What do we mean by subliminal?
First, let’s understand the jargon. In Latin, “limen” means threshold. And we already know that “supra” means above and “sub” means below.
So, when we experience a subliminal influence, it comes to us below the threshold of our consciousness. In other words, we are not aware of it. By contrast, we are fully aware of a supraliminal influence.
Examples of subliminal influences would include:
- A supermarket plays a type of music that slows the pace of shoppers moving around the store. This way, the shoppers will have more time to browse the products and buy them. And a supermarket can also influence shoppers by manipulating the genre of music to encourage buying.
- A study demonstrated that verbal and visual stimuli embedded in a television program caused an audience to experience increased thirst. This would obviously have the effect of boosting beverage consumption.
Autosuggestion
Subliminal affirmations are a subset of autosuggestion.
Autosuggestion is a mind programming tool. And the concept has been around for centuries. However, for modern times, It was most famously articulated by Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich.
Think and Grow Rich was first published in 1937. It has since been updated and is available on Amazon. The current edition has earned more than 77,000 ratings.
Autosuggestion typically takes the form of visualizations or affirmations. These can help one overcome fear, create changes in mindset, and achieve positive results in life.
The human mind is highly suggestible, especially when method and purpose are added in. And autosuggestion can also be added to mindfulness and meditation techniques.
Within that context, our purpose here is to introduce affirmations as a powerful and beneficial autosuggestive technique that one can easily apply by making it part of a daily routine.
Affirmations
So let’s get into affirmations themselves.
Affirmations are a simple form of positive self-talk. Examples are: “I am strong,” or “I am getting better every day.” And affirmations can be effective on a completely conscious or supraliminal level.
Affirmations play to a phenomenon known as “Neuroplasticity,” which is the brain’s ability to develop and change throughout life. It’s a way of rewiring the brain and creating new neural pathways and connections.
See our post here on creating positive affirmations.
Subliminal affirmations
But affirmations can be made to work even better when presented, framed, and delivered in a subliminal manner. This enhances their reception within a subconscious mind that is already consciously receptive.
The mind is consciously receptive because it knows that you are deliberately delivering to it affirmations on a subconscious or subliminal level. You are not trying to trick your mind into something negative.
This is why many people have great success with subliminal self-talk. It is because they believe in and desire the change being encouraged by the message.
It is not as though you are some sneaky advertiser in a movie theater trying to sell some brand of “SuperCoke” through subliminal advertising to an otherwise unreceptive audience. Advertisers who have tried this learned that the human mind is too intelligent to be reliably fooled by unwanted subliminal messages.
Are subliminals safe?
There is no science that we are aware of that shows subliminal messages to be unsafe. And the mind will certainly reject any subliminal message that could potentially be harmful. Subliminal messages cannot make someone do something they don’t want to do.
In fact, Subliminals will not work unless you positively want them to. They are only a subconscious reinforcement of what you already want. But they can be a very powerful reinforcement. Subliminal audio messaging is also known as subaudible messaging.
Subaudible messaging
We use a video format within which to deliver our subaudible messages. We place them below music and other sounds in the soundtrack, in such a way that the listener cannot consciously discern them. However, the mind can discern and listen to these affirmations and subconsciously absorb them as one sleeps, takes a walk, or colors a book.
As you will see below, we deliver subliminal affirmations behind relaxing meditative music combined with binaural beats tuned to the Theta frequency band that is also conducive to a receptive meditative state.
Mental reinforcement
In the description of each of our videos, we include a list of the affirmations that are included within the video. This allows the listener to put his or her mind on notice of what is coming up.
In fact, we recommend that, before playing the video, the listener recite the listed affirmations several times and out loud.
Visual reinforcement
The video format also allows us to introduce soothing and pleasing imagery to complement the music. This may include clips of flowing streams, waterfalls, waving grass, and other scenes of Nature that also have a calming visual effect on the viewer.
Visual reinforcement of a receptive mood is important. And this brings us to the role played by our affirmation coloring books.
Affirmation coloring books
Our subliminal affirmation videos are standalone. However, they are also designed to be used in conjunction with our affirmation coloring books. We publish these on Amazon KDP.
The act of coloring affirmations in a coloring book introduces tactile and visual supraliminal self-messaging. This reinforces the subliminal audio messaging in the videos. These subliminal messages complement the supraliminal messaging that appears on the pages of the coloring books.
So, in this way, there is mutual reinforcement between the supraliminal affirmations contained in the books and the subliminal affirmations in the video. After all, the word “affirm” comes from the Latin “affirmare” (to strengthen).
So we use the coloring book to help create a conscious state of mind that in turn makes one receptive to unconsciously received information.
In addition, the action of coloring itself reduces stress and anxiety. Both of these feelings are barriers to a receptive mind. So taking down these barriers fosters a positive attitude and helps the affirmations “take” on both a subliminal and supraliminal level.
You may be interested in our series of interactive coloring books featuring classical art. Details here. These are an exercise in reflective relaxation.
Coloring to music
The act of coloring paper to the music in the video adds another element in creating a meditative and receptive state of mind through supraliminal stimuli.
Our mind and senses are engaged by:
- The colors we see
- The images we see
- The sentiments conveyed by the affirmations we read in the coloring book
- The meditative music we listen to, including binaural beats at Schumann Resonance frequency
- The paper and coloring pens we feel
- Even the ink we smell (if we use scented pens)
This receptive state opens our minds to the subliminal affirmations in the video. These are delivered at very low volume and are masked by meditative music. However, they are directly related to the supraliminal affirmations that we read on the paper in front of us.
In this way, the subconsciously delivered affirmations reinforce the affirmations that we are coloring. And vice versa.
Subliminal messaging
Here are the various components of the subliminal messaging contained in our video.
Male voice or female voice?
It just seems to make sense that, when we deliver a subliminal affirmation in the first person (I/Me/Mine), a man is going to be more receptive to a male voice than a female voice. And a woman is going to be more receptive to a female voice than a male voice. It’s all about identifying with the message.
Noted author Teri Mahaney states in her book SuperSleep: The Ultimate Power to Change Your Life: “My observations indicate many women don’t accept subliminal messages in a male voice.”
However, this is highly subjective. In fact, there is some reason to believe that in general people are more receptive to the female voice. But this is far from conclusive.
We take the view that, when it comes to such a highly personal thing as the delivery and reception of an affirmation, males and females are likely more responsive to the voice of a member of their respective sex. This has to do with the distinct pitch and tone of the male and female voices.
And, even though the affirmation is subliminal and the words themselves are not consciously heard, pitch and tone matter to the subconscious. And they especially matter in the context of affirmations, which are expressed in the first (I/me/mine) person.
We invite cognitive dissonance if a male hears (even subliminally) the words “I am successful in life” in a female voice. And vice versa. So, this would undermine the conviction in the message.
For this reason, we create separate videos that deliver the same subliminal audio messages in both male and female voices. And we let the listener choose the gender of voice he or she wants to listen to.
There are of course affirmation themes that are directly relevant to a male audience as distinct from a female audience, and the other way around. So, in these cases, we use only a male voice or a female voice, as appropriate.
And this brings us to the overall audible environment or envelope within which we convey the subaudible message.
The audible environment
We deliver our subliminal affirmation within an audible environment that is designed to make our subconscious maximally receptive to the messages that we are consciously delivering to it.
This environment is an orchestration of a Solfeggio healing frequency, a binaural beat set to the frequency of the Schumann resonance, white noise, sounds of Nature, and soothing music. We touch on each of these below and provide references so that you can read further on each topic.
Solfeggio frequency (432 Hz)
The so-called solfeggio frequencies are those contained in ancient spiritual music, such as Gregorian chants and Sanskrit chants. They affect the subconscious mind in profound ways and support the health of the mind and body.
432 Hz is just one of the solfeggio frequencies. It can be traced to patterns in nature. It is most associated with healing, relaxation, reduction in anxiety, lowering blood pressure, mental clarity, and increased perception.
This is why we use 432 Hz as the carrier tone in the creation of the binaural beats used within the audio environment of our affirmations.
Binaural beats
A binaural beat is an auditory illusion and a form of brainwave entrainment. It is the difference between two given frequencies as perceived by the brain. One frequency is in a tone delivered to the left ear and the other is in a different tone delivered to the right ear. The binaural beat is not delivered directly to the ears via speakers and requires headphones.
The lower of the two tones is called the carrier tone. And the higher tone is called the offset tone. We use the 432 Hz Solfeggio frequency as the carrier tone when we create the binaural beats included in our music.
The term “binaural” is derived from the words bi (Latin for two) and auris (Latin for ear). And this means that in order for the brain to perceive and benefit from binaural beats, you must use headphones.
But you don’t need clunky equipment or worry about earbuds falling out. You can get headband headphones designed for listening to music even while you sleep. You can get them combined with eyeshades too.
Creating binaural beats
We use Audacity, a well-known DAW software, to generate binaural beats. We input a carrier tone (delivered to one ear) and then an offset tone (delivered to the other ear). Audacity then generates a binaural beat in stereo form Here is an example
- Carrier tone: 432 Hz
- Offset tone: 438 Hz
The binaural beat is the difference between the lower carrier tone and the higher offset tone. In this case, the difference is 6 Hz, which is right in the middle of the Theta band. See our post on binaural beats in more detail.
It is known that for best receptivity, both the carrier tone and the offset tone should be between 400 Hz and 500 Hz. And the 432 Hz carrier tone we use is within this range.
Tuning Binaural Beats
Binaural beats are tuned to our brainwaves and are used to stimulate desired mental states. They have what is known as an “entrainment effect” on the brain that acts in different ways, depending on the frequency.
Our brainwaves, also called neural oscillations, are associated with the mental states listed below, according to their frequency bands. So in order to find the binaural beat to suit your purpose, you need to determine your desired mental state.
- Delta band: 0.1 – 4 Hz – associated with deep sleep, healing, relaxation, and restoration.
- Theta band: 4 – 8 Hz – associated with a meditative and creative state, REM sleep, deep relaxation, reduced anxiety, inward focus, feeling, and emotion.
- Alpha band; 8 – 12 Hz – associated with relaxed daydreaming, positivity, decreased anxiety, meditation, and drowsiness.
- Beta band: 12 – 30 Hz – associated with our normal active waking state, concentration, problem-solving, and alertness.
- Gamma band: above 30 Hz – associated with learning, high concentration, focus, and heightened perception.
It is the Theta band that is best suited to the delivery of subliminal affirmations. And this is what we use.
Schumann Resonance
The Schumann Resonance, also known as the “heartbeat of the earth,” is the natural frequency or vibration emitted by the earth. This frequency affects brain function, thought patterns, heartbeat, and circadian rhythm.
Science tells us that positive exposure to the Schumann Resonance enhances memory and learning, supports immune health, and helps us resist stress.
The Schumann Resonance is 7.83 Hz. This frequency is at the high end of the Theta band mentioned above. And so, for the purpose of our subliminal affirmations, we tune our binaural beats to 7.83 Hz.
Isochronic tone
Like the binaural beat, an isochronic tone is also a form of brainwave entrainment. The waveform looks like this (from Wikipedia):
However, unlike the binaural beat, which is a combination of two continuous tones, the isochronic tone is a single tone that is rapidly turned on and off at an evenly spaced interval. This interval is brief and creates a rhythmic pulse.
Following the same reasoning behind our binaural beats, we use Audacity to create an isochronic tone using a 432 Hz carrier wave with intervals set to the Theta band Schumann resonance of 7.83 Hz. We do this for meditative videos but not for our subliminal affirmation videos.
Why no isochronic tones in our subliminals?
While we may use an isochronic tone in the Schumann frequency within our meditation and sleep videos, we do not use it within our subliminal affirmation videos. This is because there would simply be “too much going on.”
We do not want to risk creating any kind of dissonance or overload to detract from the subliminal messaging, considering we already have a mix of:
- Music
- Sounds of Nature or white noise
- Binaural beats
- The subliminal sound of a voice delivering the affirmations (in male or female pitch and tone)
- A mental state that is consciously receptive to the affirmations
- The visuals of Nature
In addition:
- Binaural beats have a superior brainwave entrainment effect
- Binaural beats have a longer track record than isochronic tones
So, for all these reasons, we exclude isochronic tones from our subliminal affirmations.
Audio ambience: music, sounds of nature, and white noise
Most people dislike listening to raw, monotonous binaural beats or isochronic tones. It can become really irritating after even a brief time. So we add ambience. This also helps mask the subliminal messaging.
We always keep the binaural beat and isochronic tone in the background, along with the subaudible affirmations. In the foreground, we present relaxing music in combination with a sound of Nature, such as falling rain, a waterfall, or birdsong. Sounds of Nature are deeply beneficial to our health and well-being.
In lieu of or in addition to sounds of Nature, we may also use white noise.
All these sounds are also conducive to creating the relaxed mental state that is most receptive to the subliminal messages that are being delivered.
So, once we have created the binaural beats and isochronic tone, we use Audacity to add the music and sounds of nature. We use these to mask the presence of the male or female affirmation voice track.
How long does it take for subliminal affirmations to work?
Generally, it will take 20 to 30 days for subliminal messages to have lasting effects on the subconscious mind. It can be shorter and it can be longer.
A great deal depends on the strength of the individual’s desire to change and how resistant to change the person is.
The important point is to recognize that you can’t expect instantaneous results and that you must believe in yourself and in what you are doing.
It is also important to avoid using multiple different subliminal messages at the same time. This can only confuse the mind and cause delay. So decide on the areas of your life you want to improve and then tackle them one at a time using appropriate affirmations.
Necessary disclaimer
If you participate in the subliminal offerings on our YouTube channel, you are acknowledging that the subliminal messages listed in the description are being delivered within the music track of the video, together with binaural beats, at your request.
In addition, you acknowledge that these offerings are no substitute for appropriate medical advice. And, in case of doubt, we highly recommend that you consult a physician accordingly.
And, specifically, don’t use binaural beats if:
- You suffer from seizures or epilepsy
- You have been diagnosed with psychological disorders
- You have a heart condition
Again, if in doubt, consult your doctor.
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