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Lewis HowesHow The Law Of Attraction REALLY WORKS (Achieve Anything By DOING THIS)| Rhonda Byrne & Lewis Howes
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CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 5:58
Welcome, Christian Science Roots, and Why Rhonda Stayed Out of the Media
Lewis Howes welcomes Rhonda Byrne and notes how her new book The Greatest Secret echoes the Christian Science teachings he grew up with. He asks why there are so few recent interviews with her. Rhonda explains she deliberately kept the message as the hero rather than becoming a guru, and spent the years answering emails and writing.
- •Lewis says the book reminded him of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings about the power of the mind
- •Rhonda chose Oprah because Oprah lived by these principles
- •She wanted the message to be king and did not want to be turned into a guru
- •She spent the post-Secret years answering emails and creating more material
- •Something inside her said she had to do this book and interview
- 5:58 – 12:23
What the Law of Attraction Is and How Beliefs Shape Results
Asked to explain the Law of Attraction for newcomers, Rhonda says it is about the power of thought and belief to create our world, and that The Greatest Secret takes this further. She describes how the mind loves repetition, how beliefs form in childhood, and how they can be spotted and dissolved.
- •If we believe a thought, it will manifest
- •Opening to the possibility that things aren't as they appear is the biggest step
- •The mind works like a program, so you override it by repeating the opposite
- •Beliefs mostly stem from childhood conditioning and hide behind "I believe" or "I think" statements
- •Strong opinions point to underlying beliefs, and dissolving them brings a feeling of freedom
- 12:23 – 16:08
The Ego, Doubt, and Rhonda's Life Before The Secret
Rhonda explains that doubt and negative thoughts come from the ego rather than from who we are. She describes her own pre-Secret life of judgment, doubt, unworthiness and stress, and argues that fear was already present before the pandemic.
- •The voice in your head is a program, not you
- •Negative thoughts and judgment come from the ego
- •Before The Secret she lived with doubt, uncertainty, unworthiness and stress
- •She believes the pandemic was not a fear-based manifestation, since many people were not afraid
- 16:08 – 26:57
Overcoming Lack: Rhonda's Money Practices and Debt
Rhonda names her biggest limiting belief, lack of money, which she inherited from her parents. She describes starting The Secret about $2 million in debt and the games and practices she used, including treating bills as checks and giving away $20 bills.
- •Her biggest belief to overcome was that she wasn't abundant
- •She used affirmations pinned around her apartment
- •She opened bills while feeling good and imagined each one as a check
- •She gave away $20 bills on the street and received $25,000 on the following Monday
- •She also made lists of desired things and thought about the people her bill payments supported
- 26:57 – 30:48
Timing, Breakdowns, and the Opening of the Heart
Lewis asks whether Rhonda wishes The Secret had come sooner. She says the universe's timing is perfect, and discusses why people often need a breakdown before they seek the truth. She describes how the despair on the night of her discovery made her ego collapse.
- •She is grateful for every difficult thing that led her to her discovery
- •She says people don't have to suffer, which is why she writes books
- •In collapse a part of us surrenders and the heart opens
- •Her ego "jumped on a horse and rode the heck out of there" that night
- 30:48 – 35:42
Challenges After Success: Wildfires, Family, and Staying Free of Suffering
Rhonda says success didn't end challenges, citing her daughter's illness, the California wildfires and mudslides, and her daughter's loss of a baby. She explains she stayed free of suffering and could help others during the wildfires and mudslides.
- •Things outside her own creation still affected her because loved ones create too
- •Challenges can eventually stop seeming like challenges
- •During the wildfires she evacuated without taking belongings and felt no fear
- •She made herself available to help the grieving community
- •She also lost dear friends in the mudslides
- 35:42 – 42:56
Welcoming Emotions and Not Taking Anger Personally
Rhonda explains that resisting negative feelings suppresses them, while welcoming them makes them dissolve. She applies this to people who are angry at her and to online criticism, and Lewis asks what to do if someone treats you as a punching bag.
- •What you resist persists; welcoming a feeling makes it intensify briefly and then evaporate
- •She says she hasn't felt anger for a long time
- •Others' anger is not personal, it comes from suppressed emotion looking for a trigger
- •You can draw a line with someone, but doing it from a neutral state works best
- •She says she wanted to stop suffering from the mind, not from the world
- 42:56 – 47:07
Gratitude, Love, and Handling Self-Doubt and Pressure to Repeat Success
For people who doubt themselves, Rhonda recommends gratitude and a daily practice of focusing on what you love to dissolve unworthiness. Lewis then raises the pressure to recreate a hit like Eat Pray Love, and she says she's at peace with the journey and considers this her most important book.
- •Gratitude wipes out doubt feelings, and love removes underlying unworthiness
- •She suggests looking through the day for everything you love
- •She had thoughts about repeating her success early on but not so much now
- •She calls The Greatest Secret her most important book and says it frees us forever
- 47:07 – 51:10
Why We Suffer and Guarding the Door of Thought
Rhonda says suffering comes from believing our own thoughts, and that the mind is both our greatest creative tool and our torturer. Lewis shares Mary Baker Eddy's idea of standing porter at the door of thought and his father's habit of muting commercials, and both discuss how focus on 2020 magnified fear.
- •Mostly we're ignorant of the truth, and suffering comes from the mind, not the world
- •The mind loves drama
- •Lewis cites guarding the door of thought and his father turning off commercials
- •What you focus on gets bigger, and Rhonda believes taking the mind off the pandemic would make it disappear
- 51:10 – 59:15
Everlasting Happiness and Effortless Manifesting
Rhonda says material success brings only fleeting happiness, and everlasting happiness comes from knowing the truth about who you are. She argues that effortlessness, not struggle, produces the greatest manifestation, and distinguishes it from not doing anything.
- •She agrees with Jim Carrey that material things don't bring lasting happiness
- •Being effortless means there is no resistance, so things come faster
- •Effort comes from the ego and mind and signals "I don't have it" to the universe
- •Being effortless doesn't mean not doing things; athletes in flow show this
- •The Secret took two and a half weeks to write and The Greatest Secret was effortless too
- 59:15 – 1:05:21
The World Isn't What It Appears: Awareness and Watching the Mind
Rhonda shares the main truths from her journey: the world isn't as it appears, and the mind can create or sabotage. She uses the Rubin's vase illustration for a shift in perspective, and describes watching the mind, remembering who she is, and the Mooji image of the cow jumping over the mind.
- •Quantum physics' observer effect is cited as showing the world isn't what it seems
- •Seeing the truth is a shift in perspective, like the two-images-in-one painting
- •The first step is to train the mind to be positive, such as through gratitude
- •The biggest thing is becoming aware of your thoughts and being a witness
- •The thought she has most is remembering she is consciousness
- •Mooji's image of jumping over the mind helped her stop identifying with it
- 1:05:21 – 1:12:39
Who Rhonda Is, Three Words, Time, and a Simple Life
Asked what she wants the world to know about her, Rhonda says she doesn't regard Rhonda as tangible and that consciousness delivered the truth through this form. She reveals the three words of The Greatest Secret, "Are you aware?", and they discuss time, Lewis's father not celebrating birthdays, and decluttering.
- •She sees pushback to big new ideas as part of duality, as with Galileo
- •The three words are "Are you aware?", and awareness exists only in the present
- •Lewis's father didn't celebrate birthdays so as not to limit him with a number
- •The way to freedom is taking things out, not acquiring
- •A quieter mind leads her to want more order in life
- •What's missing for her is full self-realization
- 1:12:39 – 1:19:26
Three Truths, Her Teacher, and Where to Find the Book
Lewis poses his hypothetical three truths question, and Rhonda answers with focusing on what you want, who we really are, and that there is no death. She credits her anonymous teacher as her greatest influence, and Lewis shares where to find the book, social media, and the audiobook.
- •Her three truths: focus on what you want, you are deathless infinite being, and there is no death
- •A mentor told her the greatest moment of life is the moment of death
- •Her teacher, who wants to stay anonymous, showed her who she is and the tricks of the mind, called the troublemaker
- •The book is at Amazon, rhondabyrne.com and thesecret.tv, and the audiobook will include the teachers' voices
- 1:19:26 – 1:21:33
Acknowledgment and Defining Greatness
Lewis acknowledges Rhonda's childlike curiosity and her continued giving. He then asks for her definition of greatness, and she says it is who we really are, the greatness of the infinite being manifesting through everyone.
- •Lewis praises her curiosity and her making complex ideas easy to consume
- •She hopes to connect with Lewis in California
- •Her definition of greatness is who we really are
- •She says everyone is filled with greatness and just needs to realize it
