By Laura Silva / Source: The Silva Method

In the beginning, José Silva was alone in his research. Even his wife Paula was skeptical and cautious until she eventually saw the benefits in the work he was doing with their children. A few friends in Laredo became interested and listened to his ideas and helped him when he asked them to, but many more were suspicious and even hostile.

Eventually Silva's work attracted the attention of one scientist, who became a close friend and associate, and who brought the research findings to the attention of many other scientists. This pioneering research, overcoming many obstacles and challenges, has provided José Silva with many wonderful memories of the people and events that helped us to take the first step into the second phase of human evolution on the planet by succeeding with metaphysics.

This is the story about how scientists became aware of the new science that José Silva has named "psychorientology."

A Scientist Takes a Peek

The first scientist who came to Laredo, Texas, to investigate the research that Silva was doing was Dr. J.W. Hahn, director of the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. Through Dr. Hahn, many more scientists became interested in the pioneering research into the mind and human potential. Mind Science Foundation was founded by oil millionaire Tom Slick Sr. It was Mr. Slick who asked Dr. Hahn to check out Silva's work. He took back a very favorable report.

In fact. Dr. Hahn took the first step that led to the Silva Method being taught to the public for the very first time.

Here's how it happened:

After Dr. Hahn's visit to Laredo, he called Dr. N.E. West, the head of the Department of Psychology at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas, and arranged for him to visit Laredo and inspect Silva's findings. Dr. West was impressed. Even though he had visited the laboratories of Dr. J.B. Rhine at Duke University on two occasions, he said that he had never seen so much valid scientific work done on ESP.

A Very Successful Visit

That led to an invitation by Dr. West for Silva to come to Plainview and present a lecture to the psychology students at the college.The visit was so successful that Dr. West told his friend Dord Fitz, an art professor in nearby Amarillo, that he should invite Silva to come speak to his art students.

When several of the art students expressed an interest in learning Silva's techniques, Fitz suggested that Silva come teach a class in Amarillo. More than 80 students attended that first Silva Method course. Even before they had finished their training, they were telling Silva that their relatives and friends were also interested, so Silva scheduled another class.

The Silva Method continued to grow by word of mouth until today it is being offered in more than 100 countries worldwide, in 29 different languages—and millions of people have benefited.Meanwhile, while Silva was impressing students and artists with his findings, Dr. Hahn was arranging for a visit to the leading parapsychology laboratory in the world: The Mind Science Foundation Laboratory in Los Angeles, California.It was here that Silva observed a scientific project with a plant that convinced him that the human mind could alter matter just by thinking.

Verified Results

Silva continued teaching, and Dr. Hahn continued encouraging him. But not everyone believed that such trailblazing research and results were coming out of Laredo, Texas. Dr. Hahn needed to demonstrate to the Mind Science Foundation board of directors that Silva's program was valid, so he undertook a major survey.Detailed, comprehensive survey forms were mailed to 10,000 Silva Method graduates. More than 1,100 of them took the time to fill out the forms and return them, an unusually high percentage. The graduates seemed eager to express their opinions.

The results were spectacular. Not only were people receiving all of the benefits they had sought when they first came to the course, they were benefiting in ways they had not expected. They were correcting problems that they had not even considered correcting by using the Silva Method techniques. There was also a question about the graduates' overall opinion of the Silva Method. Only half a dozen had any complaint, while the rest—99.6% of the graduates—were satisfied.

To validate the survey, Dr. Hahn conducted another survey. In this one, he got responses from every person who attended a Silva Method Basic Lecture Series in Albuquerque, New Mexico.The results in Albuquerque were the same as the results from the other survey, and every person was satisfied with the course. Armed with proof that the Silva Method works and that graduates were reporting outstanding benefits.

Dr. Hahn now approached other scientists and encouraged them to investigate Silva's work. He helped arrange with clinical psychologist Dr. Puryear to hold a Silva Method class at the Trinity University campus in San Antonio. Then Dr. Hahn approached the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio. He arranged for Dr. Robert Barns, head of the Psychiatry Department, and Dr. Richard McKenzie, head of the Psychology Department, to invite Silva to present a lecture and demonstration of how to control brain waves consciously.

Students and professors were impressed, because at that time, scientists believed that brain waves were under autonomic control, and could not be altered by individuals. Later Dr. Hahn arranged with Dr. Fred Bremner, head of the Department of Psychology at Trinity University, to test Silva and some of the people that Silva had trained.

"For the first time, scientists verified in a scientific laboratory that people could learn to control their brain waves.They also conducted a scientific experiment that involved Silva teaching his method to 20 of the students at the university. As usual, the results were successful."

They were reported in the British scientific journal Neuropsychologia, Vol. 10, pages 307-312 and pages 467-469.