Self-help guru Wayne W. Dyer dies at 75

Greg Toppo | USATODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Self-help guru Dr. Wayne W. Dyer dies at 75 Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, best-selling author of more than 30 self-help books, died in Maui, Hawaii at the age of 75. Dyer was a favorite guest of talk show hosts like Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, the best-selling self-help guru and author of 30 books, died late Saturday, his family and publisher said. He was 75.

A posting on Dyer's Facebook page said: "Wayne has left his body, passing away through the night. He always said he couldn't wait for this next adventure to begin and had no fear of dying. Our hearts are broken, but we smile to think of how much our scurvy elephant will enjoy the other side."

The posting was signed by his family. Within an hour, it had been shared more than 32,000 times.

Dyer died Saturday night in Maui, Hawaii, Reid Tracy, chief executive of Dyer's publisher, Hay House, told NBC News. On Tuesday, a statement on Dyer's Facebook page said the cause of his death was a heart attack.

Dyer was diagnosed with leukemia several years ago. In an interview posted to the KPBS-TV, San Diego, website in 2012 after his leukemia diagnosis, Dyer said he'd begun looking at the illness as "just the body's way of responding to, perhaps, psychological traumas, you know, from failed relationships in the past, or whatever it is, and that the body just always knows what it's doing - and the body is perfect."

On Tuesday, a statement on Dyer's Facebook page said a coroner's report indicated "he did not have a trace of leukemia in his body."

"For those of you who have been listening to his talks or reading his recent books you know that he was diagnosed with leukemia but felt he was able to eliminate it from his body and this report confirms what he already knew," the statement read.

For years, Dyer was a regular guest on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, and Winfrey's OWN network broadcast many interviews with and documentaries by him. The network began tweeting a series of interviews with Dyer beginning Sunday on the account of its spirituality and religion show Super Soul Sunday, NBC reported.

On Sunday, Winfrey tweeted: "It was always a pleasure to talk to @DrWayneWDyer about life's big questions. He always had big answers. RIP Wayne. You brought the Light."

Deepak Chopra tweeted: "Grieving deeply at sudden passing of my life long friend @DrWayneWDyer. I saw him 2 weeks ago at Chopra Center in good spirits."

Another self-help guru, Tony Robbins, tweeted late Sunday: "Wayne Dyer has passed away today. 4 those of us who loved him it's sad, but he knew death was a transition. We send love 4his next adventure."

Dyer's Facebook page on Sunday still advertised an upcoming two-week seminar, scheduled for October and dubbed "The Holy Land and Beyond: A Spiritual Journey of Self-Discovery."

A native of Detroit, Dyer had been living in Maui.

Dyer was a guidance counselor at a Detroit high school and went on to run a successful private therapy practice, but his motivational and self-help lectures at St. John's University, where he was a professor, attracted students beyond those enrolled, according to a biography on Dyer's Goodreads page. A literary agent persuaded him to package his ideas in book form, resulting in his first book, Your Erroneous Zones, in 1976.

Dyer eventually quit his teaching job and began touring the USA to promote the book, reportedly selling copies "out of the back of his station wagon," according to Michael Korda. The book, Korda said, made the best-seller lists "before book publishers even noticed what was happening."

Dyer may have lived in Hawaii, but he never forgot his Detroit roots. He was a million-dollar donor to the city's Wayne State University, establishing a scholarship fund at the college where he earned three degrees, including a doctorate in counseling. He helped raise more than $100 million for public broadcasting, including the local public broadcasting station, with motivational specials that ran for years.

"As a pioneer in the genre we now refer to as 'self-help' programming, he connected deeply with public television audiences that share his mission for personal improvement," Rich Homberg, president and CEO of Detroit Public Television, said Sunday

"For millions and millions of people, he was a touchstone of understanding and self-awareness and confidence," said Homberg. "He always just felt so genuine, and so real, and he went to such lengths to help people understand."

Homberg said public television stations around the country eagerly anticipated Dyer-staged shows, not only for the fundraising dollars they generated but because viewers so connected with Dyer's message.

He was born Wayne Walter Dyer in Detroit, and grew up in a series of foster care homes. His father was an alcoholic who left the family when Dyer was 3.

In the 1960s, he taught social studies at Detroit's Pershing High School, and then was a counselor for two years in the early '70s at Catholic all-girls Mercy High School in Farmington Hills. At Mercy, he also was a driver's education instructor. Not only did he teach students to drive, but he also taught several of the Mercy nuns, said Cheryl Kreger, the school's president.

When Kreger called him a few months ago to thank him for a recent donation, Dyer said he'd be happy to be included in a capital fundraising campaign for the school.

"Use my name. Use my picture. Whatever you want to promote Mercy," Kreger said Dyer told her.

Contributing: Patricia Montemurri, Detroit Free Press