Rhonda Byrne ( ; née Izon; born 1951,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia) is an Australian television writer and producer. Her book '' The Secret'' is based on the belief of the

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a person's life directly. She wrote several sequels to the book, including '' The Power'' and '' The Magic.''

Life before ''The Secret''

Byrne was born in 1951,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, to parents Ronald and Irene Izon. She worked as an executive producer for television, with credits including ''Oz Encounters: UFO's in Australia'' (1997), ''Sensing Murder: Easy Street'' (2003), ''Loves Me, Loves Me Not'' (2003), and ''The World's Greatest Commercials'' (1995–2004). After the death of her father in 2004, Byrne became very depressed. At the instigation of her daughter Hayley, she read ''

The Science of Getting Rich ''The Science of Getting Rich'' is a book written by the New Thought Movement writer Wallace Wattles, Wallace D. Wattles and published in 1910 by the Elizabeth Towne Company. The book is still in print. According to ''USA Today'', the text is "di ...

'' (1910) by

Wallace D. Wattles Wallace Delois Wattles (; 1860 – 7 February 1911) was an American New Thought writer. He remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and self-help movements. Wattles' b ...

. She began to work on ''The Secret.''

''The Secret''

Byrne claims that all great men in history knew about the

Law of Attraction (New Thought) The law of attraction is the New Thought spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.Whittaker, SSecret attraction, ''The Montreal Gazette'', 12 May 2007. The belief is based ...

, suggesting

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and others. She asserts that current proponents of the laws of attraction include author

Jack Canfield Jack Canfield (born August 19, 1944) is an American author, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur. He is the co-author of the ''Chicken Soup for the Soul'' series, which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print ...

, minister

Michael Beckwith Michael Bernard Beckwith is a New Thought minister, author, and founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Beverly Hills, California. Career Beckwith is the founder and spiritual director of the Agape Internati ...

, self-help speaker

James Arthur Ray James Arthur Ray (born November 22, 1957) is an American self-help businessman, motivational speaker and author who was convicted in 2011 of causing three deaths through negligent homicide. A former telemarketer, Ray taught Stephen Covey motivat ...

, author Joseph Vitale, and author John Gray. Byrne found success with both the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and the book of ''The Secret''. ''The Secret'' was published in 2006, and by the spring of 2007 had sold more than 19 million copies in more than 40 languages, and more than two million DVDs. ''The Secret'' book and film have grossed $300 million. In 2007 Byrne was featured in ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

''s ''TIME 100: The Most Influential People''. She gained mainstream popularity and commercial success after appearing on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

''.

Sequels

Byrne wrote a sequel to ''The Secret'' called '' The Power'' after answering several thousand letters from readers of ''The Secret''. On 17 August 2010 '' The Power'' was published as both a hardcover edition and audio CD. In 2012 Byrne published a third book called '' The Magic''.

Additional works

More of Byrne's published works include ''Hero'' (2013), ''How The Secret Changed My Life'' (2016), and ''The Greatest Secret'' (2020).''''

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Rhonda 1951 births Living people Australian spiritual writers New Age writers New Thought writers New Age spiritual leaders Nautilus Book Award winners Quantum mysticism advocates