Gayle Pierce

American medical doctor, an anesthesiologist who left the profession to become a chiropractor in 1938 after seeing too many surgeries for people whom she felt would be better served with alternate healing methods. Dr. Gayle wanted to be a doctor from the time she was seven years old and at 15, this was a conscious ambition. As a child she dreamed of the Himalayas of Tibet. She got her M.D. license in 1926 and her anesthesiologist degree in 1932. She married a medical doctor, they had one son and later divorced. Dr. Gayle's spiritual search was intense between 1926-1938, moving into metaphysics with reading and study and her healing methods were progressively more unconventional. She used radionics machines to diagnose and a variety of naturopathic remedies and natural foods and herbs along with chiropractic and acupressure. She finally accepted that she was neither fish nor fowl and there was no one path for her but that she must travel all paths. Between 1950 to 1955, she learned to accept herself. In 1953 she bought her big house; four upstairs bedrooms and a downstairs sun porch that she turned into her treatment room when she gave up her San Jose office. Her son did very well as a property developer and steered her toward a conservative portfolio that was worth over $100,000 by the '70s, giving her financial security. As Dr. Gayle's reputation began to expand, people from the New Age communities began to find her and in 1954 she first started her salons. On Sunday afternoons and one evening a week, people met to hear informal speakers who ranged from Dane Rudhyar to the brother of the Dalai Lama, and join in discussion groups. She had an Agni Yoga group led by Ralph Houston that met during the '50s though she was not entirely in agreement with Houston's methods. Her own philosophy continued to range freely and she read voraciously. During the '60s, she met Ogamisama, the spiritual head of many Japanese and became personal physician to the Holy Woman, the only one permitted to touch her. Dr. Gayle's work extended overseas, mostly to the Orient and when she visited Japan or India, she would be followed by crowds of people who saw her as a great healer. People who knew her personally or by legend would send for her and while the wealthy paid her fare, Gayle would find her way to the ghettos and fields to offer healing to the common people. By then middle-aged, matronly plump and white haired, her garb leaned toward turtle-necks and peasant's trousers with great multihued shawls or scarves and later, a gnarled cane. She made her first trip to Japan in 1965 for over four months when she met and treated Ogamisama and then every year for the following four years; for a month in 1967. During that first trip, 1965, she met the Knights, a retired British couple who were instrumental for many of her travels. In 1966, she met the Dalai Lama for the first time with the story that she bowed and he bowed and she straightened up, hitting his chin with her head. They laughed together - and by the '80s, she was one of his personal students. She saw him at that first meeting as surrounded with golden light and power. The spring of 1968 she made a world tour with the Ogamisam group. On 2/23/1970, she made house calls for three weeks in France and England. Her mom died that late May. On 1/01/1972, Dr. Gayle was in India when she had a fall and broke three ribs. In March she fell again and broke both wrists, in Japan. In 1978, she went to the Virgin Islands and in 1979, spent January to March in Japan. In late 1979, she made her one trip to Africa. As a healer she began to find that she could smell death before the fact. And she began to hear bells that signified different conditions. Her home was open at all times to a wide variety of people and one would wake in the pre-dawn to the sound of a deep ohm-mani-padme-ohm along with the chime of a bell or gong. As the years went by, she moved more deeply and serenely into Buddhism and whether or not the Dalai Lama was visiting California, the Buddhist community made her home an informal headquarters. Dr. Gayle broke her hip on 6/26/1981. This was a difficult period in which everything seemed to go wrong. The bathroom leaked and ruined the downstairs ceiling, her car needed a major overhaul and even her tape recorder was not working. She was treating a mother-and-daughter at the time whom she felt were surrounded by dark issues. In February 1983, she made a trip to Israel. On 7/23/1983 she was home in California for the wedding of her beloved grandson to a Japanese bride. In May 1985, she had another dark period in which she said that poltergeist activity was making her life miserable with papers and jewelry missing. In June 1985, she fell and hurt her back. She went to India on 3/03/1986 for a month and to New Zealand on 9/30 to 11/07/1986. Now age 83, she was greeted with a wheelchair to get around. On 8/12/1987, she had a car accident in which the car was totaled but she was not hurt but her son put his foot down that she was not to drive any more. A Swami in India told her that she would died at 83 years, 6 months and 5 days with no prior illness: he was totally wrong. Dr. Gayle's health began to fade and she needed full-time help at home. On 4/24/1993 she was having blood in her lower tract. Finally, she had to give up the big house and move into a convalescent home in November 1997. She remained totally lucid but the body no longer supported her vivid spirit. Dr. Gayle died on 3/15/1999, 00:47 AM at a nursing home in San Jose, CA.