Wayne Dyer Biography

His father, Melvin Dyer, was an alcoholic and abandoned the family soon after Wayne was born, and died shortly thereafter. His mother, Hazel, turned Wayne and his brother Jim over to an orphanage when she could no longer take care of them. Indeed, he grew up in a Detroit orphanage. He graduated in 1958 from Denby High School and went into the Navy, where he served form 1958 to 1962.

Coming out of the Navy, he attended Wayne State University where he earned his D.Ed. degree in counseling.

He began his career as a high school guidance counselor, and then became a professor of counselor education at St. John's University in New York.
Dyer began publishing articles in journals and had a successful private therapy practice, but his lectures at St. John’s began attracting a wide audience, among more than just students, because of his focus on positive thinking and motivational speaking.

In 1976, at the age of 36, Dyer published his first book, Your Erroneous Zones. Dyer determined to make motivational speaking his lifelong career, and resigning from his teaching profession he began touring the country, promoting his book by appearing at bookstores and doing interviews. Soon, the book was a best seller, and he began appearing on national talk shows such as Phil Donahue, Merv Griffin and The Tonight Show.
So popular was Dyer’s message of positive thinking that he began making lecture tours, as well as writing new books. His writing resonated with many people, as he was definitely a “self-made” man who proved that positive thinking could bring one success in life.

In the 1990s, Dyer’s work began to take on a spiritual component, with an emphasis on the

Tao Te Ching.
Dyer and his third wife live in Maui, Hawaii. He has been married three times. He has one daughter, from his first marriage, named Tracy, and seven children with his third wife, Marcelene. Marcelene left him in 2003 after twenty years of marriage.

When asked about his religious beliefs, Dyer points out: "My belief is that the truth is a truth until you organize it, and then becomes a lie. I don't think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace. What I tell people is don't be Christian, be Christ-like. Don't be Buddhist, be Buddha-like."

In 2003, Dyer had a heart attack, and received a stent. In 2009, he revealed that he was suffering from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), but that it was not life-threatening. (Some versions of this leukemia are fatal after five years, others are not life-threatening, with proper treatment.)
Dyer is great friend with Deepak Chopra, and has spent some time with him at The Chopra Center, “working with a holistic oncologist” to help him overcome the disease.
Some critics have pointed out Dyer’s health and marital troubles as contradicting his tenets of living life with positive thinking, but these critics are missing the whole point of the message. Bad things, sad things, happen to everybody, and most are out of people’s control (like illness, car accidents, etc.) It is through one’s strength in positive thinking and spirituality that one overcomes these new barriers to happiness in one’s life, and continues to thrive and be happy.

Syer’s books include: Your Erroneous Zones (1976), Pulling Your Own Strings (1978), The Sky's the Limit ( 1980), What Do You Really Want for Your Children (1985) and You'll See It When You Believe It: The Way to Your Personal Transformation (1989). His latest books are: Living The Wisdom Of The Tao: The Complete Tao Te Ching and Affirmations (2008) and Excuses Begone (2009).

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Famous People Born in the Year of the Dragon, Famous Authors, American Authors
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