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This story sent to us by Ed Bernd Jr.:

I first found your grandfather's books... the set he did about the Secret of the Ages... was that it? I found that shortly after I took the Silva course in 1975... his sales letter sold me on it, and I paid his price, not realizing until later that it was available in paperback for a couple of bucks. It was... and is... great stuff.

And then I have a friend... John La Tourrette... who is a fabulous direct markerter... who learned from the Rober Collier Letter Book. It took me a while, but I finally found a copy on eBay... nobody else bid on it so I got it for less than $10!

But the best thing of all was Riches Within Your Reach. I was at the local flea market on a hot summer day in 1999, not long after Jose Silva had died... I have worked for Jose Silva here at the headquarters in Laredo, Texas, since 1981... I was tired, run down thanks to the polio I had back in 1945, impatient with my 75 year old friend Daniel who insisted on waiting for the produce man to return to his stand so Daniel could buy something.... Anyway... in the back of the flea market I glanced into a box and a book just jumped out at me. I picked it up to see why... nice neat cover, hardback, a little silver line, simple title, and when I looked and saw who the author was, I knew it was for me. My eyes hurt (from the post polio problems) and I probably never would have read the book if Daniel hadn't insisted on waiting for the produce man! I was working on a book that I had started with Mr. Silva, on his UltraMind ESP System. As I read Riches, I thought to myself, I've got to copy this! It is exactly what we need. Then I got to page 33, the paragraph at the bottom of the page answered the questions I'd never found answers to. It is about "letting" things happen. "I will do all that I am given to do, but for the rest, it is up to the God in me, for the God in me knows what my right work is."

That is the essence of Jose Silva's UltraMind ESP System. I read that paragraph over and over and over until Daniel finally had his produce and was ready to go. I contacted your family and got their okay to use it in the UltraMind book, and I gave them credit... I think I got the city name spelled right... I had an editor and a proofreader to help out!

I sure wish that Rober Collier and Jose Silva could have met, could have worked together. Robert Collier understood, but didn't have a system to teach people to develop their ESP. Jose Silva developed that system, about the time that your grandfather died. He invested 22 years of research, at a personal cost of half a million dollars, to figure it out. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Mr. Collier were here to write these books and make the tape albums, instead of me? But now they are both gone, and it is up to folks like you and me to carry on.

I'll certainly continue to refer people to your grandfather's work. He was an amazing man... it still baffles me how someone could be such a hard-sell salesman... even doing things that are now against the law! ... and yet could be such a spiritual man.

Not long ago, I found a magazine on eBay that your grandfather edited, about 75 years ago. The articles were all very spiritually oriented... the same thing we teach... it is not about deciding what you want and setting goals to get those things at any cost... it is about improving conditions, making life better for people, and you will be compensated for it. People just don't get it!

If you've got more of those old materials available, John and I would both love to see copies. Maybe you could put up a web site... that magazine is in the public domain, or will be the end of the year, so it can be used. You can read John La Tourrette's article on our web sites if you want to, just go to the Site Index page, find his name and click on it to go straight to his story.

Well... I hope I haven't bored you too much... Robert Collier has been a part of my life for a long time, and became a very big part of my life and of my understanding of the UltraMind ESP System after Mr. Silva died, when that copy of Riches Within Your Reach came into my life... and coincidences conspired to get me to that paragraph. I haven't gone past page 33 yet. And I'm sure I would not have read the book yet... 3 years later... if it hadn't been for the "coincidence" of the produce man being away from his stand and Daniel insisting we wait for him. Wow!

"See things as you would have them be instead of as they are."

-- Robert Collier