Silva Mind Control
(Silva Method)*Christian or New Age Mind Cult?
The Silva Method (formerly Silva Mind Control [SMC]) was developed by José
Silva. Over six million students in 71 countries have taken the Silva
International courses (formerly Silva Mind Control International). (One
Silva's goal is to have the Silva Method course taught to all
school children in grade school and college.) He claims that anyone taking his 48-hour (four-day) course will develop psychic powers. A student is shown how to enter an altered state of
consciousness and, in that state, is taught how to tap into "higher intelligence in the universe." The student is taught how to function psychically and clairvoyantly and invites counselors, or psychic guides, into his mind to help him with his problems. By the third day of the course, students are supposed to be able to operate psychically enough to project their awareness outside of their bodies, i.e., have out-of-body experiences. Their minds are believed to be able to tap into any source in the universe for information, including the minds of other men, alive or dead.
Silva's Method uses visualization and guided imagery quite heavily; both
have long been recognized by sorcerers as the most
powerful and effective methodology for contacting the spirit world to acquire supernatural power, knowledge, and healing. This sort of thing has been going on throughout history. It's known as "shamanism" or witchcraft. Yet, Silva claims that God sent Jesus to teach us all
this!
Obviously, the Silva Method is little more than a New Age psychological
mind control technique rather than a cultic system of teaching with
readily identifiable followers. Nevertheless, it does have spiritual
underpinnings (see Silva's book Keys to the Kingdom), and it considers itself Christian in many ways. Below are the highlights of what Silva Mind Control/Silva Method teaches concerning its source of authority, Christ, sin, salvation, the Holy Spirit, and prayer:
1. Source of Authority. The authority for the Silva Method student is José
Silva and his official publication, THE SILVA METHOD.
2. Jesus Christ. The Silva Method teaches that Jesus did miracles in
the same way that the Silva Method teaches its students. The Bible
teaches that Jesus was not doing miracles by mind over matter. He did them by the power of His Father. Silva's Method fails to differentiate between
the miraculous, genuine supernatural power of God and that which man
attributes to his own mind, which is nothing more than the usurping of the
authority of God and trying to be little gods themselves.
Silva Method also teaches that "Rabbi Jesus was assigned by Almighty
God of the Universe to Planet Earth to teach humanity, in a step-by-step
procedure, how to look for and find what is called the kingdom of God
within us all. ... Jesus came to give us a message to correct the
problem of human development on this planet because Moses didn't do it and
Noah didn't do it, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob didn't ... Zoroaster, Krishna,
Buddha, Mohammed didn't do it. So Jesus finally came to straighten out
their mess and problem ..." Silva says that Jesus said that we are to go
into an alpha state (an altered state of consciousness) with our spirit
guides, thus gaining the psychic powers necessary to correct the human
situation. (Silva also says, "Jesus is not coming back, so we've got to
do it. But He gave us the keys; He gave us the message. Look inside;
find this power; you've got the power, and you can make Earth 'paradise
earth.'")
3. Sin. Silva denies original sin and sees only "problems to be
solved." Silva teaches that the present is a process of materializing
thoughts, while the future is composed of conceived thoughts not yet
materialized. He talks about being able to prophesy, a process of projecting into
thought patterns to see if we can detect information that can help us
solve problems. According to the Silva Method, this information is for
no other thing than for solving problems -- "to make this planet a
better world to live in. ... if you get information to solve problems, where
people are suffering, and you do alleviate that suffering and you
correct the problem, who cares where the information comes from? The idea is
to get it any way you can to stop a problem and forget everything else."
Silva's done away with the blood of Jesus Christ; he's done away with the
sacrificial death of Christ for our sins. According to the Silva
Method, it's not a sin problem anymore; it's ignorance!
4. Salvation. Since Silva believes that we have been sent to the planet
to solve problems (i.e., "to convert this planet into a paradise"),
salvation is earned by one's success in problem-solving. The emphasis is
one of total pragmatism. But just the fact that one is solving problems
does not answer whether an activity is right or pleasing to God. "Positive" results can occur through the occult or psychic worlds.
Being "born again" also has a unique meaning for Silva Method
practitioners: "When we enter the kingdom of heaven, once there, we become
centered and have access to the use of the right brain hemisphere ... This
would truly be the concept of being born again ... being 'born again.'
means, 'Go back and retrace your steps and use the right
brain hemisphere like you did when you were born.' ... when you
use both brain hemispheres, that is really being born again."
Silva sums up what salvation is not in the Silva Method: "Somebody who
died 1,900 years ago or 2,000 years ago, his blood cleansing us from sin
and so forth, that doesn't help solve problems today." Salvation for
Silva leads the lost away from the sacrifice of Christ for their sins
upon the cross. They don't need that anymore. All they require is alpha in
the right brain.
The message of the Silva Method is one of complete rejection of the
redemptive work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, i.e., a claim that we have
power within us. Silva overlooks the central problem of evil in the
human heart, the sinful nature of man, to which Jesus specifically said, "I
come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." One hears no
repentance from Silva, no acknowledgment of any real guilt. Instead,
it's just something that's a state of mind that you can get rid of by
going into your alpha level.
5. Holy Spirit. In the Silva Method, the Holy Spirit is a "dimension
that we can create -- a state of mind to enter it and make use of it for
problem-solving situations. ... We were sent to do a work for God --
help God with creation in thinking of His creatures."
Rather than the Holy Spirit as Counselor, on the third day of Silva
Method training, students are asked to pick two counselors. The lecturer
explains how to invoke them. In the last session, during meditation,
two counselors appear in the laboratory of the student's mind and are available from that point on whenever the student needs them.
Silva says that you consult your counselors anytime you find yourself with a problem and
do not know what to do next: "They are here
to do the work for you; they are here to help you evolve ... become ...
as good as they are, whoever they are." This, of course, is spiritism;
and the nature of spiritism is ultimately demonic. One can hear the
same things from mediums and spiritists who talk to their advisors or
their spirit guides or counselors, all of which is prohibited by Scripture
(cf. Deut. 18).
6. Prayer. For Silva, praying is psychic -- the use of mind: "... we're
praying; we're using psychic systems to pray, to visualize ... imagine
what's to happen, and believe that you already have it and you shall
receive it." (Sounds like the "name-it-and-claim-it" teaching of the
Positive Confession movement.)
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