Former Disney Imagineer designs immersive spiritual healing space

A-first-of-its-kind spiritual space for patients dealing with cancer makes its debut in Southern California.

It was designed by a former Disney Imagineer who helped bring to life the "Soaring Around the World" attraction.

Now he's teamed up with City of Hope Orange County to create a meaningful space for healing.

Enter into a sacred place of healing. An immersive experience where cancer patients and their families can release their worries.

"When you're facing cancer, you need to be able to tap into that faith,"

Faith has carried Todd Kennedy through his eight years of battling multiple myeloma. This first of its kind multi-faith spiritual care center is where he'll go to find respite.

"I would use it at those times when the anxiety and the fear are perhaps off the chart," said Kennedy.

When former Disney Imagineer Robert Holzberg was in treatment, blank walls did little for his spirit.

"Then the lightbulb went off! You're a Disney Imagineer, you put people in immersive experiences all the time, you could be in your healing place," he said.

Holzberg helped design "Soaring Around World," the popular attraction that catapults people to great heights. If technology can create a safe place to play, he thought, why not create a space to pray.

"You wanna make a family feel like they are in a safe place together where they can feel and heal," Holzberg said.

The Wetterau Family Spiritual Center features five faith traditions. With a touch of a button, you're transported to a Christian chapel, a Hindu mandir, an Islamic mosque, a Jewish synagogue, and a Buddhist temple.

"You might be at the frailest point of your life and you come in here and get a touch of the sacred," said Annette Walker, President, City of Hope Orange County.

The program also offers a familiar shoreline and forest.

All these various programs can be customized. They can serve different needs from Easter services to different rituals to whatever a family needs.

"There is a private room for counseling or whatever type of encounter they might need for the people that are important to them or their religious leaders," said Walker.

The center will be available to patients when City of Hope Orange County opens later this year.

The spiritual center also offers refuge for family and caregivers. It brings Holzberg back to when he was caring for his grandmother.

"We could have experienced something sacred together and I think that's incredibly important for people," he said.