descent into alpha
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
1/9
1 www.silvalifesystem.com
INTO ALPHATHE DESCENT
A Journalist's Account Of The Silva MindControl Class- From the Boston Globe -1972
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
2/9
2 www.silvalifesystem.com
Journalist From The Boston Globe Investigates
The Silva Method
This particular article talks
about the ESP and mental
exercises one learns from
Silva Mind Control classes. A journalist for theBoston Globe decided to
investigate the class after
hearing many of the claims
about the Silva Method back
in 1972. If you have been to arecent Silva Method course,
you will see fundamental
similarities from 1972 with
today's current training's of
the Silva Method.
An important point to
note about this article is that
its important to enter the
seminar with an open mind.As you will see from the
article, Silva Method training
has always been very
powerful and efficient in
developing ESP abilities in its
students.
Although there are a
few important changes that
have happened in the last 40
years.
The pricing mentioned and
core structure described the
programs of the 70s, much
has changed, the 4 days
course that is described, is
now taught as 2 separate
programs - Silva Life System
and Silva Ultra Mind System. Students no longerhave to take these programs
live - You can study the
program at home - for more
information go to
www.silvalifesystem.com
I loved this article, itsimportant to realize that
different instructors have
different styles. Not everyone
will have the same experience
as the writer.
I wanted to make thisarticle available to you
because what I like is the
objectivity and honest review
from the author. So read on for the fullarticle.
Better and Better,
Laura Silva Quesada
T
HE
SILVAARCHIVES
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
3/9
3 www.silvalifesystem.com
To begin with, there was the ever-present
possibility of fraud. I am a child of the age ofMencken. As a newspaperman I have beenexposed to a well-tempered scale of piousquackery: I have been lugged like a sack ofpotatoes on the shoulders of sensitivity-circlezealots. I have consumed blackstrap molasses and
yogurt in my green youth and organic gruel in mysere and yellow leaf. Furthermore,I am cognizantof criticisms aimed at Mind Control by reputablescientists. What Mind Control is, says Dr. ElmerGreen, a research psychologistat the MenningerFoundation of Topeka,"is a very intense hypnoticinduction. People have been doing this for ahundred years." In a Globe interview, Dr. ThomasB.Mulholland,who heads the perception lab atthe Bedford Veterans Administration Hospital,said that Mind Control graduates tend to bepeople who seek a readymadeanswer to theirproblems outside themselves.
On the other hand,Dr. Walter Houstondark of Newton, a psychologist for more than 40
years familiar with the phenomena of alteredstates of consciousness, actually took the SilvaMind Control course and called it "a progressive,responsible and beneficial enterprise." Hisresponse was confirmed by psychiatrists at the
Menninger Foundation. Clearly there wasdisagreement among the savants. On balance,though, it looked like a very tricky subject, and asI drove toward my first Silva Mind Control sessionto begin four days, 48 hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.training on two weekends, I had to contend with
my prejudices.#
I was prepared for anything.#What I was not prepared for was a spiritual
experience.# Before continuing this account of a four-day psychic trip, it is necessary to define itsbackground.
In 1929, when the German physiologistHansBergerdiscovered that the brain emits faintelectrical impulses identified with different statesof consciousness, his work went largely unnoticed.
Not until the 1950s, after technology made itpossible to measure these patterns, did the study ofbrainwaves get into high gear. (More than adecade ago, studies of Zen and Yoga meditatorsdisclosed they are more adept at producing alphawaves than other test subjects.) Through the use ofthe sensitive amplifier used to record brainfrequencies, the EEG,or electroencephalogram,
four basic types of impulses were classified.# Beta; 14 to 40 cycles per second, the highest-frequency brainwaves, it is associated with thesense perception. The eyes are open, in waking
state. You are in beta now.# Alpha; 7 to 14cycles per second, is associatedwith meditation, daydreaming, ESPand hypnosis,
relaxed, pleasant state of awareness.#
The Descent IntoAlpha
By Robert Taylor, Boston Globe staff writer.
THE
SILVAARCHIVES
A cynic's tale of conversion after four days of confronting his own brain waves.
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
4/9
4 www.silvalifesystem.com
Theta; 4 to 7 cycles per second, vibrating at the borderlineof sleep. There are hints it may be man's most creative,
problem-solving range.# Delta; 0 to 4 cycles per second, are the brainwaves of deepsleep. Newborninfants spend most of their time in delta,
although little research has been done on this level.# While Mind Control, the system devised by JoseSilva, a former electrical engineer from Laredo,Texas, andalso taught by some two dozen spinoffcompetitors such asMind Dynamics and Alpha Dynamics, deals with brain waveconcepts, it should not be confused with the related field of
bio-feedbacktraining.# About 60 West Coast companies manufacture"alpha control" machines, which bleep or tweet the state of aplugged-insubject's brainwaves. Biological feedbackmeasures brain energy. It's a method for attaining consciouscontrol over involuntary bodily processes, blood pressure,nervous tension and heartbeat. Once the user discovers,
through the bleeps that describe his brainwaves, how to
monitor the processes, then he is supposed toproceed
without the help of the device.#
Mind Control accentuates mental development rather thanbrain energy, teaches students how to reach the alpha state atwill and cultivate extra-sensory projection. The psychicaspects of the course are vulnerable, obviously, to Betacriticism. Silva Mind Control has drawn more flak, however,from biological-feedback researchers, who contend Silvashould not claim to train alpha statewith all its attendantbenefits, including control of weight, sleep, smoking,headaches and painunless the course can measure the
alpha waves beyond the shadow of a doubt.# A recent technical study at Trinity University, SanAntonio, which bears the formidable title "EEG Correlates ofAttention in Humans," indicates, though, verbal traininginduces alpha functioning, and graduates of Mind Control
do indeed produce alpha waves.# So much for background. It only remains to be saidthat institutions as various as C.W.Post College and Canisiusare planning to offer the course, the former in the businesscollege, and Canisius as part of the Department of Religious
Studies.
THE
SILVAARCHIVE
S
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
5/9
5 www.silvalifesystem.com
Man's mind is limitless.#Conscious control of the subconsciousthe peacethat passethall understanding, practiced byChristian and Hebrew mystics, Muslim Sufis,Indian yogis and Zen mastersis available to
western culture.#On these premises Jose Silva has based histeaching. I came to his Mind Control course via
an interview with him. As I've said, I'm a child ofthe age of H.L.Menckenrather than Aquarius,by temperament a professional skeptic. But, assuch, it tickled me that a Mexican-American ofhaphazard formal education, out of Laredo,Texas, a municipality best known for its streets anda cowboy wrapped in white linen as cold as theclay, should make the professionals of the U.S.psychology establishment in their groves ofacademereact to the territorial imperative, baretheir teeth and growl low in their throats. I half-
expected a mod capitalist pop guru.#Instead, Silvaturned out to be clear, cogent and
unpretentious. His history was the saga of a manof principle. The stocky, soft-spoken father of
Mind Control had spent decades in researchsupported entirely without foundation money oracademic entanglements, risked religiousexcommunication and social ostracism from themost conformist hinterland of our conformistsociety. He was steeped in Freud,Jungand Adlerand believed Freud had erred in abandoninghypnoanalysis;but he could hardly speak Englishuntil Texas students, excited by what filteredthrough to them six years ago, agreed to swapEnglish lessons for Mind Controlclasses. Silva hadbeen realistic enough to package his teaching sothat he could keep on teaching it, still it seemedpatent that he practiced his message. His childrenwere the earliest graduates. Moreover, refutingintemperate charges of heresy, he has seenhundreds of clergy take his course, andecumenicallyoffers it free to the holy orders ofany recognized persuasion. Over 50,000 peoplehave graduated in the United States and London,and branches are planned in Brazil, Nicaragua,Israel, France and Austria. It costs $150 (there arefamily discounts) though graduates may takerefresher seminars and enroll again and againwithout charge. Mind Control City, now underconstruction in Florida, has no direct ties to Silvaand his Institute, but is the work of an enthusiastic
gradwho happens to be a developer. Students andfaculty have taken Mind Controlat IncarnateWord High School, San Antonio, Silva country, ofcourse, yet in New York City there is a growingtrend among businessmen to send executives and
sales personnel through brainwave training. Theman who can program himself to give up smokingand lose weight can program himself to solve
corporate problems.#Mind Control at one end of its spectrum teeterson a smile and a shoeshine,dispensing a-homely,down-to- earth psychology of winning friends andinfluencing people, and, at the other, healspsychosomatic and corporeal maladies and
broadcasts to the interstellar deeps.#I queried Jose Silva about the remonstrances ofDr. Elmer Green and Silva said the course was theopposite of hypnosis. Having outside agenciescontrol us is nowadays so common that mostpersons are unaware of outside control: histechniques established a basis for developing the
self.#Couldn't some unscrupulous force, I asked, an ill-disposed social order or some embodiment of Mr.Big, acquire Mind Control and use it to reduce us
to zombiestatus?#
Not at all; Silva insisted his syllabus enables eachindividual student to govern his energy byintelligent self-management. True, the Russianshave long been developing psychic research, anoffshoot of their space program, and SheilaOstranderand LynnSchroederin their bookPsychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, state theSoviet government supports para-psychologicalresearch to the tune of an estimated 20 million
rubles a year. The U.S. budget is apparently zero.#Whatever the Soviets intend to do with theirpsychic discoveries, one thing they can't do is placethe double-whammyon the US. Jose Silvaemphasized that harmful ESPis an impossibility.In 1965, after investing over a half-million dollarsand nearly a quarter-century of his life, andbelieving he and his associates had discoveredsomething of enormous value, Silva wrote and
Silva kept right on going. The royalties from hiscorporation support him and his familycomfortably, but he siphons a percentage of the
tuition toward scientific exploration.#I mentioned the Boston Strangler case. He saidthe Dutch medium, PeterHurkos,the policeconsultant, had in factsolved the case but made asimple beta-level mistake: there were twoindividualswith similar characteristics, a bizarrecoincidence, and when Hurkos returnedfrom thepsychic dimension, he chose thewrong man. Silvastarted talking abouttransmitting and receiving(most"psychics" are natural receivers). On thebeta plane I found myself agreeing withhim,Q.E.D.,but when he presented hisvision of atomorrow, every man afunctioning mystic andtappingunplumbedpowers, I expressed
reservations.#"Why don't you take the course?" he said.#
Over 50,000 people have
graduated in the United States and
London, and branches are planned
in Brazil, Nicaragua, Israel, France
and Austria
THE
SILVAARCHIV
ES
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
6/9
6 www.silvalifesystem.com
THE
SILVAARCHIV
ES
offered it to PresidentJohnson.TheWhite House The White House flatly
rejected the offer.#Silva kept right on going. The royaltiesfrom his corporation support him andhis family comfortably, but he siphons apercentage of the tuition toward
scientific exploration.#
I mentioned the Boston Strangler case.He said the Dutch medium, PeterHurkos,the police consultant, had infactsolved the case but made a simplebeta-level mistake: there were twoindividualswith similar characteristics,a bizarrecoincidence, and whenHurkos returnedfrom the psychicdimension, he chose thewrong man.Silva started talking abouttransmittingand receiving (most"psychics" arenatural receivers). On thebeta plane Ifound myself agreeing withhim,Q.E.D.,but when he presented his
vision of a tomorrow, every man afunctioning mystic and tappingunplumbedpowers, I expressed
reservations.#"Why don't you take the course?" he
said.#Fair enough.#You see, I have this romantic mentalpicture of myself as more open-minded
than LBJ.#"Silva'spsychic," said my wife, Brenda."Why did he bother? Couldn't he haveforeseen that the President would turn it
down?"#Brenda,a sibyl of sorts, had becomeinterested in mind control. Jose hadgenerously provided my own workingpress, freeloader's scholarship; still, I felt
that if you were taking the classes youmight as well go all the way, andinvested the ($150 for an authenticfamily induction. It is one thing toattend a concert as a critic; another as a
member of the paying public.#"Why doesn't he bankrupt The Game?"
I said. "Regard it with the eye of faith."#The eye of faith was clouding over. Themorning was filled by thick rain, theSaturday traffic sparse. On the highway,contestants in The Great Race, a zanyannual marathonbetween Watertownand Marblehead,were streaming
northward. A man sailed past on a high-wheeled bike. So did clots of cyclists.The procession stretched from theGeneral Edwards Bridge toWonderland. There were gaspingrunners, military striders,a one-hossshay. At every dip of the road, itseemed, astonishing hallucinationsswam across the screen ofconsciousness. Suddenly I began to feel
much better about Jose's version of themind. Near Bell Circle, Revere, acontraption consisting of a dozen orfifteen beer-gulping men arranged intiers, florid and pedaling, swayed across
the rainswept void.#"What's that?" Brenda asked.#"Beta reality," I told her.#Christian D.Jensenwas standing beforea chart, which depicted thefrequencies
of awareness, Beta in blue,Alpha ingreen, Thetain red and Deltain black.He is New England RegionalDirectorof Mind Control. "Welcome." Hesaid,"to one of the most interesting
experiences of your life."#He sketched the contours of the course,explained that Mind Control will workif you want it to, for the factor ofmotivation must be present. He tracedthe physical evolution of the brain,relating Delta to the oldest portion at
the rear,Alpha to the mid-partand Betato the forepart. "Our purpose is to gaincontrol over these older frequencies, toreach a deeper, healthier level of mind.
Now since we were going to share afragment of our lives together couldwe identify ourselves and explain why
we're here?#During the next forty-eight class hours Icame to know most of my fellowpilgrims. In our metaphysical way weformed a community definitely morecohesive than, say, my college
contemporaries (scattered on the windsof war) or that T-groupin which thedictum "please touch" became a form ofsubtle psychological aggression. Not allof us would finish together due tostaggered schedules and other reasons;but the major part of the group meetingthe first weekend in The Hotel Lenoxwould graduate the next weekend atAquinas Junior College, Newton. Icould not define any ready-madecategory. Two nuns and a Unitarianminister, white- and blue-collar workers,a medical doctor who preferredanonymity, a cluster of chiropractorswith their wives, a lawyer, a real estatesalesman, students, teachers and amusician who said that he "came for thegoodvibes."Many were taking thecourse for self-improvement; some wereinterested in parapsychology. Kenneth,a black construction worker, said hewanted "to take the course for itspositive aspects"; Tom, one of thechiropractors, hoped it would make himmore aware of his patients' problems.Lillian, an older lady, said, "I'm trying to
get caught up with all the things I'venever done in my life."#
"Welcome." He said,
"to one of the most
interesting experiences
of your life."He explained that Mind
Control will work if youwant it to, for the factor
of motivation must be
present.
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
7/9
7 www.silvalifesystem.com
A sprinkling ofthe class were graduatesback for a brush-up.They had stories totell about experiences ranging frommiraculous cures and precognitivedreams to incidents they might havedismissed as trivial coincidences beforethey took Mind Control. Esther, agraduate, said that she was present "tohelp Chris on the Beta level with thechildren's course." This program,
shorter, less intensive, which is nowbeing organized, willwork with kids
from the age of eight.#"I'm here," said Richard, an X-ray
technician, "because I can't "#"Hold it," said ChrisJensen."Cancel-
cancel."#"Can't" is one of theverbotenwords ofMind Control, along with "kill," "burn,"
"hate," and any destructive term. Thebrain is a highly sophisticated computer,
Jensen said, and when we employphrases negatively, "I'm sick of that,""He's a pain in the neck," "That burnsme up," "I'm dying to do that," we arein effect programming ourselves intosickness, pain, burning out, and death.Mind Control is very concerned withthe impact of language on the psyche"You're energizing the words in yourown mind," and Jensen indicated thatwe should be aware alterations of brainfrequency are taking place.Thecomputer phrase "cancel-cancel," is aritual exorcism, like "God be with you,"designed to erase the effects of negative
vocabulary, clearing the mind for amore positive program. In high-noiseareas, negative programming isconstantly underway. A black lady fromRoxbury,one of the graduates, spoke upand said that in her neighborhoodpeople are terribly exposed to negativeprogramming and that she hadachieved beneficial results from abombardment of violence by steeping
her surroundings in classical music.#The remainder of the morningevaporated in a discussion ofbrainwaves and outer and inner levels ofconsciousness. The lecture was designedas preparation for our first descent intoalpha, which took place after the lunch
break.#Techniques? Elementary enough. Lookupward at a 45-degreeangle till youreyelids tire. Then close your eyes, take a
deep breath, repeat and visualize threetimes the numeral 3. Count down inthis manner from 3 to 1. You are now ina therapeutic state of relaxation, Level
1, which "you may use for any purpose
you desire."#To the soothing beat of a 10-cycle-persecond alpha wave tape, we drifted intothe subconscious like a current ofneophyte pearl divers. From Level 1 wecontinued, led downward by Chris
Jensen."My increasing mental faculties
are for serving humanity better," heintoned. "I have full control andcomplete dominion over my senses andfaculties at this level of the mind. Iwillnever allow myself to developarthritis,diabetes, glaucoma, diseases oftheheart or circulatory system, or thedisease known as cancer"Thephrases belonged to the conditioningprocess. Mind Control does not proposepracticing medicine without a license(each student has to sign a release onthat score) and asserts the doctorassumes an important role for the
humanbeing in the mind-bodyfunction. But italso believes in themaintenance ofhealth by either
physical or mentalmeans.#
Through exercises such as visualizing anidyllic place, Jensen "deepened" theexperience, then guided us by degrees,returning to clock-time consciousness.
We had soloed through inner space.#"How long do you think you were inalpha?" he asked. "Remember, alpha is
a spiritual dimension."#"Five minutes," Brendasaid.#"Thirty-eight minutes," he announced.#
In the beginning you sat with your eyesclosed, wondering whenyou'd get there.After several cycles, however, youstopped worrying and went: indeed, theproblem was not beta interference, butfloating too far, into delta, and fallingasleep. It was like any other aptitude.You had to cultivate the knack.Presently you could enter alpha,sportive as a dolphin. Once you found
the frequency you also discovered abuilt-in tranquilizer.Ten minutes ofalpha seemed equivalent to a night's
rest.#The course roughly fell into two parts.Weekend One: Mind over Matter.Weekend Two: ESPand psychictraining. That first weekend we acquiredwhat are dubbed "formula-type"techniques. Sleep Control for entering anatural, physiological sleep anytime,anywhere; a Mental Alarm Clock;
Headache Control applied to migraineand tension-type headaches; a three-finger technique for strongerprogramming of oneself at the alphalevel; Dream Control (although thecourse doesn't presume to interpretdreams); a memory course based on
visualization; weight and habit control,and a procedure called GloveAnesthesia, which deals with the control
of pain and bleeding.#The second day, Sunday morning,
Lillian arrived at class around eight; shehad set her mental alarm an hour early.Mary, an art teacher, related that
yesterday during alpha, she kept gettingflashes of three automobile wheels. "I'venever had any type of vision before."When she was driving away from lastnight's session she got a sensation of thethree wheels, stopped the car anddiscovered a hubcap missing. Chris saidthat we have to use beta, too. A NewYork instructor employing a techniquecalled The Mental Screen had
visualized his wife and child in ahorrible automobile accident. He hadcarefully replayed the scene, visualizinghis wife stopping at the intersectionwhere the accident occurred, thenproceeding safely. Next, he phoned herand told her to be very careful andbring the car to the garage. She phonedback an hour later the mechaniccouldn't understand how she got there:
the car's brake cylinder was bone-dry.#Testimony is significant. It is, in thephrase of Amy Gross, a writer who tookthe course, "seeding possibilities,
burying them deeper and deeper."#
THE
SILVAARCHIV
ES
"How long do you
think you were in
alpha?" he asked.
"Remember, alpha
is a spiritualdimension.""Five minutes,"
Brenda said."Thirty-eight
minutes," he
announced.
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
8/9
8 www.silvalifesystem.com
Like all students we huddled together at the breaks and
compared hang-ups.#Richard, the Unitarianminister, said, "I'm liberated from aChristian Science background, and I find I'm reacting
negatively to a lot of this."#Brenda said, "With me it's the Norman Vincent Pealedoctrine and the computer jargon."#Charlotte, a graduate, who with her husband comes back forthe conditioning cycles, said to me, "You're not going to writeone of those awful I-was-therestories, are you? How I blew
my mind in 48 hours?"#"Cancel-cancel," I said.#It was the teacher finally who edged us past the lions in ourpath. Chris Jensen treated them like household pets. In the
second portion of the course he had to deal with some fairlyrococo themes, from reincarnation to astral voyaging. By theend, Richard, the minister, had done an accurate psychicreading and "cure" on an afflicted friend of mine, Brendareported that she no longer was bothered by the dilute ethicalexhortations, and as for myself,well, cynic emeritus, I had
stopped believing Menckenhad all the answers.#The techniques of Mind Control, perhaps applied to a newglobal sensibility, suggest to an observer of comparativereligion, roots in venerable tenets,the"beneficial phrases"about getting better and better and abjuring cancer may beinterpreted literally, or as prayer and incantation. The three-
finger technique is used by hitchhikers materializing rides ormotorists after a parking spaceyet also suggests the mudras,or salutary gestures, of Hinduism, and it can symbolize theTrinity. The alpha state not only functions as a bundle of
voltages but as an aspect of paradise. One could extend theseparallels. The initial section of Mind Control, with its
conditioning for creativity and other desirable aims, may belogically explainable. What happens to you inthe second half
is not.#Small cubes of stainless steel, copper, bronze and lead sit on atable. We press them to our foreheads, the traditional "thirdeye" of Tibetantheology. Later we descend into alpha and
project ourselves inside the metals. Some of us don't see athing, but to others the experience creates a vista of infinite
labyrinths, shining towers and exotic inscapes.#"Don't worry if you don't see anything. When I started out Iwas a very poor clairvoyant. We are psychic investigators.Remember: we're educating ourselves subjectively to developour total sensing faculties, ESP in Mind Control is EffectiveSensory Projection. Passing from the inanimate, into the
vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom and the humanyou'll say it's impossible at first, then 'maybe there's
something to that,'and 'I knew it all along.'"#As usual, Chris is nudging us beyond the lions.#We spent the rest ofthe day imagining ourselves insideplants, animals and the human anatomy. The purpose was 'tobuild points of reference.'A theory of matter not dissimilarto that of Democritus,the Greek philosopher who positedatoms, was examined. We pictured the living room wall ofour home and projected ourselves inside, rapped on thesurfaces, sniffed the fiberglass insulation. "You can projecthealing to pets," Chris said. The importance of motivation inMind Controlwas once more stressed; a lady graduate whocould use her atomic mind to communicate with the friskyatoms of thoroughbred horses had been programmed to
abnormalities as a result of the healing program, andinvariably picked the horse running last.#The next project was the construction of a "psychic lab" inwhich we would work "cases"that is, persons with severe
THE
SILVAARCHIV
ES
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/ -
8/13/2019 Descent Into Alpha
9/9
9 www.silvalifesystem.com
health problemsthe next day. We would receive a name,age, and address, we would project the image of the persononto the wall of the lab, diagnose the case and invent a"cure." To assist us we would also invent a pair of
"counselors," one male and one female.#The concept of thecounselors, I gathered, was reassurance.
They were, more or less, guardian angels. Mind Control isacutely aware of the prankish note the counselors oftenprovide; but these add, it seemed to me, a liberating humanoddity. Frank, an erstwhile gambler and diamond in therough, said, "I never told nobody this before, but one night Ipictured that MarioLanzacame in and sang a few songs forme. Could he be my counselor?" Afterward,furnishing ourlabs, Frank said he'd gone into his setup and all he'd foundwas a page of sheet music. ("Frank's beautiful," said Sally, astudent.) Surely, Mario was en route. Alas no, Frank's
counselors were Philistines.#I had had trouble visualizing the lab. First I flattered myself
with the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, then a whitewashedcottage on a knoll. I had willed Bernard Shaw (very high betagent, he) and IsakDinesen,on the grounds that delectableconversation would suffice if nothing worked. Surprisingly
enough, they complied. A fusillade of wit? Nary a vocable.#Which flustered me, until I realized they had another
purpose.#You have entered your laboratory. You are collaborating withSusan who operates a school in Cambridge. She says she willcount to three and at"the count of three the body ofImogeneMcCombe,78, of Arlington, will be on your screen.
Scan the image she says, and select the areas of attraction.Hip, shoulder and joints. What about the hip, Susan asks.You amplify the image. She's got a mended hip, you say, andSusan excitedly replies: "Yes, yes."Was this a fluke? Aneducated guess might be right, especially with a few clues.
Imogene has arthritis. You send help message, anoint herbones. Do you want to do another case, Susansays. You nodand in rapid succession identify symptoms of diabetes, hearttrouble, emphysema and glandular deficiency. Sometimes youare wildly wrong, but the percentage of "hits" is astounding.Around the head of a man who has had a stroke you note adark penumbra. Eventually you switch partners and, workingwith a doctor, detect a liver complaint after entering into thebodily system of the patient. By now you feel a marathoneffort of concentration. You are locked into the frequency,still the pressure is pronounced. Usually the first thought thatwings into your mind is a bulls-eye,but you begin to waver asthough you support a crushing weight. One case after the
other. The struggle for concentration is#The role of Oral Roberts is not one I should have consciouslychosen, all matters being equal. But everywhere around usothers astonished themselves with an eerie precision. Brenda'sfirst case, a boy with a detached retina, was her best. She had
visualized his brow. In the case of the woman withemphysema,I had experienced a tangible constriction of thechest. I could not cease marveling at the mathematical odds
against pinpointing the mended hip.#
That night, graduating, I tried to assess the journey'smeaning. Mary and Frank and many of us would go on,possibly in "cottage groups," a recent fixture of themetropolitan scene. I had begun, wary of fraud, and hadmetamorphosed into?Beta couldn't designate it. MindControl as ChrisJensenhad promised, was a fascinatinghuman experience that couldn't be encapsulated in a formulasentence. At the least the participants received training inhow to relaxa capacity not lightly dismissedand several
had located latent capacities that were astonishing to them.#I looked at Brendaand she smiled and I felt we had come along way.#(Reprinted by permission from Boston Globe. Sunday. August 20.
1972.)#
THE
SILVAARCHIV
ES
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/http://www.silvalifesystem.com/