Rhonda Byrne Biography

Movie Producer / Self-Help Specialist

Rhonda Byrne's self-help movie The Secret was a best-seller in Australia and America in 2006 and 2007. Released on DVD and the Internet, the film described a supposedly ancient phenomenon called the "Law of Attraction," by which one's thoughts, if properly focused, could influence reality and make desires come true. As Byrnes described it to TV host Oprah Winfrey, "What we do is we attract into our lives the things we want, and that is based on what we're thinking and feeling." Byrne was a television producer in Australia in 2004 when the death of her father led her to begin work on The Secret. The spectacular success of the movie led to a 2006 book by the same name, which in turn became a best-seller. The Associated Press reported in 2007 that the DVD had sold two million copies, and the book over five million copies.

Extra credit: Byrne says The Secret was inspired by the 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles... Her television production company is called Prime Time Productions... The "Law of Attraction" is sometimes described with the catch-phrase "Ask, believe, receive."

Other self-help specialists include salesman Og Mandino and Stop the Insanity! author Susan Powter.