The
universe essentially emerges from thought, and all of this matter around us is
just precipitated thought. Ultimately, we are the source of the universe. And
when we understand that power directly by experience, we can start to exercise
our authority and begin to achieve more and more, create anything, know anything
from within the field of our own consciousness, which ultimately is universal
consciousness that runs the universe.
Rhonda Byrne tapped into this profound knowledge to create The Secret, first as
a feature-length film, and then as a number one New York Times best-selling
book. By now more than two million people have viewed the film, 3.75 million
copies of the book are in print, and over 400,000 copies of the audio program
have been sold.
By
her own example, Rhonda Byrne has proven the power of The Secret. Despite her
success as a film and television producer, Rhonda's life seemed to be coming
apart at the seams less than three years ago. She felt she could no longer see
which way was up. Yet her life changed in an instant and forever when she
discovered "the secret."
Now
it is her life mission to bring The Secret to the 99% of the people in the world
who are still unaware of this amazing gift. Following a succession of traumatic
events in her personal and professional life, culminating in the death of her
father in 2004, Rhonda discovered a secret that continues to transform her life
to this day.
Rhonda immediately put into practice what she learned. She used the secret to
make the film, and later the best-selling book and audio book The Secret,
attracting the resources she needed to have the production be an effortless,
joyful odyssey. The Secret was launched in the spring of 2006, and even today
Rhonda is not sure where some of the $3 million budget to make the film came
from.
Rhonda began film and television production in her native Australia, first at
the Nine Network, and then in 1994 opening her own company called Prime Time
Productions. Her background and creative genius are the keys to the simple
elegance of this film and its ability to captivate people around the world.
Every
step of the way Rhonda and her team used the principles of The Secret to open
doors and line up all the details needed to complete this life-changing film.
Today her vision of joy to billions is being experienced on every continent, and
soon The Secret DVD and book will be translated into nearly 24 languages,
helping the impact be felt that much more deeply by people around the world.
Interviewing Rhonda is Marci Shimoff, one of the women's faces of the
best-selling non-fiction series of all time, Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has
been a number one New York Times best-selling author multiple times, and is one
of the stars of The Secret. Her latest book, Happy for No Reason, is coming out
at the end of the year, so be sure to visit Marci's website at
www.HappyForNoReason.com.
Marci Shimoff: I
am truly honored and delighted to be here with you and with Rhonda tonight.
Rhonda,
what an amazing gift you have created with The Secret and given to this
world. I'd like to know how it is that your passions – the things that you care
most deeply about – have led you to the work that you're doing today.
Rhonda Byrne: That's a really interesting question. Up until I discovered
the secret, I was truly just existing day-to-day. Life was kind of happening
to me. Since I discovered the secret, of course, life now happens through
me rather than to me.
The
really wonderful thing that I've got to say is that everything that happened in
my life leading up to my discovering this knowledge was perfectly leading me to
this point in my life to be able to share this with the world. The fact that I
ended up in television, radio, and all of those things – those things just
happened as what appeared to be an accident.
I never
had any intention to end up in television; it just kind of happened to me. Now
when I look back I see how perfect it was. When I discovered this knowledge, I
knew of one way that I could put it all together and deliver it to the world.
It's been a fascinating journey. Of course my passion now in my life is to
continue to bring joy to the world. That is what is near to my heart.
Marci Shimoff:
You certainly are doing that, Rhonda! We know from the thousands and thousands
of letters that you get, that all of us get – and people who tell us that
they're watching The Secret 30, 40, 50 to 100 times, and how it's
transforming lives. You are definitely bringing joy to the world.
It's
quite amazing to see how the universe really set things up perfectly to put you
in the place to do this.
Rhonda Byrne: All I needed was the perfect set-up.
Marci Shimoff: You know Rhonda, it was only a year and one-half ago when
you first contacted Chris and Janet, and Liz and Ric Thompson about The
Secret. You, at that time, came to Aspen to the Transformational Leadership
Council where I first got to meet you. So much has happened in this remarkably
short period of time.
Would
you share with the listeners the story of how The Secret came to be for
you?
Rhonda Byrne: Which part of that?
Marci Shimoff: I think the story from the start till now would really be
wonderful. People want to hear it from you. They want to hear it from the
source.
Rhonda Byrne: I think the discovery of it was just perfect, and as time has
gone on, I've come to see more clearly what happened
to me on that night when I first got a glimpse of the secret.
At the time, I didn't understand as much as I know now. My whole
life – 2004 was some year! Oh my goodness!
Marci Shimoff: It was before the light, huh?
Rhonda Byrne: I had such fun attracting all of these
things into my life. All along the way they were happening for a very good
reason. They led me to the very point where, on this particular night, what I
did was I surrendered. My mind couldn't work out how to resolve all of the
things in my life. I collapsed in tears.
When my daughter handed me a copy of a book, I read it in an hour
and one-half. That gave me a glimpse of the secret. There was only so much that
I could absorb at that time, but that led me on a journey back through history.
I just attracted my way through history – it was an extraordinary situation.
What I did then was, when I felt that I understood the whole of the
secret, I went to my team a couple of months later. We had had a summer holiday
break. I told my team, "We're going to make the greatest project in history to
date." They looked at me and thought, "She's gone totally mad! She had such a
tough year last year she's lost it."
Marci Shimoff: She's gone crazy now.
Rhonda Byrne: What happened over the next eight weeks is
I shared with my team everything that I had come to understand. We used the
secret in creating The Secret. Every single step of the way we embodied
it – even for the name of it. I asked, "What is the perfect title for this
film?" I received an inspiration of The Secret, and I knew it was right.
I just knew! I had personal trust and faith.
The most important thing for everybody to understand is I did not
have the money to make this film. I didn't know how I was going to bring this
really complex knowledge onto the screen. But with my really wonderful team, we
held to the outcome. That's all I did – I just felt the outcome with all of my
heart and soul. I just felt joy going out around the world.
From feeling that joy every single day, what happened was I became
the magnet. My pain became a wonderful magnet to attract everything that we
needed to us.
Marci Shimoff: It's amazing! I'm sure that everyone
listening is so happy to hear the story from you. It's a great story that they
can relate to. You didn't have the money – a lot of people are in similar
circumstances – and your story inspires anyone.
I have to say I've never seen any better example of someone
applying the secret than what you've done. That is why we see the result that
we see – the proof is in the pudding here.
What are some of the other ways that you used the secret to make
The Secret? I know you mentioned to me that you had 100% knowing – that 99%
knowing wouldn't have done it.
Rhonda Byrne: You know, I wonder about that. I think I
did have to know 100%, because this is a very big vision. I think I probably did
need to know 100%. Even along the way when there were any kind of difficulties
in terms of making the film, and money was probably the most difficult of all,
the one thing that I had absolute faith and knowing in was the outcome. I truly
knew it with every fiber of my being.
I knew that somehow or other a way would be made for this film to
happen. Usually if things appear to go wrong or not heading in the right
direction, it was usually because I was interfering in the "how." I kind of
worked that out fairly quickly, because I'd get a big bang or a big block from
the universe, and I'd think, "Whoa, where did that come from? What happened?"
Then I would realize, "Oh my gosh, I'm working out the 'how'
again." Then I would just go back and focus on the outcome and feel the outcome.
With every single element and with all of the content, I truly did not know all
along the way how – even my pain – we really did live what you said in The
Secret. We are in link with whatever state hunger placed
in front of us.
We didn't really know – we just trusted that it would all unfold
perfectly. We were late to do things in the film that at the time – I'll just
give you one very quick example.
When we were in Aspen filming, we had two cameras. It was the only
time that we had two cameras in all of the filming that we did. My cameraman
came to me and said, "Do you want me to just set up this other camera on the
side of a profile of each person? We've got it here, and I can just run it, and
we can just film them."
So we said, "Okay, why not." We did that, and do you know, it was
only when we got back into the editing and were starting to edit and feel our
way with the film that we thought, "Oh my gosh, there are wonderful stories that
teachers shared, and we could bring them to life." To bring them to life, we
needed to have that profile. Do you know that camera was on exactly the very
teachers whose stories we brought to life?
It was always, all along the way, happening perfectly for us.
Marci Shimoff: We wouldn't have had the great Jack
Canfield scene of him looking up at his check on the ceiling if we had not had
two cameras in Aspen, is that right?
Rhonda Byrne: That's right, yes. All of those things
happened in Aspen. It does take faith to keep moving in a direction when you
can't see everything; to keep moving and have faith when it's unknown to you. I
have to tell you, it's that aspect that is the greatest joy of life, it truly
is.
Marci Shimoff: We talked a little bit about that faith,
you and I, last night. It was so powerful! I would love for you to share some of
that with the listeners because that was so moving to me. Will you tell just a
little bit about how it is you feel that you had that total faith?
Rhonda Byrne: For me, I think faith is total heart trust
without knowing with your mind. I thought about it after we talked, and I
thought, "How can I respond to that question with Marci, to have a fuller trust
in your heart?" Your mind wants to control everything. So your mind is always
wanting to know and questioning everything.
The kind of faith that I'm talking about is a faith that you hold
in your heart. It's a faith you feel in your heart. You might not know how it's
going to work out, but you have total faith that it is working out and is
unfolding perfectly. That feeling of total faith, that feeling that you have
inside you . . . oh my gosh! When you have that feeling in your heart, when you
have that feeling in your body, every single thing that you need is just coming
to you.
Everything is shifting – the whole universe is shifting – and you
are just a magnet of that heart and that feeling. It's all just coming to you.
That feeling in your heart, that beautiful feeling of trust, and knowing that
everything is just fine even though you can't see the whole picture – let me
tell you, that feeling is so beautiful! It's a feeling of total relief.
Marci Shimoff: That's beautiful. You also spoke about
the words, "I am", and how in the beginning you would find yourself saying
things that you quickly caught on to shifting. Will you tell people about that?
Rhonda Byrne: This is one of the things that I loved
about the greats that I read throughout history, and certainly some of the
wonderful teachers today speak of it as well. It was a very big thing with the
greats, and a very big thing going back thousands of years in history – the
words "I am."
It took me a long time to do it. I kept reading these things and I
didn't really get it. But now, of course, I do. If you just become aware of
every time you say the words "I am," and you just listen to what you are saying,
because when you say "I am" you are actually stating something you believe with
all your heart and soul.
You want to take notice of when you say "I am," because you are
really declaring it, you're really stating it as a fact. That's what you are
going to create. If you do say "I am broke" – oh my gosh, you're declaring it,
you're believing it, and you're stating it with all of your might. Therefore
through the law of attraction, the universe must respond to you and you will
keep creating a life of that.
What I found for me, and I'll always refer to myself, I found that
I listen to myself if I began to say something about "I am this" – and I would
think, "Whoa, Rhonda! Hang on a minute. Is that what you want?" Sometimes even
now I'll go to say, "I am so tired", and I'll go, "Whoa! No! I don't want to be
that" – not unless I'm about to climb into bed. I'm feeling that at the
beginning of the day. So then I will stop and think, "I have lots of energy." I
will then begin to feel all the energy that I have and begin to feel the joy and
the happiness within me.
As you notice, as I'm speaking with you I'm talking a lot about
feeling. It is a vital, vital part – your thoughts and your feelings are what
are creating your life, your thoughts and your feelings.
Marci Shimoff: I so appreciate how you've brought the
feeling aspect so clearly out there. I think that there have been a lot of
people in the past who have spoken about the thinking aspect, but you've really
brought in the feeling aspect so powerfully.
Rhonda Byrne: I would say about positive thinking – I've
noticed that a couple of people mention that, and I think that's fine if that's
what they take out of The Secret. Each person takes out of it what is
perfect for them. It is a very intimate experience between the person and the
film. Whatever they take from the film is what is perfect for them.
Positive thinking, for me, is more on focusing – using your mind as
a tool. It's just like your legs, to use it as a tool to focus on what it is
that you want. We all want different things. We want what feels good to us. We
are the only ones who know. We're the ones who choose for us. What feels good to
me may not feel good to somebody else.
So one of the most important things to me is that The Secret
completely empowers every single person to choose for themselves what feels good
for them, to trust in themselves, and to choose for themselves, to know they are
the expert of themselves, and nobody else is the expert of them. They are the
expert, and they can really tell by the way that they're feeling what is good
for them.
Marci Shimoff: That's great, Rhonda! Earlier you
mentioned that you had challenges. Challenges came up in doing the film. Many
people have challenges in going after what's right for them. How would you
recommend to our listeners that they deal with the challenges they face as they
apply the law of attraction or The Secret in their own lives?
Rhonda Byrne: One of the first things is to take
responsibility for your life. If something appears to you as a challenge, you've
got to know that you created it. You may have created it by default, but you
created it. One of the things that I think we do as a challenge comes along and
we look at it as something separate from us, and we go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa – that
person did that", or "How did this happen?"
If you do look at something that appears as a challenge and just
ask yourself, "How did I create that?" and know that you can change it in a
moment – you really can. You can change it in a moment. You can decide, "Well,
it doesn't really matter how I created it, but I don't want that. This is what I
want and I'm going to think and feel my way to this."
Every challenge truly is a gift. It's just showing you something
that you didn't realize was inside of you. It's a beautiful, beautiful gift.
Marci Shimoff: So you would look for the gift in that
challenge?
Rhonda Byrne: I know it's a gift. That's the thing – I
know it's a gift!
Marci Shimoff: So you didn't have to look too hard?
Rhonda Byrne: I know it's a gift. I just decided. I'm
creating my reality, so if a challenge comes along I would say, "This is a gift,
what is it?" I would transform it into a gift and it would become a gift.
The biggest challenge for me in making the film was money. The thing is, that
was a challenge for me because that was something I had inside of me that kept
manifesting on the outside of me. I knew that!
The difficulty was money, because this film cost a whole lot of
money. I not only started with nothing, I started behind nothing – from less
than nothing. So all along the way when things would come along and I didn't
have enough money to keep going, I knew that this was me. I took total
responsibility for it. I would walk outside and I would take big breaths, I
would look at the air and I would say, "There's abundance – come on, Rhonda,
feel it!"
I knew it was something that was inside of me. That was probably
the biggest journey for me within The Secret, because it was costing a
lot of money. I kind of saw the money as a little bit of a hurdle. I did some
great things.
The moment I was late money would just magically come; and then
other times when I felt pinched without it, it would create a whole lot more
pressure around me. I kind of had to live through my worst fear, which is to let
go of the money.
Marci Shimoff: Did you find any tricks for helping and
letting go?
Rhonda Byrne: I did, because I knew I needed to feel
good about money. But if you don't have enough, you don't feel good about it,
you really don't. I tried everything, because I wanted to learn what the things
that worked really well were, and how I could share those things with people.
I tried everything. I would put money on my mirrors, and I would
put money everywhere. I would write out checks for myself and do all of those
things. One of the biggest things for me that I did was when I needed money to
pay my bills more than anything, I withdrew some money and I actually gave it
away to strangers in the street.
That was really one of the most incredible experiences in my life.
I shifted myself from not feeling good about money to feeling really wonderful
about money. That was something that worked for me. Everybody is different. I'm
not suggesting to people that that's the way they go about it, but it worked for
me. It made me feel better about money. When I needed it so much – and you can't
need it – that's the whole problem. Needing it takes it away.
I want to share something about that with you that I discovered
which may help people. When I needed it, I took some out and I could feel inside
my stomach, the knot inside my stomach as I took it out of the ATM. Then I just
held it in my hand and I walked down the street, and I decided that I was just
going to hand money to total strangers and just feel it.
Do you know, as I walked down the street all I wanted to do was
hand it to every single person. I looked every person in the face and I saw how
beautiful they all were, and I wanted to give it to everybody. I walked down the
street with my eyes full of tears really looking at how beautiful human beings
are. Then just through an inspiration, I would hand some money to people.
Do you know, I forgot entirely about needing any money. I felt such
joy within me, just surprising somebody in their day – just a total stranger
coming up and handing them something. It wasn't much money, it really wasn't.
But the experience of giving money to a stranger, giving something that I needed
so much myself, completely changed the way I felt about money. It was really,
really wonderful.
I did lots of different things, but that was a really wonderful
thing. It could be one dollar, you know? But there's something so wonderful
about giving something when somebody least expects it.
Marci Shimoff: What is so inspiring about this, Rhonda –
and thank you for sharing that story, it's so inspiring – is that you really did
live these principles as you were making this film. It's so clear. Everybody out
there is loving, I'm sure, getting to hear how you went through the same
processes that they are going through in applying the law of attraction and the
secret.
I know that you even offer on your website, and I'll tell all the
listeners that the website is
www.TheSecret.tv. People can get a copy of the DVD of The Secret
there. They can also sign up for weekly Secret Scrolls that offer a lot of the
wonderful tools as a gift to people. Is that right, Rhonda?
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