This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Silva Mind Control Method" by José Silva. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What’s The Silva Mind Control Method? What happens when you take advantage of the Alpha state in your mind? Can you control what you dream about?
In The Silva Mind Control Method, José Silva explores how to tap into particular mindsets to unlock your innate psychic power. You’ll also learn how to use that power to help yourself and others.
Read below for a brief overview of The Silva Mind Control Method by José Silva.
The Silva Mind Control Method by José Silva
The Silva Mind Control Method by José Silva teaches you a unique method of using the power of your mind to heal your body, sharpen your memory, and solve everyday problems with seemingly superhuman powers.
Silva (1914-1999) began his career as an electronics repairman before becoming interested in altered mental states and applying his knowledge of electrical energy to the human mind. After successfully using his meditation techniques to help his children and neighbors improve their grades in school, Silva developed the method into a 40-48 hour commercial course that has helped over six million people improve their lives. The Silva Mind Control Method, published in 1977, is an abridged version of the content taught in the courses Silva developed, which are still offered today by The Silva Method organization. Silva is also the author of several books, including You the Healer and Sales Power.
The Silva Mind Control Method also includes chapters written by Philip Miele focusing on the birth of the Mind Control Method and how it has grown over time; our guide focuses on the chapters written by Silva explaining the method in his own words.
The Power of Alpha State
All of Silva’s mental techniques begin the same way: accessing what he calls the Alpha level or Alpha state. In this section, we’ll discuss what the Alpha state is and how to access it through self-hypnosis.
What Is the Alpha State?
“Alpha” refers to a particular brainwave state, one of several scientifically recognized states in which a person’s brainwaves can be measured within a certain range of frequencies.
According to Silva, scientists recognize four brainwave states: Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta. Beta is the most alert state—the state in which you spend most of your waking hours. In Beta, your brainwaves are vibrating at a high frequency as you engage with the world around you. The Alpha state is one step below Beta. In Alpha, your brainwave frequency is lower; you’re less focused on the outside world and beginning to focus internally (such as when you’re first beginning to fall asleep). In the Theta state, you’re even more relaxed and internally focused, and by the time you reach the Delta state, you’re typically fully asleep.
Silva argues that the Alpha state is a powerful and underutilized tool that anyone can learn to use. Your brain is capable of different skills in Alpha than it is in Beta, so the first step to accomplishing the skills Silva teaches is to learn to reliably and intentionally access the Alpha brain state.
How to Access Alpha State
According to Silva, the Alpha level has a shallow sublevel and a deep sublevel. Since you’re naturally in a shallow Alpha state when you first wake up in the morning, Silva recommends practicing accessing Alpha first thing in the morning since it will be easier to access the deeper Alpha levels when you’re already in the shallow Alpha levels (as opposed to the fully awake Beta state).
To begin, when you first wake up, with your eyes still closed, look up slightly above your head. Then, slowly count down from 100 to one. This will take you into a deeper Alpha state. Silva recommends repeating this exercise every morning for 10 days. Then, count down from 50 (instead of 100) each morning for 10 days. Gradually reduce the starting count for 10 days at a time until you’re only counting down from five to one. (Shortform note: At this point, you’re merely training yourself to enter Alpha on command; later in the guide, we’ll describe how to further use the Alpha state to achieve your goals.)
When you finish counting, you’ll have entered the Alpha state. Then, when you’re ready to come out of Alpha, do so gently by counting upward from one to five (the inverse of the process you used to enter Alpha). As you count upward, tell yourself that when you finish counting, you’ll feel healthy and energized.
Once you’ve mastered going into Alpha first thing in the morning, you can begin to practice entering Alpha when you’re already fully awake. You can do this exercise at any time of day. Find a comfortable place to sit, with your spine straight. Mentally scan each part of your body, beginning at your feet and ending at your scalp. As you scan, consciously relax each body part. Then, as you did before, close your eyes and point them slightly upward, then count down slowly from 50. After 10 days of practicing this, begin counting down from 10, then from five. Eventually, you’ll be able to use the same technique—counting down from five—to enter Alpha, regardless of whether you start first thing in the morning or during a hectic moment in your day.
Visualizing in the Alpha State
Accessing the Alpha state is only the first step: Next, you’ll need to practice visualizing, which forms the basis of all the other Silva Mind Control techniques.
To begin, go into the Alpha state and imagine a mental screen filling most of your field of vision. On that screen, picture a simple object, like a familiar cup. Focus on picturing the cup in as much detail as you can. The more you practice filling in the details and focusing on the mental image you’ve created, the better you’ll be able to practice more advanced techniques later on.
Manifesting in the Alpha State
Once you’ve honed your visualization skills by visualizing simple objects in increasing detail, you can begin to use visualization to create real, positive developments in your life. Silva acknowledges that this technique isn’t foolproof, but it does work sometimes, and the more you practice, the more effective it becomes.
To manifest the result you desire (in other words, to create it through visualization), you must meet three conditions. First, you must want the result to happen. Second, you must believe that the result is possible—Silva warns that you cannot manifest something you genuinely believe to be impossible. Third, you must genuinely believe that the result will happen (this differs from merely wanting it to happen).
Silva adds a caveat—manifesting in the Alpha state is not an omnipotent power. Specifically, you’ll never be able to manifest something that directly harms someone else. In Silva’s experience, the nature of the Alpha state simply will not allow you to do harm—if you try, that harm is likely to befall you instead.
How to Manifest Effectively
There are four steps to manifesting effectively in Silva’s method:
1) First, go into your Alpha state. On your mental screen, picture in detail the problem you’d like to address. For example, maybe you’re searching for a new home but haven’t found any suitable options in your price range. To visualize this, you might picture all the unsuitable homes you’ve seen, or home listings outside your budget.
2) Next, slide the image to the right until it moves off your screen. (The direction is important; in the Alpha state, the brain processes time from left to right. So when you push negative events to the right, you’re telling your brain that that event is in the past now.)
3) Then, picture a new scene in which the problem is beginning to resolve and progress is being made. For example, you might picture your computer screen populating with a list of homes for sale that meet all your needs and are within your budget.
4) Finally, move the previous scene off the screen (again, to the right) and replace it with a scene in which the problem has been fully resolved. Picture this in as much detail as you can summon. Pay attention to how it makes you feel. For example, picture yourself in your brand new home—you might imagine how the light filters through the windows, the creak of the hardwood floors, and the sense of accomplishment you feel for having finally found the right house.
Use the Alpha State to Help Yourself
Once you’ve practiced the basic process of manifesting in the Alpha level, you can use that technique to accomplish specific goals, such as maximizing your learning and memory, having productive dreams, and improving your physical health.
Maximize Your Learning and Memory
Silva argues that you can improve your memory and learning ability using the Alpha state. However, he recognizes that this may not always be practical because it can take several minutes of focused concentration to access the Alpha state. To get around this, Silva recommends “The Three Finger Technique,” which acts as a trigger to instantly access the Alpha state.
To establish the trigger, go into your Alpha level and hold your thumb, your index finger, and your middle finger together. Tell yourself firmly that from now on, holding your fingers in this position will instantly put you into the Alpha state of mind. You may need to repeat this meditation a few times to get the trigger to stick, but once it does, you’ll be able to instantly access a deep Alpha state.
Use Your Dreams to Guide You
Another way to use the Alpha state is to generate useful dreams. Silva argues that dreams can contain meaning, and you can proactively access that meaning instead of waiting for it to arrive randomly. You do this by cueing yourself, while in the Alpha state, to have particularly productive dreams.
Before you can take full advantage of your dreams, you first need to know that you’ll remember the productive dreams you have. If you don’t already regularly remember your dreams, train yourself to do so by telling yourself before bed (preferably while in the Alpha state) that you will remember your dreams. Then, as soon as you wake up, write down as much of your dreams as you can remember. The more often you do this, the more of your dreams you’ll remember. This ensures you can glean any wisdom they might offer.
Once you regularly remember your dreams, you can use them to ask for wisdom about specific problems. To do so, before sleep, picture the problem you’d like to solve on your mental screen. Then, tell yourself that you intend to have a dream that gives you some piece of wisdom that will help solve your problem. When you wake up, write the dream down and look for any clues it may offer about how to solve your problem.
Improve Your Physical Health
You can also use Alpha state visualization to improve your physical health. Silva reports that this method is effective for chronic illnesses like asthma and migraines and can even improve outcomes for cancer patients when it’s used in conjunction with traditional treatments.
To improve your physical health or encourage healing from illness and injury, Silva recommends practicing this six-step process for 15 minutes every day:
1) The first step of the process is to make your mind a gentler, more positive place in general, as this will increase your power to heal yourself. To do this, Silva recommends focusing on the words you use while in both Alpha and Beta states because your choice of words can trigger real-life outcomes. The more often you speak positively about your life and your health, the more you’ll trigger measurable positive changes. For example, if you constantly complain that your life is difficult, you’ll make it even more difficult; but if you tell yourself every day that you’re in great health, your body will get the message and improve your health over time.
2) Second, go into the Alpha state. Silva writes that it’s not possible to feel anxiety, anger, or guilt while in this meditative state; therefore, training yourself to get into that state and stay there will help you limit those negative feelings and their impact on your physical health.
3) Once in your Alpha state, remind yourself that you’re committed to creating a positive mindset through your language.
4) On your mental screen, picture the illness you’d like to heal. Briefly allow yourself to feel its effects on your body.
5) Replace that image with an image of yourself perfectly healthy and free of the symptoms that are troubling you. Make this image as real as possible, and try to feel that healthy state in your body.
6) Once again, repeat your intention to become a more positive, loving person.
Use the Alpha State to Help Others
In addition to improving your own health and well-being, you can use Silva’s method to help others by remotely diagnosing and psychically healing illnesses and injuries, even in people you’ve never met. Silva reports that his most experienced students can reliably and accurately diagnose medical conditions given only basic information about a person (such as their name and where they live).
Silva recognizes that this sounds impossible, but he argues that everyone has the psychic abilities that make these feats possible—you simply have to be trained to access them.
In the following sections, we’ll explore Silva’s advice for how to achieve these seemingly impossible results.
Prepare to Psychically Heal Others
To sharpen your psychic skills to the point that you can remotely diagnose and heal others, you first need to train your visualization abilities even further. To do so, you’ll need to practice picturing more and more foreign scenes on your mental screen, beginning with a wall in your own home and eventually progressing to the inside of the body of a person you’ve never met. With each scene that you project on your mental screen, visualize as much detail as possible and trust your intuition. Silva notes that you may feel like you’re simply imagining things, but don’t let that dissuade you from fleshing out the details. What feels like imagination may actually be you projecting your consciousness into the scene on your mental screen.
Once you master visualizing increasingly unfamiliar scenes and environments, you’ll need to prepare the mental space where you’ll work on diagnosing and healing people: Silva calls this your “laboratory.” While in the Alpha state, picture a room where you’ll do your psychic work (the room can look however you want it to look). The room should include your usual mental screen and a space for you to do your work, like a desk. Additionally, you should imagine a set of custom tools that will help you symbolically heal the illnesses you diagnose in others: for example, you might imagine a fan that you’ll mentally use to cool the hot, irritated skin of someone with a rash.
Next, you’ll staff your laboratory with the mental image of two assistants—one male, one female. These assistants may be historical or famous figures, or they might be ordinary people. Note that you shouldn’t try to consciously choose these assistants—simply prepare your laboratory and welcome whichever figures show up to help you. You’ll continue consulting these assistants every time you do remote healing work in your laboratory.
Remotely Diagnosing Others
Once your psychic laboratory is prepared, you’re ready to practice remotely diagnosing and healing others in the Alpha state. To diagnose someone, you’ll need to know their name, age, gender, and where they’re located
Silva warns that it’s important, at this stage, to only practice diagnosing people who are physically removed from you and who you don’t know (you can ask friends to supply information about people they know who are sick or injured). Unless you are that person’s doctor, you are not legally qualified to diagnose them with a medical condition. In fact, if you discover a medical problem while mentally scanning someone you know personally, Silva says you shouldn’t tell the person at all—simply do your best to heal them in your psychic laboratory.
Once you know who you’ll be diagnosing, conjure up an image of them on your mental screen (since you don’t know what they look like in real life, this is where your advanced visualization skills come in). Begin scanning the image of their body on your screen, asking your assistants for help as necessary—for example, one of your assistants might point to a particular body part on the person you’re scanning. As you scan the person, Silva recommends you continuously describe, out loud, what you’re observing. Keeping up a monologue of what you see on your mental screen will crowd out your mind’s doubts and criticisms about whether what you’re seeing is real.
As you scan, make note of which areas of the body you’re drawn to—for example, you might note that the person’s left knee seems to be flashing more brightly than the other body parts, maybe because of an injury. Trust your instincts and try not to second-guess yourself; remember, even if it feels like you’re making everything up, that doesn’t mean that you are.
Remotely Healing Others
Once you’ve diagnosed the problem, you can begin trying to remotely heal the person. To psychically heal someone, first, go to your Alpha level. On your mental screen, call up a detailed picture of the person in need of healing. On the screen to the left (because, as we discussed, the left represents the future), create a new image that represents the person being healed somehow.
Finally, on the far left of the screen, imagine the person entirely healed. Try to genuinely believe that this healed version of the person is now reality—just like when you’re manifesting positive outcomes for yourself, you must want the outcome, believe it’s possible, and fully believe that it will happen.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Silva Mind Control Method summary:
- The method of using your mind to heal your body, sharpen memory, and solve problems
- How to unlock your innate psychic power to help yourself and others
- How you can use the Alpha state to heal others remotely
