For those who have ever wished to go to bed and wake up the next day stress free, better looking, more athletic or generally improved, it may not be as impossible as it sounds.
With a combination of music, subliminal messages and hypnosis, it may be as effortless as listening to a calming CD at the end of the day.
At least that is the reasoning behind Mind Design Unlimited and several other companies selling subliminal self-help CDs.
Dr. Michael McBeath, an ASU psychology professor with a specialization in perception and cognition, says he is not aware of any research proving these types of CDs to be effective, however that doesn’t mean it should be discounted.
“My guess is [the CDs] probably work OK, but there is no evidence against it,” McBeath says.
Two psychology graduate students who work with McBeath were a bit more skeptical of the CDs.
“To this point I have seen nothing that even mildly supports the contingent that a person could become more confident or more motivated in listening to something in this manner,” Steve Holloway says.
Holloway has done research with subliminal learning and says two components must be present for such for any effect to take place. A person must be concentrated on a task such as memorization, and the subliminal message, image, etc., must be paired with this task.
“So there is an arena of subliminal learning that could help, but it’s not in the context of a tape that you are passively listening to,” Holloway says. “It’s going to be in a video game where you have to remember things over and over and over again.”
Igor Dolgov, who has been a DJ for 11 years, says a DJ’s goal is to manipulate the audience’s mood. The music itself is likely to have a greater influence than any subliminal messages.
“I think it would be solely the music changing their attitude or mood,” Dolgov says of the CDs.
According to the Web site minddesignonline.com, the combination of soothing sounds and inaudible messages can motivate and enhance a person’s abilities, outlook and even appearance.
For example, some CDs are designed to decrease stress, improve relationships and even improve martial arts skills or grow bigger breasts.
Another company, Sprudio Subliminal Audio, has a similar concept. However, instead of soothing sounds and music, silence is coupled with the inaudible subliminal messages.
There are many other companies and different variations of the CDs. Most are priced around $20 per CD, but customers can save money by purchasing sets of related CDs.
Testimonial pages on some of the company sites have some people swearing by these products. So what explains some people’s success with the CDs and how can consumers know if it will work for them?
McBeath says there is significant research and proof that it is possible to perceive things without being aware of it. Additionally, there has been significant research in hypnotism.
“There is really good evidence that hypnotism works well for some people and not for others,” McBeath says.
He says it depends on the person and how they operate, as well as how much they believe a certain thing to be.
“Some of this perception is just what you believe,” McBeath says.
He also says that the more a person invests in something (money-wise, time-wise, energy and effort-wise), the more likely it will happen. He calls this cognitive dissonance.
“If you really want something to happen and you think it, you are likely increasing the odds in several ways for that to happen,” McBeath says.
He says that behaviors may follow thoughts, and a person may begin taking more actions to make something happen. Additionally, a person may begin to perceive things differently than they already do through their natural biases.
Holloway also says that people may get positive results through a placebo effect of convincing themselves it has worked.
While it may be appealing to virtually take little effort to make vast improvements, the three psychology researchers suggest more traditional methods of achieving a goal.
Reach the reporter at nicole.ethier@asu.edu.
