Silva Method

The Silva Method is a meditation and self-help program created by José Silva. It claims to improve a person's capacity through relaxation, raise the intelligence quotient, develop higher brain functions, use the mind to cure the body, and develop psychic powers like clairvoyance.

It has been condemned as pseudoscience and has been categorised as a self-religion, a new religious movement, and a cult.

Biography of José Silva

José Silva (August 11, 1914- February 7, 1999), was an American electronics repairman who grew up in Laredo, Texas. In an attempt to improve his children's IQ, he became interested in psychology. Silva made the decision to find out more about the development of psychic skills after conducting experiments and his daughter's unexpected clairvoyance.

Silva started creating his technique, which was called Silva Mind Control, in 1944. Before making it publicly available in the 1960s, he used it on his friends and family.

A biography of Silva was published in 1990.

Technique

The method seeks to reach and maintain a mental state known as the alpha state, in which the frequency of the brainwave is between seven and fourteen Hz. Daydreaming and the transition to a state of falling asleep are alpha states.

Silva claimed to have created a method that taught individuals how to achieve specific increased awareness levels in their brains. He also said that he had created a number of methodical mental techniques that could be applied during these moments, enabling a person to mentally project with a particular goal. Silva claimed that the mind can be projected to see far-off places or objects or to communicate with higher intelligence for guidance. The projected mind is then said to understand the information as ideas, images, feelings, scents, tastes, and sounds. Problems can be solved by using the knowledge gathered in this way.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Carroll, Robert Todd (2003). "Silva Method". The skeptic's dictionary. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 0471480886. OCLC 55751218.
  2. ↑ "Business Thought - Silva | Profit". www.profitmagazin.com. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  3. ↑ Peter Clarke (March 2004). Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Routledge. pp. 591–592. ISBN 978-1-134-49970-0.
  4. ↑ Powers, A. M. (1984). Silva mind control international: An anthropological inquiry (Parapsychology, cults, psychic, religion). Wayne State University.
  5. ↑ Swain, P. (2020). The Silva Method. BDJ Team, 7(7), 36-37.
  6. ↑ "Encyclopedia of Claims". JREF. 1981-12-04. Retrieved 2025-11-17. A system developed by José Silva (1914- ) that claims to develop improved memory, learning ability, and paranormal powers like telepathy. Much of the course consists of 'visiting' absent persons imagined by students and performing diagnoses on them. No tests of the validity of this practice have been done; such tests are discouraged by the teachers of the system.
  7. ↑ Stone, Robert B. (1990). José Silva: The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Human Mind and the Method He Used. H.J. Kramer, Inc. ISBN 0-915811-29-4.
  8. 1 2 3 Silva, José (1977). the Silva Mind Control Method. New York, New York: Pocket Books. p. 19-20. ISBN 978-0-671-73989-8.