Who Is Wayne Dyer
WAYNE W. DYER, PH.D., is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development. He’s the author of over 30 books, has created 
many audio programs and videos, and has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows.
His books Manifest Your Destiny, Wisdom of the Ages, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, and the New York Times bestsellers 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, The Power of Intention, Inspiration, Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life, and now Excuses Begone have all been featured as National Public Television specials.
Dr. Wayne Dyer is affectionately called the “father of motivation” by his fans. Despite his childhood spent in orphanages and foster homes, Dr. Dyer has overcome many obstacles to make his dreams come true. Today he spends much of his time showing others how to do the same.
Dyer was a guidance counselor in Detroit at the high school level and a professor of counselor education at St. John’s University in New York. He also served in the United States Navy from 1958-1962.
He first pursued an academic career, publishing in journals and running a successful private therapy practice, but his lectures at St. John’s, which focused on positive thinking and motivational speaking techniques, attracted students beyond those enrolled.
A literary agent persuaded Dyer to package his ideas in book form, resulting in Your Erroneous Zones; although initial sales were thin, Dyer quit his teaching job and began a publicity tour of America, 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”), which eventually led to national television talk show appearances including Merv Griffin, The Tonight Show, and Phil Donahue.
Dyer proceeded to build on his success with lecture tours, a series of audiotapes, and regular publication of new books. Dyer’s audience was not limited to business as with Dale Carnegie or Stephen Covey, and so his 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 as 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 advocated readers to see how parents, institutions, and even they, themselves, have imposed guilt trips upon themselves.
Although Dyer resisted the spiritual tag, by the 1990s he was altering his message to include more components of spirituality, in Real Magic, and higher consciousness, in Your Sacred Self. Currently, his focus is on interpretations of Tao Te Ching and he has many U.S. speaking engagements.
When he’s not traveling the globe delivering his uplifting message, Wayne is writing from his home in Maui.
DR. WAYNE W. DYER starred in The Shift (March 2009), a compelling portrait of three modern lives in need of new direction and new meaning. In his first-ever movie (written by Kristen Lazarian and directed by Michael Goorjian), Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world.
The powerful shift from the ego constructs we are taught early in life by parents and society—which promote an emphasis on achievement and accumulation—are shown in contrast to a life of meaning, focused on serving and giving back.