The numbers of consumers buying into products that contain subliminal messaging, such as audio tapes, DVD's and videos', and even the newest software products, are on the increase.

I was intrigued at the reason why? Can so called 'normal' people really buy into some phenomenon and have it change their life so simply, and how on earth does it work? If things like this really did work, then why do people still have issues with their weight or with being successful. I would have thought this be dictated by fate rather than some kind of fascinating product that claims to 'improve your way of life'.

So I looked into it and wanted to share some of my findings with the rest of the world, exclusive of the jargon that so many people have phased me with!

This all started in the 1950's, with advertising firms using psychology within their advertising. Consumers were blissfully unaware until 1957 when research took place, and the results were made public by the media hype. The study showed 'invisible' messages to unwitting film watchers in America to persuade them to make purchases that they had not intended to make, namely popcorn and coke from the cinema's snack section.

Images and signals shown were not noticed by the movie goers, because the study claimed to bypass the 'conscious' mind and use messages flickering so fast that they were only audible to the subconscious mind. The results were pretty phenomenal, when sales of coke and popcorn increased and the cinema stocks ran out greater interest was generated. Something that began as 'motivational research' proved to be a great success and marketing companies invested in ways to channel this technology to everyday consumers.

Arguments followed, and research continues even today regarding subliminal perception. You could agree that the 1957 research proved that subliminal messaging does work, but you could disagree that it proves that any kind of subliminal message works. Indeed strict controls are required in testing, and subsequent tests using different forms of subliminal stimulus have been inconclusive or fail to show any effects.

Different forms of subliminal stimulus have been around for years, that tell us we can alter our lives and change that one habit that plagues us on a daily basis - be it lack of confidence, lack of sex drive, negative thinking etc. We have seen subliminal messaging being promoted as a self-development tool, and we can buy them all over the place in the form of a book, audio tape, video or more recently the form of software.

Of all the forms of subliminal self help available the fastest growing and one I found most viable is subliminal software. Purely because more and more of us are spending greater portions of our day in front of a PC for work or play.

Also in order for the subliminal altering of one's perception to occur their concentration must be squarely gazed in the direction that the stimuli is occurring. Also The observer must be able to understand the messages without having to pause and think about them. Hence it is vital messages are in a language or lingo that people can relate to and quickly absorb. This is why software is growing choice because you can custom make messages in words and language that you understand.

There is no shortage of subliminal software out there with two of the more popular and prominent software packages being Subliminal PC and Brain Bullet. How these two companies drive their product is by offering users the chance to affect their lives positively in the ways they want to improve all while devoting no extra time than what you already use in everyday PC use. To me, this seemed like the method that seemed a little more like it might work, if simply because so many of us work on our PC and concentrate on that alone without so many of the daily distractions we get when we are not working.

It would seem that in our increasingly time deprived lives we can make more productive use of time we have already committed to and little by little erode our personal weaknesses and bolster our collective strengths. I did not, however, delve any deeper into this and would always encourage those seeking self-help to research any products before thinking about buying them.

About the author:

Based in the United Kingdom and still a young writer at 26 years old, Louisa Taberner Croft has been completing articles very recently as a part-time interest, although plans on pursuing her interest further as her creative and factual writing styles develop and become more established.

With special thanks to www.subliminalpc.com and brainbullet.net for their information and references.