Our Social Science teacher was a "terrible" man in those days - very strict, dogmatic, lazy, old-schooled, always with a negative attitude and very biased when it came to grading papers. His tests consisted of an empty sheet of paper where, on one side, he would simply dictate 7 improvised words we had to define and on the other side he would also dictate an improvised topic he took from the textbook and we should write everything we knew about it. His grading system depended on the amount of lead left by the pencil and once he formed an opinion about you as a student, your grade was set for the entire year. I wasn't in the pool of his favorites because I made the huge mistake of saying I wasn't interested in the class because my area was Math. This comment sealed my fate so I decided to change this.
A new test was on the schedule. We were studying the Roman Empire. This would be my testing ground. The day before the test I decided to go into a deep relaxation and use a method they called "The Helmet Method", where you can get into a person's mind by simulating his or her head as helmet, and then use your new abilities to perceive and make sense of information coming to you. I used it a bit differently - I had a conversation with him and "suggested" a list of 7 words and a topic for the essay on the test. I remember the essay suggestion to be The Theater in Rome. As soon as I finished my exercise, I called my friends and told them I had the 7 words and essay topic for tomorrow's test. The good students laughed at me but still they wrote them down. The not-so-good students listened to me attentively and said they would study those. The next day, my classmates were asking me if I was REALLY sure those were the content of the test. "How could you know? We all know he makes them up on the go". I simply said "wait and see..." When the teacher arrived to the classroom, we were all waiting to see what he would come up with. He handed out the empty sheet of papers, grabbed the textbook and began to dictate the 7 words. One by one, IN ORDER, he said the SAME 7 words I gave to my friends. When he read the 7th word, we were all cheering out loud. I was laughing too, trying to control myself to prevent being sent out of the class and risk a zero on the test. Then, he asked us to turn the page and said the essay topic: The Theater in Rome! Everyone was ecstatic, I was a bit surprised too but very happy and confident at the same time. The grades of the class for that particular test were impressively high. So high that it became the weekly comment in the teacher's lounge.
I wanted to change our fate in his class and even though I believe what I did was not totally pure of intention, it did achieve the final goal. That test was the highest score for a class ever in the history with this teacher and in his mind, we were "good students" and became his favorite class from that point forward. His attitude changed towards all of us - he would be more human than ever and he became one of our favorite teachers. Four of my classmates went ahead and took the Silva Method after this event.
Many other incredible experiences have happened throughout my life, like when I was recruited for a highly desirable job out of a pool of more than fifteen thousand candidates or when I mentally saw my unborn son the moment I saw his mother for the first time, but those are part of other stories...