How it Works . . . 
The term subliminal stands for "beneath a limen"; a limen is a sensory threshold.
Subliminal perception ― the concept of discrimination by the brain without conscious awareness by the person ― is a scientific fact. Your brain takes in messages below your level of conscious awareness, and it responds to those messages. "Subliminal perception is not just a 'watered down' version of normal perception but different in kind" (Prof. Some) as well. Laboratory research projects have repeatedly demonstrated that subliminal messages affect your dreams, memory, verbal behavior, emotional responses, drive-related behavior, conscious perception, and perceptual thresholds.
But laboratory research is difficult to decipher because it is loaded with academic stiffness, technical jargon, personal bias, and controversy. Reading the research often reveals more about the researcher than your mind/brain!
Among the subliminal researchers, Silverman, Dixon, and Shevrin provide useful and significant findings.
Norman Dixon, noted expert in the field of preconscious processing, finds the controversy over subliminal perception within the psychological community to be based on (1) fear of the existence of an unconscious, (2) the threat to personal liberty that subliminal programming implies, and (3) confusion over the specific words used in the research.
For research purposes, the word subliminal means sub-limen, or below the limen. But the limen is a statistical concept technically defined as below the 50% point of classical psychophysics (Dr. Zenhausern), or that stimulus value which gives a response exactly half the time (McConnell).
In everyday language, the words subliminal and supraliminal are commonly used for sub-threshold (below the threshold) and supra-threshold (above the threshold). Your threshold is your point of conscious awareness. For instance, if you are listening to an audio CD with a spoken message on it, and you can consciously hear the words and understand them, you are receiving a message above your threshold. This is popularly called a supraliminal message. If you can't hear the words, you are receiving a message below your threshold, popularly called a subliminal message.
Most laboratory subliminal research is based on visual experiments which are conducted using a tachistocope, a device which flashes words or pictures onto a screen at intervals of four milliseconds or less. Research has also been done on verbal subliminal messages (subaudible messages) in which a voice is embedded under music, ocean waves, or nature sounds so that it cannot be heard.
Some research has been done on the effectiveness of subliminal versus supraliminal messages, however, and on the effectiveness of using the two together. Shevrin presents words both above and below conscious awareness ― supraliminally and subliminally ― and analyzes the response of brainwaves recorded at the moment each stimulus is delivered. Both supraliminal and subliminal messages cause brainwave activity.
One study showed perception could be altered with subliminal messages, but supraliminal messages were necessary to change physical performance such as learning a new sport. To change a sensory task required a combination of subliminal and supraliminal messages. (Zenhausern and Hansen)
In addition, research shows that "emotionally laden messages must be shown longer than neutral messages before a subject will respond to them". This is why aural subliminal messaging works so effectively. It appears, say scientists, that the brain accepts and processes sound on a subconscious level far better than it does with subliminal visual stimuli. (Garner) In addition, each of us has a unique subconscious which gives different affective and motivational meaning to the same visual messages, but this is not the case with sound waves. (Poetzl) Simply stated, we are each unique with a different set of experiences, beliefs, feelings and thoughts stored in our brains. These interact with new messages and create responses unique to us, making it difficult to generalize about results from any research model that looks for sameness.
Poetzl: "Few as yet realize the full implications of the discovery that the conscious mind does not exhaust the human personality. We may not see much at first in the knowledge that there is more in us than we are conscious of; but reflection shows it to be more and more significant, until the perspective of the entire human being begins to change."
Garner: "The view that human personality contains elements of a mental or quasi-mental kind, over and above normal consciousness, has been hotly contested. During the nineteenth century, a theory of "unconscious cerebration" was evolved. It was a mechanistic explanation and sought to account for these phenomena by postulating "well-worn nervous paths" in the brain. No one now talks about "unconscious cerebration"; but it was the starting-point in the discovery of reaches of personality stretching beyond the conscious threshold."
During the nineteenth century, human personality began to be studied for the first time in a scientific way.
F. W. H. Myers developed his theory of the Subliminal Self, or self beneath (sub) the threshold (limen) of consciousness. He also called it the Ultra-Marginal Consciousness, which was perhaps the better term, though it did not come into use. Myers was a pioneer in psychology. He recognized the existence of obsessive thoughts, delusions, voices, visions and impulses, and that they could be psychologically treated. He showed that one stratum of the personality signals to another by means of symbolism; and he defined hysteria as a "disease of the hypnotic stratum." His conception of the Subliminal Self differed, however, in certain respects from the view of the "Unconscious" afterwards developed by Freud.
No doubt the conception of a subliminal self raised difficulties for thought. How can two parts of the same self, one above the threshold of consciousness, and the other below it, be at once separate and a unity? If the conscious self does not know anything about the subliminal self, does not that, ipso facto, make them finally two?
It is as well to realize at the outset that directly we try to form a mental picture of the self, our ordinary categories break down. To understand the, self, we should have to grasp ideas which are basically new and strange. That selfhood and otherness from self can in some way co-exist in the same individual is evidently a fact, although we cannot understand it. Possibly if we ponder the facts about personality with an open mind we may make some progress towards forming new ideas.
Do psychologists regard the "unconscious" as being unconscious? Much activity goes on in it which might suggest that it is not. As far as one can gather, they do not intend to deny that the "unconscious" may be conscious. All they intend the term to convey is the self-evident proposition that the content of the "unconscious" is not identical with the content of normal consciousness.
Some psychologists, notably Dr. Morton Prince, appear to have held the view that the "unconscious" is co-conscious with normal consciousness; just as the normal consciousness of one person, A, is co-conscious with the normal consciousness of another person, B.
The term, the "unconscious," is therefore confusing, nor does there appear to be complete unanimity in its use. Here is a definition of the "unconscious" given by a prominent psychoanalyst, Dr. Godwin Baynes. "The unconscious," he says, "is merely a term which comprises everything which exists, that has existed or that could exist beyond the range of this individual consciousness."
Then how does Subliminal Manifesting work?
A subliminal message is a signal or message designed to pass below (sub) the normal limits of perception. For example it might be inaudible to the conscious mind (but audible to the unconscious or deeper mind) or might be an image transmitted briefly and unperceived consciously and yet perceived unconsciously.
This definition assumes a division
between conscious and unconscious which may be misleading; it may be better to
say that the subliminal message (sound or image) is perceived by deeper parts of what is a single integrated mind.
Using subliminal affirmation messages buried deep within the final audio mix, we are able to remove negative thoughts/ideas behaviors and habits and communicate positive new suggestions directly into the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind cannot cause behavior contrary to a person's subconscious motives, drives and values.
In short, a subliminal message cannot force anyone to do anything they wouldn't want to do. Subliminal messages only reinforce, trigger these subconscious motives, drives and values and through positive reinforcement, make them more influential on conscious behavior.
Your
brain is the most incredibly complex data processing system on the planet, and
therein lies the most exciting clue yet uncovered for harnessing the unlimited
powers of your brain and eliminating the self-sabotaging habits deeply embedded
in your subconscious. Brain researchers
have documented the differing reactions of the two hemispheres of the brain to
subliminal messages.
The Left Hemisphere: The left hemisphere of the average right-handed person is the more cerebral. It predominates speech, reading, writing, and thinking (controls your logic and reason centers). It analyzes the information it receives and organizes it into a logical framework. To sidestep your rational left hemisphere's resistance to positive messages that may conflict with its negative habits, use permissive messages such as, "It's OK to succeed," (using direct statements can trigger all kinds of negative self-talk from the left brain, such as, "succeed? I've never succeeded at anything. What makes this time different?").
The Right Hemisphere: The right hemisphere in contrast tends to be
more involved with feelings, visual impressions, and creativity (controls the
creative, intuitive mind), and is non-discriminating. It
absorbs information without question or analysis. It is
here that early childhood messages such as, "you'll never amount to
anything," are stored, although you may not be aware of them. No matter how much you try to re-program
negative messages on the conscious level, the emotional imprint is so deeply
embedded within the subconscious mind that the negative thoughts will prevail. To
counteract years of negative programming, using subliminal authoritative
statements that are readily accepted by the right hemisphere such as, "I succeed at everything I do," is
the key to subliminal audio success.
The Subliminal Manifesting audio CD contains everything presently known by science to effect positive change through subliminal audio technology.
Each track is a combination of music that will generate a waking hypnotic state in the listener, and the positive affirmations voiced in American Standard English by Beth and Lee McCain. The voice tracks are separated left and right on isolated alpha channels that run approximately five decibels below the ability of the hearing center of the brain to consciously process it. However, the subconscious does recognize these aural messages and processes them like any other subconscious feeling that is sent to it. Of course, once enough positive subconscious data is gathered and processed and stored, it will enter your conscious thought and this is where the change in the listener's perceptions and overall well-being begins to manifest.
Once the conscious self begins to follow and respond to the overwhelming amount of positive data that has been accumulating in the brain during these subliminal audio sessions, formerly insurmountable problems seem to fall away as they are replaced by new, positive experiences.
It really is a simple concept; it is a proven concept; and, with the technical advances afforded by modern digital audio recording, it is a concept that is totally realized.
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