When Spirit Calls

Diver’s journey from respected foundation executive to spiritual healer includes forays with healing ministries, spiritual guides, and esoteric experiences.

When Spirit Calls is at once an adventure story and meditation on the healing journey that traces Joan Diver’s odyssey from Boston foundation executive to spiritual healer. Imbued with the wisdom of great spiritual teachers from both East and West, Joan Diver shares a remarkable journey through urban violence, family crisis, physical pain and spiritual awakening. 

Joan Diver’s family is one of three profiled in J. Anthony Lukas’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families. A national bestseller in 1985, it is still taught in classrooms today. Joan and Colin Diver continue to be treated as celebrities by Boston media and those touched by the pain of their story and the school-busing crisis of the 1970s and ’80s.

Author Biography

Joan Diver:
As Boston’s Hyams Foundation’s first executive director, Joan Diver was nationally recognized for her creative leadership. A student of diverse spiritual paths and speaker from the heart, Joan has since offered healing to seekers, led contemplative and healing church ministries and partnered with her husband, Colin, in his role as President of Reed College. Their urban story is chronicled in J. Anthony Lukas’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the lives of Three American Families.” “When Spirit Calls” is Joan’s first book.