User:Jondel/Silva

José Silva's life is more than a great American success story. It has transcended time and space to become one of the world's all time great success stories.

Orphaned at age 4, he never attended school a day in his life as a student; yet the reading and research that he undertook to help his own children, unlocked secrets of the mind and human potential that had remained hidden for thousands of years.

José Silva's 22 years of dogged determination to dig out these secrets has literally changed the world.

As a thinker and philosopher, millions of people still seek his guidance through his writings and courses.

As an inventor, he held several patents, including the first patent ever issued that states that "Human concentration turns on an education program."

As a scientist, he won the respect of many other scientists, despite the fact that he held no degrees.

He symbolized what he taught. He actually found the secret of success.

Today, the System he developed is being presented in more than 100 countries, in 29 different languages, and millions of people are benefitting.

- One Success After Another

José Silva was born in Laredo, Texas in 1914. When José was just four years old, his father died as the result of a terrorist act during the Mexican revolution. When he was six, José began to work and earn an income to help his mother support the family - which included his sister and two younger brothers. Instead of going to school, he earned money for his family by selling newspapers on the streets of Laredo, and shining shoes, and doing odd jobs.

Since his income was necessary for the family, José never had the opportunity to attend school. With the help of his sister and brothers, he learned to read and write in both the Spanish language and in the English language.

By the time he was a teenager, he was an employer and hired other youngsters to work with him, going door to door to sell merchandise he purchased in San Antonio. The youngsters were earning as much money after school as their parents earned working full time. And young José was earning as much every day as the typical adult in Laredo earned in a week

At the age of 14, when Laredo was already beginning to suffer the effects of the great depression, José started to study radio electronics. Seeing another opportunity to earn more income for the family, he began repairing radios. This business eventually became one of the largest in South Texas.

At the age of 26, José married 21-year-old Paula Gonzalez from Elgin, Texas. They had ten children - seven girls and three boys.

José was drafted into the army in 1944 to serve during World War II. Not knowing whether he would survive the war, he closed his business and set the money aside for his family.

It was during the army induction process that Jose had his first encounter with a psychiatrist. This led him to the study of psychology.

After his discharge from the army at the end of the war, José returned to Laredo and started his successful radio repair business all over again.

He was assigned to build a radio technician's training department at Laredo Junior College, and ran the department for more than six years. The department was named the best in the state of Texas by the Veterans Administration. This was quite an achievement by someone who had never attended school as a student.

When commercial television came on the scene, José began to learn all about it, and his business continued to grow rapidly.

His study of psychology had led him to several related fields, including hypnosis, parapsychology, and electroencephalography, leading to the new science of psychorientology.

After six years he was so busy with his business and his research that he had to resign his position at the college.

By 1966 the research has progressed so far that Silva was in demand to speak at colleges and universities about his work in the new field of psychorientology, and people throughout Texas were asking him to teach them his mind development techniques.

The results of the research was tested at the University of Texas Medical Center and at Trinity University, both located in San Antonio, Texas. The results were published in a scientific journal in England in 1972.

From 1966, when the bulk of the research was completed, until 1970, Silva taught in all the major cities in Texas.

Silva closed his electronics business and established a new company to present his System to the public.

The business based on Silva's discoveries has now grown into a multi-million dollar empire serving millions of people in 103 countries, in 29 different languages. Silva's techniques are being presented by a corps of more than 1,000 certified Silva lecturers.

The young boy who used to shine shoes for a living is now honored as the founder of the new science of psychorientology, and most recently, José Silva's UltraMind ESP System.

We have completed our physical evolution, Silva explained, and now we develop our minds and learn how to use the mind to communicate with higher intelligence to find our purpose in life and to obtain the guidance and help we need so that we can correct problems and convert the planet into a paradise.

Silva was the undisputed pioneer in this field. The Silva System is the first program to teach people to function at the alpha brain wave level, to use the right brain hemisphere to think with, and to develop and use intuition.

--- Silva's Research - It was his children who inspired his research

Early in his research there was one area where José's hard work and street smarts weren't paying off. He wondered why his children weren’t like him?

Even though José had experienced success in many areas, his children were not following in his footsteps. Some bad report cards convinced him that he had to find the answer.

The answer seemed to be in the way that super successful people – like himself - used their minds.


 * He made good decisions, but his children sometimes failed to do the correct thing.


 * He could concentrate on a task and complete it. His children didn't seem to have that same ability.


 * José was usually in the right place at the right time, and this had led to much of his success. But his children, like so many other people who never see their dreams come true, sometimes seemed to wind up at the worst possible place at the worst possible time.


 * He was never ill, but his children got the usual childhood diseases.

This raised several questions in his mind:


 * Why could some people learn more easily than others? Jose learned without ever attending school, while his children were bringing home some F's on their report cards.


 * Why were some people so much better at earning a living than others?

He felt that the answer was in the mind. But how could he explore the mind?

Studying the mind

José began to study psychology - the study of human behavior. One of the things he learned is that the brain operates on a small amount of electrical energy, and that this electric current vibrates or pulsates at different rates.

Sometimes the brain's electrical energy vibrates rapidly, twenty times every second, referred to as twenty cycles per second, abbreviated twenty cps. Sometimes it vibrated slower, at ten cps, or five cps.

He wondered why this was so.

Then he drew on his experience in radio repair, and realized that some radios sound better than others.

What makes the difference in a good electrical circuit, and a bad one, he wondered? He already knew the answer:

In electronics, you seek the circuit with the least impedance, because that is the circuit that provides you with the greatest power.

Since the brain operates on a small amount of electrical energy, the same principle should hold true: Find the operating mode where it has the least impedance and the most power, and you've found the best mode for mental activity.

The mind did not reveal its secrets to José Silva easily. He persisted, investing his own time and money, continuing even though critics scorned him. Today he is recognized as the leading researcher in the world in the field of the mind and human potential. And José Silva's UltraMind ESP System, the last system that he developed near the end of his life, he said was leading humanity into the second phase of human evolution on the planet: Learning how to use your ESP (Effective Sensory Projection) from higher intelligence so that you can fulfill your mission in life.

--- How the brain works

Your brain operates on a small amount of electricity, just like computers. It can process and store information, retrieve that information, and use that information to make decisions and solve problems.

Unlike computers, the electricity that the brain generates and functions with does not remain at a fixed frequency. Sometimes this electric current vibrates rapidly - twenty times per second or more. Other times it vibrates very slowly, one time per second or less. Scientists call these vibrations "cycles" or "Hertz," and have divided the brain frequency spectrum into four different segments, based on the number of cycles per second, which is abbreviated cps.


 * Beta is above fourteen cps, typically twenty cycles per second when your body and mind are active and you focus your eyes.


 * Alpha, from seven to fourteen cps, is associated with light sleep and dreaming.


 * Theta, from four to seven cps, is associated with deeper sleep, and with the use of hypnosis for such things as painless surgery.


 * Delta, below four cps, is associated with deepest sleep.

José Silva reasoned that the best range to use for mental activity would be the range that has the least impedance and the most energy.

The alpha frequency is the strongest current-wise, and the most rhythmic of the four. That's why it was the first to be discovered by scientists with their primitive sensing equipment, and was named "alpha" for the first letter in the Greek alphabet.

How people use their minds

It seemed logical to José Silva that the alpha level would be the ideal level to do your thinking, if you could learn to actually activate your mind while at alpha.


 * You could think more clearly because it provides more energy.


 * You could maintain your concentration better.


 * You could access more information, more easily, because it is in the absolute center of the brain's normal operating range.

But here's the catch: Research revealed that most people do their thinking at the beta frequency!

Most people, when their brain frequency slows to alpha, enter the "sub-conscious" area, and then fall asleep.

Most people are using the weakest, the least stable frequency to do their thinking: the beta level.

But the superstars stay awake at the alpha level, and do their thinking at alpha.

Functioning at alpha...successfully

In order to do this successfully, you must learn two things:

1. To produce alpha brain waves with conscious awareness. That is, reach the alpha level without falling asleep.

2. Become mentally active while remaining at the alpha level.

Everybody can daydream. Passive daydreaming is sometimes done at the alpha level. But even if you can daydream at the alpha level, you might wind up going straight to beta when you become mentally active and direct your imagination the way you desire.

Besides being the most efficient operating level in terms of low impedance and high power output, there is another very important advantage of using the alpha level:

At the alpha level you can use two brain hemispheres to think with instead of just one.

At beta, you think with the left half of your brain - your left brain hemisphere. It is highly specialized for certain tasks: Talking, reasoning, using logic. The left brain hemisphere is for examining details.

At alpha, you can think with either your left brain hemisphere, or your right brain hemisphere.

The right brain hemisphere is more creative and intuitive. It deals with form and shape, with movement and rhythm. Instead of operating in a sequential fashion - one step follows another - it operates in a spatial mode, in a random access fashion.

You could say that the left hemisphere counts the trees, while the right hemisphere admires the forest.

Will you double your ability when you learn to think with both brain hemispheres?

You will do much better than that.

Silva promised that everyone who attends the Silva UltraMind ESP System will experience the rest of their lives to be the best of their lives. He challenged any other system or method to show that they could solve more problems than the Silva System.

Silva's philosophy has always been: "To gain while helping others to gain, not to gain at other's loss."

This master of teaching people about success also cautions people to keep things in perspective: "Do not let the first failure destroy you, nor let success ruin you."

Silva was known by many people around the world. But he did not let success ruin him. Right up until his death at the age of 84 in 1999, he continued to live modestly, and his favorite pastimes were lecturing and helping other people awaken the genius that is within them, and spending time with his grandchildren and great grandchildren.