Dr. Lai was born in Taiwan and migrated to the States with her family when she was young. Her father, Dr. Lai Tong Ming, has a doctorate in agriculture. Dr. Lai obtained her doctoral degree in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then researched the prevention and cure for cancer in one of the top three ranking cancer hospitals in the U.S., M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas for ten years. During this period, she realised the limitations of the modern Western medical approach to cancer. She resigned from her well-paid job to return to her Oriental roots in search of the meaning of life and the true principles of health.
Through years of study and research in the East-West models of healing, Dr. Lai realized that true well-being encompasses body, mind and spirit healing. This holistic principle was intrinsic to the Eastern philosophy of health but was gradually forgotten due to the influence of Western medicine.
Dr. Lai is a pioneer in promoting body, mind and spirit healing to the East.
In 1991 she founded Lapis Lazuli Light, a holistic health education and information centre in the United States. Currently, there are centres in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States.