She claimed in the interview that she rid herself of the cancer by this method, but, while swearing to its truth, admitted that she had outlived every doctor who could confirm this story. She reported how she had refused conventional medical treatment, and began a regime of forgiveness, coupled with therapy, nutrition, reflexology, and occasional colonic enemas. Hay described how in 1977 or 1978 she was diagnosed with 'incurable' vaginal cancer, and how she came to the conclusion that by holding on to her resentment for her childhood abuse and rape she had contributed to its onset. She also recalled how she had studied Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. In this role she led people in spoken affirmations, which she believed would cure their illnesses, and became popular as a workshop leader. īy Hay's account, in the early 1970s she became a Religious Science practitioner. Hay revealed that here she studied the New Thought works of authors such as Florence Scovel Shinn who believed that positive thinking could change people's material circumstances, and the Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes who taught that positive thinking could heal the body.

Hay said that about this time she found the First Church of Religious Science on 48th Street, which taught her the transformative power of thought.

In 1954, she married the English businessman Andrew Hay (1928–2001) after 14 years of marriage, she felt devastated when he left her for another woman, Sharman Douglas (1928–1996). She achieved success, working for Bill Blass, Oleg Cassini, and Pauline Trigère. At this point she changed her first name, and began a career as a fashion model. In 1950, she moved on again, to New York. She then moved to Chicago, where she worked in low-paying jobs. At 15, she dropped out of University High School in Los Angeles without a diploma, became pregnant and, on her 16th birthday, gave up her newborn baby girl for adoption. When she was about 5, she was raped by a neighbor.

In it, Hay stated that she was born in Los Angeles to a poor mother who remarried Louise's violent stepfather, Ernest Carl Wanzenreid (1903–1992), who physically abused her and her mother. She authored several New Thought self-help books, including the 1984 book You Can Heal Your Life.īorn Helen Vera Lunney in Los Angeles to parents Henry John Lunney (1901–1998) and Veronica Chwala (1894–1985), Hay recounted her life story in an interview with Mark Oppenheimer of The New York Times in May 2008. Louise Lynn Hay (October 8, 1926 – August 30, 2017) was an American motivational author and the founder of Hay House.

'Three Initiates' (authors of the Kybalion).

I Think, I Am! by Louise Hay