Marjorie Dearmont is a popular instructor who brings insight, understanding, depth and humor to her presentations and has received numerous Awards of Excellence and Special Achievement from Silva International through the years. Marjorie teaches The Silva Seminars in Ohio and Texas and completed her Silva training under Dr. Jose and Laura Silva. She focuses primarily on her Silva Method training and techniques but has extensive training in a variety of educational, transformation and healing techniques along with being a Master Hypnotist.
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Related Podcast: Successful Practices using The Silva Method
Transcription of the Podcast
Joseph Dager: Welcome everyone, this is Joe Dager, the host of the Business901 podcast, with me today is Marjorie Dearmont. She is a popular Silva instructor who brings insight, understanding, depth and humor to her presentations and has received numerous Awards of Excellence and Special Achievement from Silva International. Marjorie teaches The Silva Seminars in Ohio and Texas and completed her Silva training under Dr. Jose and Laura Silva. She focuses primarily on this training and techniques but has extensive training in a variety of educational, transformational and healing techniques along with being a Master Hypnotist.
Marjorie, you seem to have covered a lot of ground, and I’m honored to have you on the podcast.
Marjorie Dearmont: Thank you, I’m happy to be here
Joe: Could you start out and just introduce the Silva Technique and maybe how it compares to Meditation, NLP or other techniques?
Marjorie: Yes, the Silva method is unique in that we operate in meditation at the Alpha brainwave frequency. Many of the meditations take you into a quiet state where you still your mind and maybe just right at the edge of sleep. But the Silva method focuses on gaining control of the Alpha level, which is a little faster brainwave frequency. At that level, we can be mentally active, and that’s what makes it so unique because we can do the programming and many techniques and develop our intuitive abilities at that level.
Joe: Well, what are the different levels of consciousness and the characteristics of each?
Marjorie: When we’re first born we are operating out of more intuitive abilities, instinctive behavior, and that’s between 0 and 5 dominant brainwave frequencies. At about 4 years old we develop to the point where we are operating at the point of maybe the Theta brainwave frequency, which is between 4 and 7 cycles per second. The important things about the two levels is that a child is taking in information and storing it away and creating what we term as programming that they operate out of, most of us, for the rest of our life. Between 7 and 14 years of age, we are dominantly operating at the Alpha brainwave frequency which is this intuitive and creative level of functioning and that is the dominant level, which is very important in our development. Beyond 14 years of age, we are developing more of the Beta brainwave frequency, which is the logical reasoning capability. It is said that a child or a person doesn’t fully develop until about 25 years of age.
Those are the different levels, and the dominant brainwave frequency of the Beta level is what most of us operate out of because we are taught to be logical and reasonable and not depend on our intuitive abilities. Our goal is to integrate the use of the Beta and Alpha brainwave frequencies so that we can be more creative in solving our problems and use more of our intuitive abilities.
Joe: So at any age level, can I flip-flop between Alpha and Beta, Delta and Theta or can I go all the way back to Delta?
Marjorie: We go to Delta primarily in our sleep and then at death. I don’t know that there’s been anyone who has been recorded as being active at the Delta level, the slowest brain wave frequency. The Theta level is very important because that is where a lot of the programming of limiting beliefs resides. We have a little bit of time in the seminar, my four-day seminar, to practice going into that level so that you can create more of a connection and use them in a more integrated way. So yes, you do go into and out of those levels constantly with your focus.
Joe: Does it take meditation to get to these different levels?
Marjorie: No, people operate at Alpha naturally like when you go into a meditative state, even if you don’t close your eyes and you get into that level. When you’re watching a movie or when you’re focusing in a creative way, you’re using your Alpha level and that is a natural thing that creative people do. The goal is to do it in a more deliberate way so that we can be more effective at it and use the intuitive level particularly effectively.
Joe: I’m sure that brainwaves can be measured, but do you have a feeling or do you know when you’re in any of these different levels?
Marjorie: Yes, in the beginning students, often are apprehensive about whether or not they are getting into the Alpha level. But anytime you close your eyes you cut out about 80% of all distractions. When you get relaxed and focus in a quiet way, you feel different. Then with the training we go into about twelve different exercises in the four-day seminar so that after two days you can close your eyes and use our technique for getting into that level. You definitely feel more focused and more relaxed, when we say we are at a deeper level; we are talking about more focused at this meditative state.
Joe: Can I learn this on my own or do I really need a coach?
Marjorie: You can learn it on your own. I have many people who have read the books, listened to the CD’s and come to class and will say that there is nothing like experiencing it. I think the primary reason is as you listen to someone who has control of these levels and a teacher who is giving the information and the exercise at these levels, you’re getting the information at all the different levels. When you’re listening to a CD, there’s a limitation as to what you get and when you’re reading of course you don’t get the information at all those different levels. Do you understand?
Joe: Yes, it’s like watching any type of “How-To” video; you get a different feeling from a football coach on how you should tackle someone versus watching how you should do it on TV
Marjorie: Exactly and actually doing it is something else again.
Joe: Dr. Silva is credited with bringing meditation to the Western culture. Why is it not more mainstream than it is, why is meditation kind of taboo? Sometimes people aren’t even vocal that they do it.
Marjorie: That’s a very good question, and I wish I knew the answer so that I could overcome that. More and more doctors are recommending meditation because it is healthy; it puts your brain and body into the healthiest state so that it can operate as it should. People who use a balanced brain; they’re much more effective in their work, in their relationships, and in every part of their life. So to answer, I really don’t know but I wish it were more popular for the good of all of us.
Joe: What have you seen some of the resistances? I mean most people that come to your class want to learn meditation but what have you seen as being some of the resistances for the acceptance, maybe even in the medical profession?
Marjorie: Well, I think that a part of it may be that the Silva method gives control to the individual and it shows us how we are responsible for many of the problems in our life, the law of attraction; you create whatever you focus on, and when we focus on taking control of that, that takes control away from others who maybe want to control us.
Joe: You think of change, you think of the outside influences that are stopping you from changing, but having that control of yourself, you can dictate that much easier
Marjorie: There are many organizations who do want to tell us what to think and when and how and so they are resistant, not understanding that we would all benefit from taking responsibility and as you say, making the changes that we need to do to make things work better for everyone.
Joe: What has always intrigued me about the Silva method was summed up in Dr. Silva’s one phrase I am going to use but it’s very much about doing something it’s not this passive meditation type thing and the way he summed it up is “we were not here to take a long coffee break, we are here to make this planet a paradise”. I thought that summed it up well.
Marjorie: Yes, I agree, and he was a self-taught man, he had not one day of schooling in his life. He was working when he was 5 years old to help support the family there in Laredo. He knew the importance of doing and learning how to do it most correctly. His work, he developed such an interest in psychology that he was more well-read than most people. He has many doctorates given to him by universities because they understood how he operated and his goal was to help the children, he had 10, and the neighborhood children and then their parents wanted information that was helping their children. It just grew out of that and spread because of demand from people who wanted more information and the abilities that he had. He was very involved in helping humanity, and he wanted to motivate the rest of us to do that too because he knew things could be ever so much better.
Joe: Creativity, innovation, imagination are all industry buzzwords right now, and I always think of Einstein’s statement that “logic will get you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere”. Can the Silva Method make you more imaginative?
Marjorie: Absolutely, the techniques that we have are developed to strengthen the use of the Alpha level, which is that creative, imaginative part of us. The techniques we teach in the class give you the exercise and abilities and then getting into the Alpha and Theta levels puts us in connection with, my term is the “one-mind”. There is I believe a universal consciousness, cosmic consciousness, call it what you will. I find myself knowing things that there’s no way that I could have recorded that in my brain cells, but I feel that we are all connected at that level when we get into this Alpha-meditative state. So yes, the imagination, the creativity it’s all a part of learning how to use your brain most effectively.
Joe: Can you explain the steps of all of it, how it works or what you take someone through in maybe a four day seminar?
Marjorie: In the beginning we start with relaxation and to get mentally relaxed we talk about how we program ourselves in a very negative way. If you listen to other people or listen to yourself with the comments that we make, for example, if you do something that’s a little awkward. You might call yourself “such a dummie” or “I’m so stupid” or “I’m awkward” and then “I can’t do things” and all of the limitations that we give ourselves in our speech and the thoughts that we have. Someone said we had 60,000 thoughts a day and 80% of those are negative. Most of those we have thought before or something like that. If you start listening to yourself, and make it a focus in the very beginning to cancel out that kind of negative talking and to prevent other people’s negative speech and actions to record in our brain functioning that eliminates much of the stress.
We physically relax from head to toe, and that is something we continuously practice throughout the class. We have techniques for getting a good night’s sleep, which is very important. We know that your quality of sleep is the most important determinate of the length of your life that was a shock to me. Then things like developing your memory and concentration and stopping pain and bleeding and of course goal setting. The most powerful way to set your goals is at this level so that you internally agree with what you say you want to do.
There are many other very practical techniques we go through. The second part of a four-day seminar, there are two individual seminars together to make up a four-day immersion. The second part is developing that intuitive ability. It’s a process. By the time we get through, people are doing remote viewing so that they are able to solve problems at a distance and this may seem kind of out there but it has been proven by universities that this is something that we can detect something at a difference and affect it in a physical way from a distance. This is proven the fact, so this is something that we focus on particularly with healing capabilities for people that we know and care about.
Joe: I’m trying to get my arms around it, and it is really active meditation.
Marjorie: Yes, yes definitely, you’re mentally active every time I or the instructor takes the class into the meditative state and it may seem draining, but it’s a very relaxing and healthy state and some of the exercises go 30-40 minutes and you may get a little tired of sitting but you’re mentally active so you’re never bored.
Joe: I’m in sales and marketing so how can the Silva method help me in sales and maybe in my performance in that area?
Marjorie: Well it can help you in every way you use your mind, you may be familiar with the research done for professional athletes and about how they trained. There were four different groups. One of them spends all of their time training physically, another one 75% of their time physically and the other 25% mentally and then half and half and then group four spent 25% of their total time training physically and with the other 75% training mentally. The surprising thing for many people was that group four was the most effective and showed significantly greater improvement than those who physically trained more of the time.
The same thing carries over into anything that we want to do, whether it’s making a sales call or negotiating an agreement. Anything we’re doing. If we spend time, ahead of time, focusing on the conversation and the feelings that we want to develop in the relationship that we are having or the sales relationship or whichever and doing it in a positive way, we are creating a positive connection. It’s a term we call “subjective communication.” We’re always communicating with people in much more than our words and you experience this when you meet someone, and you didn’t like the way that they look. You were picking up on their energy and we can do this ahead of time at the meditative state to create a connection and to pick up on any of the resistance and to answer questions and to help to persuade people that what you have to offer is what is good for them. We’re not trying to control people; we’re not able to control people. I want to stress that, but we’re able to influence people when it’s for the good of both. This is always part of our programming when it’s for the good of all concerned. When we can do that ahead of time, we can eliminate a lot of the awkwardness in the beginning if we have felt awkwardness.
I know my husband, when we took the classes, was an international marketing manager and he travelled all over to do negotiating and people, some of his co-workers, would say “you’ll never get this one done” but he would use the subjective communication, the programming ahead of time and he did things that was good for both companies in a very positive way. This carries over into anything we do whether it is sports or sales or management or anything we work with.
Joe: I should take a break before I go in on a sales call. Sit there for 2 minutes and put myself in that state just to frame the situation before I walk in the door
Marjorie: Right, but a little more than that, if you would actually play out the conversation that you would desire to be able to bring about and get the objections answered ahead of time you would be surprised by the connection you would have when you made that call.
Joe: Is this sort of what you mean about visualization and subjective communication making a difference in our work?
Marjorie: That’s a big part of it, but I always, for my personal activities, go back to the law of attraction and if I have a positive state of mind about me and the person. Or, the people that I’m working with and the world in general then I’m going to be able to influence that and draw to me people that will work within the framework of my world view. On the other hand, if I’m very suspicious and feel like people are out to get me and I’m very careful around people and protective of myself, then I am going to attract to me those people that might do harm to me.
That’s my belief based on the law of attraction, which is another buzzword that I hear a lot. If I am operating in a positive way and then I’m one of those people that others call “lucky” and I’m in the right place at the right time. Although you do have to do the preparation and know what you’re talking about, it’s a very big factor, it’s not an accident, it’s based on your entire world view and your projection of the energy you put out. That’s what my belief is.
Joe: Hope you don’t mind if I ask a silly question here, but how do you get lucky? How long does it take?
Marjorie: Well, I’ve been teaching this for 26 years! No, seriously, it takes as long as it takes for you to believe that you are a positive, effective person and other people are positive and will cooperate with you and the things you want to do and operate in an honest way with integrity with other people – simplified; being a good person.
Joe: What’s new with Silva? Is it the same things that Dr. Silva talked about 40-50 years ago? Are there new, cutting edge technologies out there?
Marjorie: The Silva method is basically what Jose Silva developed back in early years and continued to develop and update. However, in 2008 Laura Silva Quesada, one of his younger daughters became our President and she has done some very creative things in, I would say, updating the method and including things that might be more relevant.
When Jose taught this, the world was in a much different place, even when I first started teaching, I would have to describe to people about the law of attraction and about these things very deliberately because there was not that acceptance. We have books; we have movies; we have all kinds of information that people are exposed to now. People are more open and ready to experience new things like now in the second class we have psychometry, which is way far out there. We would have never gotten away with that back in the 80’s.
When Laura took over, we had been teaching the entire seminar in two days. She knew that was too much as we instructors did, so she divided it into two separate seminars. The Silva Life System, which is the basic information and the basic tools and techniques and getting into the intuitive part of us. Then, the second seminar is the Silva Intuition Training, which includes all of those intuitive exercises and the tools and the activities that I mentioned.
I am now almost completely teaching what we call now the Silva Immersion Training, which gives us four days in a row with all of that and people can take only the basic one if they choose or the other one if they’ve had the basic one. They still have that choice, but I like to do them all at once so that the people who do want to be in the immersion part of it are able to do that in four days.
The big thing about the Silva method I think that makes it unlike most other seminars is that we have a free repeat privilege. Jose began this, and we continue it. Anyone who has taken the seminar, I have people from foreign countries who took it 20 years ago came, and they can repeat the seminar for only a $50 of what we call a seat fee to help cover the expenses of having more graduates. Often, I have more graduates repeating than I have new people taking the class, which is wonderful because they have so much to share.
Joe: Tell me a little bit about your seminars, can you expand on that a little bit and how often you put them on and where they’re and timing?
Marjorie: I live in Texas now, and I began teaching in Akron, Ohio, and I still go back there two times a year. I’m going back there in October for a four-day seminar, October the 10th to the 14th and then I’ll come back in the spring. I teach here in Texas, I teach in Houston; we lived have lived here for a long period of time, and I have a class probably in November coming up there. I haven’t solidified that yet, and then I’m teaching a class here the last week of October, which is also the four-day seminar, and again people can take only the two days if they want.
Joe: How can someone find you on the web and contact you?
Marjorie: My website is marjoriedearmont.com and under schedule and tuition it has all of the information. I’ll be happy to talk or correspond by email with anyone who has more questions.
Joe: Is there anything you would like to add that maybe I didn’t ask about the Silva method or yourself?
Marjorie: I think now is an extremely important time for people to take control and responsibility for their lives, things are changing so dramatically. I think this is just the beginning of the rapid changes that we’re going to be seeing and the more grounded we can get and the more capable we are of being in control of our own energies, the more easily we can navigate that and help others around us to do the same thing, so I think now is the time.
Joe: I would like to thank you very much Marjorie, I was thoroughly intrigued by this subject and this podcast will be available in the Business901 website and also the Business901 Itunes store, so thanks again Marjorie.
Marjorie: Thank you.