sporadic
12-23-2005, 11:56 AM
if you turned the volume down really low so the conscious mind couldn't precieve the suggestions.... would the subconscious still hear them and carry out the suggestions?
Sporadic, there is no evidence I know of to indicate the unconscious mind can hear suggestions that are not also "available" to the conscious mind. There are some tapes, called "subliminals," where the suggestions are "hidden" so that unless you are really listening for it and know what they sound like, the conscious will not pay attention to the suggestions. Sometimes they are hidden in the sounds of ocean waves, for example. Such recordings are made with a device called a "vocoder" where the waves seem to "speak" the suggestions if you really pay attention. This can be hidden in some other ocean waves or in music.
To the best of my knowledge, scientific research proving the effectiveness of such techniques is anecdotal at best. There is, however, some slightly more researched evidence supporting the effectiveness of visual subliminals. Theoretically, they should work.
The problem is that many of the audio recordings that claim to be "subliminals" are actually "subaudibles," where the suggestions cannot be heard by the conscious or subconscious mind. There is no evidence that they work. Similarly, I have seen no evidence that tapes with thousands of suggestions per minute are effective, either.
So if you purchase a tape with "subliminals" embedded in it, what are you getting? Who knows? And as long as people are looking for "magic pills" that will work instantly instead of going with what is time tested, effective, but might take a bit longer than the instant satisfaction of the magic pill, such recordings will continue to be made and sold.