CLEVELAND -- Steven Seagal has become one of the world's best-known action movie stars. He's tough, he's a seventh "Dan" black-belt expert in aikido, and in his movies, wherever he confronts evil, he doesn't just defeat it, he shreds it, NewsChannel5's Ted Henry said.

Fighting bad guys around the world isn't the only role Seagal is known for. He's also a powerful spiritual teacher.

"I was born clairvoyant," he said. "I was born a healer, and I was born very different."

Henry reported Seagal is said to be a reincarnated Buddhist lama. And to many that makes him a god.

He is reticent about admitting it on camera but he claims he's god, Henry said.

"We say sort of the same thing in Buddhism. We believe that all sentient beings have a Buddha nature within them, which means that they are all, sort of , you know, god."

Seagal believes and teaches others what he's learned from great teachers himself in India and elsewhere, that everyone is god -- it's just that they don't know it yet.

"I think the foundation of all people is where we come from," he said. "And ultimately where we come from, is the divine."

Henry says Seagal is a study in contradiction. On screen, he has killed hundreds, if not thousands. He's tough, mean and deadly. But, this man with a unique spiritual center is also contrite. He is public about having ever hurt any individual, anywhere, in any way.

"I am sorry for any pain or suffering or hurt or negativity I've cause any sentient being, in this life and all past lives," he said.