Wayne Dyer

Early life

Dyer was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Melvin Lyle Dyer and Hazel Irene Vollick, and spent much of his first ten years in an orphanage on the east side of Detroit, after his father walked out on the family, leaving his mother to raise three small boys. His parents had moved from Ontario, Canada, and were members of Baptist Church. After graduating from Denby High School, Dyer served in the United States Navy from 1958 to 1962. He received his Ed.D. degree in counseling from Wayne State University for a dissertation titled Group Counseling Leadership Training in Counselor Education, under the supervision of Mildred Peters.

Career

Dyer, a Detroit native, worked as a high school guidance counselor there and as a professor of counseling psychology at St. John's University in New York City. He pursued an academic career, published in journals, and established a private therapy practice. His lectures at St. John's, which focused on positive thinking and motivational speaking techniques, attracted many students. A literary agent persuaded Dyer to document his theories in his first book, called Your Erroneous Zones (1976). Dyer quit his teaching job and began a publicity tour of the United States, doggedly pursuing bookstore appearances and media interviews ("out of the back of his station wagon", according to Michael Korda, making the best-seller lists "before book publishers even noticed what was happening"). After Your Erroneous Zones dozens more books followed, many of them also best-sellers. Among them were Wishes Fulfilled, Excuses Begone and The Sky’s the Limit. The success of these books eventually led to national television talk show appearances including The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, and The Phil Donahue Show.

Dyer proceeded to build on his success with lecture tours, a series of audiotapes, PBS programs, and regular publication of new books. Dyer's message resonated with many in the New Thought Movement and beyond. He often recounted anecdotes from his family life and repeatedly used his own life experience as an example. His self-made man success story was a part of his appeal. Dyer told readers to pursue self actualization, calling reliance on the self a guide to "religious" experience, and suggested that readers emulate Jesus Christ, whom he termed both an example of a self-actualized person and a "preacher of self-reliance". Dyer criticized societal focus on guilt, which he saw as an unhealthy immobilization in the present due to actions taken in the past. He encouraged readers to see how parents, institutions, and even they, themselves, had imposed guilt trips upon themselves.

Although Dyer initially resisted the spiritual tag, by the 1990s he had altered his message to include more components of spirituality when he wrote the book Real Magic and discussed higher consciousness in the book Your Sacred Self.

Influences

Wayne Dyer stated Nisargadatta Maharaj to be his Teacher and cited the quotation, "Love says: 'I am everything'. Wisdom says: 'I am nothing' from a compilation of talks on Shiva Advaita (Nondualism) philosophy I Am That. He was influenced by Abraham Maslow's concept of self-actualization and by the teachings of Swami Muktananda, whom he considered to be his Master. In his book, Wishes Fulfilled; Mastering the Art of Manifesting, Dr. Dyer also credited Saint Francis of Assisi and the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu as foundational influences in his work.

Criticism

Dyer was sometimes criticized by PBS viewers for his appearances on PBS during their pledge drives. An ombudsman once summarized the essence of the complaints as being "that PBS might be seen as lending its prestige to Dyer's spiritual views and aligning itself with his teachings."

In May 2010, author Stephen Mitchell filed a suit against Dyer for plagiarism, accusing him of taking 200 lines of his interpretation of the Tao Te Ching for his books Living the Wisdom of the Tao and Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life. The suit was dismissed in 2011.

Psychologist Albert Ellis wrote that Dyer's book Your Erroneous Zones was probably "the worst example" of plagiarism of Ellis' Rational Emotive Therapy (RET). In a 1985 letter to Dyer, Ellis claimed that Dyer had participated in an Ellis workshop on RET before he published Your Erroneous Zones, in which Dyer appeared to understand RET very well. Ellis added that "300 or more people have voluntarily told me... that [the book] was clearly derived from RET." Dyer never apologized nor expressed any sense of wrongdoing. Ellis admonished Dyer for unethically and unprofessionally failing to credit Ellis's work as the book's primary source, but expressed overall gratitude for Dyer's work, writing: "Your Erroneous Zones is a good book, ... it has helped a great number of people, and ... it outlines the main principles of RET quite well,... with great simplicity and clarity."

Personal life

Dyer was married three times. With his first wife, Judy, he had a daughter, Tracy. With his second wife, Susan Casselman, he had no children. With his third wife, Marcelene, he had five children (Skye, Summer, Serena, Sands, and Saje), and two stepchildren (Shane and Stephanie) from Marcelene's prior marriage. Wayne and Marcelene legally separated in 2001, after 20 years of marriage.

Credos

My beliefs are that the truth is a truth until you organize it, and then it 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.

Religion is orthodoxy, rules and historical scriptures maintained by people over long periods of time. Generally people are raised to obey the customs and practices of that religion without question. These are customs and expectations from outside the person and do not fit my definition of spiritual.

Death

Dyer died from a heart attack, said his publicist, Lindsay McGinty on Maui, Hawaii on August 29, 2015, at age 75. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2009.

Films