Rhonda Byrne reveals her key to happiness... ‘I had the roughest, toughest year. Everything that could go wrong, did. Then I discovered The Secret’

FOR a woman who has changed so many lives, surprisingly little is known about Rhonda Byrne, the author of The Secret. The book is everywhere — she, however, is not.

‘Ha,’ she laughs from her home in California. ‘I’ve always been quite reclusive, but what’s important is the message not the messenger. I stayed in the background to allow the sacred to shine.’

What we do know about the Australian TV producer turned spiritual seeker and teacher (pictured) is that she is divorced, with two daughters: Skye, who is the senior editor on The Secret team, and Hayley.

The story of how she discovered The Secret is the stuff of legend. ‘I had the roughest, toughest year. Everything that could go wrong, did.’ Her father had died and her mother was catatonic with grief.

One night, Rhonda’s accountant rang to tell her that the production company she ran was $2 million over budget with their latest project, and Rhonda herself would be broke within 30 days.

‘As I put the phone down, it rang again. It was my mother, saying she couldn’t go on without my father.’

Rhonda went onto her balcony and sobbed. Her daughter Hayley appeared, assured her it would work out and handed her a book, The Science Of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles, which carries the message that gratitude can help you take control of your life. ‘As I read, I knew my life would never be the same. I told my accountant I was about to embark on a life-changing project which was going to sweep the world. The way he looked at me!’

Even now, Rhonda isn’t sure how she did it. ‘To this day, I cannot tell you where the money came from. I mortgaged my home to the hilt, I took out overdrafts and maxed every credit card I had, but that didn’t even touch the sides.’

Now comes The Greatest Secret, which Rhonda promises will further transform your life. For those who use The Secret to boost their bank account, be warned: this time, the secret is of a far more spiritual bent.

Rhonda drew on wisdom from thinkers including New Age author Deepak Chopra and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle for her new book.

‘To have a dark cloud hanging over you, not to know who you truly are, that is the greatest tragedy,’ she says. ‘This book is all about peeling away what you are not.’

She speaks of The Greatest Secret with the fervour of a religious convert: ‘While material things are glorious and fun and everyone should have what they want, they will never bring lasting happiness.

‘We’ve all experienced it. When we get that new car or meet the perfect partner, it brings happiness but it doesn’t last. The truth is happiness is who we actually are; it’s inside us.

‘But there are two elements that cover it: negative thoughts and negative feelings caused by those thoughts. In The Secret, we learned that our thoughts create equally, whether positive or negative, so it’s better to think about what you do want in terms of health, money, family and relationships.

‘Negative thoughts cause disease in our body; they are what harm us and make us suffer. The Greatest Secret will end all suffering because it shows you how to end negative thoughts and feelings.’

But what of famine, disease, tragedies — surely she’s not saying these are caused by negative thoughts? ‘There are many factors involved, but if we have negative feelings around something, we make it worse because our thoughts have the power to energise things.

‘If we let go of that resistance, then things have to change. If we let go of resistance and are filled with love, then we can counterbalance the negativity. But what we tend to do is give all our focus to something we don’t want and make it bigger.’ A global pandemic, for instance? ‘Exactly. But we can look at it another way. It has shown us that something can appear from nowhere and take us all down.

‘While on the surface that seems bad, it isn’t. The truth is there’s no safety and security in the material world and that makes us begin to look elsewhere.’

You may be sceptical, but with 30 million sales under her belt, she seems to be on to something.