Clarke Peters Opens Up About His Passion For Holistic Medicine - Exclusive

A veteran of stage and screen, Clarke Peters has appeared in some of television's most acclaimed series over the past 20 years. After carving out a reputation in London's West End theater scene, Peters returned to his native U.S., where he made his mark on American television. Among his numerous screen credits are "The Wire," "Damages," "Treme," "His Dark Materials, "Foundation," and his latest project, the Showtime drama, "The Man Who Fell to Earth." 

One aspect of Peters' life that may not be apparent through his acting is his passion for holistic medicine, which he expresses through his longtime involvement with the British Association for Holistic Medicine and Healthcare. 

In an exclusive interview with The List, Peters explained the benefits of holistic medicine — which takes an approach to healthcare that looks at one's physical, mental, and emotional health as being intrinsically interconnected — and why he urges everyone to keep an open mind about the practice.

Clarke Peters was first introduced to holistic medicine while recovering from a back injury. While surgeons "wanted to slice and put me back together," Peters shared in the interview with The List, he instead explored a different approach. "Coming through homeopathic medicine led me into tai chi, and it led me into a more holistic way of looking at the body and I feel great [about] it," he explained. "I see that people give up the responsibility of their health to someone who is ... in theory, coming out of the university. They have not done the work, and yet a 28-year-old [or] a 30-year-old doctor is going to be looking after an 80-year-old man or woman and telling them what to do with their bodies."

A holistic approach to healthcare, said Peters, "Gives you those answers if you look through it naturally. You can go into your garden and find more remedies there than a pharmacy can serve you ... [and] the whole plant is working in harmony with your whole body, rather than elements that have been synthesized. It is very important for me and also something I think other people should open up their minds to. At least take the blinkers off [and] consider it."

For those unfamiliar with holistic medicine, Clarke Peters offered an example. "We are told in church that God picked up some earth and breathed into it, and there was a man, right? In that, there's also that part of you that is connected with that Earth. Part of you is part of that Earth. Whether you want to look at it philosophically, or whether you want to look at it from a quantum physics point of view, or a biological point of view, the matter that makes you is also in your environment," he explained. "The majority of your body is made up of salt water. The majority of the Earth is salt water. When we begin to look at these connections and make these correlations and look at the illnesses that are coming around and look at the Earth and where it is suffering, we begin to see that we are also part of this whole system."

Added Peters, "Think of it as being whole, of you being part of this whole system that you're living in. The air that you breathe, the water that you drink, the food that you ingest ... Bringing your body into harmony with everything else that's around you ..."

New episodes of Clark Peters' latest project, "The Man Who Fell to Earth," air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime. Episodes are also available to stream for subscribers.