Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie (born December 6, 1942), is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work of Byron Katie” or simply as “The Work”.
In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing, Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Her simple yet powerful process of inquiry is called The Work.
The Work is a way of identifying and questioning the stressful thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It consists of four questions and the turnarounds, which allow you to experience the opposite of what you believe. The four questions asked of a stressful thought are: 1) Is it true?, 2) Can you absolutely know that it’s true?, 3) How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?, and 4) Who would you be without that thought?
Katie has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than twenty years. Her free public events, weekend workshops, nine-day School for The Work, and twenty-eight-day residential Turnaround House have brought freedom to people all over the world.
Eckhart Tolle says, “Byron Katie’s Work is a great blessing for our planet.” Time magazine calls Katie “a spiritual innovator for the new millennium.”
Byron Katie’s six books include the bestselling “Loving What Is,” “I Need Your Love—Is That True?,” and “A Thousand Names for Joy.” She is married to the writer and translator Stephen Mitchell.
