A Deep Dive into ”Applying the Silva Method: Dynamic Meditation and Improved Memory” BOOK REVIEW PART 2

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.” Jose Silva (August 11, 1914-February 7, 1999) author of The Silva Mind Control Method.

On today’s Episode #262 we will cover

✔ A Review of PART 1 of this series (How to access the ALPHA BRAIN STATE, Creating A Mental Screen for Visualization and Problem Solving).

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE we visualize a goal.

✔ How these 4 Laws mirror Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich book.

✔ 3 STEPS to SOLVE ANY PROBLEM Using the Silva Method.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ Where Silva's Memory Hacks have been seen on previous episodes and in the motivational speaking industry.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast and PART 2 of our Review of Jose Silva’s Mind Control Program. I’m Andrea Samadi an author and an educator, who like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind ANY high performance strategy proven to increase our results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces. If there’s something NEW that I come across that can help us in any way, I’ll investigate it, connect it with the most current research, and then share what I learn with you here.

At the start of this year, I reviewed Napoleon Hill’s Best-Selling Think and Grow Rich[i] book, with a deep dive into many of the concepts that have been put to a practical test by millions of people around the world over the years. This is THE book that my mentor Bob Proctor spent his lifetime studying, and it remains on my desk as a resource to visit when I need some inspiration, or some wise words of wisdom to push me forward. Then I came across Jose Silva’s work on our resent EPISODE #260, a fascinating program that I had heard about when I worked in the seminar industry, and I knew it was time to slow down the podcast, and see what Jose Silva’s program covered, and if his work could help us all with whatever it is that we are working on.

My goal with this review of The Silva Method[ii], is to help all of us to learn something new to refine our current meditation practice whether we are working in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved results towards a specific goal, or in the corporate workplace to generate new ideas. I wouldn’t have picked this book to review if it hadn’t made such an impact on the world, like Napoleon Hills’ book.

In PART 1[iii] of our review, on our last episode, we covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA, ALPHA, THETA, DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ How to Help Yourself and Others Using a Mental Screen in Our Mind

After recording this episode, there were some important parts that I forgot to add in, but since each of these episodes is cumulative, building off the last episode, I’ll be sure to add in anything important along the way. As I’m writing these episodes, as I’m also learning along with you.

***If you are listening to this episode, and have not yet listened to PART 1, please do begin with PART 1 of this series, to maximize each concept we will be learning, and practicing. Each lesson builds off the next, in The Silva Method, which to me could be described as a combination between meditation, and self-hypnosis all in one. I’ll be sharing Silva’s Method, chapter by chapter, with clear examples of how to put it into practice, and how his method can help all of us to train our brain to do some astounding things.

I wanted to cover The Silva Method on this podcast, as years ago, no one spoke about the power of hypnosis, or meditation, in our corporate workplaces, or in our schools. It’s taken some time, but now these concepts are no longer weird, they are mainstream, embraced worldwide, and have helped millions of people from celebrities, and high level CEOS, to regular people in search of their own personal breakthroughs. I hope this episode series will help all of us to sharpen our saw with our own meditation practice, and help us to reach new heights in our personal and professional lives.

On our last episode #261, we practiced accessing the Alpha Brain State using the countdown method, were introduced to the use of the Mental Screen for Heightened Visualization, and learned that it would be this mental screen where we would utilize the power of Silva’s Mind Control Program, that is about controlling our own mind for the betterment of mankind. The idea is that we will be learning sequential exercises, created by Jose Silva, and tested by thousands of others, endorsed and practiced by many of the world’s most well-known and respected scientists, and thought leaders.

On today’s Episode #262 we will cover: 

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

and we will build off from where we left on the last episode, where we were practicing building mental images on the screen of our mind, while in the Alpha Brain State.

Chapter 3 on Dynamic Meditation involves “training your mind for organized, dynamic activities” that Jose Silva thinks is what our mind was designed for.  He says “once you have reached the meditative level, to simply stay there and wait for something to happen is not enough. It is beautiful and calming and it does contribute to your good health, but these are modest accomplishments compared with what is possible.”

This is where The Silva program gets exciting as we step past passive meditation techniques, to use it dynamically to solve problems. Now we’ll see why it’s so important to perfect what we see on the Screen of our Mind, and why daily practice of these skills is crucial.

Let’s Do This!

Let’s use our mind for something that’s useful for us—something of value. It all begins with our imagination, on this screen of our mind, but Silva says there are 4 important laws we must follow next.

The Silva Program says that --Whatever it is that you want, you must:

Law 1: You must desire that the event take place.

Law 2: You must believe the event can take place.

Law 3: You must expect the event to take place.

Law 4: You cannot create a problem.

When I heard these laws, that Silva wants us to consider BEFORE we begin visualizing what we want, I connected them to Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, probably because this book review is still fresh in my mind.

Law 1: You must desire that the event take place. (Which reminds me of the Second chapter of the TAGR book. If you recall, this is the chapter where Barnes had a burning desire to work with Edison, so intense that he “burned all bridges behind him. He stood by his desire until it became the dominating obsession of his life.” (TAGR, Ch 2, Page 20).

BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO USE THE SCREEN IN YOUR MIND, THINK ABOUT THIS.

Do you have a burning desire for whatever it is that you want to create? If not, keep thinking for what you REALLY want, and choose this to focus on for this activity.

Law 2: You must believe the event can take place. (This reminds me of Chapter 3 in TAGR, the chapter of Faith: Visualizing and Believing in the Attainments of the Desire. Napoleon Hill said that “every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat” (TAGR, Ch 2, Page 21) and you’ll do this, because you won’t believe in any other outcome.

In PART 2 of our TAGR Study, I wrote an example I saw while researching Dr. David Sinclair, who we covered on EPISODE #189[iv] (and he’s come up a few times on the podcast with his pioneering work in the field of anti-aging). While researching him, I found out that he had to self-funded his trip from Australia to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to interview to work in their lab, which he did. He didn’t let his lack of funds stop him from finding his way to MIT. He had a clear vision of what he wanted, and he BELIEVED in his vision, and didn’t let any obstacles get in his way.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO USE THE SCREEN IN YOUR MIND, THINK ABOUT THIS:

Do you BELIEVE the event you’ll create on the screen of your mind can take place? Unwavering belief drives behavior, and it will come through, and be obvious by the way you walk (with purpose), the way you talk (with conviction) and finally, by the actions you will take, directed towards the attainment of whatever it is that you want. You will NEVER outperform your self-image. Without belief, you’ll miss the boat.

Law 3: You must expect the event to take place. While reading Silva’s laws, I couldn’t believe that these were all a part of the Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book. I wondered if Silva learned them from Hill? I’ll never know for sure, but expectation connects everything we are doing and when we expect something to happen, when it eventually does, we’ll recognize it because it’s been in our mind all along. In Silva’s program, you will have spent some time with what you want on the screen of your mind, so expecting it is the next step.

Law 4: You cannot create a problem. This law says a lot about who Jose Silva was as a person. He says “there is plenty of evil on this planet, and we humans perpetrate more than our share of it. This is done in Beta, not Alpha, not Theta, and probably not in Delta.” He says his research has proved this and I believe him. I don’t believe in time wasting to prove what Silva has already proven, but it you want to use the Alpha Brain State to wish ill-will on someone else, you’ll be wasting your time, as you will quickly snap out of Alpha in this process. You must only visualize something that’s for the betterment of mankind.

LET’S USE THE POWER OF OUR MIND TO SOLVE A PROBLEM

***To practice this, choose an event that’s a solution to a problem you have. Something you desire, believe can come about, and can learn to expect it, with this exercise.

STEP 1: PICK A PROBLEM

Follow the steps that will get you into the Alpha Brain State, from our last episode (counting backwards from 100-1) and then lift your eyes upwards, and with your mind, create a mental screen where you will re-create the problem you want to solve. Relive the problem by seeing it and feeling it.

For Schools: A problem could be a poor grade on a test, resulting in a low overall grade.

For Sports: The problem could be a losing streak, or poor performance leading with the loss.

For the Workplace: The problem could be a lack of sales in your organization, or poor performance somewhere.

Pick the problem you want to solve, and visualize it on the screen of your mind.

STEP 2: TAKE SOME SORT OF ACTION

Next, you will gently push the problem scene off to the right which Silva explains in his book will represent the PAST. The past is now over, so push the problem aside.

To the left of the problem, (that represents the FUTURE), create a NEW mental screen with the SOLUTION. Whatever you imagine will require ACTION of some sort showing you solving the problem.

Most of us don’t spend time thinking about the present moment or the future. We can easily get bogged down in what happened in the past. This is what I love about Silva’s Method. The past is over, moved off to the side and we now focus ONLY on the present (taking action to solve the problem) and the FUTURE, which will highlight the changed outcome.

For Schools: A solution could involve a student studying with more focus.

For Sports: A solution could involve practicing a skill that is known for needed improvement.

For the Workplace: A solution could involve presenting your product to a group of people who see its value, and decide they will purchase a large order.

STEP 3: THE SOLUTION

Finally, the action you have taken pays off, and you will envision the solution on the screen of your mind. Everything here is positive, and all of the feelings associated with the problem have been resolved. You celebrate the WIN here in as much detail as you can. What does this win feel like? Who’s there watching you? What do you hear? What do you see? Involve all of your senses.

For Schools: Picture the student celebrating when they see their efforts were rewarded with an A+ grade. This A+ will lead to many more, eventually allowing the student to receive an honor roll award at the end of the year.

For Sports: You’ll picture your team celebrating when the practice pays off with a WIN that eventually leads to a trophy or award at the end of the season.

For the Workplace: You’ll picture your team celebrating when they receive the large order that came from the hard work from the recent presentation. The team celebrates by hosting a lunch where all those involved are recognized for their efforts.

These are some examples of using The Silva Method to train your brain towards your desired outcome. Does it always work? No, Silva says, but with time and practice, you’ll start to see improvements that you might chalk up to be coincidences. He suggests stopping this practice altogether, and the coincidences will also stop. Start back up again, and they will reappear.

You’ll see…just practice this, and let me know what YOU see.

With practice, the results you will see will be more and more astounding.

The part that I forgot to mention was that in this Mind Control Exercise, “you will establish two routines. One for going to your level (with the countdown method) and the other for coming out of it.” Silva suggests at the end of STEP 3, after you’ve successfully visualized your solution, to say “I will slowly come out as I count from 1-5, feeling wide awake and better than before. One, two, prepare to open your eyes, three, open your eyes, four, five, eyes open, wide awake, feeling better than before.”

This entire exercise, with practice, can be done with just 15 minute blocks of time, especially once you’ve reached the countdown method from counting from 5-1 to enter your level. You can also reach this state at any point in the day (morning upon wake, night, before sleep, or any time of day that you can a block of time where you can close your eyes and visualize yourself solving your problem).

Chapter 5: Improving Memory

We’ve covered memory hacks on this podcast with EPISODE #145[v] with Howard Berg, The World’s Fastest Speed Reader on “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension and Recall” or EPISODE #149[vi] with Two-Time Guinness World Record Holder Dave Farrow on “Focus, Fatigue, and Memory Hacks.”  

I’ll use what Howard Berg said in our interview together[vii] as he said “take a list that you know, and link it to what you want to remember” which is exactly what Jose Silva suggests with his memory strategy. Howard had me remember a list from 1-10 using words and images (1 looks like pole, 2 is shoe, 3 is a tricycle since it has three wheels), 4 is a car (four wheels), 5 is a glove (five fingers in a glove)…etc.   Next, Howard had me speed learning this list of numbers using imagery, showing me how to remember longer lists of numbers with these images.

If you had ever attended a seminar with Bob Proctor, he also did this activity, linking words that we want to remember to a list of 10 words we already know by what he called ridiculous association. With the audience, he would pick a list of 20 words they wanted to recall (the audience would shout out 20 things). I wrote them down in my notes you can see (if you can read my writing). Then Bob would tie the words we want to recall to the numbers we already knew, by ridiculous association.

1-run, the audience picked a water bottle to remember and he’d say, (imagine a water bottle running around the room) 2-zoo (imaging a whole bunch of watches behind the glass with the lions as they are walking around them at the zoo 3-tree (growing a whole bunch of telephones), 4-door (with eye-glasses on the handle balancing there about to drop off when someone opens the door)…Bob’s memory technique was like Howard’s linking images (ridiculous images that were difficult to forget) to a list of numbers we already knew.

Silva also believed in creating visual images to remember words and called these images “memory pegs” and mentioned this type of learning is a whole other area. To keep it simple, he says, to remember something

He says that “all that you have to do, once you’ve learned to work with your mental screen, is visualize a past event that surrounds an incident you believe you have forgotten, and it will be there. I say an incident you believe you have forgotten because in reality you have not forgotten it at all. You simply do not recall it. There is a significant difference.” (Ch. 5, Silva Silva Method).

He says that our brains record far more than we realize, and goes on to give some fascinating examples of what people have remembered while under general anesthesia, which is a whole other area I’ll cover another time.

3 Finger Technique: 

In this chapter, Silva shows us how we can use what he calls the 3 Finger Technique to help us to quickly access the Alpha Brain State and solve simple things, like memory recall.

He says, “Here is how simple it is: Just bring together the thumb and first two fingers of either hand and your mind will instantly adjust to a deeper level” to accomplish what you want.

Try it for yourself.

STEP 1: Join together your thumb and your first two fingers. What do you notice? He says this instantly brings us into the Alpha State.

STEP 2: REPEAT silently or out loud “Whenever I join my fingers together like this”—now join them—“for a serious purpose I will instantly reach this level of mind to accomplish whatever I desire.” 

I heard Vishen Lakhiani, the CEO of MindValley say that he calms himself down during public speaking with this method. I agree that it’s very calming, and use this technique to relax when I’m feeling stressed or anxious. I just used it yesterday while driving my girls to gymnastics in heavy traffic.

Silva says that teacher from Denver used this Three Finger Technique to teach her students spelling with a list of 20 words. To test them, she asks them to write down the words they studied that week, recall the words using the Three Finger Technique, and see the words on the screen of their minds. She’s able to teach all of her students to remember their spelling list with this method.

This concept is not new. It’s often how people place their hands during meditation, while sitting crossed-legged, but Silva has taken this technique to new heights, and those who have applied to to their line of work have noticed a significant improvement with memory/recall.

REMEMBER:

“When a person learns to function mentally at this deeper level, creativity is enhanced. Memory is improved and a person is better able to solve problems.” (Jose Silva).

 

TO REVIEW PART 2 OF THE SILVA METHOD: We covered

✔ REVIEW of EPISODE #261 PART 1

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE you visualize something.

✔ We Solved a Problem with 3 STEPS (Problem, Action, Solution) with ideas to use this method for schools, sports or the workplace.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ The 3 Finger Technique

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I want to reinforce that solving problems using the screen of our mind is something that takes some practice. This isn’t something I’ve mastered yet, but as I have said, the purpose of these episodes are to see how we can improve our own meditation practices.  It’s only been 9 days for me now practicing the countdown method, and I’m noticing that I can access this beautiful Alpha Brain State quicker than I was from day 1 with improved focus, and clarity. My current goal is to be in better control of the images that I see on the screen of my mind. Right now, it’s taking a lot of effort to override what I can see there already, and put something new on the screen that I want to create. When I need to access this state in the day, I’m using the 3 Finger Technique and finding another solution to instantly calm my brain. I’d obviously love to solve all of my problems overnight, but that’s not how The Silva Program was designed.

It’s a journey of the mind, that I think is fascinating.

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.” Jose Silva

I can see how many of Jose Silva’s techniques have created geniuses, as Howard Berg, The World’s Fastest Speed Reader used similar strategies, as well as the 2-time World Guinness Record Holder, Dave Farrow.  

Thank you for listening, and coming on this journey with me. I’d love to know what you notice if you have tried out the exercises with your field of work.

With that, I’ll close out for now, and will see you in a few days with

Episode #163 on

✔ Ch 6-Speed Learning

✔ Ch 7-Creative Sleep

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI: 

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REFERENCES:

[i] Think and Grow Rich Book Review with Andrea Samadi

 

 Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination”   https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #194 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 5 on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking all Parts of Our Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 in Memory of Bob Proctor on “The 15 Principles Behind Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich Book” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

 

[ii] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 PART 1

“A Deep Dive into Applying the Silva Method for Improved Intuition, Creativity and Focus” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-1/

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #189 on “Understanding Hormesis: Why Stress and Adversity Make Us Physically and Mentally Stronger” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-hormesis-why-stress-and-adversity-make-us-physically-and-mentally-stronger/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #145 with Howard Berg, the World’s Fastest Speed Reader on “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension and Recall”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-worlds-fastest-reader-howard-stephen-berg-on-strategies-to-improve-reading-comprehension-and-recall-for-educators-and-the-workplace/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #149 with Two-Time Guinness World Record Holder Dave Farrow on “Focus, Fatigue and Memory Hacks”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/2-time-guinness-world-record-holder-dave-farrow-on-focus-fatigue-and-memory-hacks-for-students-and-the-workplace/

[vii] Howard Berg’s Memory Trick with Andrea (40:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0B6HzxtEk