There’s a great quote from Neville Goddard that says, “Man moves in a world that is nothing more or less than his consciousness objectified.”
What I love about this quote is that it speaks directly to something we talk about a lot on this show: the law of attraction. In today’s episode, I’m speaking to the woman who discovered the law of attraction and shared it with others in her now-famous documentary The Secret.
Rhonda Byrne is here with us today on School of Greatness to discuss what the law of attraction is, how you can use it in your daily life to break out of negative thought loops, and how to find truth by leaving the ego behind. We get deep into Rhonda’s life experiences and discuss some of the biggest lessons she’s learned from discovering the Secret. This is such a powerful episode, and I know you will get a lot out of it!
Who Is Rhonda Byrne?
You may not know the name Rhonda Byrne, but I bet you’re familiar with her work. Rhonda is the creator behind The Secret, a documentary film that swept the world in 2006, changing millions of lives and igniting a global movement. Rhonda followed the film with a book called The Secret, now translated into 50 languages and one of the longest-running bestsellers of this century. She’s also written other bestselling books: The Power in 2009, The Magic in 2010, Hero in 2013, and How The Secret Changed My Life in 2016.
Rhonda also served as a producer on the 2020 movie, The Secret: Dare to Dream, based on her book The Secret. The film stars Katie Holmes, Josh Lucas, and Jerry O’Connell. In November, her newest book The Greatest Secret was released!
I am so excited to have Rhonda on this podcast. She doesn’t really do many interviews — in fact, there’s not much content about her online. It turns out that this is intentional on her part.
It was fascinating to pick Rhonda’s brain about life, the universe, and the power of thought. I think you guys are going to get a lot out of this interview, so let’s begin!
Life After The Secret
The Secret is one of the most well-known books in the world, but, besides appearing on Oprah, Rhonda has kept a low profile. She said this decision to stay out of the spotlight was to make sure the message stayed front-and-center.
“I really wanted the sacred message to be the hero. We have a tendency to idolize people, and I did not want that to happen. I wanted people to know a little bit about me and how I discovered it and the year that I’d had, but I didn’t want any of that to detract from the message. … I’m not out to convince anybody of anything. I discovered this [Secret,] and my life is unrecognizable. … You can have everything you want; you deserve everything. If there are people [who] don’t want that, that’s totally fine. That’s why I was very selective [about media appearances;] I had worked in media as well, and I knew that sometimes media can really build you up and then take you down.” – Rhonda Byrne
Rhonda wasn’t interested in becoming a so-called “guru” after sharing The Secret. She knew there would be naysayers and detractors, but it wasn’t her goal to argue with people. Rhonda said she’s just like everyone else: a normal person who has simply dedicated her life to sharing as much as she can about the Secret and helping others to make their lives better. So what’s in The Secret that’s so important to share with the world?
The Law of Attraction
The law of attraction and your mindset are subjects we talk about on The School of Greatness a lot. And, if you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you read or watch The Secret. The basic principle is what is known as the law of attraction — “like attracts like.”
“[The Secret] talks about the power of the mind and the power of thought to create a physical world and material world. The Greatest Secret takes that to a whole new level actually. [It helps you realize], ‘Oh my gosh, it’s super easy to create anything I want.’ If we have a belief it’s hard, then it’s going to be hard. It has everything to do with our mind and what we believe.” – Rhonda Byrne
Basically, the law of attraction tells us whatever we will believe, we will manifest. If we believe we are deserving of great love, then we will manifest it. If we believe we are going to be poor, we’re going to stay poor. If we believe we don’t deserve something, it’s not going to come to us. Sounds pretty amazing, right?
Unfortunately, a lot of people think a lot of negative things. Negativity and judgment often play on a loop that can hold us in these negative thought patterns. Luckily, we can start to override those patterns and replace them with new loops.
“The mind is like a computer program. The fact that it’s on a negative loop is because we programmed it on a negative loop. One of the things that the mind loves is repetition. … If you really watch your thoughts, [you can notice] the same old thoughts over and over again. [Your mind] is kind of dishing up the same old thing. … The way you can override a program is to put in the opposite.” – Rhonda Byrne
When you start noticing a damaging pattern, Rhonda said that you can replace it with a new one.
“When you start out, it feels like you’re lying. You might not have any money, and you’re trying to instill wealth and prosperity and riches. Every time you say it, you feel a contraction in your body because you don’t have it. After a while, you change [your thought pattern], and you don’t quite have that contraction anymore. Then you start to see money coming in in different ways. [For example,] you can be given things that you were going to buy, and now you don’t have to buy it.” – Rhonda Byrne
One thing to notice as you start going through this exercise is where those negative beliefs are coming from. Rhonda said they’re often held in our subconscious — stemming from our childhood conditioning. This is something that she tackles in her newest book, The Greatest Secret.
“Start to listen to yourself, and look at the things that you have really strong opinions about — where you have a really strong opinion is a belief that’s underneath that. You can dissolve [those beliefs] and feel free. Every time ‘I believe’ goes out, you feel completely free. It’s amazing to feel light as a feather and actually feel invincible. Doubt and uncertainty play a big part in most people’s lives. And [those two things] can be paralyzing. So just imagine living life with zero uncertainty.” – Rhonda Byrne
Doubt is not who we are, it’s just our ego. The voice of doubt is not you but a program in your head that gets ingrained over time. We all have these limiting beliefs that hold us back, and once we recognize and reprogram them, we can start to manifest the things we want in life.
Rhonda said one of her biggest limiting beliefs was something many of us struggle with. It was around money.
“The biggest thing [I had] to overcome was the belief in lack of money. … I started with $2 million in debt. I remember [when] I discovered the Secret, and I went to my accountant and I said, ‘You have to do whatever it takes to keep my company afloat. I’m going to make something that’s going to change the world. I’m going to make it, you keep my company going.’ … So I maxed every credit card I had to the limit. I mortgaged my home to the absolute limit. I took overdrafts out on my company so I could make the documentary. I had crushing debt coming in on me, and I needed more money to keep making it.”- Rhonda Byrne
If that sounds like a desperate situation, it was — but at the time, Rhonda was working through patterns that her parents handed down to her around manifesting abundance. She grew up hearing all the time, “We can’t afford that.” Instead of letting that script deter her from making The Secret, she adopted a mindset of growth toward debt and spending. She would practice gratitude, put on some cheerful music, and pretend her bills were checks. Rhonda even started giving money away.
“I took out all of these $20 bills, and I thought, ‘I’m going to walk down the street [and ask] the Universe [to] show me who to give it to.’ I would walk down the street, and I [would] look at everybody’s faces. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that in your life — silently walk down a street and look at people’s faces like with a heart wide open. … It was just amazing because the Universe would just show me who to give it to. These kids walked out of a store, and they’re like counting their money. [I heard them say], ‘I don’t have enough to get that’, wanting to get something in the store. I gave him $20. That was on a Friday, and on the Monday I received $25,000 in my account.” – Rhonda Byrne
That story is so incredibly powerful. Rhonda said even after The Secret was released, she didn’t care at all about the money. She just wanted to get The Secret into the hands of as many people as possible to make an impact.
