Steeped in the medical model for healing I suspected my friends had been duped by the Silva Method and thought about taking the course to expose the charlatans.

Taking Jose Silva’s 4-day Mind Control Method in 1981 forever changed my life. Before the course if I could not see, feel, taste or touch something I was skeptical. I saw only the physical world and thought the way to understand and harness it was through science and technology.

The experiences of a fellow therapist and a psychologist I worked with, who I respected, closed my tiny materialistic window and opened a vast door to the invisible world of energy and spirit. They said they had each learned to diagnose and heal three people knowing only their names, age and location. Steeped in the medical model for healing I suspected my friends had been duped and thought about taking the course to expose the charlatans. Especially since the Silva training had a money back guarantee.

When I heard a 4-day Silva course was being offered locally, I signed up. The format was four days in a row that is a little different from the usual two consecutive weekends. We had eight participants that came from varying backgrounds—a physician, two other therapists, a housewife, a medical student, an engineer and a local church minister.

The introductory lecture was about Jose Silva, the founder, and outlined the almost four decades of research and development of The Silva Mind Control Method.

The instructor said the five senses—touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight are only a part of the senses we are born with. He said the exercises would help us learn to use more of our minds and use it in a special way to prevent illness, improve our health, solve everyday problems, learn more easily, strengthen our imagination, deepen our spiritual awareness and tap into Higher Intelligence. He said that meditation takes place when we are in the Alpha Brain State and that an electroencephalograph (EEG) can measure it. The brain rhythms of the Alpha Brain State are about seven to fourteen cycles per second (CPS) and we are in this energy state when we first go to sleep and when we dream. Meditation is going into Alpha Brain State without losing awareness.

To become more relaxed and meditative we were told to "Project ourselves mentally to our ideal place of relaxation." I become more peaceful as I pictured my favorite bubbly mountain steam in North Georgia. We did two countdowns to control the depth of our meditation/relaxation and one to return to consciousness.

While in our meditative states we practiced positive affirmations and the power of visualization. For example we visualized an apple on a large movie screen about six feet in front of us. We studied the details of the apple—the color, smell, touch, and taste. At first I had difficulty as my mind wandered but the instructor reassured us that our concentration would improve as we trained our minds to focus.

We were also instructed to practice projecting ourselves in and around different forms from the inanimate, plant, animal and human kingdoms. We would look at the texture, form, light, odor, color, temperature, solidity and abnormalities.

Each day I found myself going to deeper levels of relaxation while fully conscious. My visualizations became so real on the third day I had a moment when I was unable to tell if the leaf I was viewing belonged to the external or my internal world. It was both scary and a profound moment of grace.

The meditation and continuous visualization culminated in our creating an internal healing laboratory with two spiritual assistants to help diagnose and heal the subjects with physical or emotional problems. When the subject’s name, age and location was mentioned we were told an image would miraculously appear on our inner visual screen and their ailments would make themselves known via visual, auditory and kinesthetic means. I was skeptical.

When my first assistant arrived at my laboratory I was shocked to see that it was my grandmother who had died 13 years earlier. We cried, hugged, and reassured each another that we were okay. Then she was gone. I was still wiping away joyful tears when my assistants appeared and we set to work.

I later told the therapist at work about my experience with my grandmother. At first she looked shaken, then smiled and said, "Niki, I’m so glad you told me. I had the same experience with my Dad who had died." We both wondered why our Silva facilitators had not warned us.

The diagnosis and healing of our loved ones was the most powerful part of the workshop.

Susan, my partner, went first and did her countdown. I then told her the name, age and location of a friend whose hand was torn open and required stitches when it got caught in a sailboat anchor winch.

Susan's face was utterly still as she scanned my friend's body." I see an infection in her right breast," Susan said matter-of-factly. I was stunned. My friend had told my about the infection a year ago. Susan’s voice went up an octave, "My guides are pointing to her right hand—it's bandaged." Susan correctly described my friend’s injuries and visualized her hand healing.

I gave Susan my mother's name next as she suffers from chronic depression. "I see a thyroid problem," Susan stammered. I was impressed. My mother had a goiter removed in her 20s. "My guides are pointing towards her head," Susan said somberly. "I'm going to remove an imaginary helmet from her head and put it on mine," she blurted.

"Oh no! She’s depressed—I can’t stand it," Susan gasped covering her mouth with her hand. She flung the imaginary helmet away from her head.

Susan later told me that she’d been depressed before but NEVER like that. When I later told my father about Susan’s experience he lowered his eyes and said softly, "I didn’t realize she was that depressed. I thought she's snap out of it."

My last name for Susan was my 87-year-old godmother who had suffered a stroke that had left her paralyzed and unable to speak. "I see an interruption of the flow of blood to the brain," Susan said with a pained expression "a thrombosis." Susan not only made an accurate diagnosis but also correctly predicted my godmother would make her transition shortly.

Susan’s 100% accuracy gave me goose bumps. She could not have known these health problems.

Then it was my turn. My mouth went dry.

My mind kept saying, "Susan may be psychic but I’m not!"

The first subject Susan named was a man in his 50s. I visualized and scanned his body on my imaginary screen. A large picture of a heart with blocked arteries appeared. I felt a rush of heat to my face. "I feel like I am making this up, "I stammered as I told Susan about his heart. She later confirmed that the man was recovering from open-heart surgery.

I gave a startled gasp when I saw the second subject’s large red sore-like volcano in the lining of his stomach. Susan confirmed that the man had surgery for a stomach ulcer.

There was a lump in my throat when I surveyed the last subject’s puncture wounds and scratches on her legs.

I felt both elation and sorrow when Susan confirmed that the subject had injured her legs in a fall. As instructed I visualized each of the subject’s physical wounds healing.

I was truly amazed at the accuracy of my subject’s three diagnoses.

We were told that if we wanted to retain our diagnostic and healing abilities we would need to practice them regularly. I did not. Just learning that there was another way of knowing that there is another reality and that we have capabilities not taught in our schools was enough to digest. It was both alarming and ecstatic.

Needless to say I did not ask for my money back after the Silva workshop. In fact I took the course again twelve months later. I was delighted to learn that Silva graduates pay a minimal tuition fee or do not pay again.

The Silva course improved my self-esteem, made me more optimistic and gave me confidence in my intuitive abilities. It also changed how I viewed the world and empowered me to use my gifts for the betterment of humankind and the earth.