You see more than you think you see
Dr Vernon Coleman
Much of what we see is never consciously registered by our brains.
If subliminal messages are flashed onto TV or cinema screens the messages will register with our subconscious minds only.
Researchers have shown that aircrew members taught to press buttons when they have spotted enemy aircraft will sometimes press them when the aircraft have been there but they have not knowingly seen them. The unconscious ability to see is, it seems, sometimes stronger than its conscious counterpart.
To illustrate this point an experiment was organised in which individuals watching nonsense words being projected onto a cinema screen were given shocks when certain words were shown. Predictably, the experiment showed that the volunteers exhibited the same sort of responses as Pavlov’s dogs. They began to show physical signs of fear every time they saw a word which would be accompanied by a shock.
What these researchers also revealed, however, was that when words which should have been associated with electrical shocks by the volunteers were falsely identified by their conscious minds their bodies nevertheless responded accurately, unconsciously making correct identifications.
And if that doesn’t impress you, consider this: a boy who was taught to blink when he heard someone say the number ten also began to blink when he heard people say sums, the answers to which were ten. Thus he would automatically blink when he heard the numbers 92-82, 65-55 and so on. Somehow the automatic reflex he had acquired had linked into a part of his brain that was capable of doing small sums.
Whatever else we may suspect about our eyesight we do know now that we have a lot to learn. Could it be, for example, that when we act on impulse, or have a hunch about something, we are using information that has been fed into our brains without our knowledge?
NOTE
The essay above was taken from `Bodypower’ by Vernon Coleman. You can buy a copy of the book Bodypower via the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com or you can Click Here
Copyright Vernon Coleman February 2025
Home