She soon led groups of people in spoken affirmations , which she believed would cure their illnesses . This led to her gaining popularity as a workshop leader . Then life tested her belief on a personal level when she was diagnosed with “ incurable ” cervical cancer . She came to the understanding that by holding on to resentment for her childhood abuse and rape , she had contributed to the cancer ’ s onset . She refused conventional medical treatment , and began a routine of forgiveness , therapy , nutritional changes , reflexology and occasional colonic enemas . She rid herself of the cancer by this method , and has outlived every doctor who informed her that she had the disease .
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 expanded into her book You Can Heal Your Life , which was selfpublished in 1984 . Her work with support groups for people living with H . I . V . or AIDS grew from a few people in her living room to hundreds of men in a large hall in West Hollywood . These efforts landed her an invitation to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Donahue in the same week . You Can Heal Your Life was on the New York Times Bestseller ’ s list for thirteen consecutive weeks . and has sold more than fifty million copies around the world and also has been translated into over thirty languages .
Louise went on to start her own house , publishing other dynamos such as Wayne Dyer , Deepak Chopra , Suze Orman , Marianne Williamson , Doreen Virtue , Esther and Jerry Hicks , Tavis Smiley and many others .
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