The Real Superpowers of Lindsay Wagner

Ask Lindsay Wagner if she has any mixed feelings about being called “The Bionic Woman" -- a role she played 30 years ago -- and she will lay down the law.

“Jaime Sommers?” she said, referring to the character she played in the classic 1970s TV series, “I love her. I don’t have any problem with that. Honestly, it never held me back from anything I wanted to do.”

And what she wanted to do was challenge people’s perspectives on what was humanly possible.

During the peak of its popularity, “The Bionic Woman" (a spin-off from “The Six Million Dollar Man”) ranked in the Top 5 Prime Time shows.

The actress found herself in a position to impact the content of the program. She negotiated with the series’ writers to include “New Age” topics, like Biofeedback and mind-over-matter, but adding the necessary adventurous edge.

“We integrated things that were far from mainstream, like Body-Mind-Spirit integration. And it was something I was deeply involved in,'' Wagner said. "I had to actually trade them [the writers] to do the episode. I told them, I’ll do Big Foot, if you do this.”

When the series ended, Wagner went on to a busy career starring in made-for-television movies, but another calling was beginning to take precedence.

“The films that excited me were the ones that showed our human potential, that we can transcend, not just survive, any given challenge,’' she said.

Wagner said she learned that there is a connection between the mental state and physical health.

“I have been studying holistic health since I was 19,” she recalled.

Taking time off from acting, Wagner joined a friend to design a program called “Bridges to Recovery,” which offered counseling to domestic violence offenders, prior to their parole.

Together, they developed the techniques for self-awareness within a group setting and started a support program for the families that were being reunited.

“We all struggle with the same things,” Wagner said. “It’s just that some people don’t have a safety switch and some do.”

And how did the L.A. County jail inmates react, when confronted with the powers of the Bionic Woman?

“It took one, maybe two sessions for them to see me, not as an actress, but as someone who was there to help them heal,” she said. “Because we get into it, we get into you and your heart and spirit so quickly, and on that level, there is no difference between us.”

Wagner realized the potential of the work she was doing and developed it into a program called “Quiet the Mind and Open the Heart.”

Now a La Quinta resident, Wagner travels the country offering these workshops to people who want to experience life free from emotional handicaps.

She believes that participants leave the workshop with a different outlook.

“We introduce people to techniques that I have found to be very effective to dislodge old experiences, old wounds that we still carry around with us on an energetic level,'' she said.

A three-hour introduction to her program called “Open to Oneness” takes place April 30, 1-4pm at the Bikram Yoga University Village in Palm Desert. And in August, Wagner leads a three-day workshop intensive at the Palm Springs Hilton Hotel.

To register for "Open to Oneness" call 760 564-4094. For more information go to: www.lindsaywagner.com