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. It is also the inspiring story of Reverend Sykes' work with the United Methodist Church to pass the first global resolution advocating the elimination of mercury from medicine, a nascent social justice movement on par with historical faith-based campaigns against child labor and slavery. With pragmatism and compassion, Sacred Spark calls for putting the well-being of children first. Through Sacred Spark’s unflinchingly honest, first-person account, 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. Woven seamlessly into the book’s engrossing narrative are Rev. Sykes’ victories in appropriate and landmark biomedical treatments for her son, the success of empowered parents to enact state bans on mercury and to approach Attorney Generals across the country, attempts to find precious allies against a corrupt and protected industry, and her family’s lawsuit defeat against a pharmaceutical company. As a Princeton Theological Seminary graduate and minister of 19 years, Rev. Sykes inspires the reader to go beyond compromised scientific studies and profit-driven political debates, and examine the mercury/autism issue through the first-hand experience of a mother and the faith and conviction of a minister. Sacred Spark ultimately teaches us that it is ordinary people who ignite the fire of reform.

About the Authors

Mark R. Geier, an internationally known vaccinologist and vaccine safety advocate, was an M.D. with a Ph.D. in genetics. Despite his death in March of 2025, Dr. Geier left society an ongoing legacy of vaccine safety. His work helped lead to the replacement of the whole-cell DTP vaccine with the much safer acellular DTaP vaccine now in use, sparing countless children adverse and disabling reactions to the whole-cell pertussis component of the older vaccine.In the course of his research, Dr. Geier discovered a link between mercury exposure from thimerosal in vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. The discovery changed the course of his life. Together with his son David Geier, Dr. Geier was a leading proponent of the theory that mercury in childhood vaccines is associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. In keeping with the high medical ethics he had always demonstrated, this discovery spurred Dr. Geier to advocate for urgent reforms in vaccine safety for the sake of the vaccine program and the children alike.With their focus on mercury, Dr. Geier and his son made major advances in understanding the biochemical and hormonal anomalies in autism. This resulted in a revolutionary new treatment for autism that has produced dramatic improvements in hundreds of children with autism. Due to his commitment to making vaccines safer by eliminating their mercury content, Dr. Geier suffered public and professional attacks. Nonetheless, he stalwartly pursued the goal of safer mercury-free vaccines until his death.

Rev. Lisa Sykes graduated from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar, in 1987, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1990. She was ordained in the Virginia Annual Conference in 1990 as a probationary deacon and in 1992 as an elder in full connection. She served the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for more than thirty years. Lisa married her husband, Seth, in 1989, and they have three sons: Adam, Wesley and Joshua. Wesley was diagnosed with autism in 1998 and with mercury poisoning in 2000. Since that time, in addition to being a wife, mother, and minister, Lisa has been an advocate for safe, mercury-free vaccines and for children with disabilities. She has addressed the Institute of Medicine, the United Nations Environment Programme and grass-roots advocacy organizations across the country.

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