by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
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These unseen forces can be from known physical causes or from unknown sources. Before discussing the unknown, let's illustrate with an example that is now common knowledge since the publishing of Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard. The story first appeared in American newspapers and later was picked up in magazines. Let's consider a report that appeared in a leading national magazine on the subject of subliminal advertising. The report tells of an experiment conducted in a New Jersey movie theater, in which advertising messages were flashed on the screen so fast that the viewers were not consciously aware of them.
During a period of six weeks, more than forty thousand persons unknowingly became subjects of this test, while attending the theater. Flashed on the screen by a special process that made them invisible to the naked eye were two advertising messages concerning products that were available in the theater lobby. At the end of the six weeks, results were tabulated: sales of one of the products had soared over 50 per cent, while sales of the other product rose almost 20 per cent.
The inventor of the process explained that, although the messages were invisible, they still had taken effect on many in the audience
because of the ability of the subconscious mind to absorb impressions that are too fleeting to be registered consciously.
When this story appeared in the press, the public was horrified "by this attempt to channel our thinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes" by the use of subliminal suggestion. People were afraid. They feared brainwashing in its most subtle form. Yet it is amazing to us that someone didn't take the PMA approach. Subliminal suggestion can be employed for desirable objectives, too. Everyone knows that power can be used for evil or for good, depending upon how it is directed.
Now that the experiment has proved its purpose, it doesn't take much imagination to see what the beneficial results to the viewers would be should the following self-motivators be flashed on a movie screen:
God is always a good God!
Day by day, in every way, through the grace of God, you are getting better and better!
Have the courage to face the truth!
What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve with PMA!
Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit for those who have positive mental attitude!
You can do it if you believe you can!
This would be a PMA approach, provided, of course, the consent of the audience was obtained in advance.
Another illustration of a known physical force affecting the subconscious mind can be shown by the effect of radar on navigators.
Why did the SS Andrea Doria and the SS Valchem sink? When the Andrea Doria, captained by Pierre Clamai, and the Stockholm, under Captain H. G. Nordenson, collided approximately 50 miles off Nantucket Island, 50 persons died.
The Andrea Doria was sighted by the radar operator of the Stockholm when they were 10 miles apart.
The Grace Line luxury liner, the Santa Rosa under Captain Frank S. Siwik, collided with the tanker Valchem on March 26, 1959, 22 miles off the New Jersey coast Four crewmen were killed. Second Mate Walter Wells, the radar operator on the Santa Rosa, claimed he had made two plottings of the tanker Valchem's course.
No satisfactory explanation of the true cause of these collisions has resulted from the investigations in either of these instances. Could the waves from the radar instruments have been the real cause? Perhaps Sidney A. Schneider has the answer.
As a young teen-ager, Sidney A. Schneider of Skokie, Illinois, became interested in hypnotism when he observed his older brother, a university student, successfully place his first subject under hypnosis. Sidney became an expert hypnotist. During his business career he became a radio operator and an engineer in electronics.
In the Second World War Sidney Schneider was a vital part of the system known as "I. F. F." ? Information, Friend or Foe. His job was to see to it that every ship leaving our country was equipped with radar. He noticed that radar operators sometimes went into a
trance. They weren't aware that they had been in a trance when they came out of it.
Because of his knowledge of hypnosis and electronics, Schneider concluded that the fixed attention of the naval employees took place when the waves from the radar machine were synchronized with the brain waves of the operator. On this theory he changed the waves on the radar instrument and eliminated the recurrence of the trances.
