How an experiment with Coca Cola and popcorn lead to the discovery of subliminal tape

Subliminal tape contains messages that are supposed to bypass the gatekeeper - the conscious and plants those messages straight into our subconscious. For those not familiar with the subconscious, let me explain.

Our mind is split into 2 different sections. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is our conscious thought and determines our decisions and actions.

The subconscious mind performs actions without any conscious effort on our part, such as keeping our heart pumping, controlling our breathing and keeping our bodily functions in order.

We can only communicate to our conscious mind, and not our subconscious. All thoughts will be filtered by our conscious mind, which will decide on whether to keep or discard.

The conscious acts as a gatekeeper. This is important as the subconscious does not have the ability to analyse and filter information and will act on all suggestions or ideas that are implanted in them.

The potential of getting lasting change in us

To effect long and lasting change in us, we must get the message straight to the subconscious. This is because the subconscious will not analyze and dissect the meaning behind the messages and will act on it directly.

Subliminal tape works for many areas in our lives where we want to change, for example behaviours like fear, doubt, procrastination or habits like smoking, and nail biting. Of course we can use this for the elimination of stress.

So what's with the story behind the coke and popcorn?

In the 1950s, James Vicary, an advertising expert, had secretly flashed, at one third of a millisecond, the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coke" onto the movie screen of unsuspecting movie goers. His studies, lasting six weeks, involved thousands of moviegoing subjects who received a subliminal message every five seconds during the film. Vicary claimed an increase in Coke sales of 18 percent and a rise in popcorn sales of almost 58 percent. That experiment caused such an outrage by the public that the government had to step in to appease the public.

This experiment also proved and perhaps showed too well the power of using subliminals to influence our mind.

A big industry has been built on the premise that subminal tape can change our lives and comes with promises, bearing hopes and addressing the wants of many.

Do subliminal tapes work?

The big question is are subliminal tape really effective?

There are so many types of subliminal tapes floating around that we would be hard pressed for choice, and even after you had purchased and used some of it, you would be left wondering whether they work as claimed.

Here's my take - I have used and experimented with several types of subliminal tapes and all I can say is that some work and some don't. For those that worked, I also wondered whether it is a result of the placebo effect. Maybe my expectation of getting results from the subliminal tape made me believe that I am getting the results. In short - have I made myself believe that it works for me because of my intention?

Of course you could look at it this way. Whether subliminal tape work or not, as long as we are getting results from it, isn't it all that matters?

Like I said earlier, I still have my reservations as to whether subliminal tape work or not, by here are a few sources to get you started. I have listed some that I have got result from.

Checkout the Hypno-Peripheral Processing: Stress-Management Program. The Hypno-Peripheral Processing tapes combine relaxing music and two separate stories into a pattern of suggestions that gently overloads your conscious mind and accesses the �hypnogogic� state � a state in which your mind is most open to suggestion.

Download excellent CDs by Kelly Howell by signing up for a 14-day trial with RealNetwork's Rhapsody online music download account. Click here for subliminal tape.