I received a call from a stranger about my inheritance. That’s how I found out about my father’s sudden death. He was fifty-three, and he died of an aortic aneurism from a rare genetic disease called Marfan syndrome. I went to the chief of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai in Beverly Hills and found out that I had Marfan syndrome too.

Marfan syndrome is a genetic condition for which there is no cure; it often results in death from an aortic aneurism. It can strike people early in life, usually in their twenties. I was twenty-eight.

I was devastated. I had a first-degree heart block and a heart murmur. I would need a pacemaker as the heart block progressed to the second degree, but the real concern was my aortic valve and the possibility of a rupture. I wouldn’t be able to have children. I had always been extremely athletic in competitive sports, from volleyball to swim teams to college tennis. I was completely into nutrition and fitness. After the news, I was truly terrified. Where I used to view myself as strong and positive, I now saw myself as weak and fragile, with what I was told was a “ticking time bomb” in my chest. While I tried to stay my usual positive self, in the back my inescapable mortality.

I lived with this fear, getting checked by my cardiologist twice a year for years, until I saw The Secret. I was due for another visit to the cardiologist right around that time. I was awestruck by the man who healed himself from the plane crash. I decided right then and there that I was going to heal my heart. I believed it and knew it was possible.

I quickly banished any negative thoughts about my heart and refused to let them enter my mind anymore. Every night as I lay down in my bed, I placed my right hand on my heart, and I visualized a strong heart. I rehearsed in my mind my heart beating strong, looking and sounding the way a strong healthy heart was supposed to. Every morning when I woke up, I said, “Thank you for my strong, healthy heart.” I visualized the cardiologist telling me that I was cured. I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing for fear of judgment or disbelief. I postponed my cardiologist appointment for about four months to give myself enough time to try this.

I went to the cardiologist with my medical file full of past electrocardiograms and echocardiograms confirming my physical heart problems. Nervous and excited, I tried to calm myself as I got hooked up to the EKG and then had the sonogram.

The cardiologist came in with the test results, completely dumbfounded. There was no sign of a first-degree heart block. There was no heart murmur. There was no expansion in my aorta. He checked and rechecked the old tests and the new one that showed a perfectly healthy heart with no physical symptoms of Marfan syndrome! He had no explanation. I was ecstatic, but honestly, I was not surprised. It was exactly as I had envisioned. I literally ran out of the cardiologist’s office across the lot to my car, feeling stronger and more alive than I ever have in my life.

I called my mom, whom I had previously bought a copy of The Secret, and told her how I had used its practices and now had a healthy, strong, normal heart. I’d never heard her cry so hard!