Blog Post #3- What are the effects of affirmations and subliminal messages that are being used for manifestation?

Hey guys!

My question is “What are the effects of affirmations and subliminal messages that are being used for manifestation?”

Today in my first round of research I will be asking “what are manifestation, subliminal messages, and affirmations”

First, manifestation is basically the law of attraction if you’ve ever heard of that. Essentially, it is the ability to attract what you want into your life by focusing on it. (1)

Let’s move on to affirmations. They are defined as positive statements that can help get rid of negative thoughts that would cause you to sabotage your own success. (2) It is said that using affirmations can make unconscious change in your life. Some of the benefits are motivation, concentration, positive thoughts, and a boost in self-esteem. (3) Although these benefits look fabulous there have also been studies that not only argue that affirmations are useless but also harmless. Joanne Wood, a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, found that they can be harmful to people with low self-esteem because being forced to “cheer up” causes them to be even more self-sabotaging. (4)

above are some examples of common affirmations people might use.

Next, subliminal messages used for manifestation. They first appeared in 1956 for a Coca-Cola (5) Subliminal messages are defined by Collins dictionary as “a message passed to the human mind without the mind being consciously aware of it”(6). They have been used for advertising, in music, movies, and meditation/manifestation. (7) Specifically used in manifestation, subliminal messages are used to get a person to make positive change for themselves. They do this by playing positive affirmations under calming music or the sounds of nature. People partake in this hoping that their unconscious mind can take in these messages instead of their present mind because their present mind shoots down the positive ideas instead of taking in the words being played. (8) The most concerning thing about subliminal messages is how they can be used to hurt people; more specifically the youtube ones. Instead of positive affirmations, some youtube subliminal messages contain negative messaging that urges people to hurt themselves or hurt others around them. So this method of manifestation can be dangerous.(9)

Fed Ex would be an example of a subliminal message in advertising. This is because between the E and the X there lies a white arrow that is probably trying to get across the message that they are speedy.

Now that I’ve researched and explained the main topics that I’m going to be looking into I hope that when I talk about the science behind all of these things, it will make sense with this as background information! By seeing if there are is any scientific impact on people using affirmation/subliminal messages, I can confirm if they work and, if they do work, what effects they have on the people using them.

Thanks for reading!

https://www.thelawofattraction.com/what-is-the-law-of-attraction/ (1)

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/affirmations.htm (2)

https://www.clinicalhypnotherapy-cardiff.co.uk/affirmations/ (3)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-positive-thinking-be-negative/ (4)

https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/soc499/cordray/media/sublmgs.html (5)

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/subliminal-message (6)

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/10/24/subliminal-advertising (7)

https://www.thriive.in/meditate/what-is-subliminal-meditation.html (8)

https://alteredmindwaves.com/do-youtube-subliminals-work-or-even-safe-to-use/ (9)