Rushing into the four-star Sheraton Hotel on Friday night, I tried to gather myself. No, I was not there for some hot lover’s tryst, but to hear an 83-year-old woman talk about apes. Chimps. Whatever. At least I got to flirt with hunky Al Gore.

I wasn’t sure what to expect at the Omega Institute’s “Being Fearless” conference. Would we actually learn courage? Would we acquire it, like the Cowardly Lion, and would it come from a bald man behind a curtain?

Arianna Huffington, whose hit book, On Becoming Fearless, came out last year, was scheduled to speak on Saturday, and I was looking forward to hearing what all these people had to say, and wondered what they could tell a bunch of New Yorkers about it. But I was most curious to hear what our more-popular-by-the-minute almost-President had to say about fear. After making An Inconvenient Truth, the scariest movie I’d seen in years, what would his message be? Be afraid, but be fearless?

The night before, I’d sat in the upholstered chair trying my damndest to follow the instructions to “feel the Earth beneath your feet” and the “connection between all of us in the room and in the world.” No easy feat since we were in a windowless, air-conditioned room in the middle of Midtown surrounded by layers and layers of concrete on every side. Feel the earth beneath my feet? I was pretty sure the only “earth” was miles below the carpeting, sewage pipes, tunnels … But this was just the beginning of the conference, so I’d push aside my doubts and be one with the great big spinning Mother all around me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m as woo-woo as the next gal. Well, maybe even more so. In fact, I spent seven weeks living in a tent (on the earth) while working a production job at the Omega Institute in the summer of 2002 after a bad breakup left me searching for something (anything) to take myself in a new, healthier direction. It was an incredible experience: I became a vegetarian, got shamanic healings, healed my broken heart and even learned how to play a didgeridoo. I made amazing friendships with people I never would have thought I’d be friends with, learned how to live in a community, how my actions affected others, how what I ate affected the way I felt. What could be better? I sang, danced and laughed my ass off.

Maybe after living in the city for a few years, I’ve lapsed: I’m now more jaded, cynical and less impressionable. But it was hard to feel “connected to all humanity” sitting in a chilly, windowless room with royal blue, wall-to-wall carpeting. I feel more connected to humanity riding the F train at rush hour. Don’t tell New Yorkers to feel connected to each other; most of us are not living the isolated, insulated SUV life of most Americans, driving solo, connected to one another only by cell phones and text messages. We can’t get away from each other!

So, when I arrived tired and rushed (as usual), on Friday night, I was surprised to find the lobby filled with people and the main auditorium jammed with over 2,000 rapt before an exquisite Jane Goodall as she told her extraordinary story of growing up poor in England and following her dream of going to Africa to study wild animals.

While listening to good ol’ Jane, I noticed that the entire room was filled with women. I mean not a Y chromosome in the audience. I turned to the woman next to me and whispered, “It’s all women here!” and she smiled at me, nodding in an all-knowing way. The only men in the room were the Omega staff, the speakers. Was I supposed to realize that men were already fearless, so this conference was redundant for them?

After Jane, my new boyfriend took the stage: Al Gore. He completely swept me off my feet. Yes, he’s really smart and during the Oscars he proved he’s funny, but this was so far beyond anything I’d seen in the man formerly known as Mr. Plywood. He appeared self-effacing, spiritual and emotionally available—so rare to find in anyone, much less a public figure—and the sexiest part: He was so willing, so open … oh my! 

Not surprisingly, much of the weekend’s discussion turned to a potential presidential campaign, even an AL GORE FOR PRESIDENT table set up outside the hotel. Unfortunately, no one was allowed to record or videotape the former vice president, so I can only share my experience, not his brilliance. But I did speak to a number of people about this new Al, and many wondered if the media had wrongly painted him as wooden, or if he’d been restraining his personality all these years, playing safe in the public eye. After much debate, I had the good fortune to run into a friend on Sunday who has known Al and Tipper for years. He said that it wasn’t restraint or misrepresentation: Al really had been like that all those years. Whether it was the lost presidency, or just an opportunity to finally discover, in private, who he is, Al Gore has gone through a transformation. The result is what always happens when people become their authentic selves: he was just so likable.

In addition to dozens of seminars held every two hours all weekend, there was a sort of new-age bazaar, which seemed oddly out of place, lending a sort of carnival air to that part of the hotel. What was the message here? If the speakers don’t inspire you to fearlessness, go shopping!

I wandered in and wondered if buying a $200 tie-dye outfit would help me become fearless. I wasn’t able to get a slot in the very popular “Hear Your Spirit Guides” booth—where the patron sits facing the channeler, both wearing headphones (presumably to hear the spirits?)—and I passed by the palm reader, reflexology and massage booths; didn’t purchase any of the handmade jewelry for sale, the spiritual flute CDs or the “See Your Aura” photos. But I did get a healing from the acupressure guy, whose hand-written sign stated that he was “not just very good, but the BEST.”

I spoke to conference-goers and interviewed faculty members, including Stephan Rachstaffen, founder of the Omega Institute. Everyone I spoke to claimed to have virtually no remaining fears. They all spoke of the Divine and “the connection,” but there was a glossy, rehearsed quality to the speeches, which belied the vital flow and connectedness they were talking about.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not accusing anyone of being phony. But after three days of immersion in teachings of how to become fearless, I learned more by watching Al’s example than by listening to hours of flowery how-to lectures. Being a witness to a man’s transformation in the public eye and coming out the other side without breakdown, rehab or head-shaving, I saw a profound example of someone walking the walk. If you want an example of being fearless, forget the ohm-ing and incense and look to the Gore man who’s living as close to his authentic self as he can.