Audio Subliminal Messages

There is quite a polarity of opinion on the effectiveness of audio subliminal messages. There are countless audio products available that contain subliminal messages and there are as many opinions on how effective they are too.

For example. Many people who view subliminal messages unfavorably will tell you that they work only too well and will give examples of "evil", "bad intentioned" rock bands contaminating your brain with devil worshipping messages hidden in their records, whilst people who actually consider subliminals to be of potential benefit will tell you that they have no effect in the audio domain.

Now of course the first opinion I stated is based on a preconceived belief about rock music and has nothing to do with scientific or experiential evidence, but the latter opinion is interesting because, as a sound engineer and someone who is passionate about audio production and all things audio I am yet to decide what I believe about audio Subliminal Messages.

The human ear, if working properly can sense frequencies from around 20Hz (very low) to 20 KHz or 20,000 Hertz (very high). In fact the ability to hear the upper frequencies in the range deteriorate with age as the ear suffers damage over time. I believe we are also witnessing a phenomenon now where many young people have already damaged their hearing ability by almost consistently being plugged into their iPods or similar devices, which is why people today are less bothered about Hi Fidelity quality of sound recordings, because they just can’t tell the difference, but that is another story and not really one for this website.

Still the above brings me to the theory of why audio subliminals may not be very effective and that is that they are usually embedded into a carrier wave that is beyond the scope of human hearing. I am not 100% sure of the technical details, but if you search the internet for "Brain Entrainment" You should find some in-depth descriptions.

The theory is that if these messages are transmitted (played back) outside of your ear’s sensitivity range then how can your subconscious mind receive them? This is quite a plausible explanation, but one which I find just a little too convenient. I am of the mind that this theory is limited by the confines of the rational mind and cannot get over the physical argument that the ear is the only filter of sound. Just like light waves that we cannot see, they still are there and they still get in. I am also not convinced that the ear itself does not resonate with all frequencies in the spectrum and that it is our own mind’s filter that selects our hearing range, so we don’t get overwhelmed with the noise of all creation as it were!

But I am not a scientist and I am not really qualified in this area. I just think that there is a lot more of how this universe works that we don’t know that that which we do know. On the whole though I accept the argument that audio subliminals may not work, although audio messages that are within the physical hearing range but played back at an almost unnoticeable level, E.g. played back quietly surrounded by other sounds or music are pretty much proven to be effective and many subliminal audio products that claim they are subliminal are in fact just played back very quietly embedded within sounds capes or music.

Holosync meditation CDs include subliminals once you progress to the further levels of the program. I believe they are true subliminals because I use Holoosync and I cannot hear any trace of them. I have kept a copy of the messages I recorded for my Holosync levels and recently went back to remind myself what I had recorded. Although I don’t feel any conscious "going on" from the affirmations I recorded, looking back over them there is definitely progress. Is this because of the subliminal messages or is it because I made the affirmations in the first place and planted them in my subconscious mind at the beginning, rooting my focus in them? Who knows.

Now with this information I hope you will be well informed to decide if you want to use audio subliminals (or very quiet affirmations!)

I still think subliminal audio is worth investigating