James Vicary claimed that by flashing subliminal messages to the movie audience instructing them to purchase coca cola and popcorn that the sales of these products were significantly increased.
The Vicary study caused controversy from the outset. It caused concern in government which eventually bled to the general public. The panic created soon paved the way for a complete ban of subliminal messages from TV and radio in several countries!
Even though James Vicary told Advertising Age that his study was a "gimmick" and his findings were falsified the acceptance that subliminal messages produce results remains. If the experiment was false and subsequent studies produce no real meaningful data from the use of subliminal messages why does the belief in their effectiveness remain to this day?
Perhaps part of the answer lies in some 1957 subliminal messages experiments conducted by a very large and powerful organization.
While the battle raged over the effectiveness of subliminal messages the CIA were quietly conducting their own research into the phenomenon!
The CIA was most interested in whether subliminal messages could be used to influence targets to think and act in certain ways. In classified documents, that were released under The Freedom of Information Act, is evidence of how the CIA were involved heavily in the research of subliminal messages as a method of forced control.
"The Operational Potential of Subliminal Perception" is a 1958 CIA document that has been released which outlines the agency's involvement in the study of subliminal messages. In addition to this, in 1980, Martin A. Lee wrote an article for High Times in which he claims a former CIA agent stated that the CIA were committed to the investigation of subliminal messages as a tool for manipulation in politics and whether or not they could use them to influence the outcome of a political vote.
In the declassified document, the CIA observed that it might be possible to include a subliminal message such as 'Obey'!
Although we have no way of knowing whether the CIA ever stopped their investigations into subliminal messages we do know that it is prevalent in advertising. It is also used frequently in self improvement fields as a tool for self change. Subliminal messages are used in a variety of personal development products.
What are subliminal messages? Well, subliminal messages are affirmations that are given just below the threshold of conscious awareness. Subliminal messages are used to program the subconscious mind or influence subconscious behaviour. This means that anything that is deliberately given to you at a subconscious level in order to change your perspective, outlook, behaviour or beliefs are subliminal messages! Simply put subliminal messages are affirmations that are presented to you at a subconscious level. Subconscious messages are statements that bypass your conscious reasoning faculties and seep into the subconscious mind.
Many people believe that subliminal messages are images that are invisible to you or voices that cannot be heard. This is far from the truth. For subliminal messages to be effective they must be visible and you must be able audible. Subliminal messages are merely hidden or masked behind other things.
For example subliminal messages in advertising usually involve masking images or words so that they blend in with their background and they only becomes apparent when they are either pointed out, looked for, or accidently noticed. The subliminal messages must be visible or else they would not work. The same applies to subliminal messages in recordings. The auditory subliminal messages must be clear and easy to hear if the other sounds are removed. This is the reason so many subliminal messages in audios are masked, or hidden behind, ocean waves or music. They mask or hide the subliminal messages so that you cannot consciously make out what is being or even determine if it is actually a voice. Take away the ocean waves or music and you would clearly hear the subliminal messages!
The reason for the effectiveness of subliminal messages is due to the way your mind works. You can only consciously concentrate on, between 3 to 7, things at any one time. However, your subconscious mind is aware of millions of things happening all at once. This is extremely necessary for two reasons.
Your ability to block out almost all of the stimuli that is reaching your senses allows to remain focused on what you are doing. If everything that is happening around you were to become apparent to you, you would have sensory overload and be unable to function efficiently at any given task. The only time other stimuli comes into your conscious awareness is when they require your attention. It is then that the subconscious mind alerts the conscious mind of this stimulus.
Likewise you have learned to walk, talk and drive consciously. Yet, when you perform these tasks now, you access your subconscious programs and run them automatically. This frees up your conscious mind to do other things. Once you consciously learn something it is passed into the subconscious mind for storage and retrieval. The same applies to your current predominate thoughts, attitudes and feelings.
Most of your beliefs and attitudes have been formed over many years and many have been critically analysed and tested throughout your life. These beliefs and attitudes are stored in your subconscious mind and accessed as you need them. The subconscious mind is an obedient servant to the conscious mind. In fact it is merely a storehouse of information, feelings and beliefs. It cannot analyse or decide what it holds or what it does not. It accepts as fact everything that is given to it. To program the subconscious with stored information it is usually necessary for the information to pass through the conscious mind where it can be analysed and accepted or rejected. The conscious mind therefore acts a gatekeeper to the subconscious mind!
However, the subconscious mind can be influenced without interference from the conscious mind through the use of subliminal messages. This can be used to influence behaviour, beliefs and attitudes and should therefore be totally under your control!
Advertisers have known about the power of using subliminal messages for decades and use them to ignite your emotions and sway your buying habits. By embedding subliminal messages into ads they can make a connection between their product and a pleasurable feeling, belief or physical drive at a subconscious level.
In a similar way you can use the power of subliminal messages to reprogram your mind with new beliefs, attitudes, skills and feelings. By using subliminal messages you can begin to program yourself and change your attitudes and actions to suit you.