José Silva (parapsychologist)

José Silva (August 11, 1914 – February 7, 1999) was an American self-taught parapsychologist and author of the "Silva Method" and the "Silva UltraMind ESP System", intended to help people increase their IQ, develop psychic skills, and to develop the ability to heal both themselves and others remotely, using forces unknown to science.

Jose Silva was born in Laredo, Texas. He and his older sister and younger brother were raised by their grandmother. Silva supported the family from a very young age by selling newspapers, shining shoes, and doing odd jobs. He never attended school, but learned to read and write by watching his sister and brother do their homework.

Silva was able to study a correspondence course on radio repair through an agreement with the town barber, under which the barber rented the lessons to Silva, and Silva earned the diploma in the barber's name.

At the age of fifteen, Silva began to repair radios and built a successful business which he maintained for the next 25 years, interrupted only by military service.

During World War II, Silva joined the Signal Corps. At his induction, he was examined by an Army psychiatrist named Dr. Paul Silva (1901-1977); the two were not related. Silva was intrigued by the psychiatrist's odd questions, and was inspired to begin to study psychology.

While in the Signal Corps, Silva studied advanced electronics and became an instructor.

When Silva was discharged, he resumed his radio repair business and took a part-time teaching job at Laredo Junior College, where he supervised three other teachers and was charged with creating the school's electronics laboratories.

Five years later, with the spread of television, his repair business began to flourish and Silva ended his teaching career.

Silva's mind experiments were based on his background in electronics and study of psychology. He had read about alpha waves and the electrical activity in the human brain and theorized that the electrical impedance of the brain could be lowered to improve efficiency.

Silva believed that the brain was more energetic when it was less active, and that at lower frequencies the brain received and stored more information. The crucial problem for Silva was to keep the mind alert at these frequencies, which are associated more with daydreaming and sleep than with practical activity.

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