Bethanne Patrick: You're book is 'Spiraling Through the School of Life: A Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Discovery, Find Your Miracles' and it's from Hay House. Tell us all about it!Diane Ladd: This particular book has to do with my secret life, which was being involved in the medical profession. For 30 years, which I never talked about in Hollywood, I actually worked with doctors lecturing and doing some medical intuitive counseling both in a medical setting and for the community at large. In that I have personally experienced three miracles in my own life.
Bethanne Patrick: What miracles have you experienced? Diane Ladd: The first miracle came from a dramatic tragedy in my life. It was very hard not to let the tragedy consume me.
Bethanne Patrick: Much of your book, centers [on] healing and surviving and how to forgive.Diane Ladd: And how to get rid of anger. It has to come with love. I talk about, as an actor, that there's only two emotions, of all the thousands of emotions that I play -- they stem from two emotions: love and a lack of love. Where [there is a] lack of love, then anger, jealousy and fear enter. I talk about parenting and I share a lot of stuff that I learned from my great grandmother who was a mid-wife and a doctor and delivered over 3,000 babies.
Bethanne Patrick: My goodness! You [mentioned] that [the book] is funny and that's so true. Your cover blurb is from Steven King. Diane Ladd: How about that! Thank you, Steven King!
Bethanne Patrick: We want to talk about the fact that Hay House says that they have never received this many endorsements for a book. You have Steven King, you have Whoopi Goldberg, you have Mary Anne Williamson -- the spiritual guru, and you have Helen Thomas, the famed AP correspondent for the White House. You even have Rex Reed, the critic, who doesn't say nice things too often.Diane Ladd: Oh, he's a great critic! And a great person.
Bethanne Patrick: But you also have a very important endorsement we want to mention, which is that from Dr. Dean Ornish. Tell us about what he said and why that's so significant. Diane Ladd: Well, he said -- which floored me. He's a great doctor and he has saved so many people. He said, "This amazing little book might change your life, and may in fact even help save it." Now, I'm not a doctor. I do have a Master's in psychology and I have worked with human beings. Most actors had a seventh sense before we even knew what sixth sense was. That's a known fact among actors; they use their intuition. But I have worked with human beings and doctors and I have seen so many miracles! Today, I'm floored by the medical system that heals your liver but kills your heart. That heals your gall bladder but fries your kidney. I mean, what is going on here? This is not acceptable.
Bethanne Patrick: Well, you're on the board of advisors for the National Institute for Alternative Medicine.Diane Ladd: Yes, the National Foundation Alternative Medicine (
NFAM) in Washington, D.C. The great
Congressman Berkley Bedell founded it to do something about the medical system because he'd been told, after getting bit by a tick, and getting lyme disease, that he only had 3 months to live.
Bethanne Patrick: Oh my gosh.Diane Ladd: Then a friend of his, who was a veterinarian, told him to take cholesterol from a pregnant cow and it saved his life. Then the police came and tried to put the vet in jail for treating a human being without a license.
