Subliminal affirmations can be use to influence yourself and other people on a subconscious level. In this article I'll explain the history behind subliminal affirmations and how you can use them to positively influence your thinking and behaviour.
A Brief History of Subliminal Messages
The term subliminal comes from the Latin phrase sub limen which means below the threshold.
It was merely a concept during the early 1900s until psychologists began considering the use of external subliminal stimuli as a means to influence people’s behavior.
It continued to be a topic of interest for psychologists in the 1950s when advertisers eventually got a hint of the idea.
These advertisers thought they could increase their sales if they managed to apply these subliminal messages in the right way.
Subliminals And The Ad Industry
Then came James Vicary.
A man in the advertising industry who claimed he could increase Coca Cola and popcorn sales in a New Jersey movie theater in 1957.
He flashed the words “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coca Cola” multiple times during the movie Picnic.
These flashes were so fast that they were not detectable by the viewers’ conscious minds. Yet Vicary reported an 18.1% increase in Coca Cola sales and 57.8% for popcorn.
Concerns For Brainwashing
The numbers Vicary reported were staggering. It made waves in the advertising industry and caught the FCC’s attention.
There were concerns of possible brainwashing if these so-called subliminal messages were to be utilized properly. So Vicary was asked to perform his experiment a second time.
Turns out, it was all a charade. His first experiment was a hoax and Vicary himself admitted that he made up the results to elevate business for his advertisement agency.
Do Subliminal Messages Work?
Vicary’s claims may have been a hoax but the advertising industry didn’t give up on the idea. After all, manipulating people’s subconscious is a very powerful tool. So researchers continued testing the concept.
They found out that subliminal messages only work when it appeals to the viewers’ existing desires.
For example, a thirsty person watching a movie with “Drink Coca Cola” flashed subliminally will be more susceptible to the message compared to a person who isn’t thirsty.
These subliminal influences only last around 25 minutes according to a study conducted in 2016.
How Can You Utilize Subliminal Message?
So it is not just ad and research people that can use subliminal messages to influence others. You can do it too. There are two ways you can use this concept.
One is to apply it on others, called subliminal influencing, and the other is to apply it on yourself which is termed as subliminal affirmations.
Subliminal Influencing
Subliminal influencing is merely persuading other people to act based on your subtle gestures, messages, or even images that they are not aware of on a conscious level.
It might not come as naturally to you as to others but with proper practice, you will find that people will submit to your will with minimal resistance.
Here are some ways you could apply subliminal influencing:
The door in the face approach
This trick is basically asking for ridiculous, unreasonable things and then scaling it back later.
You ask a person for a big favor. One that they will most likely reject. And then you come back shortly afterwards asking for a much more reasonable one.
The reason this works is because the person will feel bad about rejecting your first request, no matter how troublesome it may be, so they will be less likely to reject you a second time.
Ask for something small and work your way up
This is essentially the opposite of the door in the face approach. So instead of asking a huge favor first, you start with something inconsequential.
Once the person accepts your small request, they will now be more susceptible to agreeing on a slightly bigger one.
This phenomenon was tested by scientists with regards to marketing. They started asking people to express their support for the environment - an agreeably small request.
Then once those people agreed to express their support, they were easier to convince to buy products that help the environment.
However, do not attack people with requests consecutively. Psychologists found that it is best to wait a day or two as it is more effective.
Ask favors from a tired person
Imagine a husband being assailed by requests from his wife when he just got back from work. The most likely thing he would do is nod and say he’ll do it the next day.
People who are tired don't just have low physical energy, they have low mental energy as well.
When you ask a favor from them, you probably won’t get a definite response. Maybe a distracted “I’ll do it tomorrow” is the best you could ask for.
But the thing is, people tend to keep their word. It is natural to follow through with something you said you would do.
These are just some of the ways you could use subliminal influencing in your daily life.
Subliminal Affirmations
You can also use subliminal messages to influence your own thoughts and behaviors. These are called subliminal affirmations.
There are lots of self-talk and probably negative thoughts going through your mind right now.
“Am I good enough?”, “Am I strong enough?”, “I don’t have the confidence to do this”.
You can get rid of bad habits and low self esteem through what we call affirmations.
There are two types. Regular and subliminal affirmations.
Both of these affirmations are essentially positive statements you say to yourself over and over to get rid of the negative thoughts inside your head.
“I am confident”, “I am happy”, “I will have the motivation to lose weight”, “I will get rich”.
But there is a big difference between the two with regards to delivery.
Regular affirmations appeal to your conscious mind and subliminal affirmations appeal to your subconscious one which is considered more powerful because it can not be easily ignored or forgotten.
The ability of subliminal affirmations to bypass the conscious mind and influence your thinking and behavior at a subconscious level can lead to some amazingly powerful and positive changes.
It can help you break bad habits, increase focus and concentration and even boost your immune system.
Changing Your Programming With Audio And Visual Messages
One way to harness this amazing power is to record your own audio subliminal affirmations.
I’ve done this in the past by recording them on my phone and playing them in the background whilst listening to classical music.
By mixing subliminal affirmations with relaxing sound or music your subconscious mind receives your affirmations without you doing any conscious work.
Another way you can use subliminal affirmations to influence your subconscious mind is through visual information.
The idea here is to set up some kind of system to flash messages on your screen or phone in a very quick manner, thus avoiding too much recognition from your conscious mind.
A simple way to do this is to use a messaging app that has a reminder feature such as Slack and send yourself timed messages with your chosen affirmations.
If you set up the notifications to pop up the messages on your screen and/or phone then this can work quite effectively as the notifications disappear quite quickly.
Whilst the above methods work reasonably well, they can be a bit of a hassle to set up. Plus I always needed 2 devices for the audio affirmations which wasn't always practical.
I now use a program called Subliminal 360, as it handles both of these things effortlessly. I basically choose what mindset I want to ‘install’, and then set up the visual and audio subliminal affirmations.
You can write your own or choose from a library of affirmations, which is great if you are not so good at coming up with motivational phrases.
For the visual subliminals, you pair them with any pictures you want to display.
For the audio, you record your voice and then choose the music/ sound to mix it with (there is a wide range to choose from, everything from classical music to brown noise to rainwater).
You then simply set the program going and it will flash the visuals for you (very subtly) and you can play the audio subliminals along with your chosen music/ sounds whilst you work.
I recommend checking out Subliminal360 to see if it can help you to install new habits and mindsets!
In Summary
All in all, subliminal affirmations provide a powerful tool to help gain an upper hand in life.
The influence you can exert on people to submit to your will is undeniably powerful but the ability to reprogram your mindset through the use of subliminal affirmations is truly amazing!
Subliminal affirmations offer you all these great advantages that it is such a waste not to apply it in your own life.
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