: chìji?o y?sh?ng) are farmers who received minimal basic medical and paramedical training and worked in rural villages in the People's Republic of China. Their purpose was to bring health care to rural areas where urban-trained doctors would not settle. They promoted basic hygiene, preventive health care, and family planning and treated common illnesses. The name comes from southern farmers, who would often work barefoot in the rice paddies.

Boasting of studying with barefoot doctors is like boasting of studying with the guy in your office who volunteered to be the fire safety marshall and had to spend ten minutes reading about what stuff is in the first aid kit.

The fact that Starr is so ignorant of Chinese history that she promotes herself this way tells me that she's too lazy to even go onto Wikipedia, which, I dunno. Really? C'mon, people. A fraud should have to work harder than this.

[Jask]

re "no difference" in eye retina case

I'm reading here and there that placebo effect very powerful, medical research is showing,  many doctors dish out placebo pills
saw Darren Brown on british television once and he gave 'no fear' pill to volunteers, they believed his spiel and lo and behold could hold spiders, sing in public, other stuff
weird but human belief is powerful

personally believe in actual medical professionals for stuff like retina damage (did, in fact)
but who knows ? a course in airy-fairy spiritual things might help mindset of sufferer

too many new age people believe that alternative spiritual things can replace actual medical advice
humans ..