The term subliminal stands for 'beneath a limen,’ and limen is a sensory threshold.

A subliminal message is designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. These messages are not recognized by the conscious mind, but can affect the subconscious and deeper mind and later actions and attitudes.

Some 'heavy metal' recordings have included subliminal messages, usually satanic, drug or sex related ones, for years. These messages appeal directly to emotions, overriding reason and causing behavior.

Subliminals are also used in advertising to create familiarity with new products and therefore create a preference for a certain product. Dr. Johan Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006). Karremans did a study to see if subliminal messages for a brand name of a drink would affect a person’s choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individual’s feelings of being thirsty. Half of his participants received subliminal messages by having the brand name “Lipton Ice” flashed repeatedly on a computer screen for 24 milliseconds, while the other half got subliminal messages without the brand name. In his study, he found that the subliminal messages made the people that were thirsty want Lipton Ice. Those who were not thirsty however, were not influenced by the subliminal message since their goal was not to quench their thirst.

Subconscious stimulus by single words is well known to be modestly effective in changing human behavior or emotions. This is evident by an advertisement that portrayed four different types of rum. In one of the pictures, the phrase “U Buy” was embedded written backwards, some where in the picture. Before the study, participants were asked to try to identify any hidden message in the ad, but none found any. In the end, the study showed 80% of the subjects showed a preference for the rum that had the subliminal message in it. Although every subliminal message may not affect everyone, it is obvious that they do affect the behavior or emotions of most.

To make valuable use of the power of subliminal messages, you could use certain tapes that have been designed to subliminally feed your brain with affirmations, while listening to nice, relaxing music. There are applications in all kinds of areas like health, wellness, longevity, youthfulness, success, learning, creativity, wealth etc. One of the companies that creates such subliminal affirmation tapes is Innertalk. Innertalk uses a patented and proven technology and includes all the affirmations that are used in that tape. For more information about this company and their products please click this link