Hyapatia Lee Interview: Spiritual Guru & Classic Star
Hyapatia Lee made her name starring in many notable movies, but her own life story could be a terrific film in itself. From her early days appearing in classics like Ribald Tales of Canterbury to her new identity as spiritual guru, Lee has always heard her inner voice with great clarity, to paraphrase author Jim Harrison. We were pleased to have a chance to catch up with this AVN Hall of Famer in a new written interview.
What are the biggest misconceptions that fans have about you?
Oh, my goodness where do I start? Through interacting with people on Twitter and my YouTube channel, I have learned there are a ton of misconceptions! Let’s start with some simple ones.
I never lived in California, I was married the entire time I was in the business, I never did an anal scene (or other more exotic ones), I wrote many of my movies, and I had two children while in the business.
I lived on 18 acres in southern Indiana and I flew to California once or twice a year to make movies. After the first three years, I made seven films, five of which I wrote. I never did more than three films per year throughout my entire career.
I decided to make movies to earn more money as a feature dancer on the road. That was where the real money was. I traveled all over the world dancing and doing personal appearances. My family traveled with me, and I homeschooled my children. My oldest now has a Ph.D. in physics.
By the time I made my first movie, I had been dealing with a rare, life-threatening medical condition for 5 years. I couldn’t work a regular job and this was a viable option for me. I would have never been able to make as much money, given my limitations, as I did without making movies and dancing on the road. I did four twenty-minute shows per day and took naps at the hotel in between them. I could work two or three weeks in a row at the most. For those who are interested, my condition is panhypopituitarism, I have no pituitary gland function at all. I won’t bore you with the details, but you can look it up if you are interested.
There also seems to be quite a bit of confusion over my heritage. My mother is full-blooded Cherokee and my father was half. I am enrolled in the tribe and have been an active pow-wow dancer in the past. In 2001 I was elected to the prestigious position of Blessed Woman for the Lost River Band of the Cherokees. It has been quite an honor to help the people with what I was able to learn by traveling to almost every reservation in the USA. It was my career in adult that allowed me to travel and meet the elders who shared their knowledge with me to form the Native Strength teachings I share today.
Tell us a little bit about your philosophy of Native Strength and alternative mental health.
Thank you for asking. The contemporary mental health care system is often terrified of people who hear voices, yet we hear voices when we read, remember lists at the grocery, or even when we encourage or reprimand ourselves. The Native Strength system is based on centuries-old traditions from various tribes. We identify the voices we hear, discover which ones are to be ignored, and learn to use the worthy voices to find a connection to our intuition and higher power. Using medicine wheels, we analyze human behavior and learn what works for us and what does not. Traditional medicine stories demonstrate these concepts to make them easier to understand. When we know what to expect and how to face our fears, life becomes easier to understand.
What career achievement are you proudest of?
Two things stand out in my mind from my time in the adult business. I am very proud of my lifetime achievement award from the Free Speech Coalition and the movie I adapted from Chaucer’s timeless work, The Ribald Tales of Canterbury. I wrote the script in old English, and we shot for nine days. Our costumes were from Universal Studios. It was an amazing experience.
Among my general release films, I am proudest of my role in Killing Obsession where I worked with John Savage from The Deer Hunter and The Godfather. He held no prejudice against me and was a pleasure to get to know and work with.
Writing an advice column for High Times online every week and being a judge at a few cannabis cups was a dream come true! I loved the people I worked with there and was sad when a new editor came in and made huge changes to the staff. But it was a great 5 years!
Making records and touring with my band was a fabulous experience. I have a playlist on my YouTube channel devoted to music videos I have produced to go with my music. Several other musicians have reached out to me to produce videos for them as well, and that has been tremendous fun, particularly the one I did for Robert Fleischman who wrote “Wheel in the Sky” called “So I’ll Wait.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my elected position in the tribe today as it is something of which I am extraordinarily proud. Nancy Ward was probably the most well-known Blessed, or Beloved, Cherokee woman.
Name some of the people who have most influenced your life philosophy.
My grandmother who raised me and was a mother to me was the most important person in my life. She was my rock and my anchor. She supported me emotionally even when she disagreed with my career choice.
I must give credit to the elders and medicine men and women with whom I studied. They taught me how to live with my medical condition emotionally, to manage the mood swings and challenges daily. These people have passed over, and the knowledge they left is the most valuable thing I possess, in my humble opinion.
Several of your YouTube videos delve into your forays into adult entertainment. Which of these vids have generated the greatest response from your followers?
The videos about Ron Jeremy were quite popular, as were the ones about celebrities I have interacted with over the years, like Slash, Tim Allen, Eddie Van Halen, Isaac Hayes, Jay Leno, etc. I think everyone is curious about how these people act in real life. Ron Jeremy certainly has gotten himself into some trouble, and since I’ve known him since 1984 and we hosted the Mr. and Miss Nude Galaxy contests together every year, I had a lot to say about him. My three videos on Ron Jeremy have been quite popular.
Do you encounter fans who still think of you solely as an adult performer? What is your usual response to such fans?
Yes, I sure do. I have to remind them that I left that business over 30 years ago and that most people change over time. No one should be defined by a job they did that long ago, particularly when it was a part-time job at best, as I only made a few movies per year. I’m not trying to deny my life in adult, in fact, I wouldn’t be who I am today without it! It taught me so much about life and making movies. I use that knowledge every day on my YouTube channel. Set lighting, camera angles, editing, script writing, and more, were all learned on adult movie sets.
Tell us about the book The Secret Lives of Hyapatia Lee.
This book was written before I had a proper diagnosis of my medical condition. Lazy doctors don’t order tests or take patients seriously. Instead, they tell them it’s all in their head and they should see a psychiatrist. This is what happened to me. Because my medical condition is so rare, and doctors are taught “if you see hoof prints, think horses, not zebras” in med school, most rare conditions are not diagnosed properly for years or even, as in my case, decades. My autobiography was written at a time when I believed the diagnosis these psychiatrists had laid out for me. It wasn’t until I had yet another hospitalization, this time for takostubo cardiomyopathy when I was out hiking with friends, that a hospitalist ordered an MRI of my brain and found the truth. So, I am sorry to say, my autobiography is inaccurate on many levels. I inadvertently perpetuated their lie. My Kindle Vela The Golden Age is my attempt to rewrite my autobiography more accurately.
I have five other books available on Amazon about the Native Strength path. I also have six courses on Udemy about these traditional teachings.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Oh, honey, it’s full of medical crap you probably wouldn’t be interested in. All meds must be written down in a journal with the time taken. There are specific instructions about when I can eat and when I must not, due to medication interactions. It’s a never-ending 24-hour regimen of injections, supplements, electrolytes, and pills. I am having surgery on April 6, so hopefully, it will be easier to eat solid food after that.
I spend time online when I am able, interacting with followers on Twitter and I try to put out YouTube videos regularly when able, but right now it’s hard as I wait for surgery.
I try to work a bit every day on my next book, tentatively titled Medicine Wheel Teachings. I also add chapters to my Kindle Velas regularly.
My YouTube channel has not been as active as it usually is, due to my recent health issues, but after surgery, I plan to upload new videos every week. I like to do live streams on Saturday nights, and I am looking forward to getting back to that.
I have a few new songs I’m working on in my home studio. I love writing, playing, and singing music, but the icing on the cake is doing the music videos. I’ve been having a lot of fun with that.
I hope to get back to pow-wow dancing after I recover from surgery. I love listening to the drum and socializing.
Are you working on any exciting projects currently?
Yes! I have a seventh book in the works. It’s based on the full-length Native Strength episodes that are seen in 49 market areas across the country on television. These are the in-depth, more complicated Native Strength teachings.
I have two audiobooks available on Spotify and Audible, Native Strength and Overcoming Bullies. I plan to also release this new book on audio as well. I record my own audiobooks in my home studio. Having my books in my own voice is important to me.
It would be great to be able to pow-wow dance again after surgery, I really miss that. I would also like to travel and see my youngest grandson, he just turned one and I haven’t met him in person yet, due to my medical challenges.
I have 2 Kindle Velas. These are released one chapter at a time on Amazon and I will be writing more chapters on those. One is called The Golden Age about my time in adult, with the corrected medical experiences. The other is about my time working at a pot farm in Colorado called Gone to Pot. This one has a bit of science fiction added in for flavor. I am fascinated by aliens and even have a playlist on my channel about Native Americans and star people where I share some true stories. Native Americans have a rich history of interactions with the people from the stars.
What do you hope for your overall legacy to be?
To be honest, I really am not concerned about my legacy. There will always be those who see me as nothing more than a porn star, and that’s okay, I know who I am. I am more concerned about preserving integral cultural knowledge that can help all of humanity. There are so many people suffering from depression, anxiety, grief, and such that this is far bigger than just my life. I want to help those that are suffering and provide tools for future generations, leaving these teachings for everyone, regardless of DNA.
