Subliminal Messaging

Subliminal Messaging
By Phil Bate PhD

Subliminal Messaging has gotten a somewhat “bad” name.  During the “cold war” with the Russians, it was associated with “brainwashing” and torture.  In the 60’s and 70’s, it became associated with “sneaky” advertising by Madison Avenue.  The book by Marshall Mcluhan “The Medium is the Message”, was THE landmark that explained how and why subliminal messaging works.

Many people today still think that there are laws against using it in TV advertising, but they re wrong!  It’s still being used to influence people in many subtle ways.  And, it is, or can be, fairly effective.

Just what is subliminal messaging?  There are many different forms of this “tool”, ranging from newsprint disguised visual content not consciously seen; to audio that is not consciously heard.  How can this be? 

Well it seems that we only consciously see and hear a small portion of the huge input we get from our sense of sound and sight, as otherwise we would be overwhelmed by all this input, and would be unable to concentrate. 

However, the subconscious (AKA unconscious) hears and sees much more, and filters it, thus enabling the conscious mind to operate better, without such distractions.  This is the basic idea of subliminal messaging.  (By the way, the term “subliminal” means “under the threshold”, and of course, “subconscious” means “under consciousness.)).  

Is subliminal messaging really effective?  The answer to that is yes and no.  There are several factors involved:

    1.  Each person in an INDIVIDUAL, and different in individual ways. 
        a. We start with what we inherited with our genes.
        b. We add reaction to every experience in our life, specially the bad ones.
        c. How much stress, both physical and emotional is involved?
        d. What nutritional factors are affecting our ability to handle stress?

    2.  Suggestibility of the individual.  Some are easily influenced by “suggestions” from others, and some are very hard to influence.  50 years ago, when I first started hypnotizing persons, about one person in five was easily hypnotized into what was called a somnambulistic state where he/she would do almost anything that was suggested.  Three more were hypnotizable to some extent, and one was non-hypnotizable.  Today, because TV is a hypnotic agent, almost everyone is hypnotizable to a greater extent.  (The exceptions are the very low IQ, and the schizophrenics.)

There are many hypnotic and subliminal audio and even video programs available for sale, but most of them aren’t very effective, or so it would seem by the results.  What are the factors for failure with these?

    1.  Remember that the subconscious resists change - maintaining homeostasis EVEN WHEN IT’IS WRONG.  This effect is called the Hawthorne Effect.  It’s a real  “resistance” to learning something different.  It is a well known effect in education, and is found in EEG Biofeedback, and found fairly often in Neuroliminal Training.  It slows down all subconscious “learning”, and in some cases, the subconscious actually “fights
back” by making symptoms worse.  This can discourage a lot of people as I found out.

    2.  We live in an age where we expect “magic pills”.  We have been conditioned by the drug and medical industry to expect instant relief or cure.  Unfortunately, there are no real magic pills when dealing with the subconscious.  (The exception may be hypnotic or “suggestion” phenomena, as some instant cures are reported sometimes.)
All too many people try something like subliminal suggestion, and when they see no appreciable improvement within a few days or even weeks, they simply give up, and think “well, that doesn’t work.  (How about those who experience Hawthorne Effect?)

    3.  Too many of the subliminal and hypnotic messages are too generalized (as they have to be in production) to fit the individual.  In my former practice, I was very successful using subliminal messaging, but I personalized each such audio AFTER a long input interview.  Commercial subliminal messaging used for behavior modification can’t do this.

Success with Neuroliminal Training

Neuroliminal Training uses subliminal messaging techniques to actually change brain wave amplitudes.  It uses a blend of talking suggestions and audio sounds to do this.
(EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback does the same thing using expensive equipment and “doctor time” over 30 or so hours.  Is this a form of brainwashing/conditioning?)
While Neuroliminal does use subliminal messaging, it is a quite different usage, and that is why it is “Patent Pending”. 

Why does “changing brain wave amplitudes” solve various mental problems of AD/HD, Autism, Depression, Insomnia, etc?   This is a fact long proved by using EEG Biofeedback for about 40 years.  There are thousands of clinics charging millions of dollars doing it today.

While I cannot prove it (yet), my theory is that by raising the brain wave known as SMR, we somehow change the allergen affect on the brain.  As an orthomolecular psychologist in the 80’s, I was aware that allergy can cause virtually any mental “disease” known to man, and when I found out in 2000. that EEG Biofeedback (AKA Neurofeedback) solves all these same mental “diseases”, the correlation was obvious to me. 

In volunteer testing of well over 100 persons over 3 years, there are way too many ”anecdotal” comments about allergies of all types being “eliminated” or “greatly improved” by Neuroliminal training.  In my opinion, my theory is the only viable one at present.

Allergy Effects

Since increasing the amplitude of the SMR brain wave seems to change allergen brain reactions, you would expect that the success rate for both EEG biofeedback and Neuroliminal Training would be the same.  This has also been true as evidenced by:

    1.  In the original test, three ADHD boys who had undergone 40-60 EEG BF training sessions previously showed no improvement using Neuroliminal Training.  (While this was a disappointment at the time, it shows how similar these two very different systems are.)

    2.  The success rate for ADD/ADHD using EEG BF is generally conceded to be 85% or so.  This would seem to about the same for Neuroliminal Training from the tests conducted to date, and the return comments from customers.  In the 2005 tests on ADHD, all who stayed with testing for up to 8 weeks showed approximately the same overall success as that seen by EEG BF.

    3.  In the 2006 tests for autistic kids, all 13 improved much the same as a similar group would using EEG BF. 

Not all “mental disease” is caused by allergy of course.  Stress is the major factor, and allergy is a huge stress factor.  And, stress is additive. 

There are no good figures for how much allergy affects each mental problem overall, but in my experience, the following figures are close.

ADD/ADHD - Probably 80-90% with mineral toxicity or nutritional deficiency 5-10%

Autism - Probably 50-75% with mineral toxicity a major factor.

Depression - Probably 75-80% with mineral toxicity or nutritional deficiency 20-25%

Schizophrenia - Probably 30-50% with copper toxicity 30-40% and nutritional deficiency 30-50%.  (All three may be in various combinations.) 

By solving the “allergy problem” using either EEG BF or Neuroliminal Training, your odds of success should be similar to the above.