Gray was born in Houston, Texas, in 1951 to a father who was an oil executive and a mother who worked at a spiritual bookshop [REF].
Gray received an unaccredited PhD degree by correspondence in 1982 from Columbia Pacific University (CPU), a now-defunct university located in San Rafael, California upon completion of a correspondence course[REF][REF][REF] and an honorary doctorate from Governors State University in Illinois after he delivered their commencement address in 2002 [REF].