we have Free Will?

Most people assume they have their own individual and collective free-will but do we really? Or is it just a delusion and fantasy we have created for ourselves to make us feel better. Mass media and advertisement have supposedly destroyed the idea of free-will long ago when subliminal messages were introduced into the system in 1950s. But what exactly is Subliminal messaging? It is a technique mostly used in marketing and various other media outlets (movies, TV shows, services, games, etc.) to influence individuals without them being aware of what the messenger is doing. This consists the use of split-second flashes of text, hidden images, or subtle cues (more discussed in the later) that affect the consumer at an unconscious level. Thus, believing that advertisements and media works within the interest of consumers is the greatest self-deception of all. An average person is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements per day estimated by Digital Marketing Experts (Marshall, 2015), not to mention the constant bombarding of news and other media outlets we see now-a-days. Monolithic perception is illusory, the simple idea of “What you see is what you get is false”. In reality everything is complex, i.e., every message has layers to it and works in the principle of relativism because aligning with the truth has long been thrown out by the media. Anyhow, A study on Neuroscience Consciousness found out that Subliminal messaging has the potential to direct your decision making up to 25 minutes after the message is presented (Simon Ruch, Marc Alain Züst, Katharina Henke, 2016). There is no doubt that when a person is constantly exposed to media that are influenced by negative subliminal messaging, he/she can have long-term behavioral changes and alteration in attitude towards certain things which benefit the media or product per se even if it can be detrimental to your wellbeing. Which further results in, mindless absorption of advertisement, media, magazines and newspaper which makes the person victim by being a hyper consumerist through unlimited shopping’s in stores, proudly defending junk foods, alcohol, tobacco and other substances over-hyped by media. This creates a hedonistic treadmill which does not give rise to happiness or wellbeing which further leads to psychological change as well e.g., addiction, group thinking and dependency behavior.

Manipulation exists because the appeals must sell products, services, shows and goods regardless of their merits or actual substance. The hidden agenda is never questioned and the advertisement or media displayed is seen as harmless without thinking critically. Manipulation of our feelings and desires is one of way through which the masses can be controlled, this has very well been known in marketing ever since Edward Bernay, nephew of Sigmund Freud (that's where Bernay got the idea from) used the theory of unconscious (feeling brain) to influence females to smoke in public when it was a taboo for females to smoke in public in the 1920s. He paid a bunch of females and told them to smoke their ‘torch of freedom’ in a huge Eastern Sunday Parade in New York. The footage was released in the newspaper and it was talked about everywhere. The American Tobacco company targeting Females in advertisement lead to Higher rates of female smokers, in 1923 women only consumed 5% of cigarettes, in 1929 the percentage raised to 12% and in 1935 to 18.1%, with an exponential rise in 1965 at 33.3% (A M O'Keefe, R W Pollay, 1996). But what’s more unfortunate is that between 1950 to 1994 there was an exponential rise in female lung cancer mortality rates which lead to 3% female’s death by cancer to 22%. Additionally, in 1965, 30,000 American females died due to tobacco related disease and in 1984 it increased to 106,000! (A M O'Keefe, R W Pollay, 1996). This certainly gives us the awareness on what media is capable, not to mention how powerful Subliminal messaging can be.

If you study marketing 101, we are told to study people’s pain point. It is basically to identify the things that make people feel worse and make them worse in a sneaky way. Then turn around and, sell them your product conveying that it will make them feel good (selling false hope). This happens a lot in mainstream self-help industry which runs on people who are not happy with where they are. You don’t feel good about yourself? Oh hey, buy my new course!” (they are not that upfront though). Unfortunately, this creates an endless cycle which profits the industry without getting to the root of the consumer’s problem.

There is a lot more to subliminal messaging that goes in this manipulative media than this, there are various subliminal strategies which are used to influence humans in masses which appear often in media, these messaging are deaf to mindless perception or even conscious perception since its agenda is to influence the subconscious mind. The basic subliminal strategies are Backmasking, Figure ground reversal (Syncrestic illusion), Embedding, Double Entendre, Tachscistopic Displays, Low intensity light and low volume sound, lightening and background sounds. These are strategies used through technical engineering to distort reality from fantasy, from sounds in movies, lightening effect to milli second flashes of word in screen to low intensity sound which are not easy to be perceived by our conscious mind but our subliminal mind picks that up instantly. This was also talked by Sigmund Freud in his book ‘The Interpretation of Dream’ through various case studies where he mentions inaccessible memory which is stored in our unconscious even though we did not consciously remember them or perceive them. Anyhow, Media can also promote group thinking for example the expression flashes which are prominent in Indian serials and also movie, which shows us how we should react in that particular situation. The facial expression influences because we are sensitive to images and facial expressions it gives us a ‘sense of familiarity’. We can also see ‘Audience laughing sounds’ in certain Comedy shows especially in “Mr. Bean” where we are influenced on what to laugh at, the laughing crowd symbolized that, what is being show is actually funny and if you don’t laugh, there is something wrong with you, this actually promotes group mentality...

Anyhow, Subliminal messaging can be used in a positive way as well by scraping out the selfish agenda we can empower individuals and masses through positive subliminal messaging. This certainly have been used in a therapeutic way through subliminal therapy (subvisual and subaudible messages) which is practiced today. This therapy at an individual level has the potential to have its impact at a collective level but it may require the cooperate Giants, media and the technical engineers behind the scenes to change their approach in Subliminal messaging and make us not dependent on their products, entertainment and services. Regardless of that, we can still be in control by denying, questioning and limiting our exposure to ‘harmless’ media and be more mindful of what we allow into our minds…

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