Dr. Deepak Chopra is one of my heroes. With his medical education and practice based firmly in the West and his deeply spiritual insights rooted in Eastern philosophies, his mark on alternative/complementary medicine has been stunning. Through his "Quantum Healing" work, bolstered by the breakthrough science of Quantum Mechanics, he has brought to the masses the same information I received from spiritual teachings thousands of years old. Information that saved my life.

I was sitting on a commercial set waiting for the next shot when another actor sat down and started talking to me about metaphysics. I was completely enthralled. At the end of the day he encouraged me to attend Hilda Charleton's meditation class which was held every Thursday evening at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. That very week, I walked into this exquisite edifice and felt, even before I sat down among the hundreds of people there, that I was going to find joy here. I felt a sigh of relief flow through my entire system, as if I'd finally "come home."

After one year of being with the extraordinary Hilda, receiving the teachings and the glorious energy she exuded and lavished upon everyone she encountered, I removed myself from a chemotherapy program I'd been on for three years. I felt very strongly that I no longer needed it and assured my fainting doctors I'd come more frequently for check-ups. My intuition was accurate and, thank God, I've been fine ever since.

Hilda's religion was love, and her teachings were grounded in the ancient spiritual concepts of the East. All is Spirit -- there is no "matter" -- everything in the Universe is energy. Our bodies, as dense as they may seem, are whirling atoms of energy, our cells responding constantly to our thoughts. Dark, negative thoughts -- anger, jealousy, fear, etc. -- impede the natural harmonious flow in our bodies creating a lack of ease; dis-ease. Choosing to hang out with positive thoughts, regardless of the current circumstances, keeps the energy moving. Our state of being is not as dependent on what is happening in our lives, as it is on our perceptions and thoughts about those happenings. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "We are what we think about all day long."

It thrills me that respected members of our scientific community are now giving us the same picture of the Universe as did the ancient spiritual Masters. Everything is energy -- pulsating energy. And it's my experience that our conscious awareness of this universal energy, unceasingly moving through our bodies, in conjunction with the effect that our thinking has upon this energy, can save our lives. It did mine. (Thank you, Hilda. Thank you, Dr. Chopra.)

Recently on 60 Minutes, when Ed Bradley greeted Dr. Andrew Weill's explanation of the body/mind connection with a skepticism bordering on disdain, I was simultaneously shocked, saddened and filled with gratitude. I realized that I don't believe in the body/mind connection. I know it.