Two chairs face each other on a stage, separated by a table filled with sunflowers, candles and a box of tissues to catch any tears. In one chair sits a member of the audience; in the other, Byron Katie, 58, a divorced grandmother with white hair and sparkling blue eyes. In sessions of her popular self-awareness program, called simply the Work, the charismatic Katie acts as a combination mystical guide, wisecracking therapist and knowing parent.

To whatever is upsetting a person—"My husband doesn't understand me," for example—Katie poses four questions: Is your problem true? Can you really know it's true? Can you find a peaceful reason to believe it? Who would you be without it? Then, through a technique she calls the turnaround, Katie coaxes the person to look inside rather than outside for the solution. "He should understand me," for example, may become, "I should understand him and myself." A woman at this evening's session gripes that her sister is holier than thou but discovers that she is doing the same thing. Subjective judgments are vigorously challenged, seen as personal "projections" or "stories." While the Work proceeds, two young