Memoirs of a Woman

This was originally an article by Eric Lidji published in The Alvarado Post on July 6th, 2006, about Helene’s latest book, Confessions of an 83-Year-Old Sage. As I have begun to record the Audible edition, I thought it was a perfect time to share it.

Memoirs of a Woman

Helene Hadsell starts book on long, strange trip

Helene Hadsell lives in the moment.

The 82-year-old Alvarado resident wakes each morning with a task in mind and completes it before she goes to sleep. One day that might mean writing a chapter of her book. The next day, it might be writing to Oprah (she wants to get her 92-year-old aunt on the program to showcase her intricate portfolio of needlework).

It’s a system that has taken her down a very unique path. Now she plans to cronicle it.

On her most recent birthday, Hadsell began work on her fourth book, currently titled “The Confessions of an 82-Year-Old SAGE: The Glad-Sad-Mad of Life.”

The book is a memoir of sorts. Hadsell lets her mind wander from experiences she’s had around the world, to lessons she’s learned in life, to present day feelings about getting older but not feeling older.

In the first chapter, she starts with a banana and a cup of coffee on the morning of her 82nd birthday and eventually tells the story of how she survived invasive surgery in her sixties using positive thinking.

Positive thinking is what started her on the path she’s on today.

Hadsell was born in Aberdeen, SD, in 1924, the daughter of immigrant wheat farmers in a close-knit Catholic farming community. She married her husband, Pat, in 1943 when the Air Forse sent him to South Dakota. They remained married until he died 60 years later.

The two moved to Texas when he started to attend Texas A&M. They had three children very quickly, and Hadsell considered herself a “happy homemaker.”

Then she read “The Power of Positive Thinking,” a huge best seller that Dr. Normn Vincent Peale forst published in 1952. The book details how thoughts and prayers can be used to bring good things into actuality.

Hadsell decided to test the book by entering a contest from Coca-Cola that offered on outboard motor to the person that could best describe an outdoors experience with Coke in 25 words or less. She wrote under her husband’s name, and found out nine days later that she’d won.

Over the following years, she used positive thinking to win contests for everything she wanted. Every time she and Pat wanted to take a vacation, she would find a contest for free tickets. She went to Europe three times, won several cars, and even won a house in Los Colinas, where the two lived before moving to Alvarado 22 years ago.

“I did win everything I ever wanted.,” Hadsell said. “It was effortlessly for me to do it.”

In 1971, Hadsell wrote a book about her contest prowess called “The Name It and Claim It Game.” She self-published the book and it went on to sell more than 2 million copies and has since been translated into three languages.

She details her system for success in a succinct rhyme: Select it, Project it, Expect it, Collect it.”

The book brought her a lot of attention. She was a guest on “To Tell The Truth,” met Art Linkletter, and her story was reprinted in the tabloids. Strangers would call her up to ask for advice. Some people accused her of cheating the system. Others accused of her of working with the devil.

She became tired of contests, though, and decided to use her mind in other ways.

Some were controversial.

She decided one day that she would like to work for a newspaper and applied for a position in Irving. The editor was surprised that someone with no experience would even apply, and told her he wasn’t interested.

But later, he changed his mind and hired Hadsell for a three-month test. Soon, she was writing front-page articles.

Some ways were unconventional.

She began to explore her interest in the supernatural, the psychic, and the metaphysical. She had seen ghosts since she was a young girl and had always had very vivid and telling dreams.

Her second book, titled “In Contact With Other Realms,” details her experiences in these fields. It includes stories about her conversations with beings from other dimensions, her experiences with mind reading and levetation, anf her new age spiritual ideas.

She began working with Jose Silva, the creator of The Silva Method. Silva wrote “The Silva Mind Control Method” in 1977, which detailed similar ways to use focused thinking to control health, relationships, and business.

Hadsell traveled all over the world, giving lectures and teaching these concepts. She rus a self-awareness center in her home and taught students from North America, South America and Europe.

Her interestes and stories are not popular with everyone, but Hadsell said that she has reached the point where she no longer cares what people thing about her.

“Maybe I’m opinionated. Maybe I’m headstrong. Maybe I’m, I don’t know, cut from a different cloth,” she said. “I have to be myself.”

In 2003, when the Alverado Public Library was trying to raise money for their current building, Hadsell had the idea of starting a writer’s guild and printing a book. Titled “I Remember,” it contains 42 stories from Alvarado writers about everything from daily life to childhood memories to fantastic stories.

For her new book, she said, “I’m going to include all the things people are reluctant to discuss.” It is a mix of folksy story telling and strange tales. Hadsell said that every word of the book would be true, except for some of the names she has changed.

Even though the book deals with aging, Hadsell said that she is not worried about death. To her, it’s just another stop on her journey.

“I have had one hell of a ride,” she said.

Have you read Confessions of an 83-Year-Old Sage?

NOTE: The name changed as it took Helene a year to write the book.