Some of you may recall back into the 70’s that students were told that if they put headphones on and listened to their lessons they would be able to remember what they learned better and be able to ace the test the next day. Others even believed that if you put your textbook under your pillow the lessons would leech through the pillow and you’re your brain as you slept. Sounds kind of crazy, doesn’t it?
It was also during that time that people were warned about the subliminal thoughts that were being put into your brain while you were shopping or in an elevator. Somehow messages were being put into your brain by having it embedded behind the music and advertisements you heard over the loudspeakers.
Many people were convinced for years that listening to certain music (especially if played backwards) mind-controlling messages could hypnotize you. Is there actually any truth to this?
What exactly is subliminal learning? According to experts, subliminal learning allows us to learn by exposing us to stimulus that will put an idea into our minds. It can take place by having images flash on the screen for a fraction of a second, or by words being repeated again and again at a volume just above our hearing threshold. Many scientists have been fired up by the idea of using this method because it has the potential to accelerate learning, making the process painless and as simple as possible.
Both the United States and the UK have outlawed subliminal messaging in advertising because there is fear people will be influenced into buying something they would not normally purchase, or maybe couldn’t afford. In your personal life, however, subliminal messaging can be used to build confidence and self-improvement – like with self-hypnosis. The concept is already set in your mind that self-improvement is a good thing, so the brain doesn’t have any problem allowing these types of messages to enter freely.
Imagine what it would be like to learn without consciously realizing that you are learning – moving your memory directly to the unconscious mind! The fact is, it is possible for smaller scale skills - like for learning words, numbers and easy visual data. The message can be received in our brain through subliminal processing, learning skills and behavior modification.
Basically subliminal learning is unconsciously processing information into your memory. Suppose you were to push the envelope a bit and take advantage of this particular quirk in the learning process in order to "accelerate" the rate of learning? You may find that you have a heightened memory from which to work with.
Conscious learning and memorizing happens through the process of repetition and practice. Memories can be unconsciously filed in our brain for future retrieval as we sleep. It is through this process that we remember how to ride a bicycle, learn math concepts, and develop our own set of self-beliefs and confidence.
Higher learning activities, such as languages and math (high-order skills) will always require our full attention to process, but subliminal learning can be used as a memory tool, but only as an aid for repetition and processing, and not as a singular or only tool.
At first it may seem outrageous, but if you understand the theories of learning, and the potential (as well as limitations) of subliminal learning, you will see you actually have some sort of subliminal processing going on at various times of the day - like when you get a particular song stuck in your head, or pulling up a vocabulary word that you don’t remember learning the first time. You pick up pieces of information in the background noises that surround you, and sometimes they simply stick in your subconscious until a cue will bring them to the surface.
Can you learn subliminally? Certainly, we do it all the time. Is it a good memory tool? Only if used along with other memory techniques. You will not be tricked into doing something you wouldn’t have in you to do, nor can you use it as the only way to study for a test. So students, you won’t get off that easy. Take the book out from under you pillows and open it up and start reading. That’s the best way to learn - consciously or subconsciously.