Helping others live the life of their dreams

Founded in 1960 with humble beginnings self-taught parapsychologist, Jose Silva developed ‘Silva Mind Control’ to help his children do better in school and increase their chances of success in life. Since then, this dynamic meditation technique has evolved.

Considered the original and most imitated meditation method in the U.S., the Silva Method teaches students specialized guided imagery techniques to rewire their subconscious and negative programming, tap into their true potential, and achieve their goals.

Jose Silva

Jose Silva was born in Laredo, Texas. He and his older sister and younger brother were raised by their grandmother. Jose supported the family from the age of 6 by selling newspapers, shining shoes, and doing odd jobs. He never attended school as a student, but learned to read and write by watching his sister and brother do their homework. He was able to study a correspondence course on radio repair through an agreement with the town barber, under which the barber rented the lessons to him, and he earned the diploma in the barber's name. At the age of fifteen Jose began to repair radios and built a successful business which he maintained for the next 40 years, interrupted only by military service.

During World War II, Jose joined the Signal Corps. At his induction he was examined by an Army psychiatrist. Intrigued by the psychiatrist's odd questions, he inquired about a book on hypnosis that was sitting on the psychiatrist's bookshelf. As a result, he began to study psychology and, in particular, the nature of hypnotic suggestion and perception in altered states. While in the Signal Corps, he studied advanced electronics and became an instructor. When he was discharged, he resumed his radio repair business. The newly established Laredo Junior College asked him to create an electronics training program for the school. Five years later, with the spread of television, his repair business began to flourish and he ended his teaching career.

Bringing conscious practices to a world of endeavors

During the 1940s Jose developed a set of techniques with which he aimed to be able to raise his children's IQs and develop their psychic abilities (e.g. clairvoyance).[1] His 'mind experiments' were based on his background in electronics and reading of psychology. He had read about alpha waves and the electrical activity in the human brain and bought an electroencephalograph (EEG). He found that one area of the brain, the part that produces alpha brain wave activity, was stronger than the others. This indicated to him that the electrical impedance of this area of the brain was lower, and therefore would function more efficiently.

Since this part of the brain operated more efficiently, he believed that it could receive and store more information. The crucial problem for him was to keep the mind alert at these frequencies, which are associated more with daydreaming and sleep than with practical activity. He experimented with hypnosis, but while hypnosis made the mind more receptive, he felt that more individual control was necessary for improving brain function. He experimented next with mental training exercises to quiet the brain yet keep it more independently alert than in hypnosis. This, he reasoned, would lead to improved memory combined with understanding and hence to higher I.Q. scores.