You never know who you’re going to meet, and what doors they may open to you.

After graduating from college, I spent an idyllic summer living and working with friends along the seashore outside of Boston where I grew up. It was wonderful. I didn’t want it to end. So I decided to pursue a dream and move to a tropical island. I literally had no idea what I was doing, but after a bit of research, I bought a one-way plane ticket and flew to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. The island’s slogan was “American Paradise,” and that it was. My first job was running the water sports concession at a little beach resort, and I was having a grand time.

Then one day my life changed unexpectedly when I met two flight attendants who had just arrived at the resort. They had recently taken a course in something called “mind control,” and they told me wild and wonderful stories about learning to read minds and perform incredible feats of memory and other mental gymnastics. For example, they said they’d learned how to wake up in the middle of the night without an alarm clock, at precisely the time they chose to get up. They also said they’d learned to memorize dozens of items at a time and then reel off the list in whatever order they were asked to. I found that hard to believe . . . until they demonstrated it for me. Then I took them a lot more seriously.

I wondered what else they could do. Could they really read minds? More importantly, could I learn to do what they were doing? The women explained that in addition to learning specific techniques, a critical part of the process was understanding our self-image and belief system, which acts as a homing device. We essentially do what’s necessary to be the type of person we believe ourselves to be. If we want to elevate our game, they said, we need to elevate our self-image—we need to prove to ourselves that we’re better than we think we are. And to learn something new, we first need to be open-minded about the possibility.

I was hooked and couldn’t wait to learn more. I coordinated my next visit back to Boston with the dates of the course the flight attendants had told me about (Silva Mind Control). The program was everything they said it was and more. I quickly and easily learned how to remember long lists of items, forward, backward, and every which way; and I was also able to wake up within a few minutes of any random time I chose—or that was chosen for me.

My initial hunch that it was all a trick was indeed correct. But the “trick” was learning how to program our brains and bodies, and that turned out to be far more powerful—and far more logical— than I’d imagined. That inner alarm clock works because, with a little practice, we can just as easily estimate the passage of time while we’re sleeping as we can when we’re awake. In fact, most people already experience this when they somehow know that it’s time to do something, or when they regularly wake up a minute or two before their alarm goes off.

As for the memorization, I accomplished it through a combination of calming and focusing my mind (the first step in self-hypnosis), visualization techniques, and pre-established “memory hooks.” Today, such skills are taught in seminars around the world; but for me, at age twenty-two, they were nothing short of revelations.

In the second weekend of the course, we moved on to more sophisticated skills. We essentially learned to read minds. There were no parlor games or gimmicks. It required simply being more aware than we usually are and listening more deeply and more attentively than we normally do. It meant feeling the energy of other people and fine-tuning our intuition. Just as we are quick to sense the mood and intentions of our family, friends, and coworkers, so too can we divine other people’s feelings and thoughts. And, with practice, as with any other skill, we get better and better.

I came to appreciate that what we often dismiss as mere guesses are usually valuable perceptions formed by conscious and subconscious knowledge, mixed with subtle yet powerful sensory data, all processed through a tremendously sophisticated biological supercomputer made up of the totality of our brain and body. The instructors explained that the skills we strive to improve in all endeavors benefit from self-belief. Conversely, they are sabotaged by self-doubt.

The development of the particular skills at this course was accomplished the old-fashioned way: through practice and validation. With each new technique I acquired, not only did my repertoire and the muscles of my mind improve, but so did my belief in myself and my appreciation of my potential. The new information substantiated my new and improved self-image. The course designers started with the easy stuff, so that with each improvement we became more eager and open-minded as we realized we could do more.

I called this evidence-based progressive elevation of ability and self-image “The Stairway of Success” And I came away from that course knowing three things beyond any shadow of a doubt:

• We have far greater capacity for perceiving, knowing, and accomplishing than we realize.
• We are essentially biological supercomputers. We are subject to programming—by ourselves and others—often in ways we’re not aware of.
• We can take charge of that programming. Whether we seize that opportunity or relinquish the reins to others is our choice to make.

I have benefitted from these powerful insights and skills throughout my entire life. They inform and improve everything I do and care about. I wrote more about these concepts in Elevate, specifically Insight #3 (We Are Biological Supercomputers) and Skill #3 (PROGRAM and Take Control).

To learn more about the book and get started with a free preview, visit the About Elevate page or take my quiz to determine your state of elevation.

Best,

Joe