The two boys developed an interest in science at the age of ten when they built a model rocket out of old fire extinguishers and crashed it into their grandmother's flower garden.
DeSilva attended high school at Flint Central Junior College where he was the student speaker of the year and he graduated in 1966.
He then attended Michigan State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 1969.
After graduating from MSU, he took a job as an auditor for General Motors (GM).
DeSilva began writing seriously while still attending college. He sold his first story to "The Saturday Evening Post" when he was only 17 years old. It was titled "The Eager Beaver."
His other short stories have appeared in magazines such as "High Times", "High Trail", "Esquire", "Omni", "Gourmet" and "Playboy".
He has also published numerous articles on drug use, sex, politics, and philosophy, which have appeared in numerous magazines including "High Times", "High Trail", "Omni", "Gourmet", "Playboy" and the German magazine, Stern.
He has written more than twenty non-fiction books including the 6-volume autobiography titled, Momma's Boy . This title has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Swedish.
His newest book is titled The Last Laugh . It is about LSD or LSD-25 which is now being considered for chemical weapon status by the United Nations International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which is based in Lyon, France.
This book is also available in French under the title Le Dernier Coup de Vent . L'Acide Lysergique ou LSD-25 est actuellement considéré comme une arme chimique par l'Unesco et par l'Autorité Internationale pour la Recherche contre le Cancer (IARC). The author has organized several international conferences on this subject including one at Lausanne Switzerland in April 1994 called LSD: Is it Dangerous? Is it Good?
He has given speeches at many universities around the U.S., Canada and Europe including Harvard University, Yale University