Imagination · “Feel It Real”
The Mental Screen
On an imagined mental screen, briefly view the problem (illness or unmet goal), then deliberately replace it with a vivid image of the healed, accomplished outcome — to focus intent and support coping.
Stone’s mental-screen healing in 5 lines: At your alpha level, imagine a movie screen out in front, slightly up. Glance briefly at the problem. Erase it. Project a vivid image of the body well / the goal achieved, in full detail and feeling. Affirm it as present, give thanks, count up 1→5 — always alongside real medical care.
What it is
Stone’s central self-healing exercise in You the Healer. At the alpha level the practitioner imagines a mental screen — like a movie screen a few feet out in front of the mind’s eye, slightly up — and uses it in a deliberate two-step sequence: first project a brief image of the problem (the ailment, or the situation as it is now), then erase or fade it and replace it with a vivid, detailed image of the desired outcome — the body well, the goal achieved — felt as already true and held with positive emotion.
This is Stone’s healing-focused use of the Silva Mental Screen. The screen itself, and “start with a simple object” training, are José Silva’s (see the de-dup note in §8 and ).
Stone’s distinct contribution is the problem-then-solution replacement structure aimed at health, with the rule that the negative image is shown only briefly and the positive image is dwelt on.
The Method
Always set up after entering the alpha level.
- At your level, imagine the screen — a large movie screen out in front of you, positioned slightly above the line of sight.
- Project the problem, briefly. See the condition as it is now (the affected body part, or the unwanted situation). Stone keeps this glance short — long enough to identify, not to brood.
- Erase and replace. Wipe the screen, fade the image out, or let it shrink and vanish. In its place project the solution image: the body healthy and functioning normally, the goal accomplished. Build colour, detail, light, movement.
- Feel it as present, affirm it. Engage the senses; hold the image with calm conviction, in Stone’s phrasing as “a deeper, healthier level of mind.” Add a present-tense affirmation (e.g. “This is so; I am well”).
- Close with gratitude, then count up 1→5 to return. Stone advises returning to the screen daily; repetition is part of the design. (The mental screen and its slightly-raised position are Silva’s. The brief-problem → erase → vivid-solution sequence, the “show the negative only briefly” rule, and the health framing are how Stone teaches it in You the Healer.)
Source & Lineage
Robert B. Stone taught the Silva Method for two decades and wrote the self-healing course as You the Healer (1994). The Mental Screen originates with José Silva, and is near-identical to Maxwell Maltz’s “Theater of the Mind” (Psycho-Cybernetics, 1960). Stone adapts the screen to a structured self-healing routine.
Common refinements
Dwelling on the problem image. Show it briefly, then erase. Lingering rehearses the unwanted state.
- Treating it as the cure. It is adjunct support, not therapy; keep all medical care in place.
- Demanding photographic vividness. Faint imagers (and people with aphantasia) can use felt sense and “knowing” — the intent matters more than picture quality.
- Straining the eyes. The upward gaze is gentle and inward, not a physical squint.
- Impatience. Stone designed it as a daily repetition, not a one-shot fix.