The Subconscious Matrix: Falling Down the Rabbit Hole of YouTube Subliminals
I first heard of Subliminals from a girl I follow on Tumblr. She swore by them and was currently using one to grow her hair faster. She had received asks about what the good subliminal channels on YouTube were as well as how to know if they were working for you. I was intrigued by the concept — that was until she said that if you notice yourself feeling sick or depressed, stop listening immediately. That was enough to shut down my curiosity. The whole thing sounded very sketchy to me.
Over the last few weeks in quarantine, I’ve been reading a lot about the Law of Attraction and learning how to apply it to my life. Just because we can’t go out and manifest the lives we want at the moment doesn’t mean we can’t get our priorities straight while we wait for the world to get back to (the new) normal. On FaceTime with Kailah (my good friend and Editor-in-Chief of Mid-Heaven) last week, she mentioned Subliminals and my ears instantly pricked up at the word. She sent me some channels she trusted/had listened to, and these recommendations (along with sheer “social distancing” boredom) prompted me to look further into this community.
So what are Subliminals?
Do you know that “Friends” episode where Chandler is trying to quit smoking so Rachel gives him a self-hypnosis tape that’s supposed to help him stop? And at night when he’s sleeping, the woman on the tape affirms that he is a “strong, confident woman who does not need to smoke”? So Chandler starts acting really feminine and he doesn’t know why? It’s kind of like that, except less of a joke.
Subliminals are, put simply, audios with subliminal messages embedded in them. Basically, you’ve got music/white noise playing as normal, but in the background at an almost inaudible volume, there’s someone speaking affirmations with the intention of planting them directly into your subconscious.
There are Subliminals for literally everything you can imagine: cultivating an abundance mindset, writing motivation, attracting your crush, strengthening your immune system, growing your hair, and even changing your eye colour (although I’m especially skeptical about that last one).
So the idea is to listen to these audios — preferably when you are sleeping or very relaxed — over and over until your subconscious absorbs the affirmations. These messages then go on to influence your beliefs and behaviour, helping you to manifest the things you want. But what evidence is there to suggest that this actually works?
Do Subliminals work?
While gathering research for this article, I found out that funnily enough, there isn’t much evidence to support that subliminal messaging works at all. First of all, there is debate over whether our subconscious minds can even perceive stimuli that our conscious awareness cannot detect. Secondly — even if our brains can perceive subliminal messages — the influence these stimuli have on our responses is heavily disputed.
There is evidence to support the effectiveness of positive affirmations and hypnotherapy. There is also lots of information on neuroplasticity i.e. how the brain is able to form new neural pathways/change how its circuits are wired. However, apart from the placebo effect, there is unfortunately little evidence to suggest that subliminal audios work in a similar way to affirmations and hypnotherapy.
In theory, subliminal affirmations sound perfect, as a lot of the time, the reason people don’t find positive affirmations helpful is because the statements contradict a deeply-held negative belief. This belief is hard to dislodge by simply looking in the mirror and stating “I love myself!” because such a statement naturally conjures up all of the doubts we have as to why we are not loveable. If we were able to plant this message directly into our subconscious and therefore bypass all of those conscious doubts, wouldn’t it make things so much easier? We could change so much about ourselves, and it would be almost effortless.
Because so little evidence exists around the power of subliminal messaging, you could come to one of two conclusions regarding Subliminals on YouTube:
Subliminals are bullshit. There’s hardly any evidence to suggest they work, so that’s that!
Or
Okay, maybe the power of subliminal messaging is disputed, but I still believe there’s more to our subconscious than we know — which, let’s face it, isn’t much. I’ll take this article — as well as YouTube subliminals — with a pinch of salt and keep reading so I can suss this out a little more.
So, let’s just say your subconscious can perceive subliminal messages, and that those messages can affect our behaviour to some extent, are subliminal audios safe to listen to?
There’s been controversy regarding some subliminal makers on YouTube putting negative affirmations in their audios (e.g. Rose Subliminals). People have reported getting nightmares from listening to them while they sleep. Impulsive thoughts, depression, sickness, feeling a strong sense of self-hatred, and even feeling suicidal are also among the “side effects” people have experienced supposedly due to certain Subliminals.
If these side effects were in fact caused by negative affirmations in a subliminal, according to what we know about subliminal messaging, these effects should start to fade once you stop listening to the audio. There are many possible explanations as to why someone would react in this way. One of them could be due to the fact that people are more responsive to a subliminal message if it already aligns with a current belief. Therefore, if you already hold negative beliefs about yourself, you may be more susceptible to subliminal messages confirming them.
The effects of subliminal messaging don’t tend to last long, even in clinical trials. So if you did listen to a subliminal and feel unsettled afterward, remember that pinch of salt you’re taking Subliminals with, take a step back, and you should be fine.
What if I want to try Subliminals? Where do I start? How do I make sure the channels I listen to are trustworthy?
A fun, quarantine activity I found myself doing yesterday was loading an mp3 track of a subliminal into Ableton to see if I could isolate/amplify the faint voices I heard in the background to investigate what was really being said. I felt like an FBI agent trying to make out the words amidst the gentle piano music mixed with heavy rain white noise. I managed to pick up one or two words relating to the theme of the subliminal, but other than that, it was hopeless. I couldn’t tell for sure what the voice was affirming — which was a little unsettling — but ultimately, it seemed harmless enough.
If you want to try Subliminals, I suggest googling “safe subliminal channels” before you start, just to be sure. This is your precious subconscious we’re talking about, and you don’t want to take any risks. Popular channels should be fine. You can always read the comments of the video to see what people have to say about it. (And if you really want to, you can always learn how to make your own.)
Personally, after weighing up the possible pros and cons of YouTube Subliminals, I have decided that they’re (mostly) not for me — as much as I want to manifest a new apartment, a kitten, or better social skills, I don’t know if YouTube is the best way to go about this. I’m still wary of trusting a stranger with my subconscious, even if it is just for fun.
I believe that putting messages into your subconscious could definitely change your conscious thoughts and in turn, affect your actions/life. I feel like, if it works, it could be a really powerful tool for manifestation. Even if at the end of the day, it all comes down to the placebo effect — there’s still power in that! We really don’t know the full extent of what our minds are capable of, so why don’t test those limits? Now’s as good a time as any to dip our toes in the water and see what happens.
Sarah Diver is a eighteen-year-old writer/poet from Ireland. She has spent the good part of her teenage years recovering from Lyme Disease and reminding herself that ‘the best is yet to come.’ Her work focuses on themes of love, fear, nature, music, healing, longing, spirituality, beauty, romance, sensuality and peace. She has been featured on Rookie, Gurls Talk and The Loud Journal. When she’s not singing/dancing around her room, writing in her diary or walking by the river, you can find her on Instagram @sarah.diver or Tumblr @allmybirdsofparadise