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LifeEtc: Spirit Sound effects
Independent on Sunday, The, Apr 11, 2004 by Alice Hart-Davis
The idea is so blissfully simple that it's hard to resist. If there's something in your life that you want to change, just pop on a CD of soft shushing sea-noises or new-age music, and the almost unnoticeable messages that it contains will percolate through to your subconscious, changing the way you think about... ooh, almost anything, from weight-loss to stress to giving up smoking. And no willpower is required.
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Among the CDs on offer there's a new self-hypnosis range which uses a combination of hypnotic suggestion and Baroque music performed by a specially assembled "hypnotic orchestra". Certainly David Botsford, the Harley Street hypnotherapist who fronts Baroque CDs, is well-regarded - and his voice is terrifyingly soothing. And if that doesn't go far enough then there's Inner Talk, a range from America which deploys a patented new technology of subliminal messaging to replace all the "no-you-can't" negatives with "yes-you-can" ideas.
But is there anything to it, or is it just a final straw for the desperate to grasp at? "Subliminal messaging" does sound more scary than soothing voices and Baroque orchestras. If you can't hear the secret messages contained in the music, how can you be sure what they're saying? And isn't it all about mind-control?
"Without conscious choice, subliminal beliefs have been scripted into us as a result of what I call the `no-don't' syndrome and the response to avoid rejection," says Inner Talk director Eldon Taylor. "In order to change ourselves, we need to change the way we think - in particular, change the way the subconscious thinks."
According to Taylor, like hypnotherapy, Inner Talk works on the premise that it is our subconscious that resists change and so subverts our attempts to improve ourselves. Unlike hypnotherapy it works on "re-scripting" the self-talk that goes on inside us by sending simultaneous positive messages to the left and right sides of the brain. Gentle permissive messages (such as, "It's OK to be successful") for the analytical left-brain, and more authoritative statements (such as, "I am successful") for the non- critical right- brain. The words on Inner Talk CDs are masked by being played backwards, but apparently we can still understand them; sorting them out in the same way that the brain translates the world around us from images received through the eye.
At first listen all I could hear was a slight mumbling behind the music and wave-noises. But I persisted - you're meant to listen for an hour a day for a month - and the sounds resolved, rather alarmingly, into perfectly clear statements. An hour a day isn't hard given that you don't have to actively listen. You just put it on while working, watching television or, even better, on repeat while you sleep. The idea is that once the CD's positive messages override the negative in your subconscious, change can happen. But can it really?
"The evidence for this sort of stuff is sketchy" says Cliff Arnoll of the British Psychological Society. "But I wouldn't discount it just because there is no data. When it comes to subliminal learning there will always be some people who think it's rubbish and others who think it is marvellous. The difficulty is that it's hard to tell how much is the placebo effect is working. If someone has paid their money and sticks to the regime, they could very much want it to work - or if they are a disciplined, persistent person, they may well be doing other things to help bring about changes in their life."
I've spoken to enough people who swear by Inner Talk to be convinced something is going on. There are those who have lost weight, gained confidence and even one woman who insists she has gone up a cup-size by sheer mind- power.
Me? Listening to Inner Talk CDs while I worked certainly improved my concentration, and at night they helped me get to sleep. And they're curiously addictive; I've recently moved on from Ending Procrastination to Millionaire Orbit. Hope springs eternal. n
Inner Talk CDs, pounds 22.99 each, for a brochure tel: 01628 898 366, or visit www.innertalk.co.uk; Baroque CDs, pounds 24.97, available from www.selfhypnosis.co.uk
Copyright 2004 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
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