04-13-2016, 05:31 PM
I think what's really the contested point is not whether subliminal messages can impart behavior changes in a subject per se, but whether there is a way to script subliminal messages (visual or verbal) that would succeed in everyone/most people (or at least provoke some measurable response). A related question is who/what on the other side within the unconscious receives the message and how it is interpreted and reprocessed as behavior. Is it received by a shadow ego, or does it pass through a bunch of thought centers? For my part, I gave up trying to get my amygdala to return my calls back in '97.* 
Anyway, clearly, it's not like *presto* 30 days to making a Manchurian Candidate (uh, probably not a bad thing).
I've looked and looked and looked everywhere for some credible source who could explain why it could work. The topic fascinates me. One thing I'd suggest is that the problem of communication to the subconscious is no more (or less) slippery than questions about language and meaning that began to be raised about by Charles Peirce about 150 years ago and then those subsequently raised by Ferdinand de Sausseur (followed by Frege, Russell ... and continued to the present). Still, things get done, people implode for reasons no one else understand, and others go on to surpass all expectations based on obvious factors such as intelligence, education, looks, charisma, $$$, etc. I have to think some form of subconscious conditioning has a role in it. In some respects, the success of brand recognition, something that goes back only to the 19th century is testimony to the power of a "rational subconscious" over an ego making irrational decisions?
Not to go far in this direction, but some people have invested a considerable amount of resources into subliminal messaging to achieve desired results: I think the military's synthetic telepathy program is going on 25 years now. And I'm apt to think that the military's use of paper targets, then, video games like Doom to condition soldiers to discharge weapons in combat (up from 23/25% in WWII to over 95% now) is not so far removed.
* I also think that the brain's ability to rewire itself (neuroplasticity) might lead to scientific proof in support of subliminal reconditioning if such a study were undertaken.
Anyway, clearly, it's not like *presto* 30 days to making a Manchurian Candidate (uh, probably not a bad thing).I've looked and looked and looked everywhere for some credible source who could explain why it could work. The topic fascinates me. One thing I'd suggest is that the problem of communication to the subconscious is no more (or less) slippery than questions about language and meaning that began to be raised about by Charles Peirce about 150 years ago and then those subsequently raised by Ferdinand de Sausseur (followed by Frege, Russell ... and continued to the present). Still, things get done, people implode for reasons no one else understand, and others go on to surpass all expectations based on obvious factors such as intelligence, education, looks, charisma, $$$, etc. I have to think some form of subconscious conditioning has a role in it. In some respects, the success of brand recognition, something that goes back only to the 19th century is testimony to the power of a "rational subconscious" over an ego making irrational decisions?
Not to go far in this direction, but some people have invested a considerable amount of resources into subliminal messaging to achieve desired results: I think the military's synthetic telepathy program is going on 25 years now. And I'm apt to think that the military's use of paper targets, then, video games like Doom to condition soldiers to discharge weapons in combat (up from 23/25% in WWII to over 95% now) is not so far removed.
* I also think that the brain's ability to rewire itself (neuroplasticity) might lead to scientific proof in support of subliminal reconditioning if such a study were undertaken.
"I dunno. I didn't go into Burger King." -- Pulp Fiction
