(Photo labeled for re-use)
Honoring Louise Hay: visionary woman and advocate for healing through life transformation. Her legacy lives on.
She passed away August 30th, peacefully, in her sleep at the age of 90. Notably, two years to the day that Wayne Dyer passed away peacefully in his sleep. She declared that she didn't want a funeral but that she wanted a party. What a way to go!
Born Louise Vera Lunney in Los Angeles, California, she grew up very poor. Her mother remarried a man who abused her and her mother violently. She was raped at the age of 5 by a neighbor and dropped out of high school at the age of 15. She became pregnant and on her 16th birthday, she gave the baby up for adoption.
She moved to Chicago where she worked many low-paying jobs. In 1950 she moved to New York where she changed her name and became a fashion model working for top names like Bill Blass and Oleg Cassini. She married an English businessman, Andrew Hay, in 1954. However, the marriage only lasted 14 years after he left her for another women, which was devastating to Louise.
After that turn in her life, she found the First Church of Religious Science where they taught the power of thought and positive thinking and how it could change and heal one's mind, body and spirit. In the early 1970's she became a Religious Science practitioner and led people in spoken affirmations. She believed that their illnesses could be healed by the process of positive affirmations in what the mind was telling the body. She became known as a leader in these trans-formative thoughts and studied many authors on this subject.
In 1977 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and concluded that she attracted this disease because she had been holding on to the resentments of her childhood from the abuse and rape she experienced. She refused conventional medical treatment and resorted to healing herself with forgiveness, nutrition, reflexology and colonic enemas. In an interview she said that she healed her cancer by this method and outlived every doctor that could confirm her healing.
She wrote her first book, a small pamphlet, that had a list of ailments with probable causes and positive affirmations. This was later expanded into the book You Can Heal Your Life, published in 1984 (and again in 2008, and on the New York Times best-seller list). After leading support groups, called “The HayRide”, for people living with HIV/AIDS, she appeared on the Oprah Whifrey Show and the Phil Donahue Show. Her book sold over 50 million copies around the world, translated into 30 languages. The book was also made into a movie.
But she didn't stop there. In 1987, in her living room and when she was in her 60's when most people are slowing down, she started Hay House Publishing. To date, Hay House has published books and audio books of over 130 authors including Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Esther Hicks and Deepak Chopra. She also started a charity called the Hay Foundation the encourages and financially supports organizations that supply food, shelter, counseling, education, hospice and money to those that are in need.
In 2008 the movie, when she was 81, You Can Heal Your Life, was released. It is a story about her life and teachings and how she applied them to her own life.
Having heard the news this morning, I was deeply touched on many levels. What an inspirational woman and I am grateful that I discovered her and that she touched so many people during her expanded lifetime.
Hay House will carry on her legacy and continue publishing transformational books and online courses that align with Louise's message: you can improve and heal your life with self-love. Her entire estate will be donated back to the Hay Foundation.
“In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole, and complete.” Louise L. Hay ~