Mary explores the unpredictable places where mind and medicine meet. At what point is physical health helped by mental processes? At what point is it harmed? We're not talking about the miraculous healings that happen at gospel meetings or the shrines of saints. Sometimes these things happen in subtler ways.

 

Take for example the case of Abby Sher. She isn't looking for a cure, exactly. She's looking for an answer: how does saying your prayers go from an act of devotion to a kind of illness? Abby talks to Mary about what happens when praying becomes part of an obsessive compulsive disorder.

Mary also speaks to Alastair Cunningham, an immunologist, psychologist and cancer survivor. Cunningham says that while surgery and chemotherapy probably saved his life, he also believes meditation played no small part in his healing.

And then there is John Newman. Newman is a renowned Canadian artist and teacher who is celebrated for his depictions of the human form. But after a paralyzing stroke, he lost the only thing he says makes his life worth living - his ability to draw. Now he is using sheer willpower to get it back.