Subliminal TreacherySubliminal TreacheryIn 2004, after many years of cowardly and selfish delay, I prayed that God would help me cast down my idols and tear down my high places. He answered this prayer very enthusiastically only a week or two later by leading me to read a book, and I received a shocking revelation.
I was arguing with someone one day about the rotten shows that they were watching on TV. This person insisted that the shows and commercials have no effect on people. This is a surprising statement because advertisers wouldn't spend billions of dollars a year on TV ads if they thought that they are ineffective. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners."
I tried to reason with this person about how, even if overt content seems to be alright, subliminals can be inserted between frames. She insisted that with DVD's, movies can be stopped to see if they have been meddled with. A person would have to be a highly–trained technician to know exactly where to stop a movie to see if subs have been inserted, but I was rusty on the subject, it being many years since I read The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard.
My eye caught sight of a book about subliminals that I had bought a couple of years ago, which I had left lying on a bookshelf in the hope that it would be read by people in the household, but I had not read it myself. Not being able to counter glib objections quickly enough, I decided I had better brush up on this information.
The book is called Subliminal Seduction by Wilson Bryan Key, and it was published in 1972, several years after Vance Packard's book. When Vance Packard wrote his book back in the 1950's, he spoke about using an instrument called a tachistoscope to insert subliminals between the frames of a movie film. Discerning people became very alarmed and said that the tachistoscope was the most dangerous threat to society since the advent of the atom bomb.
In his book Subliminal Seduction, Key said that the tachistoscope was replaced by technology that projects very faint images at low light intensity, superimposing them over the clearly visible scenes, and they stay on the screen all the time, instead of only intermittently like when a tachistoscope is used. The images are undetectable to the conscious mind but are picked up by the eye nonetheless. This more effective method of mind control has been in use for over forty years now.
Hmm. I wonder if not only advertisers, but also if governments have been putting tachistoscopes and other types of subliminal technology to use? And what about powerful people who promote a New Age agenda? Legislation against this type of technology was attempted, but then the United States government decided to take Hollywood's word of honour that they would not insert subs in movies and TV programs. Haw haw!
Wilson Bryan Key, who taught Psychology and Communications theory at the University of Western Ontario, and also worked as a research associate for several international advertising companies, revealed many different ways of inserting subliminals in movies, television programs, books, newspapers, and magazines, utilizing people's lusts and fears to take their bait.
Key said that most ads are viewed for only a few seconds, so advertisers hire psychologists to help them pack as much punch into an ad as possible, and it usually takes months to construct an effective TV or magazine ad. Placing expensive ads is something that companies, who are usually notoriously stingy with advertising dollars, take very, very seriously. They don't spend money on costly advertisements, unless they are convinced through testing and feedback that the ad techniques are very effective.
Once I learned from Key's book how to spot subliminals and interpret them, I was shocked at finding them even in Christian books and videos for children. Either the companies that produce these articles are merely posing as Christian, or they have been infiltrated by people who are militantly adverse to Christianity. I also found subliminals in an illustrated Bible. The Church has been sleeping, but the devil hasn't.
I heard things said on secular children's shows on TV that can subtly undermine children's self–esteem and sense of security, thus generating more fears for subliminal engineers to play on, but most parents wouldn't be paying attention to what they consider educational shows (or, at least, harmless shows) because they use TV as a babysitter, so that they can get chores done or have some relaxing time for themselves.
In an "educational" show, a young woman stated that nature has made baby animals cute so that their parents will take care of them. It was an asinine statement and I wondered if the woman was aware of what she was saying and agreed, or if she, too, thought it was stupid, but she liked fame and money too much to object to saying such a thing.
Animals have no concept of "cute". If a dog's litter is threatened by having a ring of fire placed around the puppies, the mother dog will leap into the circle of fire and rescue the strongest pup first. She knows that it is the strongest by its smell, not by its appearance, which is meaningless to her.
It is humans who are so depraved that they might possibly need their babies to be cute so as to engage their affections. In the back of a child's mind, they know this. What kind of a message does a homely child get from hearing those words? That message generates feelings of insecurity. The child will tend to feel unloved because their appearance is unlovely by conventional standards. The vanity of good–looking children is stoked by that statement, but they also are seeded with insecurity by it. They will feel that they will be loved only for as long as their beauty lasts, and they had best make the most of it while they can, using it to get what they want. Either way, subjects are prepared through the cultivation of insecurity to be vulnerable to manipulation.
I was heartbroken that it took me so long to find out about and face up to this type of mind control, thus inadvertently contaminating children with books I had bought for them and movies I had let them see. I had been a Christian for over thirty years by then. What excuse did I have? I had read Vance Packard's book in the 1970's, and in the back of my mind I had known about subliminals all that time, but I had ignored it because I was unwilling to give up watching TV.
Where had my holiness and discernment been? Wilson Bryan Key said that intelligence is no defense against subliminals. The more intelligent a person is, the easier it is to program them because they get the point more quickly, even if it is on a subconscious level. The only defense is a pure heart. Due to impurity in my heart, I had not discerned sooner that there was "something wrong" with what I was watching on TV and seeing in books, even if on the surface everything appeared to be alright.
I was in good company, though. In all my years as a Christian, I had never heard any Christian minister warn people against subliminals, not even the ones who have powerful ministries where many people get healed and demons are cast out. I thought it was a shame that I to learn about subliminals from a worldly man who considers them a necessary evil due to how much our economy depends on a high rate of consumerism.
I wondered about Christian ministers whom I figure must know about subliminals, and they not only don't warn people against watching movies and TV, they even recommend various TV shows and movies. A lot of ministers whom I had formerly "esteemed very highly for the sake of their work" toppled off of their pedestals. God led me from there to take a closer look at their other works.
I do recall, though, that years ago, one of my pastors had warned in an excellent sermon that watching TV is like pitching one's tent towards Sodom. That's what Lot did, and eventually he moved right into Sodom and ended up losing everything but a couple of daughters, who were so polluted by their ungodly environment that they got him drunk so that he would commit incest with them, instead of waiting for God to provide them with a more honourable solution to their dilemma, wherein they mistakenly supposed that there were no other men left on the earth to father children for them.
In regards to not watching TV, I've been told that we should stay "in balance", meaning that we should maintain a balance between Christianity and the world so that the world doesn't think that we're fanatics. The balance that the Bible recommends is to keep our eyes on Jesus and not let ourselves be distracted by the world as we walk the highway of holiness that stretches over Hell below. That highway is in the nature of being like a balance beam – very straight and very narrow. In its straightness it does not veer off into the crooked paths of rationalizing indulgence in carnality.
Others have said that the blood of Yehoshua will protect them from subliminals when they watch TV and movies. That's like visiting a whorehouse and expecting God to protect us from contracting venereal disease. Some think that being aware that the subliminals are there is protection enough. It sounds to me like the hype about condoms. God's way of protecting us is to open our eyes to what is going on, and helping us to avoid the things that can bring us down.
As the Bible says in Eph 5:13 – 17, "But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever makes manifest is light. Wherefore he says, Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." 
The word "circumspect" implies to look (spect) carefully around (circum), such as a person would do to avoid stepping into quicksand while walking through a bog. We live in a dangerous world that can most definitely be compared to a bog, and its worst dangers are those that are threats to our soul.
If you don't feel that you can make a break with TV right now, at least don't compound the sin by lying to yourself or anyone else about the problems that are inherent in it. Look to God in prayer to help you get disentangled from its net.
We live in a morally–polluted world and can't avoid every instance of subliminal programming. It's on billboards when we go to bus stops, and it's on computers that we need to use to get a lot of work done quickly, and there's hardly a restaurant anymore that doesn't have at least one TV lodged in a corner like a big, ugly spider. Even if one goes to the Amazon, there are discarded product wrappers, cartons, and tins littering the jungles. By not having a TV in our home, we can avoid a huge chunk of the diseased programming that is flooding our society.
Of course, Yehoshua can use television for His own sovereign purposes. He has used it to spread the Gospel, and He has used TV shows and movies at various times to minister to me, but I am sure that He would prefer His children to grow up and seek purer streams for Him to speak through.
Generally speaking, television is vile, even without subliminals tainting it. I read a pamphlet called What's Wrong With the Movies? that was written in the 1940's. It demonstrated how movies made back in the 1930's and 40's promoted vanity and vice. Movies were a fairly new thing and Christians usually avoided them as being too worldly, so those saints of yesterday were not as heavily indoctrinated by antichrist programming as modern Christians and, therefore, they could think more clearly than the Christians of today. It was obvious to them that the values portrayed in the movies were far from the teachings of the Bible, and that they should avoid that type of entertainment.
When I got saved in 1972, some Christians still spoke out against TV, but they were considered fanatical fuddy–duddies, lumped into the same category as Christians who disapproved of reading the funny papers on Sunday. Movies and TV programming were quite a lot worse in the 1970's than the movies had been in the 1930's, and in the 1990's, it had become exponentially demonic, but Christians have been like the proverbial frog that was slowly boiled alive by degrees. Many Christians still defend their right to watch movies and programs that are blatantly against Christian values, never mind the subtle ones that stealthily and steadily erode their commitment to the Anointed Lord Yehoshua.
Television is a colossal waste of time, when one considers how it intrudes on much worthier things to do. Unless a person is addicted to TV, it really shouldn't be a problem to cut it out of our lives. How do we know if we're addicted? Perhaps when we:
I've been there, done most of that, and still slip up sometimes, so my heart goes out to anyone else who has a problem with TV. It helps to not have a TV in the home, and to daily be filled up with the Spirit so that we won't fall into temptation when we visit places where is one available.
I know there are subliminals embedded in computers, but I need my computer because it helps me get a lot of work done, gives me ready access to tons of useful information, and helps me stay in touch with friends and family through email. I like to watch Sid Roth's TV archives and listen to his radio programs on it, and to watch videos of other ministers with powerful, highly anointed messages. If we're going to expose ourselves to subliminals, then we should try to do it only with programs that are so anointed that they do us far more good than harm. But as I say, I still slip up myself, even knowing all this stuff. I like to watch funny videos on YouTube. Refusing to whitewash it with excuses helps me to reduce my viewing.
The world might say that it's good business to use subliminals in advertising, but the Word of God says that it is only the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow to it. People can increase sales from using subliminals, but the revenue that it generates is the blessing of the devil and it won't give them the happiness that they are seeking. Besides the discontent, it will eventually give them a lot of grief and they will hate themselves for having behaved like fools, but by then they could be in Hell where it will be too late to be sorry. God can bless His people without them having to stoop to sordid marketing methods.
Wilson Bryan Key has been decried as a kook, but I recommend that Christians read his book and make up their own minds about it. Of course there have been attempts to suppress it by people who have vested interests. The book, or others about this topic by Wilson Bryan Key, can be requested from local libraries or purchased through the Internet. Subliminal Seduction is out of print, but there are still copies kicking around.
I also recommend that you read this article from the CROSSROADS website to see how satan is using entertainment to turn the world into a nightmare. Our children are being trained through TV and computer games to become psychotic killers and the people who make money from these industries don't care. They can afford to hire bodyguards.
Click to read:
Hellevision Follies
Copyright © 2010, Lanny Townsend
Page modified by Lanny Townsend on April 10, 2010
Scripture references on this website are closely paraphrased from e–Sword's King James Bible.