Stud muffin became spiritual healer

Local author:  Lessons learned with Arapaho quadriplegic

By Kelley Bruce RobinsonWhat started as a four-day magazine assignment on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming turned into Lisa Jones' greatest life experience. The Boulder freelance journalist's newfound story soon transformed from a four-day visit to a four-year extended stay, from a magazine article to a 288-page memoir: "Broken: A Love Story."

It was when she met Stanford Addison, a Northern Arapaho tribesman, something stirred inside her, stronger than love at first sight with the quadriplegic.

"It was like falling down the rabbit hole," she said. "I was just blown away. He is a man who has so much power. He is a spiritually powerful person. Literally the moment I met him it was like a body knowledge that my life was about to change."

Addison's life, Jones said, was the most dramatic she had ever heard of.

"He was this bronco busting, womanizing, drug dealing, stud muffin when he was in his late teens," she said. "At 20 he became a quadriplegic in an auto accident. He basically had his ego annihilated."

Soon after his accident, Addison believes spirits started visiting him, giving him the power to talk to unseen worlds and heal people. At first, he thought he was losing his mind, especially as a non-believer in Native American spirituality.

"He was very upset and it took him 10 years to come to terms with the trade he made: his entire physical prowess for this spiritual prowess," Jones said.

Addison told Jones he then began using this inner power he felt to heal visitors, mentor at-risk young men on the reservation and gently tame wild horses, rather than breaking them with force.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Memoir Features Horse Whisperer and Arapaho Horse Healing.