Byron Katie

Byron Kathleen Mitchell, (; born December 6, 1942) better known as Byron Katie, 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". She is the founder of Byron Katie International, an organization that includes the School for the Work and Turnaround House in Ojai, California. Time Magazine describes her as "a spiritual innovator for the 21st century."

Early life Katie was born in Breckenridge, Texas, on December 6, 1942, and grew up in Barstow, California. Her father, Rodney Reid, was a train engineer and her mother, Marion Campbell, was a housewife. In 1963, she married Robert Robinson in San Bernardino at age 19, had three children and started a career in real estate.

Career In 1986, when she was 43 with three children and unhappily married to her second husband, she reportedly suffered from depression, agoraphobia, and overeating, and self-medicated with codeine and alcohol.

Teachings She describes her 1986 epiphany as follows: Katie calls her process of self-inquiry "The Work".

Katie's experience, as described in her book Loving What Is, is that individual suffering is caused by believing one's distressful thoughts. She says that believing one's distressful thoughts puts one into painful positions that lead to suffering, which she recognized to be the case with herself. Through self-inquiry, she describes how a different, less-known capacity of the mind can end this suffering. Katie's method of self-inquiry aims to free individuals from the suffering caused by their thoughts and beliefs. It encourages a level of self-awareness and liberation from patterns of thinking that contribute to one's suffering and unhappiness.

Her books comprehensively introduce her method, including detailed discussions of how each step is conducted and examples from real-life sessions. Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it's true? How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought? Who would you be without the thought?

The next step in The Work is known as "the turnarounds," which involves considering the opposite of the thought being examined. For instance, the thought "My husband should listen to me" can be turned around to the following alternatives: "I should listen to my husband," "I should listen to myself," and "My husband shouldn't listen to me." Then, the individual finds specific examples of how each "turnaround" might be "just as true" as the original distressing thought.