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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Do you want to keep your memory sharp? How can you improve your learning capacity and memory?
In The Silva Mind Control Method, José Silva argues that you can improve your memory and learning ability using the Alpha state. Silva recommends “The Three Finger Technique,” which acts as a trigger to instantly access the Alpha state.
Continue reading to learn how to improve learning capacity and memory with this technique.
Maximize Your Learning and Memory
To establish the trigger for “The Three Finger Technique,” 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. Below are a few strategies for navigating the Alpha state when you’re learning how to improve learning capacity and memory.
(Shortform note: This technique echoes other traditions that use hand gestures to cue certain mental states. For example, Hindu and Buddhist traditions include mudras, or specific hand and body positions used in spiritual practices like yoga and meditation. The hand shape Silva describes corresponds to the Vaata Naashak mudra, which practitioners believe can help a person overcome forgetfulness, which may aid learning. Similarly, practitioners of neuro-linguistic programming (a particular approach to behavior change) use a technique called “anchoring,” in which they associate a particular hand shape with a particular feeling, such as confidence, until that particular gesture immediately and reliably triggers that feeling.)
1. Access Memories in Alpha
You can use the above technique to quickly access memories in your Alpha state that your mind has forgotten in the Beta state. For example, if you wanted to remember the name of a film you watched years ago, you’d hold your fingers together to instantly access your Alpha state. Then, you’d call up the relevant memories on your mental screen—perhaps you and a friend at the theater when you first watched the movie. As you replay the memory, your Alpha mind will retrieve more and more details until it eventually unearths the name of the film.
(Shortform note: In addition to improving your ability to access long-buried memories, training yourself to access the Alpha state on demand may improve your short-term memory. One modern study found that training people to access the Alpha state using neurofeedback training (in which people learn to control their brain waves in real time) significantly improved their short-term memory over time.)
2. Use Alpha to Aid Learning
You can also use your Alpha trigger to aid learning. If you hold the position while you sit in a class or read educational material, your brain will enter Alpha as you encode the material—so you’ll encode it more deeply. Then, if you hold the position again while you’re being tested on the material, you’ll be able to remember the material much better than if you stayed in Beta during the test.
(Shortform note: This technique takes advantage of a psychological principle called state-dependent memory—the idea that it’s easier to remember information when you’re in the same physical and mental condition as you were when you first learned it. This may be why Silva recommends entering Alpha both while you’re learning and being tested on the material—if you learn the material while in Alpha but take the test in Beta (or vice versa), you won’t perform as well.)
3. 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.
(Shortform note: Sleep experts recommend additional ways to ensure you remember your dreams. Start by getting enough sleep: Dreams most often occur during REM sleep, and you’ll enter the REM stage more often the longer you’ve been asleep. To help with this, avoid anything that might impair the quality of your sleep, such as alcohol or drugs. Finally, when you wake up in the morning, spend a few moments reflecting on your dreams before getting out of bed or looking at your phone. This will help cement the memories so you can write them down later.)
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.
(Shortform note: Silva argues that you can solve problems while dreaming, but there may be another way that dreaming can help with problem-solving. One study showed that people who are lucid dreamers (meaning they’re able to control the narrative of their dreams) have better problem-solving skills while they’re awake than non-lucid dreamers. Similar to Silva’s advice to set an intention for your dreams to present solutions to your problems, if you want to try lucid dreaming, experts recommend setting an intention that you’ll recognize that you’re dreaming, which is the first step to controlling your dreams.)
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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
