About

The Starling Institute

Mission

The Starling Institute fosters cross-cultural understanding, exploration, and appreciation for the multifaceted relationship between sports, culture, and spirituality.

Who We Are

At the Starling Institute, we are dedicated to the preservation, exploration, and understanding of the profound intersection between sports, culture, and well-being from variable time periods. We curate and showcase a collection of significant ethnographic artifacts that illuminate the possible relationship between belief systems, fandom, identity, and human expression.

Through meticulous curation and scholarly inquiry around our collection, we aim to provide a unique lens through which to comprehend the complexities of timeless societies. As stewards of these sacred objects, we are committed to engaging with communities, scholars, and enthusiasts alike to promote cross-cultural understanding and appreciation for the rich tapestry of human experience encapsulated within our collection. We strive to cultivate an inclusive space for exploration, reflection, and enlightenment, bridging the gap between past, present, and future through the lens of sports spirituality.

Rooted in a curiosity to better understand our present and create more sustainable futures, we pair our collection with psychoeducational programming in our SPARK Clinic. Through interdisciplinary research, education, community dialogue, and interactive therapies, The SPARK Clinic seeks to inspire curiosity, provoke thought, and facilitate healing.

Our History

The Starling Institute is an internationally acclaimed museum dedicated to the preservation and curation of Donnie Starling’s life work. The Starling traces its origins to the enigmatic death of Donnie Starling in 1986.

Upon his passing, Starling, known as a dedicated history teacher and baseball coach splitting his time between Bishop, CA and Boquete Panama, left behind a legacy shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Notably a simple note and a key to a storage container in Green River, WY, a town Starling was known to frequently visit for its rich display of geological fossils, rocks, and cross-section of earth spanning more than 1 billion years. Bequeathed to his dear friend Ruth “Moonbeam” Miller (1945 - 2022), the note detailed what was then an unbelievable tale of time travel, future sports-obsessed societies, and a world lost in capitalistic and military rule. The storage container contained what is now the hundreds of objects that make up The Starling Collection.

Amazed by the objects and confused by the bequest of her recently departed good friend, Ruth wrote off the tales about Don Chronic the Starwalker to her friend's generative imagination. That is, until she stumbled upon The Lost Journals of Homer Perisho in an early website post from ESPN in 1997. Detailing events in the late 21st century, the journals provided invaluable insights into Starling's rise to prominence and the spiritual practices he espoused, corroborating his note and story. What was left of Perisho’s journals meticulously detailed Starling's career from journeyman pitcher and infielder in Major League Baseball to revered spiritual leader in the not-too-distant future. Shedding light on the profound impact of his work, they continue to serve as a source of inspiration for the Institute's ongoing exploration of culture, spirituality, general relativity and quantum mechanics.

With a new found curiosity, Ruth was eventually able to get some of the objects in front of researchers and scientists at University of California Los Angeles and NASA. Of particular interest was the Meloi Khryseoi Baseball, carbon dated to 2500 BCE. Other objects returned inconclusive or modern dates, yet contained the residue of molecules only known to exist in the limits of outer space. As more testing was conducted, the fanciful history of CHEPSO Starling became very real.

Breathing new life into Starling's history, Ruth officially founded the Starling Institute in 2008 with a singular purpose: to preserve, explore, and celebrate the nexus of sports culture and human experience. From the curious artifacts and ritualistic relics left behind by Starling to the ongoing research and programming inspired by his teachings, the Institute remains dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of sports spirituality and fostering a deeper understanding of its profound significance in our lives.