Introduction

You are now setting out on one of the most transforming adventures of your life. Each result you achieve will change your view of yourself and of the world you were born into.

With your new powers will come a responsibility to use them “for the betterment of mankind”-a Mind Control phrase.

You cannot use them otherwise, as you are about to learn.

The city planner of a Western city closed his office door, leaving his secretary alone and troubled at her desk.

The drawings for a proposed shopping mall were missing, and a yes-or-no meeting with city officials was scheduled for later that same week. Jobs have been lost for less, but the planner seemed almost untouched by what would have driven other bosses into a secretary-shattering storm.

He sat at his desk. In a moment his eyes closed and he became still and quiet. Anyone might have thought he was composing himself in the face of disaster.

A full ten minutes later he opened his eyes, rose slowly, and walked outside to his secretary. “I think I’ve found them,” he said calmly. “Let’s look at my expense account for last Thursday, when I was in Hartford. What restaurant did I have dinner in?”

He telephoned the restaurant The drawings were there.

The city planner had been trained in Silva Mind Control, to awaken what for most of us are unused talents of the mind. One of the things he learned was to retrieve memories that have been quirreled away where the untrained mind cannot find them.

These awakened talents are doing amazing things for the more than 500,000 men and women who have taken the course.

What exactly was the city planner doing when he sat quietly for ten minutes? A report from another Mind Control graduate provides a hint:

“I had an incredible experience yesterday in Bermuda. I had two hours to get on the plane back to New York and couldn’t find my plane ticket anywhere. For almost an hour, three of us searched the apartment where Td been staying. We looked under carpets, behind the refrigerator—everywhere. I even unpacked and packed my suitcase three times, but no ticket was found.

Finally I decided to find myself a quiet corner and enter my level.

No sooner was I at my level than I could ‘see’ my plane ticket as clearly as if I were ac- tually looking at it. It was (according to my ’level’ sight) in the bottom of a closet tucked in between some books, hardly noticeable. I rushed to the closet and there was the ticket, just as I had imagined it!” To those not trained in Mind Control, this sounds incredible, but when you come to the chapters by Jose" Silva, Mind Control’s founder, you will learn of even more amazing powers of your own mind. Perhaps most amazing of all is how easily and quickly you can learn. Mr. Silva has devoted most of his adult life to re- search into what our minds can be trained to do. The result is a 40-to-48-hour course that can train anyone to remember what appears to be forgotten, to control pain, to speed healing, to abandon unwanted habits, to spark intuition so that the sixth sense becomes a creative, problem-solving part of daily life. With all this comes a cheerful inner peace, a quiet optimism based on first- hand evidence that we are more in control of our lives than we ever imagined.

Now for the first time through the printed word you can learn to practice much of what is taught in the course.

Mr. Silva has borrowed freely from both Eastern and Western learning, but the end product is quintessentially American. The course, like its founder, is totally prac- tical. Everything he teaches is designed to help you live more happily, more effectively, here and now. As you proceed from one exercise to another in the chapters by Mr. Silva, you will pile one success on top of another and so strengthen your confidence in your- self that you will be ready for achievements which, as- suming you are not acquainted with Mind Control, you now regard as impossible. But there is scientific proof that your mind is capable of miracles. In addition, there is the successful experience of more than a half-million people whose lives Mind Control has changed.

Imagine using your mind to improve your eyesight

“While taking my first course in Silva Mind Control Method, I began to notice that my eyes were changing —seemed stronger.

Prior to this Pd worn glasses 10 years through childhood (till I graduated), then again started when I was 38 Always my left eye was said to be three times the weaker of the two.

“My first glasses in 1945 were reading glasses, but in ‘48 or ‘49 I began wearing bifocals—correcting al- ways to stronger. After the course I found that, while I could not read without glasses, my eyes were certainly stronger. Since they were changing so fast, I waited as14 / THE SILVA MIND CONTROL METHOD long as possible before having them checked. I even reverted to twenty-year-old glasses. “When the local optometrist tested my eyes, he agreed that the old pair would do much better until the new lenses came.” This may seem mysterious to you now, but when you read Chapter 10 you will see exactly how graduates put their minds in charge of their bodies to speed up natural healing. The techniques are amazingly simple, as you will see in the following letter from a woman who lost 26 unwanted pounds in four months: “First I visualized a dark frame and saw a table loaded with ice cream, cake, etc.—all the things I knew put the pounds on. I drew a large red X through the table and saw myself in a mirror that made me look very wide (the kind you find in a carnival fun house). Next I visualized a scene surrounded by golden light: a table on which all the high-protein foods rested—tuna fish, eggs, lean meat. I placed a large golden check mark on this scene and saw myself in a mirror looking very tall and thin. Mentally I told myself that I craved only the foods on the protein-laden table. I also heard all my friends telling me how fantastic I looked and saw all this happening on a specific date (this was the most important step, because I set a goal for myself). And I made it! Having been a chronic dieter, I find this the only method that has worked.” This is Mind Control—going to a deep meditative level where you can train your own mind to take charge, using its own language of images reinforced with words, bringing results that become more and more amazing, with no end in sight for the person who keeps in practice. As you can see, this is no ordinary book. It will take you in easy steps first into meditation, then into the many ways you can use meditation until, when you Introduction I 15 reach the final step, you can do routinely what most people firmly believe cannot be done. It is a book within a book. The outside book (chapters 1 and 2 and 17 through 20), by Philip Miele, de- scribes the almost explosive growth of Mind Control and how it has benefited many thousands of its graduates. In the inside book, Mr. Silva shares with you many of the techniques taught in Mind Control classes. Because these classes are group experiences led by skilled lec- turers, their results are speedier and more spectacular than you will achieve working alone. However, if you follow Mr. Silva’s directions carefully and practice the exercises, the results are virtually certain to transform your life for the better—not as speedily, but just as certainly. There is a special way to read this book: first read it as you would any other, from beginning to end. How- ever, during your first reading, do not begin to practice any of the exercises. Then reread chapters 3 to 14 to get an even clearer, overall picture of the roads you are about to travel. Next read Chapter 3 and practice the exercises in it—and only those exercises—for a few weeks. When you know you are ready, go on to Chap- ter 4, and so on. When you reach Chapter 14 you will already be an experienced practitioner of much that Mind Control graduates have learned. To further enrich your expe- rience, you may wish to form a small group of friends who have practiced the same exercises. Chapter 13 tells you how to do this.