Anita Moorjani answers the question:

What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?

Wow, that's actually a really easy question for me because the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for me was what Wayne Dyer did for me when he discovered my story. I can't imagine anyone doing what he did. He went above and beyond what anyone has ever done, so it almost makes me emotional to even think about it because he's on the other side now.

What happened is that I had end-stage cancer, which I was supposed to die from, and I healed, and after that I started to share my story on the internet. I started to share what had happened and somebody brought my story to the attention of Wayne Dyer. And when he read it on the internet, he read what I had written, and he actually told his publisher, Hay House, that they had to track me down and that they had to publish my book.

Now, it's not as easy as it sounds. I was living in Hong Kong, and when I was writing on this blog about my experience with cancer, my experience on the other side, what it is that happened to me that caused the cancer to go into a complete remission, and the feelings and the reasons I believed that I healed, and the reasons I believed I had cancer... It was a whole long story and there were questions from other people who would write in and I would answer them, but this whole thing was done in a different name. I didn't use my full name because I didn't want everybody to identify who I was. So it was just written in the name of Anita M. That was it.

I was based in Hong Kong, so when somebody brought this story to the attention of Wayne Dyer, the other thing is people are bringing things to his attention all the time, and after I met him, I saw that. Now that I'm on the speaking circuit, I see that people are bringing things to me all the time, and Wayne was way more popular and famous than I am, so you can just imagine and I can just imagine how many people are giving him things to read, or you should see this or read this or do this or here's a present. And yet, when he got the link for my story, he actually told me this later, he says normally he reads the first few lines and then he knows whether to continue or not. He said he couldn't stop reading till he reached the end, and it was the equivalent of about 20 pages if it was printed out.

He read it to the end and he sent the link to the publishers, and he said, "We have got to track this woman down. All we know is that she is from Hong Kong and her name is Anita M. That's all we know. And so he, together with Hay House, they actually tracked me down and I received an email five months later after Wayne had discovered my story. He didn't give up and this is the thing, he didn't give up and after they tracked me down he told Hay House, he didn't ask them, he told them that they have to give me a book deal, which they did. They gave me a book deal, and nobody gets a book deal.

I swear I cried when this happened to me, when literally I got an email saying, “Wayne Dyer asked us to give you a book deal.” He is so humble. He then said, “I would like to write the foreword if you will let me.” I mean, who says, "If you will let me." I said, "Of course." Then what he did was after the book came out, he hosted me on his PBS special. He said to me, "I want everybody to read this book. I am not going to stop till I tell everybody to read this book." At every speaking event when he would stand on stage, and I would be there in the audience, he would stand on stage and he would say, "If you buy one book at the end of this event, I want it to be this book," and he would hold my book up. Not even his own book, but my book. I mean, who does that?

Anita Moorjani with Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, and Deepak Chopra at a speaking event at The Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California in 2013

He was responsible for putting my book into the New York Times Bestseller list, and the work I do today, where I am today, and everything I have, I really owe it to him and I still sense him helping me from the other side. I just can't imagine... I mean, I hear of people that maybe host someone on their show or something, but I don't think they actually mentor them and take it to the extent he did. He then for the next four years that he was alive, he kept inviting me to speak at events with him and he would make sure that they flew me there and that all my expenses were paid because he just wanted everybody to know that they had nothing to fear when they die. He wanted people to know not to fear illnesses, not to fear death, and it was just so important to him. He was just driven to do it.

Whenever I would try and figure out how to make it up to him for everything he was doing, he didn't want anything. It was like he was so satiated in his life. His payback was doing this and he would just say to me, "No, don't feel you owe me. Don't feel you have to pay me back. One day there'll be somebody who inspires you and you will want to do this for them, and just do that, and in other words, pay it forward." That is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life because he changed my life. The first thing that changed my life was the cancer and dying and coming back, and then this was the second big awakening, big change in my life. So thank you for asking that question. I always get emotional when I talk about it.

Anita Moorjani, an international speaker and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Dying to Be Me, and her latest book, What If This Is Heaven?, has a remarkable story.

After a 4-year battle with cancer, Anita fell into a coma and was given days to live. As her doctors gathered, attempting to revive her, she journeyed into a near-death experience (NDE) in which she was surrounded by unconditional love and deep wisdom. In this place, she was given a powerful truth: heaven is not a destination, it is a state of consciousness.

During her NDE, Anita was given the choice to return to her physical form or to continue on into this expansive new realm. She chose to come back. When she regained consciousness, the cancer that had caused her organs to shut down, began to heal. To the amazement of her doctors, she was free of countless tumors and cancer indicators within weeks.

Anita’s NDE has captured the hearts and attention of millions across the globe. She has been a featured guest on The Dr. Oz Show, Fox News, The Today Show, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, the National Geographic Channel, The Pearl Report in Hong Kong, Headstart with Karen Davila in the Philippines, and many others.

Today, Anita, who lives in the United States with her husband Danny, continues to share her incredible story and lessons internationally. Dying to Be Me has sold millions of copies worldwide, has been translated into 45 languages, and has been optioned by Hollywood producer Ridley Scott to be made into a full-length feature film.

Prior to her cancer diagnosis, Anita lived in Hong Kong and worked in the corporate world for several years. She was born in Singapore of Indian parents and grew up speaking English, Cantonese, and an Indian dialect simultaneously.