Leonard Orr was born in Walton, New York. During his teen years, he became a born again Christian. When he converted to Christianity and started to read the Bible, he took Jesus' words literally "He who believes in me shall never taste death," that anyone who believed in Jesus literally would not die.

He attended seminary with plans of becoming a preacher. However, while in school, Leonard said he felt a calling to be a minister to the unchurched. Pursuing this feeling of a calling and some of his curiosity about life, Leonard soon was reading and practicing New Thought philosophy (such as Science of Mind and Ernest Holmes).

He began teaching others that thoughts affect the outer world, and gathered a following. During this time he found he was spending increasing amounts of time in the bathtub, literally staying in for hours every day. He was having frequent flashes of memories of being in the womb or being born.He watched this process for a few years and began to understand what was happening. He then shared his experiences and found that there were many people interested in experimenting with ways to recall their birth memories. Leonard created "Theta House", the first Rebirthing Center to accommodate this interest. These early Rebirthers began breathing with a snorkel in a hot-tub while floating face down,(usually supported by 2 or more people), to stimulate womb memories. He noticed that a certain breathing rhythm would occur, which led to the start of the Rebirthing-Breathwork technique out of water.

Throughout this time, Leonard was fascinated with the idea of not experiencing physical death – which he termed "physical immortality," and read, studied and searched for all the information that he could on the subject.

In 1973 he ran for mayor in Los Angeles.