Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D., is a health care practitioner and motivational consultant to corporations, educational institutions, hospitals and churches. She has published articles in scientific, management and spiritual journals, including has produced television shows on mind-body training and has demonstrated the techniques of effortless living on major networks. The author's training and expertise in mind-body healing grew out of her own experience with a serious medical condition. Twenty years ago, she was a young philosophy professor on the academic fast track with degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities. At thirty-one years of age, her career was abruptly shattered by a crippling collagen disease that defied cure by highly respected traditional medical doctors. For three years Bacci was a bedridden invalid in constant pain. During this time she turned her own mind and body into a laboratory for self-study. She explored and subsequently trained in alternative therapies based on the mind-body connection, and studied spiritual traditions that focus on accessing the higher powers of the mind. Ten years later all signs of illness were gone, and Dr. Bacci had transformed herself from a cripple to a tri-athlete. In addition, she had committed herself to a lifelong professional goal of assisting others in achieving optimum health and creativity.