Byron Katie

Byron Caitlin Reed, after thirty years, began to suffer from severe depression . A family mother and entrepreneur, she lived in a small town in the southern California desert. For nearly ten years, she continued to plunge into paranoia , anger, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of suicide ; in the past two years, she often could not find the strength to leave her bedroom. Then one morning in February 1986, while in a rehabilitation center ^[2] , she realized something that had changed her life. Katie believes her experience is similar to what is described under various names in Buddhist and Hindu literature. Katie calls it "Awakening to Reality." At that moment of enlightenment , as she says:

I found that when I believe my thoughts, I suffer, and when I do not believe them, I do not suffer, and this is true for every person. Freedom was so simple. I found that suffering is not necessary. I found in myself a joy that never disappears even for a moment. This joy is in each of us, constantly.

Katie is not a follower of any particular religion or tradition. She is married to the poet and translator Stephen Mitchell, with whom she wrote her first book, “To Love What Is,” as well as her third book, “A Thousand Names of Joy.”

Shortly after Katie’s “awakening,” she said, people began to turn to her, asking how they could find freedom, the radiance of which they saw in her ^[3] . People from her town and subsequently from everywhere came to meet her, and some even stayed with her.

Katie’s self-inquiry method, which she calls Work, expresses in words questions that initially did not have the forms that awakened in her that February morning. With the spread of people's feedback on the transformation that happened to them through the Work, Katie began to receive invitations to talk about the Work in other cities in California, then in other states and finally in Europe and around the world ^[3] . She teaches Work at public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, corporations, shelters for victims of domestic violence, universities and schools, at trainings and at her nine-day School.

The work is based on four questions and a process called the “coup”.

Four questions:

1. It's true?
2. Can you absolutely know that this is true?
3. How do you react when you believe this thought?
4. Who would you be without this thought?

The work can be done independently, or together with another person.

First, the person must choose a belief or thought related to the topic that causes anxiety or discomfort. It is recommended that you first research something that someone else has done and that seems important, annoys or bothers you, for example: “My mother never loved me” or “Tom should not expect me to solve his problems.”

Then, by this thought, a person asks himself the four questions listed above. Questions may also be asked by your research partner. If a person works independently, he writes down answers, and when working with a partner, he answers aloud.

After questions are asked, the statement literally changes to the opposite, turns over. For example: “My mother never loved me” turns into “My mother always loved me.” At the same time, the person doing the Work checks to see if he can discover how a new thought is the same or more true than the original one.

The coup also takes the form of a self-addressed statement: “I never loved my mother” or “I never loved myself.”

Here's how Katie herself briefly describes the Work: "Condemn your neighbor, write it down, ask four questions, and expand."

Katie uses this method to research painful beliefs on many topics, including interpersonal relationships, parenting, illness, death, and emotional trauma. She helps the participants of her trainings to do work on various situations, from ordinary people who are worried about their financial security, to prisoners and people who have survived armed conflicts.

“When I argue with reality, I lose. But only in 100% of cases. "

"I am in love with what is, not because I am a spiritual person, but because it hurts to argue with reality."

"Each story is a variant of the same theme: it should not happen, I should not experience it, God is unfair, life is unfair."

• Time Magazine 12/04/2000: Innovators - Byron Katie. Four Questions to Inner Peace “TIME predicts the most innovative people of the 21st Century.”
• The Noumenon Journal, Summer 2000/2001: An Interview with Byron Katie
• Jeon, Arthur (2004) City Dharma: Keeping Your Cool in the Chaos ISBN 1-4000-4908-3

• Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life , with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2002, ISBN 0-609-60874-6 (HC)
• I need your love - is that true? How to leave the search for love, approval and recognition, and find it all , 2006 / I Need Your Love - Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Appreciation, and Approval and Start Finding Them Instead , with Michael Katz, Harmony Books, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-5107-X (HC)
• A Thousand Names of Joy: How to Live in Harmony with What Is , 2007 / A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are , with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-33923-2 (HC)
• Examine Your Thoughts and Change the World: Byron Katie Quotes , 2007 / Question Your Thinking, Change the World: Quotations from Byron Katie , edited by Stephen Mitchell, Hay House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4019-1730-2 (PB)
• What would you be without your story? Dialogues with Byron Katie , 2008 / Who Would You Be Without Your Story ?: Dialogues with Byron Katie , edited by Carol Williams, Hay House (October 15, 2008), ISBN 978-1-4019-2179-8 (PB)

• Byron Katie Page on Blaggos.com
• Official site about Byron Katie's Work (in Russian)
• Certified Facilitators Works that have undergone a full course of training and Byron Katie certification:
• Site of Ella Travinsky. Ella Travinskaya, Israeli international online consultant and facilitator using the Byron Katie Method

http://www.thework.com/russkiy/facilitators.asp

• Olga Berg, Certified Facilitator of the Work, Work seminars in Russian (including through the Byron Katie Institute of Work): http://olgaberg.me/ru/
• Official Byron Katie Job Website (in English)
• Official Byron Katie Job Blog (in English)
• Site about Byron Katie's work in Russian
• Site about Byron Katie's work in Russian