Paul Laffoley was born on August 14, 1935 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to an Irish Catholic family. His father, Paul Laffoley, Sr., the president of the Cambridge Trust Company, was also a lawyer and taught classes at Harvard Business School. Although his father had been against him pursuing painting as a career, Laffoley was indoctrinated with his father's religious philosophical beliefs including aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism and what he called "mind-physics". Laffoley senior also instructed Paul that there was "no gravity".