Subliminal Audio Tapes

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

From this article.

For the record, I always had a great deal of trouble sleeping. I went through most of my school days exhausted from insomnia the night before. I just could never get to sleep, starting from the onset of puberty. In my senior year of High School, I saw at the local Caldor (anyone remember those?) a subliminal tape offering to cure insomnia. Side one was a man talking you through relaxation techniques: basically low-powered meditation. Once in a relaxed state, he reminded you how good it felt to sleep, and how easy it was to get to sleep. Side two of the cassette was pretty tinkly music over the sound of surf, while the man’s voice could occasionaly be heard muttering in the background.
Long story short, I tried it, it worked, and in the space of six months, I was falling asleep within 5 minutes of my head hitting the pillow. I still can.
Now: I don’t know how truly effective the subliminal side of the tape was. I would always start to feel drowsy after listening to it for a while, but I have a feeling that was a pavlovian response of sorts; the same surf noises were used in the background for the controlled relaxation session on side one. Wish I still had the tape, btw. The music was vaguely remeniscent of Eno’s Music for Airports, IIRC.
Anyone have luck with these things?

2

Years ago, my whole class had a visitng hypnotherapist as a speaker who taught us all a visualization about walking down stairs and becoming more relaxed with each step. It was very effective for me for getting to sleep for a number of years, but I don’t have the need of it anymore.

She had the class ‘go down the stairs’ and visualize a room of any kind we would like, then asked us to describe the rooms. There seemed to be common themes among the students such as “small”, “dark”, and “warm”. My room had all those features plus some fancy sling-type chair and a book holder that would turn pages for me so I didn’t have to!

I also remember a fairly hypnotic “Compoz” commercial on the radio many years ago - it was some kind of sleep aid pill, I think. I swear that put me to sleep on many a night. Very soothing.

3

My therapist gave me a set of tapes titles “Permission to Succeed” since I have some problems in that area.

I listened to them and later told him “I have this strong urge to give you lots of money!” :smiley: I don’t think they were very helpful but I have done some of the relaxation techniques that were quite effective.

I have given him lots of money, too!

4

How did they ever stumble on “Mommy and I are one”? I can’t imagine what thought process led to that particular phrase, sounds like something the infinite monkeys might come up with.

5

I wonder what kind of results they might have had with the messages "Number nine … number nine … number nine … " and “Turn me on, dead man!”