John Gray

John Gray (born December 28, 1951) is an American relationship counselor, lecturer, and author. In 1969, he began a nine-year association with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before beginning his career as an author and personal relationship counselor. In 1992 he published the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which became a long-term best seller and formed the central theme of his subsequent books and career activities. His books have sold millions of copies.

Early life and education His parents were both Christians and taught him Yoga and took him to visit Indian Saint Yogananda during his childhood. The Autobiography of A Yogi inspired him greatly later in life.

He received a bachelor's and master's degree in the Science of Creative Intelligence, though sources vary on whether these degrees were received from either the non-accredited Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Switzerland or the accredited Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa.

Gray received an unaccredited (but state-approved) PhD in 1982 from Columbia Pacific University (CPU), a now-defunct distance learning institution. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate from Governors State University in Illinois after he delivered their commencement address.

Career In 1969, Gray attended a Transcendental Meditation lecture. He became a celibate and personal assistant to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for nine years.

Publications In 1992, Gray published Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which has sold more than 15 million copies and, according to a CNN report, it was the "highest ranked work of non-fiction" of the 1990s. The book has been published in more than 40 languages.

Business ventures In 1997, Gray began opening Mars & Venus Counseling Centers, where he trains therapists in his "Mars & Venus technique" in exchange for a one-time licensing fee and monthly "royalty payments". Dorothy Cantor, a former president of the American Psychological Association, has questioned the ethics of creating a franchise for what is essentially a therapeutic process. in 2004, a massive class action lawsuit was filed against Genesis Intermedia for stock price manipulation. El-Batrawi settled with the SEC and was barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company for a period of five years.

Gray has been marketing dietary supplements through his Web site since at least 2005. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered him to stop making illegal claims for several products: 2-AEP Membrane Complex, Ionic Silver Water, L-Glutathione, Liposomal DHA – Ultimate Omega-3 Brain Support, Liposomal Methyl B12/Folate, NAC N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine, and Vectomega.

Gray is also an early investor in YayYo, Inc, a rental car business for the ride-sharing industry operated by Ramy El-Batrawi. Gray owns 21.44% through his Gray Mars Venus Trust. Ramy El-Batrawi dies of undisclosed causes on April 23, 2024.

Interviews and appearances Gray has made appeared on multiple talk shows, including Oprah, The Phil Donahue Show, He also stated that "feminism in America holds back sales of [his] books", while other parts of the world - he cited Australia and Latin America notably - are more in tune with his basic message. With regard to online pornography Gray stated, "With free internet porn, there's a massive addiction happening," adding that there are "just millions and millions of people... experiencing their sexual satisfactions through total fantasy. The effect that porn has on the brain is like taking heroin." With regard to the rise of infidelity sites like Ashley Madison and Arrangement Finders he states, "When you have impersonal sex.... 'It's OK, here are these cheating wives, men, they want to have sex with you'... So you go have sex with someone that you don't know and someone you don't love... impersonal sex does promote addiction to sex," he adds, "it's along the same line of pornography."

Criticism In 2002, author Julia T. Wood published a critical response to Gray's portrayals of men and women in Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. In 2007 Deborah Cameron published a book-length critique of Gray, and other self-help ventures premised on gender difference stereotypes, in The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages?

Gray was accused of borrowing from the work of author Deborah Tannen and he acknowledges some similarities but says, "I was teaching those ideas before I'd heard of her" and that he did not read her book. Other critics have accused Gray of limiting human psychology to stereotypes.

Personal life Gray married self-help author Barbara De Angelis. They divorced in 1984. Gray married his second wife, Bonnie, in 1986; she died of cancer in 2018. Gray married his third wife, Wang Lin, also known as Viki Gray, on May 4, 2020 in Marin County, California. She was his personal guide during his speaking tours in China.

Gray has a daughter and two stepdaughters.

Books and other publications 1992: Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus 1993: What You Feel You Can Heal 1994: What Your Mother Couldn't Tell You and Your Father Didn't Know 1994: Mars and Venus in Love 1995: Mars and Venus in the Bedroom 1997: Mars and Venus on a Date 1997: Mars and Venus Starting Over 1999: How To Get What You Want and Want What You Have 2000: Children Are from Heaven 2000: Mars and Venus: 365 Ways to Keep Passion Alive Men, Women and Relationships Mars and Venus Together Forever: A Practical Guide to Creating Lasting Intimacy Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Book of Days Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus: Nine Principles for Lasting Love, Increasing Success, and Vibrant Health in the Twenty-first Century 2002: Mars and Venus in the Workplace, Truly Mars & Venus 2003: The Mars & Venus Diet and Exercise Solution 2007: Why Mars and Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women Cope Differently with Stress 2010: Venus on Fire, Mars on Ice – Hormonal Balance – The Key to Life, Love, and Energy 75 Ways To Say I Love You (co-author Darren Stephens), How To Release Stress Through Relaxation (co-author Darren Stephens), Work with Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women in Business (co-author Barbara Annis), 2017: Beyond Mars and Venus