A couple years ago a friend of mine who owns a small recording studio mentioned that a client wanted to record a bunch of different subliminal messages on separate tracks and then mix them all down into one hodgepodge under ocean waves or some other masking sound. The idea was that the unconscious mind could sort out and soak up all this knowledge, reprogramming your brain for better golf scores, better relationships, an end to smoking or procrastination, financial independence, enhanced sex, and anything else they felt like including.
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More recently, while flipping through the UHF channels, I discovered some success motivation lecturer types offering their own subliminal tapes with hundreds of multilayered, multitracked affirmations to improve every aspect of your life. It all smacks of snake-oil salesmen selling rose-colored water from the back of a medicine wagon to me. What’s the straight dope on the unconscious mind’s ability to absorb even one subliminal message, much less hundreds at one time? Is it really possible to reprogram my head? –Ken, Panorama City, California
The general reaction to this on the part of the scientific community (to the extent that it noticed at all) was yeah, right. But S & W pointed out the following facts: (1) psychologically neutral messages, such as “people are walking,” have no effect; (2) disturbing messages, such as “Destroy Mother,” have a negative effect, at least on psychiatric patients; and (3) in areas such as the south where the usual term of affection is “Mama” rather than “Mommy,” “Mommy and I are one” has no effect.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
