Burt Goldman

Burt Goldman, known as “The American Monk,” was an American meditation teacher and one of the earliest and most prominent instructors of the Silva Method, having studied directly with Jose Silva.

After decades of teaching mind control, meditation, and visualization, he became widely known late in life for “Quantum Jumping”—a guided visualization technique premised on the idea that one can mentally “visit” alternate-self versions in parallel realities to acquire their skills, confidence, and creativity.

Goldman’s significance is twofold: as a living link to the foundational Silva Method, and as a popularizer of the “alternate self / parallel reality” motif that anticipates later reality-shifting culture. Marketed heavily online (notably via Mindvalley), Quantum Jumping borrowed the language of quantum many-worlds to dramatize a classic visualization exercise.

He thus sits at the intersection of mid-century mental training and the 2010s online manifestation economy, and prefigures the “shifting between realities” theme found in youtube reality-shifting communities.