1986. Louise Hay and I
I left the meeting feeling silly and uncomfortable. I didn’t get ‘the vibe’ – although I have to say that others clearly did.
Less than a year later I encountered Louise Hay again – although not in person. This time I was in Sydney, working as a Social Worker in the AIDS Unit at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
I was trying to set up a Day Centre for people with AIDS so that they had somewhere other than the Friday morning AIDS clinic to meet up. While searching for suitable premises I was approached by a friend of one of our patients. He explained that he was a big fan of Louise Hay and very much wanted to help. So he offered us the full use of his own – very large – home.
It quickly transpired that, for a range of practical reasons, his house was unsuitable. As well as issues like parking and wheelchair access, it wasn’t ‘zoned’ for anything other than residential use. But the fact that his admiration of Louise Hay had inspired him to make the offer was, I felt, quite extraordinary.
I must say my feelings about her never got anywhere near that level, particularly once I’d read her book You Can Heal Your Life. I’ve covered this is another post, as well as in my book, so I won’t repeat myself here.But, overall, I’m inclined to judge her a lot more harshly.
In the early days of AIDS we were all confused, afraid and desperate for some positive news. Hay’s ‘Hayrides’ may have offered some kind of group support for some people with AIDS. Her writings may have inspired some people to make generous offers. But, as someone who was in the thick of it in those dark and hopeless days, I found her notion that AIDS was simply a consequence of not loving yourself enough just another version of ‘blame the victim’.
I met Louise Hay about that time too. I attended one of her Wednesday night support groups in LA. I was visiting from Houston with a friend of hers, I’d met during a Shirley McClaine workshop in Dallas . After the meeting , the 3 of us went to dinner. I had read her first book or 2 previously and she was a founding mother of so many others since then, who are helping shift human Consciousness. I found her authentic in a way most folks without masks and walls and pre programming perhaps cannot. The mind has so little clue about how to control itself. WE have to do that. The Observer of the mind long ago conditioned into the background. The one watching you read this right now. She gave hope to millions, and has changed paradigms of healing modalities. There is no blaming the victim sir, there is no blame you see. There is radical responsibility where no victim can no longer claim itself , controlling the heart and the divine inside and out. The Heart is freed, when we accept the Flow perhaps you don’t know. Castigating it, is informing others you have not, and Grace and the joy of surrender has escaped you to date. It IS real I can promise you. I have a large brain, I have had much drama and trauma that “victims ” of their own thinking DO create , the hamster wheel of a mad mind. I have had the anxieties and depressions of most, in spades. And I have had freedom for a long time as well. I had a triple by pass and a few hospital stays for organ failures. I take no meds today , I am happy, worry free, stress free, pain free mostly. Louise Hay knew what she was talking about. Not shame, not blame, but a radical self awareness I hope you have found by now. It WILL set you free. My friend died of AIDS, Louise is dead too. I survive and thrive and am surrounded by love, not fear. Louise was one of many mentors , and a damn fine beautiful one. In a world of charlatans and neigh Sayers , hypocrites and abused, I preferred her. I was also sexually and emotionally abused as a child. And gay. I am not a victim of anything, I blame no one. Tell me again, how Ms Hay hurt others? We can only do that to ourselves, and THat my friend, was her message.
Thank you for your comments. It is always god to hear a different opinion to mine. I’m glad you found Louise Hay of value in your life: as I say in my post, there were many who did. Nonetheless, this does not change my views as expressed in my post. Best Wishes, Colin