Does Subliminals Really Work or Is it All In Your Head?

im sorry, what are subliminals? I know what subliminal messages are but not sure what your referring to.

You bought some? can you clarify please?

... well for starters if you doubt them , i guess they wont work . i prefer the old fashion way reading. nothing beats reading a book, taking notes and acting on them.

Subliminal is not that alien. If you read a great sales letter and it attracts you in such a way that you're really want to buy the product being offered, the sales letter actually has attracted your subconscious mind. Ads speak directly to your inner need.

I don't know if it's included.....But I've regularly listened to Theta Wave Binaural Beats audio to find inner relaxation and it worked well for me.

I have been working in the area of psychology, mind programming and hypnotherapy for about 10 years.

Our mind is very protective of 'programs', beliefs etc. stored in our subconscious mind - for understandable reasons - imagine driving along in your car and you suddenly forget how to brake.

Therefore it is very difficult to consciously change programs and habits. We have what's known as the 'critical faculty' that rejects new programs, beliefs from entering the subconscious if they are not congruent with what is already there.

Mind programming whether it be hypnosis, NLP, subliminals or just simply reading / education is about bypassing the critical faculty and entering new programs.

Subliminals do this by having messages masked from the conscious mind.

There are two types:

1) Audio: Normally affirmations delivered on a CD hidden behind music or nature sounds etc.

2) Visual: Hidden within a video or computer program - images flash up so quick they are consciously recognised.

Both can work, from my experience visual tends to work better than audio.

But I htink there are a lot more effective means:

1) Hypnotherapy CDs
2) Affirmation CDs
3) Cognitive behavioural therapy - based on conscious change (now widely used by main stream psychologists)
4) Reading & studying
5) Looking at stories of people similar to you who have achieved what you want to achieve (helps change your beliefs about what is possible)
6) Using vision boards & mind movies - especially going to the effort to create your own. They can implant your goals on your subconscious far more effectively than just written goals.

I have been tempted to create subliminal audio CDs for sale but can't bring myself to for ethical reasons - there is not enough evidence to show they work effectively (at least not on their own).

There is also a lot of miss-information, lies and myths around subliminal messaging.

The biggest being the Vicary experiment of the 1950's:

"In 1957, James Vicary conducted an experiment at a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Vicary placed a tachistoscope (a device which flashes a series of images rapidly onto a screen) in the movie projection room.

During the screening of the movie "Picnic", he flashed several messages ("Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat Popcorn") on the movie screen every five seconds. The messages lasted on 1/3000 of a second at a time, way below the level of conscious perceptibility.

As a result of the messages flashed, Coca-Cola sales increased by 18.1%, whilst popcorn purchases jumped by a significant 57.8%. This clearly demonstrated the incredible persuasive power of subliminal advertising or subliminal messages to persuade consumers to buy things that they normally wouldn’t buy."

It was since proven to be hoax - the results faked by Vicary to help build his advertising business! But even to this day you'll see many using this as evidence to sell their subliminal programs!

Today subliminal messages are still banned in advertising but psychological techniques of persuasion, influence and mind programming are not and remain a staple part of advertising and branding.

e.g. you'll often see on TV advertisers linking various emotional states to their products. Such as be a good, loving parent & buy our washing powder, or Nike associating itself with the success & qualities of star athletes.

In summary, subliminals can work but are most effectively used as part of a wider program.

Changing deeply held subconscious beliefs can be so difficult it's worth using every tool in the box. May be hard work but worth it as it definitely can change your life for the better.

Good luck.

Subliminal advertising is banned on TV & radio.

But you are right in that they do use lots of other psychological techniques very effectively.

According to my psych professor back in college there's been some research done showing that subliminal self help tapes work based off your expectation of them to work.

Ex. They placed a tape telling people they're going to lose weight in a case saying you'll feel more confident. The subjects generally reported feeling more confident even though the actual subliminal messages were telling them they would lose weight. Weight loss did not improve to a statistically significant degree.

The Lesson? Expectation trumps trickery.

Develop full faith in getting whatever you want and it'll start happening. The goal is progress, even slight progress, because it starts making you believe that a growth phase is occurring. And pretty soon it is.

If you believe they will work, they will. Or you can skip the placebo. The choice is your's.

Interestingly: The "classic" example of subliminal advertising being used to promote coke drinks during a movie was just flat out faked up. The more effective version is embedded objects which draw the eye into ad images. There are all sorts of examples of penises and vaginas being inserted in smoking and alcohol ads (among others).

Also, I really shouldn't have skipped over HypnoHugh's post as he gave a WAY better example of the Coke example.

It's funny - yes, belief and expectation makes subliminals work, but they are a kind of catch-22 because people without belief and positive expectations generally won't use any form of subliminals consistently long enough for them to do their job.