Wouldn’t it be great if we could get immediate feedback about when the mind shuts itself off and we go unconscious to ourselves and our communications with others? Wouldn’t that save a lot of grief and potential problems if we could say to ourselves, “Hey wait a minute, I’m beginning to drop off now. I’ll wake up when there’s a version of reality playing that I can relate to.”? Wouldn’t it be useful to be have a built-in unconsciousness meter somewhere in our brains that would alert us to when we go unconscious and when others do the same?

The word subliminal means below the perception of the conscious mind. Subliminal messages can be presented as visual, audio, or in the form of electromagnetic waves. The ultimate goal of any subliminal message is to manipulate a person by altering their perceptions to produce a change in thinking patterns resulting in modified behavior.

Some people may choose to modify their own behavior with self-help tapes which use subliminal messages to change negative behaviors or thinking patterns. On the other hand, subliminal messages can be used by others to alter a person’s behavior through a type of mind control. This may seem harmless enough, however, in the wrong hands these techniques can be used to control more than just purchasing choices.

Types of Subliminal Messages
One type of visual subliminal message consists of images with a logo, word, symbol or action depicted within it that eludes conscious perception. Another type of visual subliminal message contains stimuli repeatedly flashed across a screen at fractions of a second which is too fast for the brain to consciously perceive.

While traveling recently, I stopped to have dinner at a Chinese buffet that claimed to have more than 100 items on the menu. I figured that with so many choices, I’d definitely find something delicious to eat. But as I looked over the buffet, I discovered that most of the dishes were either swimming in gravy or oil, or were deep-fried. Since that’s not the type of meal I was looking for, I soon realized that my options weren’t as plentiful as I’d expected.

There is something intoxicating about fear. We all face it every single day. We face the fear that the people we encounter will instinctively judge us because of how we look. We face the fear of making a poor first impression. We face the fear that we will not, at every moment, be our best and that this will somehow cause us to fail.

All of this fear can choke us, stopping us in our tracks. We intellectually know that we shouldn’t let it. But somehow, it sneaks in and can strangle the creativity in our lives.