IN 2007, Amy B. Scher was dying. As a last attempt at survival, she flew with her parents from Monterey, California, to Delhi for stem cell injections to be administered by renowned biotechnology expert Dr. Geeta Shroff. Scher hoped the treatment would cure her, but it was the discovery that complete recovery only comes through harmony between mind, body, and spirit that really rocked her life.
In her stunning new memoir, This Is How I Save My Life: From California to India, a True Story of Finding Everything When You Are Willing to Try Anything (Gallery Books), Scher chronicles her harrowing eight-year battle with Lyme disease and the six weeks in India that saved her. The refrain "we are the healing we’ve been waiting for" rings throughout the book, a beautiful testament to resilience that veers from the comical to the tragic. It details how the author bravely faced her emotional and physical demons, which is unsurprising since the 38-year-old Scher, an energy therapist and self-described "nice Jewish girl," comes from a family of warriors: her grandparents survived the Nazis in Poland, where her paternal grandfather built a bunker to save 18 Jews.
I spoke with Scher in New York, where she now lives with her wife after eight years in Los Angeles.
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UTIBE GAUTT ATE: Memoirist Elizabeth Gilbert wrote, "Amy B. Scher is a brave warrior and a wonderful writer. She is a living example (very much living!) of what it looks like when a woman takes her health, her heart, and her destiny into her own hands." When your essay "Curing the Incurable" appeared in Gilbert’s 2016 anthology Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It, how did that affect your career?
AMY B. SCHER: It gave me more confidence as a writer, which propelled me forward. It may have also helped from a publishing standpoint, because I was able to build upon what I’d done with her. My career’s consisted of little steps in which all the ones before really mattered.
Eat Pray Love gave me the idea women could have grand adventures and travel alone. It made me see, though it was a risk, I needed to go to India. While Elizabeth and I were inspired by very different life events (hers was the demise of her marriage and mine the demise of my body), it was still the same premise: traveling the world to find something you couldn’t at home. Then, in the end, finding out you had what you needed all along.
She inspired me because she beautifully showed that storytelling is less about the events and more about bringing them to life for the reader. She put into words what so many thought and felt. I hope my book helps people to live authentically and trust the unfolding of life. In India, I learned how to be myself without worry or fear. My body demanded it. There was no shortcut. It took embracing the entirety of my life, disease and all. I wouldn’t go so far as to say, "There’s a reason for everything." But I do think there’s a greater purpose, though usually we can’t see it right away.
In a book about sickness, how did you achieve lightheartedness?
Lightness and humor in the face of things that suck is part of my personality. I wanted people to laugh, because sometimes that’s the only way to get through pain. My vision was to make this book as light as it could possibly be. In that way, I sought to make it different from other illness stories I’d read. It’s depressing to have a sickness and to read about sickness — both sick and healthy people don’t want to read about it. I didn’t want the book to be all about stem cells, because I would not want to read that book. I intentionally didn’t drag readers through dirt, because the other parts of my journey were more interesting.
How did being a white Jewish girl in India affect you?
It was just what I needed. It was the first time I didn’t attempt to fit in, because it was impossible. I knew no one and was a stranger in every way. That helped me let go of the pressure I always put on myself to be perfect, strong, and totally together. India was a huge learning curve, culturally, emotionally, spiritually. It brought me to my knees, humbled me, and forced me to break the rules and constraints I had for myself. That would never have h...
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