Choices and Illusions (20 page)

major manufacturer of audio subliminal programs, messages were

mixed 40 decibels (db) beneath the carrier (music or ocean sounds).

This 40 db is beneath the theoretical limit of most players. In other words, the signal strength might be compared to the influence of

a whisper two blocks away. It might be that the messages were not

recoverable because the
secret
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the Nature of a Controversy

procedure. Other companies used questionable affirmations and

in other ways produced material that differentiated one company

from another. All shared the label “subliminal,” but that certainly did not mean they were the “same.”

let me give you an example to clarify the importance of this

difference. Assume a scientist pressurizes a trapped atmosphere to, say, ten atmospheric pressures, applies an exact electric charge, and then heats the result. To replicate this study, a researcher would

determine the nature of the atmosphere that was trapped and rep-

licate the process, including the exact degree of heat and electric current applied. now assume that someone attempts to replicate

the study by catching room atmosphere in a fishbowl and covering

it with plastic wrap so it is trapped. He places a nine-volt battery inside the fishbowl and then heats it with a cigarette lighter. Hardly the same experiment. let’s now take it a step farther. Imagine that five fishbowl makers all use different elements but claim the same

outcome. Is testing all five bowl makers the same as replicating

the original study? The answer is clear:
No!
Even if one of the bowl makers has it right, the other four would contaminate the outcome.

So, we are not looking at a scientific study with a single vari-

able. We are mixing multiple variables and coming up with a single

conclusion—and that simply is not good science! nevertheless, this

study was in the media everywhere, and those testifying for CBS

and Judas Priest were touting it almost as if it were the Holy Grail.

The long and the short of this case comes down to a few facts.

Judas Priest admitted to putting subliminal content on some

recordings but not this one. When the messages were demonstrated

to be present, the counter argument was that it occurred only as

a “coincidence of sound.” CBS was fined more than once by the

judge for impeding the discovery process and manipulating the

press. It was CBS Records’ own disclosure of the boys chanting, “do it.” CBS’s own investigator, a former Scotland Yard detective, stated that he was unable to locate the original 24-track master and that

he was never allowed to look in the CBS vault. (The original master was needed in order to prove the message was not a coincidence of

sound). In a wrongful death action, intent must be demonstrated.

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This was not a product liability suit, as would be the case with

defective brakes on an automobile.

Subliminal Messages Do Influence Behavior

The result of the press attention and managed or manipu-

lated media gave rise to the real scientific controversy. Since then, the power of subliminal messages to influence behavior has been

admitted by some of the most outspoken persons defending the

position of CBS. Even the
Skeptical Enquirer,
a science journal that has a history of debunking many things later proven to be true,

admits evidence for behavior changes due to subliminal stim-

uli,4 and they published a number of scientific articles supposedly debunking the subliminal influence during and following the

Judas Priest trial. The definitive work of Robert Bornstein and

his meta-analysis approach show clearly that a properly delivered

(signal strength) psychoactive message (affirmation) can and does

influence behavior.5 The fact of the matter is, as Bornstein put it to me in a telephone conversation following a television filming

for the discovery Channel, the effects of subliminal stimuli on

humans, including behavior, is so robust in the literature that you have got to wonder where individuals who deny it have been in

the last ten years.

The research on InnerTalk includes over a dozen double-blind

studies conducted by independent researchers at leading institu-

tions throughout the world and on a number of domains ranging

from attention deficit hyperactive disorder (AdHd) to depression

(see Appendix A for more information). The model is simple and

was first put forward by Albert Ellis.6

The A-B-C model, as it is called, is graphically depicted as

follows:

A ———————— > B ———————— > C

(activating event)

(belief)

(consequence:

emotional and

behavioral)

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the Nature of a Controversy

An activating event, stimulus, or verbal affirmation affects

belief, which equals emotional and behavioral consequences. It is

easy to see this rather linear in and out when looking at the nega-

tive input in our lives, and it works more or less in the same way

with respect to the positive. Ellis coined a term for negative self-talk that is best known as AnTS: automatic negative thoughts. I

like this term because it is easy to imagine ants tearing down your positive thoughts and carrying in the negative. Perhaps the next

time the ants are bugging you, you can do what I do. Just imagine

a little ant bait and let them feed. You can simply follow a nega-

tive thought with something like “And then what?” Eventually,

the “then whats” lose their power. Even a “then you die” is not

threatening when you remember that you are a creation of the

divine—but back to our story.

The Danger Message

during the Judas Priest trial, I was asked if I had ever conducted

a research design that indicated a person would kill himself as

a result of a subliminal message. “Of course not” had to be my

answer. no scientist I know of would even consider doing such

a thing, at least I hope not. Then an idea came to me. What if a

person received a subliminal message of danger?

A pilot study was arranged. My daughter, Hillarie, who was

working on a science project for high school, accepted my sugges-

tion and obtained the appropriate guidance and permissions from

all involved.

Group A listened to the sounds of the ocean with three sublimi-

nal information deliveries, approximately one minute apart. The

messages were “dAnGER, dAnGER, WATCH OUT!—AH-H-H-G-H!

dAnGER!” The messages were recorded and delivered simultane-

ously in both forward and reversed speech. Group B listened to the

same ocean track with the message “People are walking.”

Both groups listened to the audio programs for four minutes,

with earphones, while their body responses were monitored for

changes in breathing, blood pressure, the electrical resistance of

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their skin, and the moisture at the ends of their fingers. A four-

needle polygraph, the same instrument used as a “lie detector,”

recorded these responses.

After the four-minute trial, each subject responded to a ques-

tionnaire that included a request to report any particular reveries, feelings, or thoughts that occurred during the trials. Only then

did an assistant discover and reveal to the subject which group he

or she was in.

All five of those in group A responded with gross reactions or

changes in the measurements of body function coinciding with the

delivery of the subliminal “danger” message. Those in the B group

had no such response. This suggests a danger-stimulus recogni-

tion. The bodies of the subjects in group A responded as though

an actual danger existed. So did their minds. Three of the five

individuals in group A reported reveries of killing or being killed.

A fourth person reported feeling extremely upset. The fifth said she was too occupied by what the experimenters were doing to notice

her thoughts. (The experimenters were doing very little.) Psycho-

logical theory has categories of fantasy formation. Our response to danger, the fight/flight response, can generate compelling fantasies.

When a person feels threatened, fight/flight gives rise to

thoughts of this nature. Killing is fight oriented, and death may

be flight oriented. Many deal with fear, in fantasy, by neutralizing the source of the fear—even if it means killing. dying, on the other hand, means escape to many. Of five normal, healthy teenagers,

four had thoughts of killing or dying. The fifth apparently “blanked out.” This came from one listening, in a pleasant and sober state,

to a few repetitions of a single, simple, subliminal message for a

few minutes.

Those who heard the message “People are walking” had rever-

ies that went like this: “I was at a sunny beach, and there were a

lot of people.”

I have since posted this study together with all needed materi-

als, including downloadable sound files, as an academic challenge

at
www.progressiveawareness.org
. no one has run the study with a different outcome.

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the Nature of a Controversy

Today, the science of subliminals is still hyped and poorly

understood by many, but it is a true science with valid merits.

It truly can assist in enabling individuals to overcome their

doubts and fears and negative input that all too often create

self-imposed limitations.

Madonna

It is not uncommon for musical groups to use subliminal infor-

mation, as I suggested earlier. In 1991, I was contacted by WnCI

radio regarding satanic messages in a Madonna recording. not

only were the messages there, but also her people later admitted to putting them there for publicity purposes. Here are some of those

messages delivered in poetic format:

In the midnight smoke of yellow

Hear my melodies

Hail to the family

It must be unknown

Hail hallelujah my position . . .

The influence media has over our thoughts and actions is worth

spending just another moment on. For years I have had a proverbial

pet peeve against the selling of illness. For example, every year we are told through the media, chiefly television, that the dreaded

“gomboo” is coming to town. We are also told that we’ll probably

catch it, as if we were going to run down the street and catch a

cold (notice those words, please). But that’s okay, because there is a remedy, and when we take it we will be pampered in bed like the

characters acting out the TV commercial.

We are all exposed to fancy cars with beautiful people paired

with them, as if when we want something beautiful in our lives, or

to be sexy and so forth, we need this product to obtain it. Most of us are aware of this kind of advertising, and still it can influence us.

There are general categories applied to the definition of sub-

liminal communication through any media. Wolman sets out the

categories this way:

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Wolman’s Categories

Professor Benjamin B. Wolman’s modified categorization of

subliminal stimuli divides descriptive values into four criteria of awareness and unawareness. The stimuli are as follows:

• Below the level of registration

• Above the level of registration but below the level of

detection

• Above the level of detection and discrimination but

below the level of identification*

• Below the level of identification only because of a

defensive action7

*Using Wolman’s categories,

our patented InnerTalk technology falls into category three.

Wolman, B.B. (1973)

Embeds such as those in the liquor advertisement illustrated

and discussed in Chapter 6 may well fit into category 4. Messages

such as those in Madonna and Judas Priest generally fit into cat-

egory 3. A category 2 subliminal message may well be the type

flashed on a screen, such as the reported popcorn and cola flashes

in the infamous new Jersey theater instance. A category 1 is the

message mixed at 40 db beneath the music when played on a stereo

with a db limitation of 30.

In coming chapters, we will look at the nature of the mind

and other influences that contribute to the makeup of the total

human condition, including the so-called paranormal, but first

let’s take a look at another tool you can use to counteract mind

programming—hypnosis.

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PraCTiCal hYPnosis

“The empires of the future will be the empires of the mind.”

— W i n s t o n C h u r C h i l l

As mentioned earlier, for years I practiced forensic hypnosis. I

have used it with victims and with alleged perpetrators. I have seen the mind bring back incredible detail while a subject experienced