Esther Hicks: The Journey Before Abraham

The Universe Unveiled is a mystical education platform for spiritual seekers, visionaries, and conscious creators ready to reprogram the subconscious mind and align with universal law. In this post, we journey into the untold beginnings of Esther Hicks—before the Abraham teachings, before the global stage, before the channel opened. This is the story of an ordinary woman, a whispered calling, and the divine unfolding that would inspire millions to remember who they truly are.

Listen to the Episode:

Esther Hicks Before Abraham: The Untold Origin Story

Early Life and Upbringing

Esther Hicks (born Esther Weaver) entered the world on March 5, 1948, in the small town of Coalville, Utah. She grew up in a close-knit family environment in Utah, alongside her two sisters, Jeanne and Rebecca. Esther’s mother, Ruth, was a devout Mormon (while her father, Henry, was not), and the family’s community was largely influenced by Mormon values. Her father worked in the lumber trade, providing a stable, if modest, upbringing. Esther would later describe her childhood home as a “wonderful, nurturing environment”, one where she developed a curious mind and a warm, optimistic outlook on life.

In her teenage years, Esther faced a pivotal family challenge. Her mother suffered a severe heart attack and was left an invalid when Esther was still in high school. This early brush with her mother’s illness had a profound effect on young Esther. It taught her about resilience and the power of hope in the face of hardship – themes that would subtly echo in her later teachings about well-being and positive focus. Esther completed high school in Utah (attending South Summit High from 1962 to 1966), but rather than pursuing higher education, her path soon turned toward starting a family and seeking her place in the world.

Young Adulthood and First Marriage

At the age of 20, Esther took a significant step into adulthood: “I met someone and married,” she says of that time. In 1968, not long after high school, she wed her first husband, Richard D. Geer. The young couple eventually settled in Fresno, California, where Esther gave birth to her daughter, Tracy, on June 2, 1971. Becoming a mother brought joy and responsibility; Esther devoted herself to raising her child. Some accounts suggest she had two children from this marriage (her daughter Tracy being one of them). During these years, Esther led a fairly ordinary life as a housewife and working mom, described later as “a simple, divorced mother” in her early journey.

However, all was not idyllic. By her own admission, that first marriage was not a blissful union. Esther later reflected that insecurity played a role in her choice of partner. “Knowing about the Law of Attraction now, I suppose my insecurity caused me to marry an authority figure. He was very difficult to live with,” she recalled candidly. This period of personal struggle – feeling disempowered and unhappy in the marriage – became a crucial learning experience. It quietly sowed in Esther the seeds of yearning for a more fulfilling life and perhaps set the stage for her openness to spiritual growth down the line. Ultimately, the marriage deteriorated, and Esther found herself facing divorce while still in her late twenties, coping as a single mother and seeking a new direction.

A Fateful Meeting: Esther Meets Jerry Hicks

In 1976, Esther’s life took a dramatic turn when she crossed paths with Jerry Hicks in Fresno. At the time, Esther was working as a bookkeeper/secretary, a job that provided stability after her divorce. Jerry Hicks, on the other hand, was a charismatic entrepreneur nearly twenty years her senior. A former circus acrobat and entertainer, Jerry had spent the 1950s and ’60s touring as a musician, master of ceremonies, and comedian. By the 1970s he had reinvented himself as a top-level distributor in the Amway organization – in fact, he had achieved “Crown” status, one of Amway’s highest ranks. Jerry often gave motivational business presentations, sharing success principles from Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich to inspire his sales teams.

Esther first encountered Jerry at one of these Amway presentations in 1976. Their meeting was, in many ways, serendipitous. Not only did they feel an immediate personal connection, but Jerry’s message of positive thinking and possibility resonated with Esther at a time when she was rebuilding her life. “Jerry had made a fortune by reaching the top echelons of Amway,” one interviewer noted, and Esther was intrigued by the success philosophy he espoused. Both Jerry and Esther were actually married to others when they met (Jerry was with his then-wife, Trish, and Esther still technically married to Richard). The attraction between them, however, was undeniable. As Esther later acknowledged with a bit of humor, “I’m the fifth [wife], that I know of,” when asked if she was Jerry’s first wife.

Their relationship blossomed quickly. Esther’s marriage to Richard came to an end – she finalized her divorce on August 21, 1980 – and scarcely two weeks later, she and Jerry married each other in a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas on September 3, 1980. This partnership with Jerry Hicks would prove to be the turning point that launched Esther onto an entirely new path. In Jerry, Esther found not only a loving husband and kindred spirit, but also a mentor and collaborator who would introduce her to profound new ideas about life, success, and spirituality.

Before any talk of spirit guides or “Abraham,” Jerry and Esther’s collaboration in the early 1980s revolved around the motivational seminar circuit and the personal development arena. They worked together in Jerry’s Amway business and other entrepreneurial ventures, sharing principles of positive thinking and self-made success. Observers later noted that Jerry brought a “certain icky Amway tough-sell feeling” into their budding self-help enterprise – meaning he contributed marketing savvy and an evangelical enthusiasm for motivational products. Esther, with her down-to-earth warmth and open-minded willingness to learn, complemented him perfectly. She often played supportive roles – organizing events, handling bookkeeping, and absorbing the success literature that Jerry introduced to her. These years of traveling for business presentations and engaging with people about mindset and prosperity were laying an unseen foundation. They gave Esther exposure to New Thought philosophies and the power of positive intention, concepts that would soon reappear in a more mystical form in her life.

Personal and Spiritual Turning Points

Despite her practical focus in the early ’80s, Esther’s life with Jerry was gradually guiding her toward a more spiritual trajectory. In interviews, she admitted that “before Esther met Jerry, she’d had no unusual spiritual experiences.” In fact, at the start, the idea of communing with non-physical entities was far from her mind. But a few key turning points would change that. One of the first came when Jerry persuaded Esther to explore the work of Jane Roberts, a famed channeler who wrote the Seth books. Jerry was an avid reader of such metaphysical material, but Esther initially felt trepidation. “I was afraid. Seth spooked me,” Esther recalls of her first exposure to the channeled Seth material. The notion of spirit guides and trance communication challenged the conventional beliefs she was raised with, and it triggered some fear of the unknown.

Yet, love and curiosity won out over fear. With Jerry’s gentle encouragement (often during cozy afternoons where “I’d lay on the sofa and Jerry would tickle my feet” as they read together), Esther began warming to these esoteric ideas. She found herself intriguingly drawn to the messages of empowerment and positivity in the Seth books. Around this time, friends introduced the Hickses to a woman named Sheila who channeled a spiritual entity called Theo. Attending a session with Sheila was another pivotal experience for Esther. During that session, Theo informed Esther that her own spirit guide would soon make itself known to her, and encouraged the couple to begin a regular meditation practice. For someone who a few years prior had never imagined communicating with “nonphysical” teachers, this was both astonishing and exciting.

Emboldened by these experiences, Jerry and Esther decided to try meditation at home as instructed. One evening in late 1985, they sat in their Phoenix, Arizona living room – each in a comfortable wing-backed chair, an end table between them – and quieted their minds. Esther, wearing her bathrobe and still harboring a bit of skepticism, focused on her breathing as told. What happened next was something she never anticipated and would forever mark the turning point of her life. “Almost immediately I was numb. I couldn’t tell my foot from my nose,” Esther recounted of that first deep meditation. She felt a powerful presence wash over her. “Something breathed me. That’s how I describe it,” she said, indicating that an energy larger than herself seemed to be moving her body. She began to experience involuntary movements and sounds – “I was convulsing in ecstasy, making noises... The energy was so strong that my teeth were buzzing”. Jerry watched in awe as Esther’s head began gently moving of its own accord. Later they realized that she had been tracing letters in the air with her nose – the first clues of a communication. In that extraordinary moment, Abraham had arrived, and Esther Hicks had her first personal contact with the spiritual collective who would soon speak through her.

By that Christmas of 1985, Esther was receiving clear, transmittable messages from this source, which identified as “Abraham,” a group of loving non-physical teachers. She and Jerry experimented with translating the guidance first through Esther’s ideomotor movements (like the nose spelling and via keyboard), and eventually Esther found she could relax and allow Abraham to speak verbally through her. These developments unfolded gently over weeks and months, astounding the couple. In 1986, they cautiously began sharing the Abraham teachings in quiet ways – initially offering private consultations for close friends and associates who were curious. Notably, many of those early seekers were their former business colleagues; Jerry and Esther initially introduced Abraham’s wisdom to their Amway circle and other business “partners,” blending the mystical messages with familiar success principles. By 1987, demand grew and the Hickses were organizing small workshops in living rooms and hotel meeting rooms. What started as an almost secret spiritual adventure was quickly becoming a new career and calling.

Throughout these transitions, Esther demonstrated an openness and courage that would inspire many. She overcame her fear of the unknown and embraced what she felt was her true purpose. Importantly, she insists that in the beginning, “We weren’t in it for the money… but for the expansion of the message.” Sharing Abraham’s teachings felt like a mission born from joy and discovery rather than ambition. This period – from the late 1970s into the mid-1980s – was one of profound personal transformation for Esther. In a span of less than a decade, she had gone from a struggling single mother and disillusioned wife, to a newly remarried woman learning about positive thinking, and finally to an unlikely spiritual messenger finding her voice. Each struggle and each serendipitous encounter along the way served as a stepping stone toward the remarkable role she would soon play on the world stage of spirituality.

Laying the Foundation: How Background Shaped Her Calling

Esther Hicks’s background – both the mundane and the extraordinary aspects of it – deeply influenced the tone and success of her later work as a channeler and inspirational teacher. In many ways, her ordinary roots became one of her strengths. She was not born into fame or steeped in occult training; she was a small-town girl, a devoted mom, and a practical-minded woman who had worked as a secretary. This grounded upbringing gave her a relatable, down-to-earth persona that appealed to countless followers once she started speaking for Abraham. People found Esther approachable and genuine – someone who could understand the challenges of everyday life. Indeed, her personal struggles (like an unhappy first marriage and the responsibilities of single motherhood) fostered a sense of empathy that later allowed her to connect with audience members seeking guidance on relationships, family, and personal empowerment.

Her early exposure to Mormon family values and faith traditions also left an imprint. Growing up in a religious community taught Esther the importance of spiritual connection and prayer, even if she eventually pursued that connection outside conventional religion. It’s telling that she once acknowledged feeling self-conscious about parts of her background, saying, “I’m sitting here and I am uncomfortable because people don’t like Mormons, people don’t like Amway, people don’t like channellers.”. Yet those very three elements – her faith-oriented upbringing, her sales/business experience, and her mystical channeling – combined to make Esther who she is. From Mormonism she inherited an underlying optimism and moral centeredness; from Amway and the self-help world she gained business savvy and an understanding of motivational psychology; and through channeling she found a creative spiritual outlet that tied it all together.

Notably, Jerry Hicks’s influence on Esther cannot be overstated. He was both a life partner and a catalyst who opened her mind to broader possibilities. Jerry’s fascination with Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and other New Thought literature essentially primed Esther for Abraham’s teachings. The concepts of thought vibration, deliberate creation, and positive expectation – core ideas in the Law of Attraction – were ideas she first encountered in those classic books and Amway seminars. “Jerry ascribes his business success to Napoleon Hill’s book,” one profile noted, and Jerry himself later realized that many of Hill’s principles resonated with what Abraham would teach. In Esther’s words, “All of this was sort of dead. Then Abraham, through me, began reviving it.”. Her background effectively provided a framework and language for Abraham’s messages. Because she had studied and lived these principles in a practical context first, she could articulate the spiritual concepts in a way that many people found clear and applicable to real life. In short, her past gave her the toolkit to translate ethereal wisdom into everyday advice.

Finally, the personal healing and growth Esther experienced before Abraham’s arrival became a foundational story that inspired others. Audiences would come to see in Esther’s journey a demonstration of the very Law of Attraction principles she later taught – she transformed her life by following her passions, seeking joy, and listening to her inner guidance. The compassion she developed through hardship made her an understanding teacher, especially when people struggled with issues like divorce, illness, or lack of purpose. Having “been there” in her own way, Esther could genuinely assure them (with Abraham’s words) that one can pivot from pain to joy, and that no situation is permanent. Her life before fame was essentially the first chapter of an inspirational tale: a testament that an ordinary person with doubts and difficulties could find enlightenment and then go on to uplift millions.

From Ordinary Beginnings to Inspirational Messenger

By 1986, as Esther and Jerry Hicks formally introduced the world to Abraham, Esther’s earlier life had seamlessly woven into her new spiritual mission. The loving childhood that nurtured her, the trials that tested her, the chance meeting that changed her – all these threads combined into a rich tapestry of experience. They gave Esther humility, humor, and heart, which shone through in her work. Those who met her did not see a mystical guru who was distant or superior; they saw a friend and mother-figure who spoke with warmth, wit, and an infectious laugh, even as she channeled profound wisdom. It was the balance of earth and sky in Esther – the practical and the spiritual – that made her story so compelling.

In summary, Esther Hicks’s life before she became known for channeling Abraham is a story of quiet preparation and inner transformation. It’s the story of a Utah-born girl who grew up milking the goodness from simple life lessons, weathered personal storms, and followed the breadcrumbs of curiosity to discover something extraordinary. Her journey reminds us that every experience, even the painful or perplexing ones, can serve a purpose. In Esther’s case, each step – from bookkeeping in Fresno to meditating in Phoenix – was guiding her toward her destiny as a beacon of joy, clarity, and inspiration for others. And it was precisely because she started out as “one of us” that so many have found hope in her example. As we look at Esther Hicks’s early life, we see not just the making of a spiritual teacher, but the unfolding of an inspirational story about embracing change, following one’s heart, and allowing life’s challenges to lead to one’s greatest awakening.

Sources: Esther Hicks interview and biographical details; The Independent (UK) profile by R. Chalmers; Abraham-Hicks Skeptic archives; Roosevelt Island Daily News; Wikipedia.