This page deals with methods by which people's behavior can be influenced or modified without their conscious awareness that the influencing is taking place.
Here is an article from Time Magazine, Sept. 10, 1979, titled, "Secret Voices: Messages that manipulate." It describes the use of subliminal messages embedded in background noise or music. The technique was already in use in 1979 to deter shoplifting in stores.
This report by Greg Harrison, "Electromagnetics and the Mind," [*] provides some documented information on subliminals and related technologies and techniques. In particular, it references Congressional hearings on the subject held in 1984.
These excerpts by Anna Keeler [*] from Jim Keith's book Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History provide some information on subliminal influencing. The 1984 Congressional hearings are mentioned as well as uses of audio subliminals to decrease shoplifting. Much other good information as well.
The publications of Anthony G. Greenwald, PhD contain several articles related to subliminal perception. He is currently a professor at the University of Washington, in the Department of Psychology. Many of the papers are online in the pdf format.
The abstract of a paper, "Control of 'choice' by application of the electromagnetic field equivalents of spoken words: mediation by emotional meaning rather than linguistic dimensions?" was at the Government Mind Control site (a private site). The paper appeared in Perception and Motor Skills, Dec., 1997. That web page also has other interesting abstracts. Here is the PubMed version of the abstract.
This page at Parascope deals with some of the history of subliminal influencing, and popular scares about it. Keep in mind, though, that these are rather unsophisticated techniques being discussed and that some of the sources (such as documents released by the CIA from the 1950s and 1960s) are not necessarily reliable on this topic.
Charles Smith reports on subliminal computer programs partway through this WorldNetDaily article [*] dated Sept. 26, 2000.
Defense intelligence sources did admit, however, that "subliminal" forms of attack are under study for use in "offensive" computer combat.This ABC News article [*] by Amanda Onion, from Sept. 12, 2000, describes an interesting experiment conducted on subliminal influencing.
Anthony Greenwald, a psychologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, recently asked a group of people to classify words showed to them as pleasant or unpleasant by pressing one of two buttons.
To test for subliminal effects, Greenwald flashed another word for a split second before showing the word subjects could see clearly. For example, before presenting "sugar," he would flash a millisecond image of the word "poison" or of the word "honey."
The impact was obvious. He found when the subliminal word had a similar meaning as the word it preceded, the subjects selected the correct button more quickly. But when the flashed word had the opposite meaning, their reaction was delayed or even reversed.See also the pages on "Non-lethal" and Directed-Energy Weapons and on Wide-Field Mind Control.