Subliminal Messages And Their Uses

Subliminal messages are often considered as potent tools for controlling the mind and its manipulation. They form part of secret communication of the mind and sneak into the subconscious mind through ephemeral audio visual tools and affect the conscious choices of a person. The subtle influences of these messages have raised lot of public protest and alarm over the years.

The subliminal messages in the film ‘Picnic’ of the 1950’s as claimed by James Vicary, raised the sale of popcorn by 58% and Coca-Cola by 18% during the experiment period of 6 weeks duration. These messages lasting a fraction of a second with 5 seconds interval flashed ‘Drink Coca Cola’ and ‘Hungry? Eat Popcorn’. This theory was responsible for large protest by the public and was expressed fervently in an article by Normal Cousins. Wilson Bryan Key brought the use of subliminal messages for advertisement purposes to lime light in the book ‘The Clam-Plate Orgy and Other Subliminals the Media Use to Manipulate Your Behavior’. Key substantiated the theory that popular brands exploited hidden sexual and other subliminal messages in order to tempt buyers with various examples in that as well as other books. These arguments made people believe that subliminal messages are mainly used for manipulating the psyche of customers.

The fundamentalist Gary Greenwald conducted public meetings in 1982 to explain the presence and effect of subliminal messages in music in general and rock music in particular. When some of the rock music tapes are played backwards, they disclosed satanic messages driving the youth towards drugs, alcohol and immoral sex, he claimed. This also had great influence on the public, leading to protests and destruction of music tapes. Some people started interpreting suicidal messages in rock music that led the listener to commit suicide. All these events made the general public associate subliminal messages with criminal and occult designs.

In recent times however, many psychologists and companies have discovered the beneficial side of subliminal messages and they are considered to have therapeutic value. Getting rid of bad habits like addiction to smoking or drinking, improving physiological functions like concentration, confidence and self control are some of the beneficial effects of auto hypnosis audio visual CDs that are in wide circulation today. Recurring use of hypnotic music, videos or words like ‘I am confident’ or ‘I won’t eat’ are found to raise self esteem or lower inclination towards food. The market for such self help tapes has grown to a business of $50 millions and subliminal messages are considered to be useful rather than detrimental nowadays. Subliminal messages have overcome their unsavory past and are now employed quite effectively in various self help modalities and are helping people to lead better lives as a result.