Originally Posted by
Placebo
I've personally made subliminal software myself, a few years back, and I discovered that most monitors do not have a quick enough phosphor afterglow to allow for truely undetectable-to-the-conscious subliminal images.
It's a sad truth.
So why are there so many subliminal programs out there where you usually can't see the image? Simple... they're being a bit daft really, and the image isn't displayed at all.
They aren't waiting for the horizontal refresh on your screen before removing the image (your screen draws top to bottom, many times a second)
In other words... lets say your screen is busy drawing the bottom piece of your screen. The program quickly draw an image onto the top of your screen... and before the screen has even got around to drawing that new image at the top again, the program has already removed the image. So nothing got physically drawn to your screen.
That said, even if you can see something flicker on and off your screen, it can still work with a sort of placebo effect. Unless you're really stubborn and determined to believe it won't work, in which case you'll experience something similar to what's called a nocebo effect. Although not detrimental really. Just not effective.