Nearly 26 years ago, poet Mark Nepo[1] discovered a lump on the back of his head, which would later be diagnosed as cancer. In the above clip from an upcoming episode of "Super Soul Sunday,"[2] Oprah asks the bestselling author to go back to the life-changing moment that ultimately led to a profound spiritual awakening.


Nepo says it "seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago" that his cancer journey began. "Back 26 years ago I was in a former life and a former marriage and I had this lump start to grow, and it was huge. I had never been ill, I had a lot going on -- I didn't really pay much attention until an old friend said, 'I think you're growing a second head. You better look at that.'"


Nepo agreed to go, but saw a sports medicine doctor. "Because I didn't think anything was wrong with me," Nepo says. "And he said, 'I think there's somebody else you should see.'"


The moment he learned he had cancer was a dividing line in his life, Nepo says.


"And all of a sudden, as I think most people experience, I went through a door," he says. "And when I went to go back out that door, it was gone. There was no way to get back to the life I had lived. Everything had changed."


"Super Soul Sunday" airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.

[3] [4]



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