Thread: Subliminal Messaging

Since some seem to have problems understanding the message settings interface, heres a....
Help Manual - Setting up Messages:

When opening the application window, there are 3 icons on the left - Status,Messages and Settings.
Click on the Messages icon.

On the message tab, you can see 3 group boxes, identified by the dark black text surrounded by a dark teal colour.
They are Messages, Category Details and Message Details

In the messages box you can find a list of the messages, with a drop down box of 'categories' on top, and 3 buttons underneath (Add, Edit, Remove)

After installation, this list is completely empty. It is highly IMPORTANT that you set up message categories and messages before attempting to use this software.

----- Creating a message category -----
To create a new category, click on the drop down box, and select [ Add Category ]
The Category Details group box will then be enabled and selected.
Type the required category name you would like (eg. 'Lucid Dreaming') into the Category Name box.
Press Apply directly underneath this
The category will now be listed in the drop down box under Messages

----- Adding a new message to a category -----
Select the applicable category (by clicking on the drop down box in the Messages group box and clicking on the category).

Press the 'Add' button underneath the list of messages (initially empty).
The Message Details group box will now be enabled and selected
Type the required message into the Message Text box (eg. 'Lucidity').
This will be the message text that will be displayed on the screen when running.
Press the Apply button directly underneath the message text.

Notice that the message has been added to the message list

----- Removing a message category -----
Select the applicable message category (by clicking on the drop down box in the Messages group box and clicking on the category).

Press the right pointing arrow, found immediately to the right of the category drop down list (next to the down arrow).
Press Delete under the Category Details group box.

Note that the category has been removed from the category drop down list under the Messages group box

----- Removing a message from a category -----
Select the applicable message category (by clicking on the drop down box in the Messages group box and clicking on the category).

Select the message in the message list that you would like to remove.
Click the Remove button underneath the message list.

Notice that the message has been removed from the message list

----- Editing a message in a category -----
Select the applicable message category (by clicking on the drop down box in the Messages group box and clicking on the category).

Select the message in the message list that you would like to edit.
Click the Edit button underneath the message list.
The Message Details group box will now be enabled and selected

Type the required message into the Message Text box (eg. 'Lucidity').
This will be the message text that will be displayed on the screen when running.
Press the Apply button directly underneath the message text.

Notice that the message text in the messages list has been changed

------

PLEASE NOTE: Creating a category and leaving it empty when starting the messages will result in an application error. Ensure that all categories have messages in them at all times. This bug will soon be fixed

Just so you know, I am using the newest version you published 1.e....
I also discovered that I can't save the settings either, I have to write them again everytime I restart my computer. Not that it is a big problem, though...

Anyway, I come bearing some good news. I am not sure whether its due to the subliminal messaging or not but today I did have a DILD. I also had very vivid dreams and recall most of them(which is not usual). I will continue to use this program to make sure that the results are constant and were indeed a result of the program, at least to a degree of certainty.

Works perfectly for me. But it is way to visible.

I think that the fact that its visible isn't that important. I is way to visible if you are focusing on it, intently. In my case I am just working and surfing the net and I try to forget about it. Sure, I see something randomly flashing in my screen at times, but it isn't that noticable...

Nope, No problems...Except if I change the reacurance rate or the thing that says how long it stays on for I have to press stop messages and press start messages again for it to start. I can save the messages. I am using windows 98.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

If the flashing bothers you - try the 'Only activate message when the active window changes' checkbox.
Helps a lot! (it will only flash when the window changes)

Truthbearer
Great - perhaps we're seeing some success
I seem to be having some success at stopping bad habits (nail biting)
Unfortunately no improvements for LD'ing yet.
What messages did you use? And how long have you been running it?

As for the saving.. thats an early bug I found with Windows 2000, but was fixed
What OS are you running? And are you an administrator of the machine?

Remus
Thanks for testing on Win98... I think you're the first
Doesn't it give you an error when you try start the messages? Would have thought it might, because of the NT Kernel Driver it tries to run.
Anyway, if it doesn't - perfect !

I'm not exactly sure what you mean about the stopping and starting.
Do you mean that the settings aren't applied until you stop and start?
Strange. Can't imagine how that could happen actually...

Evanescent
Yeah, unfortunately I can't make it any more invisible without resorting to translucency or something.
I think its the phosphor glow of the CRT screen (it takes a while to fade away - relatively speaking. Like when you turn off an old TV and glows for a small while)

One thing you can check though - when you start the program, in the Application Log box, does it say something about a Vertical Retrace Kernel Driver Interface created successfully ?
If not, then its possible that your vertical retracing isnt being caught properly on that particular monitor you're using
(vertical retrace = 1 refresh rate frame)

Some monitors don't really support the feature of synchronising to their vertical retrace. And DirectX compensates by polling for a particular bit to be set in memory. And because windows is multi-tasking, its possible that DirectX misses that cue 'cos another program takes over at the wrong time.

I'll try it, I have a IIyama diamondtron, quite an advanced monitor, and an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro, quite the good GPU, so perhaps it'll work fine on my box, just not on the out-dated crap everyone else had

winxp, sp1

Yea very good. Ouddated crap. Teh.

I think making it conver the whole screen, rather than a part of it would make it work better. Cause I'm normally not even looking at the part of the screen it's at.

Originally posted by Techboy+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Techboy)</div>

Yea very good. Ouddated crap. Teh.

I think making it conver the whole screen, rather than a part of it would make it work better. Cause I'm normally not even looking at the part of the screen it's at.[/b]

I see why you would say that, but I disagree.
Reasons: (1) It would be REALLY irritating. (2) Your subconscious should pick up peripheral vision just fine I think. And even if you miss a couple of messages here and there, as long as you see a lot of them I don't think its a problem.

I'll put it on the TODO list that you want settings for bigger text, positioning of messages, etc
But I'm a little worked out right now. Give me a few days

<!--QuoteBegin-Truthbearer

I'll try it, I have a IIyama diamondtron, quite an advanced monitor, and an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro, quite the good GPU, so perhaps it'll work fine on my box, just not on the out-dated crap everyone else had

The access violation is because you have a message category that's empty (most likely). I still need to fix that bug. All the categories need at least one message in them. Either delete it or add a message

As for the visibility:
Keep in mind that its still visible to us too. The better hardware will only help with (1) higher refresh rate ...minimal though.. and (2) less phosphor afterglow and (3) monitor support for vertical retracing.

Gday,

I downloaded it and set it to bing every 40 seconds. No errors, nothing. Good work and thankyou, Placebo.

I agree with Truthbearer, if you're just acting like you would normally on the computer, you don't notice it.

Perhaps you could add the function of allowing a picture (perhaps a dreamsign) to flash? This might become too obvious, though.

Originally posted by LewisM
Gday,

I downloaded it and set it to bing every 40 seconds. No errors, nothing. Good work and thankyou, Placebo.

I agree with Truthbearer, if you're just acting like you would normally on the computer, you don't notice it.

Perhaps you could add the function of allowing a picture (perhaps a dreamsign) to flash? This might become too obvious, though.

Cool! Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for the thanks

Personally, I still prefer that option of 'only when the active window changes'. Far less intrusive.
But yeah, I noticed I get really used to the messages. I seldom notice them any more.

The picture idea is already on the TODO list, but thanks for bringing it up.
Like you said - it *might* be a bit too noticable. No harm if its a setting though.

[EDIT]
Non-Subliminal Uses
I was chatting to Lewi, and it was brought to my attention that even if this program doesn't work in the subliminal sense, it still has a place for LD's

What Lewi is doing is to use it as a reminder to RC
In theory, after a while of that, it would be a habit to do it on your own - and in dreams.

And another use - an 'awareness' check. Similar to RC, but basically to remind you to be mindful of what you are thinking. Do this frequently enough, and you have a habit-forming expanded awareness of your thoughts. Cool.

Actually CT said the thing about the monitor...I didn't

Anyway, I am not the administrator of my computer...that might be the problem..anyway not a big deal.

Edit: I just realized I spent two hours reading "Subliminal messages do work!" or whatever...that sucks

So Placebo, you can't make it blink faster. Well if not it still works if i have my mind into something else.

Truthbearer: LMAO... killing myself laffing here. Sorry, that was nasty... *tears in eyes*

Evanescent: Unfortunately not. If I make it any faster, then it won't physically have appeared on the screen.

I intend changing the next version to not time it by the vertical retrace. It will wait for retrace, then wait for a set amount of time depending on your monitor refresh. Eg 75Hz = 1000/75Hz = 13 ms

That way theres no serious worries about missing a vertical retrace
And no need for a kernel driver any more probably

[BUG LIST]
1) You need to stop and start the program after changing settings.
2) The kernel driver seems to cause problems with Oracle. Will no longer be a problem once I remove the need for it

Found a semi-bug...On somethings like this forum...after it flashes during when you are scrolling it sometimes messes up the text's image type thing....but if you scroll down then bakc up it goes away..xD

Suggestions: Make it available in different color text
Make it able to show a picture

Originally posted by Remus
after it flashes during when you are scrolling it sometimes messes up the text's

Yeah, I noticed that. I think this is what CT or Truthbearer was also talking about earlier with the text staying behind.

I have an idea how to fix this 99% of the time, but its a little difficult to solve completely.
I was thinking about it a while this morning

Added to list, along with the suggestions
Some of them are already on the list

hey Placebo. first of all, i'd just like to say taht I would like to be lab rat #3, lol. i also downloaded ur Sublime program and kept it on for 15 minutes last night and it flashed every 5 seconds before i went to bed. it flashed the message "Get Lucid Tonight". i however did not become lucid last night. do u think that this is a good message? or i was just curious, what should i put there to give me the best results to become lucid???

Subliminal messaging dosen't work. They've done experiements where they just got a bunch of people off a street and made them watch a movie, and in the movie they "flashed" frames of: "cough" "lick your lips" and "pick your nose".

On the "COUGH" one, a few people did cough (ie: 3 out of the 50 there), but it was hardly proof because everybody had been coughing before that point anyway.

On the "LICK YOUR LIPS", nobody licked the lips.

On the "PICK YOUR NOSE", nothing happened either.

Remember the days when they flashed pictures of eg. Pepsi on the movie screens, and this caused viewers to buy pepsi after the movie?
[/b]

I think some mad guy claimed to of made a staggering 57.5% increase in cinema popcorn sales in a week when he tried the supposed "subliminal messaging", but nobody's else has ever made such a increase, or any increase with it at all. So basically, there's no proof it did/does cause people to do things, apart from this one professor dude who probably just said it for a bit of popularity. Also of note is he never revealed the cinema where this took place.

The outlawing of it is also, therefore pointless, but has been done anyway.

Other scientists tried all of this and found their results all contradicted his. The others that tried it says that "it is no more effective than seeing a billboard out the corner of your eye."

But still, feel free to flash things in front of your face anyway.

Double post, yes. But I just couldn't resist this one.

Originally posted by Evanescent
Yes I do! The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way. A placebo (latin for \"I shall please\") is a medication or treatment believed by the administrator of the treatment to be inert or innocuous. Placebos may be sugar pills or starch pills. Even “fake” surgery and “fake” psychotherapy are considered placebos.

No, you don't know what a placebo is. I have the inert ability of telling when somebody's copied and pasted something from somewhere, as it dosen't fit into their writing style.

Note how this website's first paragraph is exactly the same as Evanescent's explanation of it, rule out the italicated part of his quote.

So, in fact, you basically copied and pasted it.

Ok Kaniaz, you caught me. But it wasn't that i didn't know what it was. Just that i didn't know how to explain it.

Originally posted by Kaniaz

Remember the days when they flashed pictures of eg. Pepsi on the movie screens, and this caused viewers to buy pepsi after the movie?

I think some mad guy claimed to of made a staggering 57.5% increase in cinema popcorn sales in a week when he tried the supposed \"subliminal messaging\", but nobody's else has ever made such a increase, or any increase with it at all. So basically, there's no proof it did/does cause people to do things, apart from this one professor dude who probably just said it for a bit of popularity. Also of note is he never revealed the cinema where this took place.
[/b]

I have heard this sort of advertisement was so effective that it is illegal to advertise products in this way today.
Logically, it must have been a reason this advertisement method is illegal today.

Logically, it must have been a reason this advertisement method is illegal today.
[/b]

No, there was basically just a bunch of public panic and the law system never usually has rhyme-nor-reason to half of its laws anyway. Some guy in a wig stood up and said "I don't like subliminal messaging," then they all went off to lunch, came back without the faintest idea what they were on about and then passed a law about it.

Okay, big bug, as I was experimenting with the frequency, an error came up, can't remember what it was right now, anyway it was then stuck doing amessage one ever seccond that lasted about two secconds, so I deleated it al and tried to re-install, when I opened it it did not let me view the options, it only started to do it once a seccond and last two secconds again. Any ideas? on whats wrong, oh and I suck with computers, it's probably somthing I'm doing wrong.

Hey! Thanks! It's working fine for me everything's going well it's just confusing coz I don't know if I can read what it says coz I know what it says kinda thing lol.

[edit]

I was reading recently somewhere that when you read your most likely to read the left hand side of something (and your program puts the writing on the left hand side of the screen) but if you read the right hand side of the writing you will understand what it says better and it's better for scanning something (I realised that this program usually only shows the last two words of what it says absolute genius!)

[/edit]