The Silva Method (formerly Silva Mind Control) is a self-help program which claims to teach one how to increase one's IQ, develop clairvoyance and use the mind to heal the body and find some sort of god, among other things. The program promises to teach you to "use the untapped power of your mind to accomplish whatever you desire."* The program is a hodgepodge put together by trial and error by José Silva (1914-1999), an electronic repairman who had a voracious appetite for literature in psychology, parapsychology, and religion. He studied hypnosis, hoping to use it to increase the IQ of his children, but became interested in developing psychic abilities after he became convinced that one of his daughters was clairvoyant.