Do Subliminal Self-Help Programs Work? (3): Peripheral Perception
Peripheral Perception Is Natural
Peripheral perception, shadowed or masked information, all under the genre of subliminal technology, is one of the most powerful techniques presently available. It can literally re-script the preconscious mind, stripping away negative expectations and self-doubt, and replacing these destructive patterns with positive input, thereby bringing about positive changes in an effortless and natural way from the inside out.
There is nothing mysterious about all of this. Yet, part of the difficulty in understanding subliminal rests in the word itself. A subliminal message, at least in the instance of an audio program, could be defined as a verbal stimulus perceived below the threshold of awareness. Now, the key word here is awareness. A whisper two blocks away is below the threshold of awareness, but it is not perceived. (See Wolman’s categories on page 5.) In order for perception by an individual to occur, there must be sufficient stimuli to trigger a neuron in the brain.
For the sake of simplicity, imagine that you are verbal subliminal stimuli riding beneath the waves of nature sounds and music in the same manner a submarine rides beneath the ocean surface. On the journey into the ear, destined for the brain, the outer ear catches the sound waves and they enter the auditory canal. From the auditory canal the waves are transmitted to the drum membrane, or middle ear, where air pressure and three small bones convey vibrations to the inner ear. Here, within the inner ear are cochlea or coiled structures with sensory cells that receive the sound stimuli and transmit to the brain impulses arising from them. The stimuli ultimately trigger neurons. Millions of neurons are carrying message units corresponding to some stimuli across the synapses and simultaneously competing for conscious attention.
Neurons have no neutral state. They are either off or on. Therefore, the threshold of awareness or detection/perception level that exists and is taking place below that threshold is in fact a neural excitation. Without a neural excitation, there exists no perception, with or without awareness.