Losing the Moon:

by Byron Katie, Ellen J. Mack (Editor)

Treatment of the Byron Katie dialogues through discussion, conversation, quotes.

Genres: Self Help, Inspirational

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie, is an American speaker, writer, and founder of a method of self-inquiry called The Work of Byron Katie or simply The Work.

Katie became severely depressed in her early thirties. She was a businesswoman and mother who lived in Barstow, a small town in the high desert of southern California. For nearly a decade she spiraled down into paranoia, rage, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of suicide; for the last two years she was often unable to leave her bedroom. Then, one morning in February 1986, while in a halfway house for women with eating disorders, she experienced a life-changing realization. In that moment, she says,

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment.

Soon afterward people started seeking her out and asking how they could find the freedom that they saw in her. As reports spread about the transformations they felt they were experiencing through The Work, she was invited to present it publicly elsewhere in California, then throughout the United States, and eventually in Europe and across the world.

The Work has been compared to the Socratic method and to Zen meditation, but Katie is not aligned with any religion or tradition. She describes self-inquiry as an embodiment, in words, of the wordless questioning that had woken up in her on that February morning. She has shared The Work with millions of people at public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, V. A. treatment centers, corporations, universities, and schools. Participants at her weekend workshops, the nine-day School for The Work, and the twenty-eight-day residential Turnaround House report profound experiences and lasting transformations. “Katie’s events are riveting to watch,” the Times of London reported. Eckhart Tolle calls The Work “a great blessing for our planet.” And Time magazine named Katie a “spiritual innovator for the new millennium.”

Katie is married to the writer and translator Stephen Mitchell, who co-wrote Loving What Is, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. I Need Your Love—Is That True? was written with Michael Katz, her literary agent at the time. Her other books are Question Your Thinking, Change The World; Who Would You Be Without Your Story?; Peace in the Present Moment, with Eckhart Tolle, A Friendly Universe, and, for children, Tiger-Tiger, Is It True? and The Four Questions. On her website thework.com, you will find detailed instructions about The Work; video and audio clips; Katie's calendar of events; event registration; free downloads, including the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet; interviews; apps for your iPhone, iPad, or Android; a free newsletter; a free helpline; and the online store. You might also want to visit Katie's Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages, and her live-streaming webcast page, livewithbyronkatie.com.

Reviews

[Natasha Holme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got so into Byron Katie that I scoured the web looking for info. I got 54 pages deep into Google and came across some interesting stuff (and still love her). This book is hardcore. Published in 1998, this is not the image Katie's going for these days. It has been described as "Byron Katie's hidden book."

[TheDivineReset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is an explanation from an Amazon review I found regarding why the publication was discontinued: "I understand why some people love this book. But we discontinued publication because Katie's answers were just for the occasion, which was a specialized gathering of advaita people. Katie's answers are always like a ball being thrown against a wall: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. When the questions were asked from that particular point of view, her answers met the questioners where they were. So the book has, and should have, a limited audience. For those of you who want to read a book whose where Katie's expression had deepened and matured (though the depth of her insight has not changed), I recommend "A Thousand Names for Joy." I don't know of a more profound and light-hearted book in all of literature.
Stephen Mitchell"

The book is specialized for a certain group (advaita people) and she's answering their questions in this book. If you want a book more generalized for the public, I suggest her other books.

Love the ending paragraph that mentions "thought reflects back as "something" apparently real, so it can know itself as existence—not because it has to or wants to, but simply because it does. It just is."

[Inga Haugen]

Recommended by Corrine Shannon