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22. Subliminal messages: programming your behavior

I used to think ads were only meant to sell products until I came across a brilliant presentation by filmmaker Lenon Honor entitled "Subliminal Messages." He explains how the conscious mind and the subconscious work, and how advertisement manipulates the subconscious in order to dictate behavior in a broad sense that transcends the mere act of purchasing things. Honor also analyzes various ads in his presentation series. I will share here his explanations and include a few ads, but I highly recommend that you watch his videos, as they offer fascinating examples that will show you ads in a very different light.

Let's get started, shall we?

Imagine your mind is divided by a horizontal line. Above it is the conscious mind. Below it is the subconscious. The conscious mind operates linearly, seeking to define any undefined element. It can momentarily store data captured by the senses (sights, sounds, smells, touch, taste, words), but it's only able to handle one thought at a time. Say you hear barking outside. Your conscious mind will quickly establish it's a dog. Once that's defined, it stores the information in the subconscious mind, where the memory resides, and moves on to other things.

"The conscious mind is committed to defining elements and resolving problems quickly and linearly," Honor clarifies. "When it's unable to define an element or resolve a problem, the conscious mind shuts down and the undefined element is transferred to the subconscious mind." That's what psychologists call "a defense mechanism": the subconscious mind intervenes to protect the conscious mind from experiencing trauma or stress associated with its inability to define an element or solve a problem. Once the undefined element or unsolved problem crosses the line beyond consciousness, it's stored in the subconscious mind for it to work on that.

Honor lists the major contributors to the conscious mind's inability to define an element or resolve a problem: sensory overload; conflicting information; fear or emotional trauma; pain or physical trauma; financial trauma; triggering words, images or numbers; and subliminal messages.

Sensory overload occurs when a person is bombarded with external stimuli (sights, smells, sounds, multiple images, etc.) and the mind becomes overloaded. When that happens, the conscious mind is unable to process the massive intake of information. Then the subconscious mind kicks in. And that's when the media reaches the subconscious mind.

Information overload is very common in music videos, with various images flashing in quick succession and several things going on at once. You also find information overload in news programs. Notice how, in the news, the opening logo always includes some moving circle to put your brain in an alpha state. That is a trance-like state triggering passiveness so you absorb everything that is said without question: the brain in an alpha state is prone to suggestibility, whereas the beta state triggers logical thinking and critical thought.

In addition, news programs always display several moving elements on the screen: a couple of images in the background, an animated logo to the side, a banner on the bottom streaming additional news and camera angles shifting, all of that overwhelming the conscious mind—which is only able to process one thing at a time.

The idea is that if people's senses are overloaded, they won't be able to process everything and will store that information in the subconscious mind without consciously processing it via logical thought. That information then becomes unfiltered, subliminal data ready to program conscious actions—the same way, say, data in your subconscious programs you to drive your car without consciously thinking about what you're doing.

A LITTLE TWIST TO THE MIX

Conflicting information is the second cause of the conscious mind's inability to define an element or resolve a problem. When it receives conflicting data, it has to quickly resolve the conflict. If the conflict can't be solved quickly, the conscious mind becomes confused. If the state of confusion persists, the subconscious mind takes over to protect the conscious mind from experiencing confusion-based trauma. "The conscious mind will shut off the conflicting information and the subconscious mind will try to process it. Remember that confusion is a form of psychological trauma. In that regard, information overload also causes confusion in the conscious mind because it can't process everything at the same time," says Honor.