William Shatner, 95, doesn't believe he's going to die

He told People magazine: "'They said, 'You got cancer. If you came in later, you would have been dead.' Yeah, see? That's my life

"I think I have a vibration, which is what the universe apparently is — all vibration. This is nothing.

"Even at this point, I don't believe I'm going to die. I teach myself to be aware of my feeling of what I'm seeing, what my senses are doing. I'm driving a car and I'm smiling about it, or I see a hummingbird in the house and I'm conscious of the way his wings are going. And I'm thinking of my dog and my children ... I'm aware of the magic of it all."

The Star Trek legend has encouraged fans to share his outlook on life, though he knows circumstance doesn't always make it easy to be optimistic.

He said: "It's easy for us to say in this lovely home with lots of food and rest and education to say, 'Make your life meaningful.' 

"It's much more difficult to be poverty-stricken and struggling for every dollar and to wonder how you're going to get through it.

"I understand that. I've been there. But it's also possible to endure that and be aware of the beauty around you, and the beauty of consciousness that allows you to appreciate a leaf or the universe or a relationship. That's what's critically important. No time but now."

Shatner and his daughter, Melanie Shatner Gretsch - who battled a different form of stage four cancer at the same time as her dad - are launching a new podcast, No Time But Now, and admitted recording the series was a "glorious experience" for themselves and their interviewees.

He said: "We're doing this podcast in which we talk about making life count now, and we're interviewing people of all ilks. In hearing these people talk about the diet and the good food and the way of living, suddenly there's a joy in this communication.

"The people we talk to on more than one occasion, they say, 'Can we have dinner?' It's a glorious experience just in itself."