Hawkes hears the words: "You are called to heal."

After her near-death experience, Joyce Whiteley Hawkes writes: "I began to look for information about other strange phenomena, such as the sixth sense, inner sight, and remote viewing. I joined a class given by a local healer. The meditations in class helped me establish a deep meditative practice at home, which led to visionary encounters with angels, animals, and other galaxies.

"The teacher invited me to accompany him during his work with clients one afternoon a week, and people began responding positively to my touch. They told me they felt heat in the areas where I had touched them and that tingling shot through their body. They said their health improved as a result.

"Others wanted to come to me for healing sessions, so I converted a former study in my home into a place where I could see a few clients each week. Never imagining anything but an avocation of heart. I enjoyed both worlds: science and whatever this new arena might be.

"I continued to be challenged to reach deeper and deeper into the cells of the body in order to assist those who sought my help. The results astonished both my clients and me.

"During a long weekend trip to Mount Shasta with my teacher and two other students, my life changed precipitously, once again. We climbed to red Butte from Panther Meadows on the south side of the mountain. Still snowy, the spring days were enchanting as we chopped steps in icy slopes, heated pots of snow to melt for drinking water, and settled into intensely blissful meditations at the 9,600-foot elevation.

"On the drive back to Seattle, we four grubby pilgrims stopped at a Catholic shrine, the Grotto, on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. I had no previous exposure to the Catholic church or theology, having grown up mildly Protestant. My companions went to pray in a small chapel, while I wandered alone and eventually stood in front of a room-sized cave that had been naturally formed in the side of a steep cliff. Candles flickered around a replica statute of the Pieta. Mary seemed almost alive as she sorrowed over the crucified body of Jesus.

"As I approached the cave and knelt on a bench provided for worship, I felt the air shift and become charged with power and energy. I felt a tingling all over my body when I heard a woman’s voice say, You are called to heal.

"It felt like the near-death experience all over again. Love, peace, and awe surged through me. How could I contain this emotion, this energy, this blessing? My life changed forever in those few moments. The loving authority in the voice left no room for doubt or delayed action. When I returned to Seattle and work the very next day, I began my resignation process to leave the laboratory."

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).