Silva Mind Control

Silva Mind Control, now called The Silva Method, is a self-help program that promises to increase IQ, develop psychic abilities and improve brain capacity in a number of ways. Read on to learn more about the history of the organization and where it is today.

Jose Silva, the creator of the Silva Mind Control training techniques, had no formal training related to psychology or brain sciences. His private research originated during his time in the army in 1944.

Jose Silva was born and raised in Mexico, and first established himself as a successful electronics technician. He learned to buy old radios and repair them. He was very successful in his electronics business until he was drafted into the Army in 1944. At the time, he was married with three children. The psychiatric evaluation that he received upon entering the army sparked his interest in the field of psychology. Upon leaving military service in 1946, he returned to his electronics business, but also began his new hobby involving hypnosis and psychology.

Silva was essentially a self-taught amateur psychologist with no formal education. In 1949, he began hypnotizing his children in hopes of raising their IQ, and their school grades. In the process of hypnotizing his ten-year-old daughter Isabel, she began answering his questions before he even asked them, convincing Jose that she was clairvoyant.

This proved to be a tremendous epiphany for Jose Silva, as he was convinced he had discovered a technique to help the human mind tap its true potential. He believed so strongly in his technique, that he contacted famous parapsychologist Dr. J.B. Rhine in 1953 to report his successes with his daughter, but Dr. Rhine dismissed Silva. Rhine's theory was that clairvoyance wasn't something that could be improved. From 1953 through 1963, Silva experimented on family and friends with various techniques of hypnosis and meditation in an attempt to train volunteers to develop ESP. His confidence in this technique was so strong that he even wrote to President Johnson in 1965 and offered his research to the government for free, for the sake of humanity, and was refused once again.

Jose Silva created the "Laredo Parapsychology Foundation" in 1963. In 1966, in an address at the Area Arts Association in Amarillo, Silva publicly announced the "Silva Method". Some artists from the conference volunteered to form a pilot group for Jose Silva's course. Upon completion of that training in 1967, these artists were Silva's first certified instructors of his method. As his first pool of trained "instructors" began spreading the Silva Method to other recruits across the country, interest in his technique began to grow. Silva became a star among the parapsychology crowds, and he was invited to lecture at universities across the country. Silva's organization grew so quickly that eventually it even consisted of regional directors with learning seminars spreading across the entire world.

Today, the 48 hour training course is called the "Silva UltraMind System". It is focused on proven psychological techniques, such as meditation and visualization, that many other self-help systems utilize. However, the Silva Method is unique because there are also elements of spiritual beliefs where Silva claims his system helps students connect with a "higher intelligence", in order to obtain guidance and help. Weekend seminars run over $350.00.

The Silva Method is promoted and followed fervently by many people around the world. Many who have taken the training claim to have greatly improved focus and greater success throughout their lives. Others claim they quit smoking or lost weight thanks to the Silva Method. Today, The Silva Method has instructors all across the world and millions of believers who swear that the system helped them achieve success, weight loss and even miracle cures.

Others who have studied the system note that its techniques make use of the known positive benefits of meditation, such as increased focus, decreased anxiety and an overall improved sense of well-being. However, the introduction of spiritual enlightenment, miracle cures, and a higher "awareness" introduce the possibility that the Silva Method has become a sort of religious movement, not unlike L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology of the 1970s.

Whether or not the Silva Method represents a religious sect or belief system, the positive benefits of meditation, both physically and psychologically, should not be understated. For example, an Associated Press article in 2006 noted a government study showing that heart patients who used meditation experienced improved blood pressure and insulin levels. A 2003 Psychology Today article reports that neuroscientists have proven that the brain waves of people who meditate shift from stress-prone to calm areas of the brain, causing people who meditate to feel calmer and experience more happiness. There are volumes of books and online articles providing all of the techniques you would need to know. There is no secret formula you need to pay for. The only requirement is your mind and a few peaceful moments when you can meditate and become centered each day.

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