American motivational author and founder of publisher Hay House, who wrote several New Thought self-help books, including the well-known 1984 book, You Can Heal Your Life which to date has sold over 50 million copies. In 2008, New York Times Magazine described her as “The Queen of the New Age.”
Hay was born to a poor mother and was physically abused by her stepfather. When she was about 5, she was raped by a neighbour. At 15, she dropped out of high school in Los Angeles, became pregnant and, on her 16th birthday, gave up her newborn baby girl for adoption. She then moved to Chicago, where she worked in low-paying jobs. In 1950, she moved on again, to New York. At this point she changed her first name, and began a career as a fashion model. She achieved success, working for Bill Blass, Oleg Cassini and Pauline Trigère.
In the late 1970s Hay was diagnosed with “incurable” cervical cancer. 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 reported how she had refused conventional medical treatment, and began a regime of forgiveness, coupled with therapy, nutrition, reflexology and occasional colonic enemas. She claimed 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.
In 1976, Hay wrote her first book, Heal Your Body, which began as a small pamphlet containing a list of different bodily ailments and their “probable” metaphysical causes. This pamphlet was later enlarged and extended into her book You Can Heal Your Life.
In the 1980s she began leading support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS, which she called “Hay Rides”. These grew from a few people in her living room to hundreds of men in a large hall in West Hollywood, California. Her work with AIDS patients drew fame and she was invited to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Phil Donahue Show in the same week, in March 1988.
In 1984, Hay established the Hay House publishing firm, which today is the primary publisher of books and audio books by over 130 authors, including Deepak Chopra and Doreen Virtue, as well as many books by Wayne Dyer. In addition to running her publishing company, Hay ran a charitable organization called the Hay Foundation, which she founded in 1985.
In 2008, a movie about Hay’s life was released, titled You Can Heal Your Life. In the same year Hay won a Minerva Award at The Women’s Conference.
Louise Hay died peacefully in her sleep on the morning of 30 August 2017, aged 90.
Link to Wikipedia biography