Subliminal Power - Using Technology to Reprogram your Mind

Background
In the past few decades, with the advent of the computers, scientists have turned towards exploring how the power of the ubiquitous desktop can be harnessed to understand how the human psyche works. Every human being possesses enormous potential; it is only a question of tapping into one's energies, eliminating all that is preventing these energies from coming to the surface, and letting the potential blossom. One technique that has emerged as a result of this exploration exploits the fact that users have a high amount of concentration when they are focused on the computer screen. By flashing positive messages and imagery on the screen unobtrusively and for the flash of a second, this technique bypasses the defense barricades of the conscious and seeks to reach out to the ever accepting subconscious. This article looks at how powerful software is clubbing research on psychoanalysis with computer technology to reprogram your mind for the better.

Self-limiting beliefs, self-defeating emotions
Man has, since the dawn of time, wondered about the structure and the power of the subconscious, or technically, the unconscious mind. It is known that a human being is basically driven by primeval urges and emotions that are hidden deep in their psyche; and that all their actions have a root and a link to these core elements. Tapping into the psyche to examine these urges and emotions, and further, eliminating and letting go of those emotions that are not beneficial, is the subject of much research in psychoanalysis.

Right from the moment the zygote forms as a result of unison of male and female gametes in the mother's womb, an impression of the world around it begins to be created in its unconscious mind. These impressions are created through the thoughts that the mother thinks during both her waking as well as sleeping hours. Besides food and oxygen that seeps through the placenta, the embryo also assimilates the entire baggage of emotions that the mother carries in her psyche. Like a sponge, each and every crest and trough of thought, every single nuance of feeling, and the slightest inflexion of emotion that her mother experiences, gets absorbed in its passive mental firmament.

The moment the child emerges from the womb to take its first breath of fresh air, it begins to be bombarded with teachings and suggestions and commands from the people in its life. Not all of these teachings and suggestions and commands are hundred percent positive. Individuals - parents included - sharing the responsibility of rearing the child have their own skewed perspective of how the world is to be lived - and their beliefs and ideas and opinions and likes and dislikes get unconsciously projected onto the one personality that has the greatest capacity to assimilate them without any objection: the persona of the placid child lying peacefully in the cradle. Circumstances in the child's life also reinforce these projections.

Unfortunately, while our conscious, wakeful alertness recognizes "good" thoughts versus not so good thoughts; the subconscious does not have this power of discrimination. It simply accepts and absorbs, sponge-like, anything and everything that comes its way. And, again unfortunately, it is the subconscious that drives our actions and therefore our destiny. It is the age-old principle in action: "What you think, so shall you become."

The result? As you and I begin to grow up, along with height we also gain in beliefs that are self-limiting and emotions that are self-defeating. And as we lurch left and right towards our destinies, we keep wondering why things are not going on as well as we undoubtedly deserve them to be.

So, instead of beliefs such as: - I am a genius - I can create anything I want - I can solve anything - I know I am a genius - I understand everything - I can learn anything - I am intelligent and improving! - My intelligence is vast - I can solve anything with ease - My intellect is limitless

... we tend to harbor the following beliefs: - I am a bumbling nincompoop - Whatever I try to do, doesn't work out - I cannot solve anything; solutions are beyond me - I know I am an average mediocrity - I am unable to understand everything / anything - I am incapable of learning anything - I am not intelligent and going downhill every passing day! - My intelligence is limited - I cannot solve anything with ease - My intellect has limitations

... and these beliefs become our reality.

Rising from the morass
The moment when you become aware that you are actually wallowing in the morass of these self-limiting beliefs and emotions, is, in my opinion, a crucial moment of your life. This moment may come at any stage - early childhood, late adolescence, or in your golden years. When this perception about what and how you have been thinking all along crosses your mind, there is no flash of lightening around you, there are no thunderclaps, and no halo formation over your head. It is just an "aha" kind of feeling, accompanied with a certain lightness that you experience when you unburden a great weight from your shoulders.

Even more crucial now is to not let this awareness go. It is very much essential to hold on to it. You require a "divine" guide that walks by your side at all times, constantly reminding you of the new thought patterns that you need to think henceforth. Alas, the human population being what it is now, such guides are in perpetual short supply.

Enter, the New Age Guide
The concept of subliminal messaging is a brilliant marriage between psychoanalysis and computer technology. The offspring of this consummation is software that acts as the "divine" guide, albeit in a virtual form. Since most of the waking hours are now spent staring at the computer screen, this is where the New Age, high-tech guide places itself.

The principle behind subliminal messaging is simple: "what you think, so shall you become". And this principle is implemented very efficiently by directing the messages to that aspect of your mind that matters the most: your subconscious. You see, in your waking hours, you automatically and cynically raise your defenses, and selectively filter the thoughts that come to you. This selective filtering also unfortunately blocks positive, self-affirmative thoughts from edging their way in. On the other hand, the subconscious mind does not have any of its own defenses; it is simply there, accepting and absorbing whatever comes its way.

But when you consciously click on a software that you know is good for you, and then shift your attention to the work at hand on your computer; you set in motion the process of self-affirmative messages reaching out to your subconscious. The software begins beaming out the upbeat messages that are already present in its database. In some software flavors, you yourself have the choice to select the messages that you want, or you can create altogether new set of messages that are relevant to your particular life circumstance. These messages show up imperceptibly on the screen for a fraction of a second, often at random intervals, and fade away immediately. The speed with which this happens is so fast, that at the conscious level, your brain does not even comprehend that it is happening.

But, unbeknown to your conscious mind, a pathway is created between your faculty of vision and your subconscious, which automatically conduits the messages right up to the doorstep of the subconscious. And, very willingly, as always, the subconscious laps it up. (This concept of a pathway is nothing new; it is a well-observed fact of life.) Over a period of time, the self-affirmative thoughts dominate the earlier, negative and self-defeating thought patterns, till a stage comes when you are left only with positive thought patterns. And it is these new thought patterns that begin to guide you towards your new destiny.

The best feature of such softwares is their unobtrusiveness. We increasingly spend a major part of our waking hours staring at the computer screen; and our concentration is at its maximum as we go about clicking and surfing and entering & retrieving information. By working silently in the background, these softwares achieve in a very short time what other techniques of self-development take so long to achieve.

Nirvana, at last
As a self-development enthusiast, I have worked on quite a few products in the market that offer nirvana to the seeker of mind power improvement. While each of these products has its own set of pros and cons, the bunch of softwares that generate subliminal messaging take the cake. If you are keen upon removing the kinks in your mental makeup that are preventing you from achieving success in life, it behooves you at least to try them out.

One of them is sure to become your New Age Guide to Nirvana.