The sudden transformation of Byron Katie serves as a remarkable testimony to the powers of spiritual resurrection that live in each of us.

Born Byron Kathleen Reid in Breckenridge, Texas, in 1942, she was raised in the small desert town of Needles, California, in the years following World War II. Her mother said that she was named Byron for money, after a wealthy relative offered financial support if the child was given his name, and Kathleen for love. Growing up, everyone called her Katie.

Her homemaker mother and her father, a railroad worker, saw Katie grow from a quiet, thoughtful little girl into an aggressive, competitive teenager who sought to be the best in everything she did. A top student, she played piano and sang in a regional choir. Beautiful, energetic, and fun, Katie was voted first runner-up for queen of her high school prom.

Many believe transformation comes from within. Change your thoughts, the saying goes, and you change your world. Some say it’s the other way around – that if we change our behaviors, the mind will follow.

At a quantum level there’s actually no difference. Our inner lives and outer worlds are one and the same.

As we undertake the seemingly arduous task of transforming ourselves, the illusion that our inner and outer lives are separate and irreconcilable can be dispiriting. When we focus on one area – be it the outer or the inner – we may feel the other becomes intractable and unyielding, resisting our efforts every step of the way.

Success in its broadest meaning is not limited to only monetary and material possessions. It reveals as being plentiful in countless and several forms in life and nature.

The universal spirit of consciousness, craves to continuously manifest and express itself; this power likewise expresses its longing to demonstrate success, which is naturally wanting to develop, to grow and become bigger and stronger.

However, many realize this longing and natural inclination for growth repressed in them, because of negative thinking, unconstructive programming, and not having enough faith in their abilities and themselves.

Every individual has dual natures. One wants the self to move forward while the other feels like pulling back. The one nature that one concentrates and cultivates on determines what one is at the final end, as both natures tries to hold and to be in control.

This book is about the revolutionary discovery that the human brain can change itself, as told through the stories of the scientists, doctors, and patients who have together brought about these astonishing transformations. Without operations or medications, they have made use of the brain’s hitherto unknown ability to change.

Some were patients who had what were thought to be incurable brain problems; others were people without specific problems who simply wanted to improve the functioning of their brains or preserve them as they aged. For four hundred years this venture would have been inconceivable because mainstream medicine and science believed that brain anatomy was fixed.