Rhonda Byrne ( ; née Izon; born 1951,

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

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

belief of the 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 in

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, 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 D. Wattles and published in 1910 by the Elizabeth Towne Company. The book is still in print. According to ''USA Today'', the text is "divided into 17 ...

'' (1910) by Wallace D. Wattles. She began to work on ''The Secret.''

''The Secret''

Byrne claims that all great men in history knew about the law of attraction, suggesting

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

and others. She asserts that current proponents of the laws of attraction include author Jack Canfield, minister Michael Beckwith, self-help speaker

James Arthur Ray James Arthur Ray (November 22, 1957 – January 3, 2025) was an American self-help businessman, motivational speaker, author and convicted felon who was found guilty in 2011 of causing three deaths through negligent homicide. A former telemar ...

, 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 ki ...

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 ''

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''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'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...

''.

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, '' 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