A History of Subliminal Messages

If you are not familiar with subliminal messages, as a basic definition the phrase "subliminal" comes from the Latin of "sub" and "limen", which literally translates as "below threshold".

This gives a clue to its meaning - and it directly means information which is below the threshold of our perception.

The Growth of Subliminal Messaging

Traditionally subliminal messages are thought of as video based. Indeed, most early experiments involved displaying flashing text subliminals over a piece of video. These types of messages have been used in advertising and also heavily in politics, and despite being illegal now they are still used. It was only last year that an inquiry was held into McDonalds using a subliminal advert of the food network - for just one frame their golden arches logo was displayed.

All sorts of tests were done into subliminal messages - the most famous being the movie theatre study by James Vicary. He displayed 2 subliminal messages to audiences in a movie theatre during the trailers. One said "eat more popcorn" the other saying "drink coca cola". His results claimed that popcorn and coca cola sales doubled - and these results really boosted the awareness of subliminal perception.

Over the next few years guidelines were set by the American government and American advertising standards that due to the unfair, and potentially negative, manipulative power of subliminals to influence the human mind without consent they were to be banned from TV shows, and especially TV advertising.

Subliminal Messages for Personal Development

These changes in the use of subliminal messages led to it taking a back seat and the media surrounding subliminal learning went quiet for a few years.

But then, with the acceleration of new technology people began to use subliminals for their own personal use. Instead of subliminal videos, people made their own subliminal audio - subliminal messages back-masked in music, or played at a higher sound frequency - so instead of flashing text it was a verbal subliminal command, but it was still hidden from regular hearing, hence it was still subliminal.

It was still illegal (and still is) to use them on other people without their consent. However, now, instead of making manipulative messages people were making their own messages - positive messages to help them develop and improve in key areas of their life.

Soon people began to report great results with this method of subliminal audio. Losing weight, quitting smoking, developing confidence, enhancing their memories and learning capacity and so on.

The popularity of subliminal messaging increased dramatically through the 80s and 90s, even with celebrities the likes of Stephen Speilberg, Tiger Woods, and self motivation guru Anthony Robbins advocating their use - and claiming to of used them for their own personal development too.

Now they are a part of mainstream society - you can buy subliminal audio all over the internet, with unique messages made for almost any personal development niche you could want to pursue. It really is becoming fast acknowledged as a powerful method of development, both due to the variety of albums you can get or make, and the almost effortless nature of it.