The Silva Mind Control Method (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Jose Silva (Author) "Imagine coming into direct, working contact with an all-pervading higher intelligence and learning in a moment of numinous joy that it is on your side..." (more)
Key Phrases: biogenic feedback, severely disturbed group, psychic operator, Speed Learning, New York, Help Others (more...)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (January 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671739891
• ISBN-13: 978-0671739898
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

142 of 145 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a book that can be read on many levels ..., November 17, 2001

By	"jonnymag" (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews

The first time I read this book was when it first came out in 1977. I've re-read it several times since then. My copy is marked up and dog-eared, yellowed and brittle, and falling apart. Yet, it's still an interesting read every time I pick it up.

The first part is a quick biography explaining how Jose Silva came to his discovery and development of the Silva Method. The rest of it is a how-to manual. It lays the groundwork for his later books which concentrate on applying these principles to your life.

The Silva Method is based on a simple philosophy that you become what you think you are. If you have a negative self-image, then you become that person in the real world. If you want to change who you are in the real world, you need to change who you are in your mind. And he tells you how to do it.

On one level, it's a beginner's course in positive thinking, giving you step-by-step instructions on active meditation and creative visualization. Silva tells you how to go to your "alpha level" (a semi-conscious dream state), create a positive self-image, and turn it into reality. Even if you never get past this beginning stage, if all you can do is repeat Emile Coue's daily affirmations, "Every day in every way, I'm getting better and better" and "Negative thoughts have no influence over me", you'll still be so much better for it. It's really like positive self-programming.

But, on another level, it's also an advanced course teaching you how to expand your mind to increase your intelligence, improve your memory, develop ESP, heal your injuries and disease, and even heal others. Getting there is a little more difficult for most of us because it involves a leap of logic and faith. We have to overcome our belief systems.

You may have some difficulty with this book if you tend to be very literal in a scientific sense. We all know the mind is capable of many things, but there's no hard scientific evidence for some of Silva's more extraordinary claims. There's only anecdotal evidence, mostly of the kind that cannot be measured or quantified. Believing that your mind can influence yourself may be easy to accept, but believing that your mind can influence others requires a leap in logic.

You may also have some difficulty with this book if you tend to be very literal in a strict Christian sense. The Silva philosophy is that you can control, or at least greatly influence, your own destiny. And you need a strong faith ... in yourself. Then you can do anything ... even things we might think of as "miracles". That might be hard to reconcile with your belief that only God can perform miracles. He also speaks of God in a more universal sense, a "Higher Intelligence". It sounds more like the "Force" in Star Wars than the Biblical God.

Anyway, Silva's books can mean many different things to many different people. The scientific community has debunked it. The religious community has denounced it. And it sounds a little too New Age-ish.

But, in the final analysis, it's really a recipe for finding -- within ourselves -- the happiness, peace, understanding and success we're all searching for.

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Know yourself. Grasp your potential!, January 11, 1999

By A Customer

Before proceeding any further let me tell you won't waste your time from reading such a book like this. There's sufficient scientifical evidence from the practical findings done by Jose Silva and there's enough literature on the field of brain activity and visualization which NOW strongly support his remarkable techniques. Any Psychologist is witness to that. I first learned about Jose Silva Mind Control Method by reading this practical and amazing book. After trying some of the techniques outlined on it and seeing and enjoying the amazing results I decided to attend a seminar in MEXICO CITY in 1987. I graduated from the Basic Course and to my surprise EVERYTHING improved in my life since then EVERY DAY, IN EVERY WAY!!. My grades as a student, my personal finances, my relationships with others, my job, my health. I don't mean that there was anything wrong or I was in any special need for something. I think what I received was the knowledge to use all the special faculties I was endowed with as a Human being. I do sincerely recommend this book and I wish you to practice the dynamic meditation Jose Silva presents. Personaly I practice every day the simple meditation which I believe is in no conflict with any religion or philosophical point of view, quite the contrary I belive is a natural state of being. One last word, you need not to be an oustanding visualizer to make Silva Method work, it only takes to be a HUMAN BEING with the desire to be better and the courage and discipline to do it. Believe in yourself!

210 of 237 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but very weak in some aspects., September 3, 2000

By	Spiff (Europe) - See all my reviews

This is the kind of book I would probably never buy, but my mother did for some reason and I found myself reading it.

This book describes José Silva's method of mental development and stress control. Silva, a TV repairman started studying the electrical activity of the human body under certain conditions (meditation, hypnosis). Over several years, Silva noticed how the stages of lower electrical activity would mean a higher capacity for storage and attention and figured out that if he managed to control his awareness and remain conscious, but free of such electrical noise, following few steps would allow the development of certain `extraordinary' skills. These, he claims, can change your reality, depending on how you use your mind; including improving your health, reducing stress, improving your memory, and allowing you some abilities like perception and a distance and perception through time.

Silva's teachings are based on one single aspect: The way you think about your reality, the way your mind is lead eventually influences your material world, especially your own body. As Emile Coué said many years ago, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better", and Silva's followers agree. If you keep that spirit and follow Silva's procedures, you will notice improvements in about everything in your life.

To keep it short, that is what the book claims, or at least, that's what I got out of it. I was pleased with it in several ways, but a few problems are present... 1) Silva's book is very poorly written, I found the book to be miserably organized, from the first page to the non-existing glossary, giving it a very amateurish look, far from the scientific flavour that Silva would probably sometimes want us to notice.

2) Silva's claims are extraordinary. From amazing memory skills to eradication of nasty physical illnesses, this book makes it sound as if developing, experiencing and controlling these phenomena is something as easy as learning how to drive or playing a musical instrument. I found this approach extremely negative, as it reduces some of my belief in the whole book and leaves the reader wondering if there's anything really going on or if it is just a festival of wishful thinking and self-delusion. People who enthusiastically subscribe to New Age beliefs will be delighted, but sceptics will promptly use it to throw Silva's book in the pile of pseudoscience junk. It is a pity that those claims are so excessive and "easy". Silva is right, something is definitely going on, and leading-edge science is now becoming aware of radical new theories on the horizon about consciousness and matter; it can no longer be denied, but making it sound as something you can understand and control so easily is as dangerous as refusing it completely.

3) And for all those extraordinary claims, where is the extraordinary evidence? This book has a few case "studies" and reports, but hardly anything you can check for yourself. Silva offers very few connections to real documents, does not point to any studies most of the time and just expects you to accept the claims on some sort of faith. You get no notes and the References section is pathetically small. Major claims, little evidence. Even when the book was first release this would be a major problem, and now it is embarrassingly bad, when compared to similar titles.

4) The book is plagued by self-promotion. Not to Silva himself, but to the course. From page one to the end, you will constantly be reminded about the course, what students do there, you even have a few pages with the detailed schedule for the course, including coffee breaks. I don't mind having the address mentioned and a few contacts, but after a while, it gets a bit too much. I know about the course already, get on with the book.

Now the good parts: Well, I didn't hate it. I actually enjoyed reading this book. The paragraphs explaining you how to meditate and ridiculously simple, in fact, you get about one page telling you how to do it. Hardly effective, but it might be perfect for some people wanting to start it as quickly as possibly and later dwell deepen into it with the help of other titles.

I believe in the main argument of this book, your will somehow shape your physical reality, but not to such extent. The effects are still not really understood, very subtle and very hard to control at all. Still, even with all the exaggeration, the book will probably help you to get rid of your stress and it is surprisingly fun, you will very probably find yourself trying to do the meditation exercises, and will very likely feel better doing it.

If you require some proof to believe like I do, stay away from this book, or complement it with a scientifically solid work, especially material that covers mind-matter interaction effect studies involving living systems. I recommend "The Conscious Universe" from Dean Radin" for a start. If you don't need proof, well, believing in yourself is the main ingredient, so it will probably work for you. Also, if you want to learn more about meditation, you better look somewhere else, as Silva will give you NO details at all about it other than a quick how-to. "Full Catastrophe Living" by Jon Kabat-Zinn is a great book on this subject, which will definitely help. Religion is not directly mentioned and I don't think it will damage your interest in the book, no matter if you believe or not. Some religions will perhaps feel that the amount of control and power Silva says you can have is pretty close to heresy, and the book is closer to Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism, but it is not oriented to any specific faith.

Overall, an interesting book, based on some good arguments, but now very dated (1977), completely fails to show solid scientific evidence (many more studies and meta-analysis are now available) and lacking organization.

Still fun if you don't take it too seriously and are prepared to complement it with other titles, but lacking in many areas if you expect it to be complete and updated. Give it a try.