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(serene music)

(explosion sounding)

(sirens wailing with people shouting)

- [Reporter] Building
appears to have collapsed.

- [Male Speaker] The
tower appeared to crumble

and start to fall.

- [Bystander] I didn't
look any more after that.

I turned, and I started to run.

Everyone ran, people just took off.

People ducked into doorways,
and people didn't stop

to look behind.

- [Second Bystander]
So sick that I couldn't

breathe at all, it's really hard to talk

- [Third Bystander] Oh, my God!

(people shouting)

- [Fourth Bystander] Oh, my God!

- [Man On Radio] They're both down now.

It's just a huge cloud of smoke.

(people shouting and clamoring)

(upbeat electronic music)

(printer operating)

- Subliminal.
- A subliminal message.

- Subliminal messages.

- Power of mind control.

♪ Hey have you heard
about the crazy new way ♪

♪ To send a message today ♪

♪ It's flashed on a
screen too quick to see ♪

♪ But still you get it subliminally ♪

Ladies and gentlemen the '59 Chevy.

- See it?
- Isn't it beautiful?

- You used a subliminal cut.

- No, quite a few subliminal
cuts from some photos I made.

(man whistles)

- OK, class, today we
are going to talk about

subliminal advertising.

- What's that?

- Scully,

are you familiar with subliminal messages?

- You mean, like, sex in
ice cubes in liquor ads?

- Why would anyone want this shit job?

- 'Cause it affords him other
interesting opportunities.

- Like splicing single
frames of pornography

into family films.

- Yvan eth nioj, they keep saying that.

Let me play this backwards.

♪ Join the Navy ♪

(gasping)

- They're recruiting people
with subliminal messages!

- Well, what do you expect?

Those bastards turned a
whole generation of Americans

into smokers with their
damn subliminal advertising.

- Subliminal.

It's a subliminal message,
broad-waved to trigger her.

- I've been seeing this
code pop up all over

the last few weeks.

It's alliance, and it's high military.

(dramatic theme music)

- Ah!
- Ah!

- Sublymonnal advertising complete.

(upbeat electronic music)

(upbeat electronic music)

- When you look at
something, smell something,

hear something that's going
into your brain at the speed

of light almost and all being retained.

Now, what comes out, in terms
of collective unconscious

perception is very limited
bits and pieces of this.

One of the earliest
acknowledgements of the unconscious

process appears in some
of Aristotle's writing,

which goes back a good bit.

- Sigmund Freud was the first
person to coherently probe

the existence of the
unconscious and postulate

that people have a lot
of emotions and drives

that they're not aware of.

Freud's theories were, at
the time, very controversial.

- 'Cause he was telling
people, in a sense,

things they didn't really
want to know about.

- Freud used a number of
techniques to determine what

their unconscious conflicts were.

And one of those that he was very involved

with was interpreting their dreams.

He felt that when people were
sleeping, the barrier between

the unconscious and the conscious relaxed,

and the people actually
experienced in the dream state

their true unconscious motivations.

- Freud wrote an
interesting book on the uses

of these things socially, and
he warned, these are dangerous

toys to play with, because
we don't understand them,

we're not likely to understand
them, and they're capable

of triggering off a pathological response.

- You know, it really started
in America with Ed Bernays,

who imported and used some of Freud's

psychoanalytic theories to give people

in their consumer choices substitutes

for sort of primal urges.

- In his book, Propaganda,
he said it was the duty

of marketing people to lead
another wise un-leadable,

irrational, free people to
making a consensus or a decision

that was a responsible decision.

And so, we had a marketing
philosophy that was inherently

about manipulating and
motivating a public.

- [TV Ad Narrator] In times like these,

most men become highly suggestible.

They listen eagerly for any voice

which sounds authoritative.

They listen eagerly for
anyone who can tell them

what is wrong and what to do to right it.

- And the best way to
sell is to find an access

to the subconscious.

So, you're not just presenting
a product or a picture

or a celebrity in film.

You're making that accessible
to the unconscious processes

of millions of people.

- Most of America
learned about the concept

of subliminal advertising in 1957.

There was a marketing
researcher by the name

of James Vicary, and he
announced that he had done

this very elaborate
experiment, supposedly.

- He claimed that he had
conducted a secret experiment

in a New Jersey cinema
in which he had flashed

the words hungry, eat
popcorn, and drink Coca-Cola

over the movie Picnic, starring Kim Novak.

- And they weren't even single-frame ads.

They were much faster than
that, 'cause he was using

something called a tachistoscope.

- It was a high-speed tachistoscope.

This is a projector that flashes
about 1/50th of a second,

though you can change that speed.

- And he reported that Coca-Cola
consumption went way up,

that popcorn consumption went way up.

- Enormously successful.

(upbeat electronic music)

- If you're watching a
film and all of a sudden

something will quickly flash
that you can't actually see,

and it puts it in your mind
that you maybe want a Coke?

- In the 50s, when movies stars,

they used to put you
ought to go to movies.

Used to put the little popcorn
thing, subliminally there.

- I've heard that they
do that in movies, like,

buy Coke is flashed on
the screen right before

the movie starts.

So, I could see how you--

- [Jeff] Do you think they're doing that

in movie theaters?

- I don't know, I get really thirsty.

(upbeat music)

- A lot of companies were interested.

A number of TV stations
agreed to run subliminal ads.

- Many competitors came into
the field with other products,

and television and radio
stations openly admitted

that they were experimenting with it.

- Radio stations were
going to run whispered ads,

where they whisper things
like buy Oklahoma oil

or drink 7Up very softly
beneath the records

that the disc jockeys were playing.

- And it caused an outrage.

The public got very nervous
and very excited about it.

- [William] There were all sorts
of editorials against this.

Congress decided they would
have to hold hearings on this.

Vicary went to Washington
to demonstrate this process.

- And this led to statements like those

by Norman Cousins that
condemned subliminal

as the most dangerous technology

to have ever been developed by man.

(siren wailing)

- [William] The networks rather
quickly decided that it was

in their interest to prevent
Congress from acting.

So, they formed this
national association of

broadcasters, and they all
agreed that they would not allow

subliminal advertising.

- And they took the position
that it didn't work.

They tried to calm the
public's anxieties by insisting

that it wasn't effective.

- Vicary dropped out of
the consulting business

and kind of retired.

And as he later admitted,
this was all basically a scam.

The experiment he had said he had done,

he hadn't really done.

(soft electronic theme)

- They increased the
consumption of Coca-Cola

and popcorn enormously.

- There's a little grain of truth to it.

I mean, there have been other experiments.

- Arguably, there might be a
moderate increase as the result

of commands like drink Coca-Cola.

It couldn't possibly
amount to the statistics

that he had suggested.

- But once you let the
genie out of the bottle,

it's very hard to put it back in.

So, we've had this almost a
mythos of subliminal advertising

ever since then.

(soft electronic music)

- So, motivational researchers
in the 50s developed

a variety of electronic
equipment that they could measure

people's unconscious reactions to it.

Like, one of these was a
galvanic skin response,

where they would measure minute
fluctuations in the amount

of sweat on your skin, which
was related to your state of

anxiety or also a heartbeat.

Or they had special
cameras in supermarkets

that would measure the dilation
of the pupils that would

indicate how interested a
person was in a product.

(sharp buzzing)

(sharp buzzing)

- They add then a new
technology, positron emission

tomography-enhanced,
magnetic resonance imaging,

et cetera, and we're seeing a whole lot

of new research come out.

Shows us what areas of
the brain are excited

by subliminal stimulation.

Kilbourne and Associates in
the mid-80s did a fascinating

experiment, where they took
two actual advertisements

that they believed
contained subliminal embeds

that they had found on their own.

One of them was a Marlboro ad
which showed guys on horseback

driving through the range
with big rocks around them.

And one of the rocks allegedly
had been made to look like

an erect phallus.

And they hired an artist, and
they adulterated the picture

and took the phallus out so
they would have a control.

And then they showed it to
people and measured their

galvanic skin responses and
found out that the picture

with the phallus had a greater effect

than the picture without the phallus.

(organ playing with crowd applauding)

(soft electronic music)

- We were the first to
demonstrate that you could

detect responses from scalp
electrodes, where we had a group

of words that were
clearly negative and words

that were clearly positive.

And the words are sort
of mixed up together,

and they're presented
at 1/1000 of a second.

So, I wanted that to be
no-nonsense, you know?

No question about whether
people were aware.

At 1/1000 of a second,
you ain't seeing nothing.

And the basic finding was
that the negative words,

when they were presented
subliminally, would have a bigger

voltage of brain response
than did the positive words.

Again, this goes back to
the whole general scientific

question, can a subliminal
stimulus in and of itself cause

a person's behavior to
change and to change in some

significant way on something important?

And the evidence there is problematic.

There are some studies that
say yes, others that say no.

(tense theme music)

(soft rock music)

- For one thing, they were the
biggest group in the world.

They had carte blanche at the
EMI Studios at Abbey Road.

And therefore they could pretty much do

whatever they wanted.

They were also unbelievably curious.

- In the summer of 1969, a
bunch of college radio stations

started this rumor that Paul
McCartney had died and for

some strange reason the Beatles
were keeping this secret.

But it got a lot of people
listening very carefully

to these later Beatles' albums.

And that's where John Lennon had done

all this experimentation.

- They had an opportunity to
do things with music that even

their peers frankly couldn't
do 'cause they didn't have

the time and the money and the cachet.

And the Beatles also were
experimenting with drugs.

- At the heart of this was
really a thing they found

at the end of Strawberry Fields.

♪ But nothing to get hung about ♪

♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪

- I know, I buried Paul,
that kind of thing, whatever.

♪ I'm very small ♪

- Yes, that is manipulation.

That is doctoring, but
it's in the pursuit of art.

It's in the pursuit of expression.

- Lennon later told
Rolling Stone magazine that

what he actually said
there was cranberry sauce.

So, in the recording
studio, I had them play this

with various filters to
make it more legible,

and it really does sound
like cranberry sauce.

- There's a very big
difference between, say,

reverse messages and
the artistic potential

in manipulating sound.

- On the track Revolution Nine,

the track's title is repeated
many times within the song.

If you reverse Revolution
Nine, it actually sounds like

turn me on, dead man.

- [Male Speaker] Turn me on, dead man.

Turn me on, dead man,
turn me on, dead man.

Turn me on, dead man.

- In order to write a lyric
that will say one thing forwards

and something else backwards,
what kind of writer

do you have to be?

That's a genius beyond my comprehension.

I can't imagine that anyone's that smart.

- You have to draw a
distinction between what I call

the engineered reversed
messages and the ones

that are purely coincidental.

For instance, it's been found
that if you say the words

Jesus loves you, record
that, and play it backwards,

it sounds like we smell sausages.

(rewinding video)

We smell sausages.

What it proves is that
our minds have this great

pattern-finding ability,
and we can really make sense

even where there's nonsense there.

I would think that the
Revolution Nine thing

is purely coincidental.

(soft rock music)

(heavy rock music)

♪ There's a revolution calling ♪

♪ Revolution calling ♪

♪ Gotta make a change ♪

♪ Gotta push it on through ♪

(crowd cheering)

What we try to do with our
music is to paint a picture,

an audio picture, to best
get across the message

we're trying to convey with the lyrics.

And we use whatever
means we can to do that.

The first album I remember
hearing anything like that on

was the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.

That was filled with all kinds
of interesting sound collages

and spoken-word pieces
and specialty sounds.

You know, some people talk about oh,

the dangers of subliminal messages.

They talk about that in music.

And I think that topic
itself is subjective.

What is subliminal?

It all depends on who's listening.

I hear things very clearly
in records that are there,

'cause that's my gig, that's what I do.

I listen to things very carefully.

Other people might think
something's subliminal

because they've never heard it before.

Well, they're just not focused on it.

So, I think it's all kind of debatable.

- We like to forewarn
you to brace yourself

because what you're about
to see is hardcore truth

that much of the mainstream
media would like to keep

hidden from your eyes.

(upbeat music)

People would be blown away if
they realized the subversion

that takes place in popular
media and the agendas

that lie in back of
much of that subversion.

(upbeat rock band music)

Here we see Robert Plant, while singing

Stairway to Heaven, telling
his fans that sometimes words

have two meanings, as
he signs with his hands

that they are both forward and backwards.

♪ 'Cause you know sometimes
words have two meanings ♪

- But, basically, backwards
and over 25 words backwards

straight, it says

Here's to my sweet Satan.

I wanna live it backwards like
the Zep whose power is Satan.

And he will give you 666.

(festive music)

- I was sitting in a room when
I was producing Cinderella

in about 1987.

This churl, who was on
methadone, started questioning

me on this backward masking, it's crap.

- [Joe] This satanic
phenomena goes far beyond

the scope of human ingenuity
and is demonically inspired.

Bob Garcia of A&M Records stated, quote,

it must be the devil because nobody here

knows how to do it.

- Well, there's no point to it, anyway.

And you can make anything
up you want if you wish.

- See, I believe, personally, deep down,

they know what's going
on, and they were seducing

their fans and hey, the whole power trip.

- Backwards masking is
rubbish, it never happened.

We never did it, that's
just a fact, I was there.

- There's so much evidence out there,

but it's under the surface at first.

And I think when people begin
to see it, hopefully they care

enough about truth more
so than experience.

("Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin)

♪ If there's a bustle in your hedgerow ♪

♪ Don't be alarmed now ♪

♪ It's just a spring
clean for the May queen ♪

♪ Yes there are two paths you can go by ♪

(song playing in reverse)

♪ Oh here's to my sweet Satan ♪

♪ The one whose little path ♪

♪ Would make me sad ♪

♪ Whose power is Satan ♪

♪ He will give you 666 ♪

(song playing in reverse)

- If you listen, they're there.

- Yeah, I heard them all, that's crazy.

- But it was definitely put
there on purpose and maybe

just for certain people to hear it.

(song playing in reverse)

♪ Oh it's thy sweet Savior ♪

♪ The wood littered bad ♪

♪ Blood make me sad ♪

♪ Blue's tower is safe ♪

♪ Kneel tribute the flu's sick sick sick ♪

- I could definitely
hear the words in there.

- How did someone even find that out?

Almost like a conspiracy
theory, in my opinion.

It's like, oh, there's
hidden messages in this.

(song playing backwards)

- The only thing I really heard was music.

- It kind of sounded like it
was in a different language.

- It was kind of scary.

It sounded like it was saying something

but in a different language.

(song playing in a foreign language)

- You know, if you want to
hear Satan talking to you while

Stairway to Heaven plays
backwards, then that's exactly

what you'll hear.

You'll find a way to hear it.

(upbeat rock music)

♪ Whip it ♪

♪ Whip it good ♪

- The first time in Devo that
anybody ever said anything

to us about subliminal messages,
we made this short film,

and it was long before MTV.

It was called In the Beginning was the End

The Truth about De-Evolution.

And somebody came up to us
after we showed the film once,

this woman, and she was really mad.

She goes, I know what you're doing.

I know what you're up to.

And we're like, what, what did you say?

And she goes, I know what
you're doing, I saw it.

I saw on the screen, I saw the word submit

and the word obey.

And we're like, wow,
how'd those get in there?

And so, we were like, yeah, right.

And after that, we were thinking, oh,

we got to put subliminal
messages in our stuff now.

To me, backward masking and the Beatles

and Paul is dead or any of
that kind of stuff, to me,

that was just all the fun
stuff, that if you were a fan,

you looked for that kind of stuff,

and you wanted to find it.

The idea of it being dark or malevolent,

I think is just kind of
paranoid thought on the part

of people that already
don't like the music.

I never really saw anything of harm coming

from backward masking.

(radio beeping)

(voices chattering over police radio)

- [Male Speaker] There's
been a double shooting.

- [Woman Speaker] OK,
whereabouts was the shooting?

- [Male Speaker] Right in my backyard.

- [Woman Speaker] Is anybody hurt?

- [Male Speaker] It looks
like there's two bodies.

I didn't want to go over and look.

- In what observers call
a first-of-its-kind trial,

attorneys today told a Nevada
court that two troubled

young men who shot themselves
in 1985 were influenced

by subliminal messages
in a rock 'n' roll album.

- [Reporter] Some members
of the British rock group

Judas Priest listened in
a Nevada courtroom today

as one of their recordings
was described as a killer.

- They heard you have to die to be a hero.

♪ We're gonna rule rule rule ♪

- And they had played over
and over and over again

the Stained Glass album,
particularly a song,

Better By You, Better Than Me.

Now, what had happened
is the two at a point

had looked at one another,
and they had chanted,

do it, repeatedly.

Do it, do it, do it.

Had taken their father's
shotgun, had left,

gone to the schoolyard, propped a shotgun

underneath Belknap's
chin, pulled the trigger,

killed himself.

- Vance hesitated, he didn't brace it.

It blew the front of his face off.

- [Vivian] Are there subliminal do its

on the Better By You, Better Than Me song?

- Absolutely not.

- I heard the words do it,
but I didn't understand

in what context or why it was there.

I did find approximately seven of them.

It's very difficult because
it is at a subliminal level.

♪ Do it ♪

♪ Do it ♪

♪ Do it ♪

♪ Do it ♪

- The group Judas Priest
admitted that they had

used subliminal messages
on other recordings,

just not this one.

- It is the claim of subliminal
messages that propelled

this case to trial.

Similar lawsuits, claiming
rock music caused damage,

have been thrown out
of court because lyrics

are protected as free expression
under the First Amendment.

But the judge in this case says
subliminal messages are not

protected as free speech.

What is really on trial
here is the whole concept

of subliminal persuasion.

- The courtroom is no place
for reveries about the unknown

capacities of the human mind.

We took the judge into the
control room and played

all of the 24 tracks that
were mixed to make this record

and showed the judge how you
put, it was actually at the end

of a vocal.

And so, there was an exhalation, a breath,

combined with a guitar sound.

And then if you listen to
that with the thought in mind,

the suggestive thought in
mind, that it says, do it,

you can hear do it.

- So, yes, it was there,
and that's what made me so

puzzled when the judge
concluded that if it was there,

it was there accidentally.

That made no sense to me at all.

- CBS never produced the original master.

The original 24-track master
would have been required

in order for us to determine
whether it had been

intentionally placed
there, or it was indeed

a coincidence of sound.

- And so I argued that it was the straw

that broke the camel's back.

And the judge decided, look,
they had all kinds of reasons

to harm themselves, and to
make a case for that alone

didn't hold water.

- Prosecution have alleged
this and tried to paint

this picture of drug-crazed
Satan worshipers,

and nothing could be
further than the truth.

It's absolutely ridiculous and bizarre,

and people just don't
appreciate that we're humans,

with feelings like everybody else,

and we don't all sing about love.

- Did you understand what he said?

He said, looking back now,
the music would almost

drive you crazy.

- Drive you crazy.

- Well, yeah, it did, I
wanted to climb the walls.

I couldn't stand it.

And his behavior would just change.

- And you can't always
blame it on the parents.

You can't always blame
it on the music industry.

Can't always blame it on
movies and television.

But all these things,
we have to acknowledge,

are influential factors on
children and their decisions.

So, all of these things should
be looked at and considered.

(soft music)

- Hitchcock was really
intrigued by this whole idea

of subliminal effects in movies.

In fact, the first time he
used it was in a film called

Spellbound, which was a
black-and-white movie,

but it had one frame that was in color.

And it occurs when a character
is actually turning a gun

on himself to commit suicide.

And then, when he pulls the trigger,

there's a single frame of red.

What he had to do was to
pay an artist to basically

hand-tint that one frame in
every print of Spellbound.

So, he obviously took
this pretty seriously.

(soft music)

- Oh, I saw him in the
editingroom, where he would cut

right down to the frame
certain, just frame by frame,

where he'd want his cuts.

So, he took a great deal
of time with the editor

in what he wanted.

- When he came to do
Psycho, he did something

even more elaborate.

Towards the end of the film,
there's a very slow dissolve

to a shot of the police
pulling Janet Leigh's car

out of the swamp.

Well, during that dissolve,
Hitchcock superimposes

this kind of skull-like
face on Tony Perkins' face.

So, it creates a rather ghoulish effect,

and obviously Hitchcock
thought that this increased

the emotional punch of this
particular part of the movie.

(tense theme music)

(screaming)

- [Woman In Shower]
Oh, no, oh, oh, oh, no!

- Audiences are very gullible.

I just feel that you can lead
an audience, like Hitchcock

would do, and I think you
could do it with subliminal.

It would be very effective.

If murder and knife and that
sort of thing was intentionally

put in, it was done, I wasn't around.

It was done when he
worked with the writer.

- Walter Murch and Richard
Beggs, with so many

electronics in Apocalypse Now,
they were always mixing real

sounds underneath, sounds
that weren't associated

with the object, to make
you feel a certain way,

or anything that would
heighten a certain fear

during the warfare.

- On top of that desire
to be very, very accurate

was this desire to go
very deep psychologically.

I mean, there were any
number of tricks or things

that happened in the
soundtrack of that movie.

During the helicopter
attack on the village,

a wooden trestle bridge is
destroyed, and so these wooden

timbers are, there are explosions.

Also mixed in with that were
the sound of bowling pins

being struck with a bowling ball.

Things like that were used
extensively and in a lot

of other movies, as well.

- [Christopher] I know in
The Godfather, you wanna make

it seem something's gonna happen?

They mixed a baby cry and stuff like that.

(baby crying with dog barking)

- [Richard] The baby crying is very,

very important to pay
attention to because otherwise

there's no future.

That's why baby's cries are so irritating.

You can't ignore it.

- [Priest] Do you renounce Satan?

- I do renounce him.

- To me, that's creative,
and that's tapping

into this part of the brain.

- If you want something
out in front of people,

you don't hit them over the head with it,

but you have it there
so the audience maybe

doesn't realize that.

But it's imprinted in
their mind that it's,

where did I see that?

- Friedkin was another director
who was rather intrigued

by this idea, and in
his film The Exorcist,

he actually uses subliminal
shots in at least two

very key parts of the film.

One of them's in a dream sequence.

The other is during the actual exorcism.

- [Priest] Serpents and
scorpions to confront

this cruel demon.

- What you see are very
brief, two-frame shots

of this kind of cadaverous face.

- And so, my brothers and
I would always freeze-frame

on that one frame, and it's terrifying.

You don't even want to look at it.

So, it does something to you.

So, the question is,
why are you doing that?

In my mind, The Exorcist
was a groundbreaking film.

It had never been done before.

So, he was really
experimenting with the cause

of being totally afraid and fear.

(eerie music)

(gun firing)

(soft music)

- Last June, delegates to the
Southern Baptist convention's

annual meeting voted
to boycott Walt Disney.

- They're pushing a
Christian-bashing, family-bashing,

pro-homosexual agenda.

There was the suggestion that
a clergyman became sexually

aroused while he was
performing a marriage ceremony.

- The allegedly offending
bulge goes by in less

than a second.

But if you were to slow down
a few frames of this scene,

you might think the preacher
was indeed more than happy

to see Ariel.

There, right there,
right there, right there.

What is it?

- It is clearly his knee,
everybody knows it's his knee.

- We ask for a transformation of Disney,

or Disney will go down!

(soft orchestral theme)

- It's just people spending
too much time looking

for things that aren't there.

- That's how we can sell
sex to little girls, ha, ha!

See, if make the posters
with little girls reaching

for your junk, then you have
to wear purity rings, or else

Disney company looks bad, ha, ha.

(soft string music)

- We thank you so much
for this bountiful harvest

of Domino's, KFC, and the
always delicious Taco Bell.

- You can see that the
movie star's holding a Pepsi

right there, but you're not
thinking of it as a commercial.

You're thinking of it as a movie.

- Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004.

(chuckling)

Don't turn your face up like that.

I know you want some,
all you got to do is ask.

- Even product placement is
normally a subliminal thing

because you really don't think, hey,

that guy's drinking a
Coke, but you do see it,

and it does register in your brain.

(woman screaming)

(screaming)

- I think that's the best way
to do it, than hitting them

over the head with a
product right in their face.

(dramatic theme music)

(ET sounding)

- So, in some sense, I
thinkyou could say even

product placements are probably
the most successful form

of subliminal advertising.

- I want the perfect food.

(low TV chattering)

(upbeat music)

- [Advertiser] Imagine all those burgers

in your stomach right now.

Mm-mmm.

(upbeat music)

- The average TV viewer sees about

30,000 commercials per year.

That's 30,000 repetitions
of a single message.

And the single message is, buy this.

Do this.

It's gonna make you feel better.

You're gonna like it.

If you're not doing it,
you're probably not very hip.

This is gonna solve a
problem for you 30,000 times.

♪ Red white ♪

♪ Red white and blue ♪

♪ It's the American way
it's the American me ♪

♪ It's the American you ♪

- [Advertiser] Is the American way.

- Systemically, advertising
works better on people

who are lonely and afraid.

- It's kind of a form of reverse therapy.

You go to a therapist
because he wants to resolve

your unconscious conflicts
and make you feel

better about yourself.

But media has exactly
the opposite orientation.

- You need to create
tension in the viewer,

conscious tension and
anxiety so that they look

to a product for relief.

- Can you afford not to be in good hands?

- If people are happy,
they're not gonna buy stuff

they don't need.

- There's been memos that
have been circulated,

where insider advertising
executives have said,

it's our job to make women

feel bad about themselves.

- We really believe that this is the way

a woman should look.

This version of some guy's
marketing plan that he set up.

- [Wilson] Oh, look at that pretty ad.

I like the boobs I'm
looking at, or I love.

they don't realize that
they're being engineered.

- We could look at things
like anorexia and bulimia.

As far as I'm concerned,
you can look at that

and say this is a media-driven event.

- [Joe] Our families are being destroyed.

I mean, we've never, in
the history of humanity,

been under an assault, 'cause
we've never had mass media

like we do today.

(rhythmic theme music)

- Is the purpose of the
television ad to make you

an informed consumer,
making a rational choice?

No.

Purpose of the ad is to delude
and deceive you with imagery.

So, you'll be uninformed, and you'll make

an irrational choice.

That's what business spends
hundreds of billions of dollars

a year on.

And the last thing they want is markets.

What they want is coercion and control.

When Goebbels developed a
powerful propaganda system

in Nazi Germany, they
were explicitly borrowing,

very explicit, from U.S.
commercial propaganda,

commercial advertising
to copy these techniques.

You know, simple slogans
repeated over and over again,

appealing to the emotions,
all those ideas which had been

worked into practically a science.

- If we don't have any
kind of critical analysis,

some kind of overreaching way in order

to analyze and understand
what's being fed to us,

how people can be manipulated.

People enjoy the manipulation.

Advertising is fun, reality's boring.

- You take the blue pill, the story ends.

You wake up in your bed
and believe whatever

you want to believe.

You take the red pill,
you stay in wonderland,

and I show you how deep
the rabbit hole goes.

All I'm offering is the truth.

- Let's see.

TV, pretty much.

- Advertisers are looking
to get the attention

of younger and younger children.

And any advertising
directed to a young child

should be considered subliminal,

because young children don't
know the difference between

the ad and the program.

It all blends seamlessly together.

- Any advertising to
four-year-olds or five-year-olds

or six-year-olds is dealing
with a consciousness

which is not using rational processes.

- People use the television
asa babysitter, right?

They plop their kid down in front of a TV,

and there's no guidance,
there's no instruction.

There's no parent sitting
there, watching TV with the kid.

- They start targeting
children at nine months old.

They noted that by two
years old, they can achieve

brand loyalty and recognition.

This is extraordinary.

- [Interviewer] When you see
something on TV that you want,

what do you do?

- Ask my mom for it?

- [Interviewer] And what if she says no?

- I just keep asking
and annoying her for it.

- You know, every psychology
student discusses, of course,

the four fundamental drives, the four Fs.

There is fight, flight, feeding...

(woman moaning briefly)

You never forget the four F's when they're

explained to you that way.

Our society, largely driven in part

by advertisers motivating us to consume,

we end up with the fifth drive.

It's more, more.

♪ Give me more give me more ♪

♪ Give me give me give me more ♪

♪ Give me give me more give me ♪

♪ Give me give me ♪

- We systematically desensitize
their threshold of arousal

by increasing the amount
of stimuli that we deliver,

whether it's sexual or
violent or gross in nature.

And so the more begins with
I want more stimulation.

And then it continues through
everything else, whether it's

more food, more alcohol and
drugs, more cars, more money,

more power, more women, more.

More, more, more.

- I mean, why are people maxed
out on their credit cards,

buying things that, who knows
if they need them or not?

Consumerism becomes a secular
religion, where we use certain

material goods to fill holes in our souls.

Any one of us can be trapped by this.

I would ask anyone to look
around their house at how many

things that any of us have
bought over the course

of the last 10 years we don't use.

- Simply knowing what's going
on is not gonna protect you

from the effect.

You can know perfectly well that they put

this gorgeous model in an
ad to get you all excited

about Coors beer.

Fact is, it's still gonna work.

- [Eldon] We're all consuming and acting

and behaving precisely the
way that they want us to.

- It's what the church does,
it's what monarchs did.

It's what advertisers do.

And, the game continues.

- Some are wondering if perhaps
there was a subliminal ad,

a flash of a commercial
product, seen on the show.

(rock guitar music)

(upbeat electronic music)

- [Wilson] When you look at
something, smell something,

hear something that's going
into your brain at the speed

of light almost and all being retained.

- He claimed that he had
conducted a secret experiment

in a New Jersey cinema
in which he had flashed

the words hungry, eat
popcorn, and drink Coca-Cola.

- And it puts it in your mind
that you maybe want a Coke?

- [Eldon] The public got very nervous

and very excited about it.

♪ Strawberry fields forever ♪

- I buried Paul, that
kind of thing, whatever.

- [Vivian] Are there
subliminal do its on the song?

- Absolutely not.

♪ Do it ♪

♪ Do it ♪

- Why are people maxed
out on their credit cards,

buying things that, who knows
if they need them or not?

- Some are wondering if perhaps
there was a subliminal ad,

a flash of a commercial
product, seen on the show.

- In the research that
was conducted by the Roper

Organization, they found that
57% of Americans believe that

subliminal advertising happens.

I think there's so much in the air,

there's so much a sense of
sort of distrust in government,

in powerful leadership that
I wouldn't be surprised

to find that more people now believe

that subliminal advertising is practiced

than have in previous decades.

(dramatic theme music)

- Well, I'm sure it does.

Can't say I've ever
picked up on it myself.

- There's got to be
something, but I haven't,

really noticed that.

- Not as much, I don't think, nowadays.

I think it's pretty straightforward.

- I think there are certain
advertising companies

that for whatever, to
try to market an item,

just subliminally they'll
throw something in,

and you don't even think about it.

- Definitely, definitely, yeah.

- When I watch television
for a couple hours,

suddenly I'm very hungry, and I do realize

that it's from the advertising
of the subliminal messages.

- You mean like the Camel cigarettes?

- There you go.

- The image on the camel?

I'm sure that exists, absolutely.

- I'm sure it exists, I
don't really know much

about the technology,
but I'm sure it does.

- I know it's supposed to be illegal,

but I know it exists, still.

- [Interviewer] Yeah,
you've heard it was illegal?

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] OK.

- My best example of subliminal
messaging would be like

when you watch a movie,
and all the sudden you see

everybody's drinking Pepsi.

- I don't know, I don't know.

- I think that the colors are subliminal.

No one really realizes that
most things are a certain

color for a reason.

- Oh, I do believe that
advertising agencies use

subliminals in their advertising.

(tense rhythmic theme)

- To be effective, a subliminal
message has to either

stimulate an unconscious
anxiety or satisfy

an unconscious fantasy.

- You discover very quickly
that the human brain

is extremely sensitized.

The things that deal with
the beginning of life,

reproduction, sex, as we vulgarize it,

and the end of life, death.

Now, if you can plant something
in there that's strongly

motivating, sex and death, the unconscious

will remember that for a long time.

We don't know for how long.

(eerie music)

- Most people can see
what they want to see

in almost anything.

And there's an author,
who's a, I mean, it's a sad

and paranoid guy, who sees
sexual imagery in ice cubes

and everywhere he looks.

- Is there any way you could
call that something else?

I mean, it's not a telescope.

It's not the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

It's a penis.

The problem is, we hide
the stuff from ourselves.

We don't want to deal with it.

Once you come to terms with this,

it turns the whole world upside down.

If medieval artists could do
it, why not chicken Mcnuggets?

The S, E, X is all over the cracker.

Makes them taste better.

I love Ritz crackers.

- The fact that he made some
allegations that are not

credible doesn't mean that
the substance of what he had

to say wasn't logical
and totally persuasive.

- This ad appeared on the back
cover of Playboy and Time,

and the ad was used for about three years.

How could this stuff ever
sell Johnnie Walker scotch?

They didn't put any scotch
in the glass, glass is empty.

Now, if you look at the ice
cube that's on the table,

the right side of that ice cube,

you see an interesting-looking face,

a grotesque, almost surrealistic mask.

Isn't that an interesting
figure to put in an ad?

It's a monster with circling
arms and the skull-like face.

It's the death symbol.

There are a dozen of them
in these six ice cubes.

(upbeat music)

- The predominant trend in
modern subliminal advertising

seems to be sexual assault
or sexual violence.

And this is an example of that.

If you look at her facial
expression, it could be that

she's finding it extremely unpleasant.

And the person on the
left seems to be violently

ripping her necklace from her throat.

- Well, it reinforces the
idea that women are victims

and that it's sexy for
a woman to be a victim.

And that's very powerful and
very important to maintain

status quo in our culture.

And that's how you can
convince men also that

she deserves to be violated.

She wants to be hurt, look at her.

- This Benson & Hedges ad first appeared

on the back cover of Time
magazine and also in Oui magazine.

On a conscious level, the ad
is promising sexual excitement.

But in an unconscious level,

it's stimulating sexual anxiety.

And the reason is that lady's
backbone has been carefully

airbrushed to resemble
an erect male phallus.

Anxiety is associated with
the consumption of cigarettes.

We all know that people smoke
more when they're nervous.

It's totally logical to think that

making them nervous
induces them to smoke more.

- To really intend to make people anxious,

and you don't know how that
person deals with anxiety,

the only thing you're wanting is that

he light up a cigarette.

But you don't know what
else it might do, OK?

That to me is outrageous.

- If you're very sensitive
to the idea of phalluses,

you're gonna have a much
harder time seeing the phallus

in the Benson & Hedges
ad than if you're not.

And if you're more sensitive
to it, it's more likely

to have a greater effect
on you unconsciously.

- So, in that respect, they
are tapping into something

that I think is strong, potentially,

and, therefore, is very worrisome.

- It isn't that the cues,
the stimulants are invisible

to the naked eye.

It's just that we don't recognize them

for what they are.

So, the most notorious example
of this would be the Newport

cigarette ads, which
simply show happy couples

frolicking in the green.

But you realize, after you look closely,

that these are really sort
of sadomasochistic dramas

that either the man or the
woman is in fatal control

of the situation.

So, that would strike me as a good example

of a subliminal pitch.

It's all right there on the surface.

You just don't know that the surface is,

in fact, exactly what it is.

- For me, the bottom line,
as I was saying before,

you don't mess with the
unconscious, 'cause you don't know.

You don't know what the effects might be.

- After spending five
or 10 years looking for

any truth at all in it, I don't
see any use of subliminals,

as they were defined in the 70s.

(rock music)

♪ Why waste your time ♪

♪ Wondering what's wrong ♪

♪ Wondering what's right ♪

♪ In front of your eyes ♪

♪ What makes you sick ♪

♪ Don't waste your time ♪

♪ Wondering what makes you tick ♪

♪ Invisible truth ♪

♪ Invisible lies ♪

♪ Invisible man behind the curtain ♪

♪ Why waste your time ♪

♪ Questioning truth ♪

♪ You know it but you can't be certain ♪

(rock music)

♪ Well sex ain't what I need ♪

♪ But sex gets the job done ♪

♪ It's not like you've
been shooting heroin ♪

♪ Buy a new wardrobe ♪

♪ Buy a new Audi ♪

♪ Don't wonder where alL ♪

- I've worked inside ad agencies.

I've worked side by side with evil people.

Did anybody anywhere
do any of this, and no.

(rock music)

- I remember the first
commercial I ever did

was a Hawaiian Punch commercial.

I remember putting the
message, sugar is bad for you.

Just set it in low
volume in the background,

and everybody in the room's
tapping their pencils,

and they're just all these
execs and the creative people.

And they're all going, yeah,
that's Hawaiian Punch, yeah.

And they're just singing the song,

and we're looking at each
other, and we're like,

nobody heard it yet.

And it was like, sugar is bad for you.

Went down on the commercial,
and it went out nationally.

And we found a whole list
of things that we were able

to easily put in a commercial
and never once got stopped.

They must work 'cause we said something,

I remember doing a Levi
commercial and saying something

like, this is the uniform of the wad.

And I don't know.

People are, they're all
wearing blue jeans now.

So, it must have worked.

It must have helped Levi's out, I guess.

I'm sure that if I can
put subliminal messages

in a commercial that
advertising agencies must have

a much easier time of it
and probably can do it

in much bigger ways.

(phone dialing)

(telephone ringing)

- [Carmen] Good afternoon,
Amalgamated, this is Carmen.

- [Jeff] we were wondering if someone

from Amalgamated would be
interested in meeting with us.

- [Operator] Good
afternoon, Atmosphere BBDO.

- [Jeff] Can you tell me who
you're transferring me to?

- [Operator] Good afternoon, JWT.

- [Jeff] Sent me to voicemail.

- [Operator] This is a message for...

- Advertisers just can't admit it.

I mean, of course they can't admit.

They're not gonna say they embed
phalluses in cigarette ads.

- I used to work in
advertising, for many years,

as a research director.

And all I ever got in response

to my questions were obscenities.

- Contrary to what many people think,

subliminal advertising
is not really illegal.

(soft electronic music)

- What happened in 1984
is really the culmination

of a long story, you know?

Orwell's book 1984, some have
said predisposed Congress

to investigate Orwellian techniques.

And, of course, subliminal
is often thought of

as an Orwellian technique.

- There had been complaints,
and Congress investigates

complaints from their constituents.

- [Reporter] The House
subcommittee on science

and technology wants to
find out if the technology

is being abused.

Kansas Democrat Dan Glickman is chairman.

- I myself think that
subliminal communication

clearly has a twilight
zone implication to it.

I think it's incumbent upon
us in Congress to at least

explore the issue to see
how widespread it is.

- The veritable who's who of
the advertising world appeared,

and they argued, subliminal does not work.

We don't use it.

And we don't use it
because it doesn't work.

- [Reporter] University of Michigan's

Dr. Howard Shevrin called for a moratorium

on the technique until
further study is completed.

- Although this may sound
like science-fiction,

we may be on the threshold of invading

the individual's perhaps
last stronghold of personal

privacy, his own inner thoughts.

My estimation is that they
certainly got sufficient

evidence that something along
those lines was happening.

The conclusion in their report
was that it was unlikely

to be having the effects
that were claimed.

- The law in Congress did not pass.

The laws didn't pass anywhere in any state

because of what I believe was a deliberate

disinformation campaign designed to make

the public feel comfortable.

We don't use it, and if
we did, it wouldn't work.

In front of you is a manual.

This manual was sent to me
and is a training manual

of one of the largest advertising
agencies on the planet.

And this training manual,
in a very sophisticated way,

lays out several ad campaigns
that have actually run.

major products,

how they embedded both taboo
imagery, devils and whatnot,

and sexual imagery.

So, not used, I know that
is just flagrantly false.

- There was a memo, which
I have a copy of at home

from the National Association
of Advertising Agencies

that went out to every advertising agency

in the country advising them
what to do if I come to town.

They said, keep the
hell away from this guy.

- A crazy person writes a
book about a fraudulent joke

experiment and ends up
creating such a stir

that an organization Ais
created, the American Association

of Advertising Agencies,
to dispel the myth.

- [Jeff] I'm here to see Kipp Chang.

- [Receptionist] Which company?

- [Jeff] 4A.

- [Male Speaker] You can't shoot.

- [Jeff] How come you won't meet with me?

We're just--

- [Male Speaker] You guys, out.

I will talk to you, OK?

- You're talking about
people from cradle to grave

being exposed to subliminal messages.

It must be that some people,
some borderline personalities,

are pushed over the edge and
led to commit horrible crimes

because of the influence of advertising.

- [Male Speaker] hey're
let loose in their towns.

People like me today,
whose dangerous impulses

are being fueled day in and day out

by violence in the media
and it's various forms,

particularly sexualized violence.

(tense theme music)

- [Jeff] If advertisers and corporations

could be massaging our
subconscious with these tactics,

in what way might our own
government be programming us?

- In the 2000 presidential campaign,

George Bush ran an attack ad against

his opponent, Al Gore.

- The Bush prescription
plan, seniors choose.

- And at the end of the ad,
it said, bureaucrats decide.

And for a brief second, for
about a 1/30th of a second,

the letters R, A, T, S got very large.

- When this came out,
it was a very big deal

for at least one and a half news cycles.

- Well, some people in the
advertising industry say they

believe the inclusion of the
word RATS was intentional,

even if it was not designed
to send a subliminal

or subconscious message.

- Now, that is not an accident.

- [Reporter] Will Robinson is
a Democratic media consultant

not associated with the Gore campaign.

He finds it implausible that
no one noticed the word rats

when the ad was in production.

- Someone made a decision to
put that word up on screen

and make it part of the spot.

And they worked hard to
make sure it was that way.

- The Bush Campaign, of
course, has denied this.

They say that it was an accident.

- [Reporter] Just ask the
man who made the so-called

rats ad, Republican
consultant Alex Castellanos.

- Let me see if I can say
this more clearly for you.

I didn't know it was there,
I t's a ridiculous thing.

There is no secret rats
strategy to win an election

that I'm aware of.

- You had both Gore and Lieberman decrying

this use of subliminal advertising.

- I find it a very
disappointing development.

I've never seen anything quite like it.

- George Bush was forced to
do his best to disassociate

himself from this entire thing,

which he actually did very effectively.

- The idea of putting
sublimin-able messages

into ads, I don't think we
need to be sublimin-able

about the differences between our views.

Sublimin-able messages.

You talk about sublimin-able!

- So, if the guy can't pronounce it,

he couldn't have been behind it, I guess.

- [Reporter] The ad has
run 4400 times in states,

including big battlegrounds
like Florida, Michigan,

Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

- The recount that is occurring
in Florida is an automatic

recount based on state law.

It was not requested by the Gore campaign.

- And tonight, for the sake
of our unity as a people,

and the strength of our
democracy, I offer my concession.

- [Male Speaker] Raise your
right hand and repeat after me.

- I, George Walker
Bush, do solemnly swear.

(whimsical music)

- [Announcer] This week on Science Sensei.

- Remember subliminal advertising?

Now, cognitive scientists
at Hebrew University

in Jerusalem have shown that some thoughts

and behaviors can be
affected subconsciously

and subliminally by commonly used symbols.

They asked Israeli volunteers to complete

a computer-based survey
about their opinions on

core issues in the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

But for half of the
volunteers, subliminal images

of the Israeli flag
were flashed throughout

the question-and-answer session.

The flashes were milliseconds,

faster than we can do here.

You might expect that
exposure to such a strong,

nationalistic image would
polarize people to one

political extreme or the other.

But in this case, the
subliminal image of the flag

pulled people from both ends
of the political spectrum

toward the middle, compared
to the control group.

And phone calls to these
people after the elections

confirmed that most of
them followed through

when they actually voted.

This research is important,
because it shows that subliminal

messages can affect your
attitude and behavior.

For Science Central News,
I'm your science sensei.

(screaming)

I'm science Sensei and
I approve this message.

("Yankee Doodle")

(eerie music)

- A video news release,
or a VNR, is created by a

public relations agency,
usually, in order to communicate

a specific message on
the behalf of a client,

whether it's a politician or a corporation

or a government office.

(mysterious theme music

- The use of video news
releases has to be challenged

at every level in this country,
VNRs, as they're known.

The government puts them out,
corporations put them out.

They'll have a fake reporter,

who's actually a public
relations professional.

And this story goes out to
newsrooms around the country.

- So, there are people watching
a program that they think

is news, but the actual news
reports aren't news reports

at all but are paid advertisements

that look like news reports.

- This is someone pushing a product,

but it's presented as a
fair and balanced report,

which it, of course, isn't.

- While I don't know if I
would call that subliminal,

I do think that it fits
into this entire environment

of so much of our media
operating on a below-the-radar,

below the threshold of consciousness.

- There are hundreds of channels.

Can they all be doing this?

What matters, though, is not the channels.

It's who owns those channels.

And that issue of media
consolidation is critical.

- The rise and the use
of video news releases

has a great deal to do
with the conglomeration

of the mass media, because
as more and more TV stations

around the country come to
be owned by fewer and fewer

players, there's more
and more cost-cutting

that goes on in the
newsrooms of these stations.

- You know, when you look at
a media environment where only

five or six companies
control the vast majority

of the world's media, and
they work in collaboration

with each other, and they share members

of boards of directors
and things of that nature,

in the same way that I
say we have to broaden

our concept of subliminal, I
think we also have to broaden

our concept of what a conspiracy is.

- They're using our airwaves,
and they have a responsibility

to bring out the full
diversity of opinion and to get

to the truth, not to
bring you news stories

that are disguised as their
own, when they're simply

government or corporate propaganda.

- I think that we're censored heavily

without us even realizing it.

I mean, just omitting a
story from a newspaper

is censorship, that happens every day.

- This is why media monopoly matters.

You really can silence different views.

You can silence dissent when a
few media moguls own so much,

when you have just a
few framing who is right

and who is wrong, who
is evil and who is good.

- The Bush/Cheney
Administration has used VNRs

to push their prescription-drug plan,

and they've used it
particularly heavily in trying

to spread the word about the weapons

of mass destruction inside Iraq.

- That is no longer a mainstream media.

That's an extreme media
beating the drums for war.

- The campaign has been one

of disinformation and misinformation.

The war in Iraq was based on lies.

That's generally accepted.

It's interesting there's
been no consequences.

- This administration has
sunk to the lowest level

to use media and to
use certain forms of it

to deceive a nation.

- [George] Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction.

- [Condoleezza] A clear
threat to the United States.

- [Colin] It has dozens
of ballistic missiles.

- [George] It has sponsored
and sheltered terrorists.

- [Condoleezza] Paying suicide bombers.

- [Colin] Weapons are equally--

- [Male Speaker] Biological
weapons, including anthrax

and botulism toxins.

- [George] Biological and chemical agent

to kill millions of people.

- I remember the Secretary of State saying

we have to take the war to them
before they bring it to us.

- It simply makes no
sense to wait any longer.

- Take action before it's too late.

- Delay, indecision, and
inaction could lead to a massive

and sudden horror.

- But there should be
criminal implications

for this kind of behavior.

- I think it's both subliminal
and definitely very obvious.

I mean, you have in the
lead-up to protests,

the alert levels going
up, people being afraid.

- What does fear do to a people?

Number one, it blocks their thinking.

And if you continue to drum
away that we're in danger

of being attacked all
the time, then people

do not broaden their thoughts.

- It's our responsibility as
journalists to let the public

know who is paid by what corporation

or if they're representing the government.

Otherwise, it's unforgivable.

The media is our lens on the
world, and it is absolutely

critical we trust that
media, because ultimately,

when people are terrorized,
when people are targeted,

when people are marginalized,

that does not make any of us safer.

- Peace, not war, is
our natural condition.

Those who would bid us to
war must be challenged.

(soft electronic music)

- When you start to talk
about psyops, of course,

people start looking for your tinfoil hat.

- Psychological operations
is what I prefer,

'cause psyop kind of sounds
like it's a clandestine thing.

And I'm not into conspiracy
theories, per se.

(soft electronic music)

- The fact is that
highly sophisticated ways

of incapacitating people, of
terrifying them, making them

anxious, our military and our
intelligence bureaus have been

studying this kind of
invisible weaponry for decades.

I mean, it's at least
as old as the Cold War.

- The main emphasis then
is how do you crank out

leaflets and things of that nature.

And, of course, technology has moved

considerably since then.

The focus today has shifted dramatically.

So, I think a more generic
term of perception management.

How do you project the image of the army

in this day and age?

- The U.S. government and
military has poured hundreds

of millions of dollars into
propagandizing the Iraqi people,

in paying newspapers, reporters,
editors to plant stories

in Iraqi media.

Now, what does this
do, when you talk about

the U.S. Military forces
moving forward and there being

victory, and Iraqis on the ground seeing

that what they're seeing
in their newspapers

and on television doesn't
reflect the reality?

It undermines any kind
of growth of democracy,

'cause then they have no confidence,

no trust of their media.

In this country, we have a
law, the Smith-Mundt act,

against propagandizing our own population.

It goes back to the
Nazis and World War II,

when we saw the dangers of that.

It's all justified by saying,
no, it's giving information

to other countries.

But Donald Rumsfeld has
made it pretty clear

that the success will
be when it blows back.

So, you plant a story there,
and it gets quoted back here.

The war is really being waged
at home, the war on truth.

- in today's day and age, as we know,

information is global and instantaneous.

So, the ability to keep information

out of American hands,
extremely difficult.

(soft electronic music)

- The Gulf War was
interesting, the first Gulf War

in the early 90s.

When the whole war was taking
place, we were asked often,

are there new systems being used here?

Because the way in which
one of the largest armies

in the world essentially gave up.

I mean, it was like children
in an elementary school

on their first fire drill, running out

of the bunkers and surrendering.

And from my perspective,
it looked like one of these

technologies for influencing
behavior had been applied.

And it was the Scottish
media after the war

that reported on Project Solo.

- Now we have very sophisticated systems,

like Commando Solo, a C-130
that is basically an airborne

television/radio station
that circles the area,

broadcasting the message
directly in that you want to

have the enemy receive.

- One of the other things
they do is they piggyback

signals on other carriers.

In other words, the broadcast
already going on in the area.

In other words, the
Muslim music and prayers

that all of these troops
were listening to everyday,

they would piggyback a
signal on that that would

create anxiety and fear
as an emotional state.

- Not that I'm aware of.

- To disclose these technologies,
this changes everything.

One of the finest articles on the subject

is an article called The
Mind Has no Firewall.

And if you look at it,
it is a fine explanation

of all of the various
ways to carry a signal

in that would influence
human behavior at a distance,

whether you use TV, radio,
electrical grids, the internet.

All of these things
can be effectively used

and have been demonstrated.

These technologies that
we're talking about today,

because the American public
wouldn't accept them,

because the American public
would see them as a violation

of the constitution, the only
way they could be introduced

is in an environment of fear.

And what environment do we have today?

- This is an Occam issue, Occam's razor.

The simplistic stuff works.

- But the idea first was they
looked at chemical means,

telepathine, LSD, all of
thepsychoactive drugs,

to see what would happen.

They also started to look
at electromagnetic means,

even as early as that,
to manipulate behavior.

Eventually, it came out, on
the President's Commission

on CIA activities within the
United States that eventually

showed that the CIA had been
involved and the FBI involved,

and other agencies involved
in mind-control techniques

being applied against American
citizens without consent.

And MK Ultra was a part of that.

And in what may be the
weirdest turn of events so far,

the loudspeakers also pumped
out Tibetan monastery chants

at steadily increasing
volume aimed straight

at Koresh's sanctuary.

(Tibetan chant playing)

- They were warned that
this could heighten matters,

and they decided to take the risk.

And those loudspeakers that
were on vehicles were actually

also delivering other information.

- We're talking about words
and specific voices that people

would recognize on a subliminal
level that they would not

consciously be aware of.

- They tried a number of things.

We know that they tried the
sounds of killing rabbits

and things of that
nature that are supposed

to be intuitively abhorrent.

- Noise that would affect
you on a fear level to create

fear and anxiety.

Really, though, when you
think about it, is that really

the right thing you wanted
to do in that environment,

or did you want to bring
people to calmness,

thinking more clearly,
being more analytical?

What they did is, they
agitated the situation.

They created an explosive situation.

The results are now clear.

- [Male Speaker] The
simplistic stuff works.

- HAARP is the High Frequency Active

Auroral Research Project.

It was originally a joint effort
of the Air Force and Navy.

It's now run by DARPA.

It's just dropped a little bit
in terms of classification,

but it has multiple possibilities
and lots of effects.

They just finished upgrading
it from 48 antennae to 180.

The thing about HAARP, it is
an instrument designed to do

exactly what Persinger was talking about,

which is this idea of
modulating the ionosphere

in a way that could be used
for weapons applications.

Why we're concerned about it

is earth-penetrating tomography.

And earth-penetrating
tomography in plain language

or by analogy would be
like X-raying the earth.

It's not using x-rays, of course,

but it's the same concept.

- Predominantly, it has to do
with communications because of

our long-range communications.

We use bouncing the signal off and down.

- [Interviewer] What are
the effects of bouncing

a wave like that off of the
ionosphere do you think?

- Probably very minimal,
it probably goes up

and mostly goes down.

- It's like punching the
ionosphere, and every punch

of high frequency causes the ionosphere

to vibrate in harmony.

It converts the ionosphere
from direct current

to alternating current,
and then it behaves

as a giant broadcast
antenna, pumping the signal

back to the earth in the E.L.F. range.

(haunting theme)

(rock music)

In the case of E.L.F.,
where you have these very

low-pulsed signals, you get what's called

a frequency-following response,
an F.F.R., in literature,

or a brain entrainment.

It's often referred to in that way.

And this is where the brain actually locks

on to these external
signals, even these very,

very subtle signals.

It locks on and begins to mirror.

So, the brain's patterns
fall into those patterns,

which is a change in emotional state.

- In the conspiracy arena,
they talk about a whole host

of effects, up to and including
turning people into zombies

or whole societies into
zombies and all that.

Again, the evidence
against that is haven't got

any societies of zombies.

Our boob tube is doing a
pretty good job on that,

by the look of them.

- Yeah, when you talk
about conspiratorialists,

let's talk about the military
and what their job is.

Their job is to think of
every horrible situation

that could ever occur and
then develop a plan around it.

That's conspiracy theorists
at the ultimate level,

with billions and trillions
of dollars to spend

to figure it out.

(rock music)

♪ Who are they ♪

♪ Hypnotized ♪

♪ Worship Satan commit suicide ♪

♪ Memorized ♪

♪ The government could control our minds ♪

♪ Persuasions ♪

- [Douglas] Propagandists
will go to any lengths

to influence people's opinion,
including murders, right?

I mean, whoever's responsible for 9/11,

were they doing it to
kill those 3000 people,

or were they doing it
to influence the world?

♪ War crime ♪

♪ They say it's OK and we do it anyway ♪

♪ Suicide ♪

- They want people to
follow orders, push buttons,

stand in line.

They're afraid to death
of the rogue mentality.

♪ Program ♪

♪ Go ahead and program the nation ♪

- When you manipulate
people, it's antidemocratic.

What you're really trying
to do is you're trying

to control people.

People don't need to be controlled.

They need to be able to
make their own decisions.

- Consciousness, the freedom to think,

is a fundamental human right.

The idea of violating
free will is something

that even God doesn't do.

And yet man thinks they can do this.

- At this defining moment,
change has come to America.

(crowd cheering)

(soft music)

- Baghdad, 3,966.

- [TV Announcer] Wives have Glamour.

- I am the queen of opulence.

- This is mass madness, you maniacs!

In God's name, you people
are the real thing.

We are the illusion!

So, turn off your television sets.

Turn them off now, turn
them off right now.

Turn them off and leave them off!

Turn them off right in
the middle of this sent--

(soft rock music)

♪ Time and time again ♪

♪ You wonder why ♪

♪ All has spawn to live ♪

♪ But should they die ♪

- [Martin] I have a dream today.

(crowd cheering)

- [John] Ask not what
America will do for you,

but what together we can
do for the freedom of man.

- You've got to put your
bodies upon the gears,

upon the wheels, upon the
levers, upon all the apparatus,

and you've got to make it stop!

And you've got to indicate
to the people who run it,

to the people who own it
that unless you're free,

the machine will be prevented
from working at all!

- If we can get a critical mass of people

thinking a direction, it
will influence and change

the rest of the world.

This collective mind, this
mind field tend to lead me

to believe that that might
be the greatest hope man has.

♪ It's the universe ♪

♪ It's the universe ♪

(soft guitar theme)

("I'm American" by Queensryche)

♪ I gotta have it gotta
drink the high life ♪

♪ I'll buy a new suit
black skinny necktie ♪

♪ I'll mingle with elite and imitate ♪

♪ And they'll never even
get it 'til I hit 'em ♪

♪ I've got no fear 'cause
I've weathered the breakdown ♪

♪ San Quentin to the
edge of the Big Town ♪

♪ I'm a man of the people
in the home of the brave ♪

♪ And I'm no man's slave ♪

♪ Because I'm free ♪

♪ I deserve everything I can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American. ♪

♪ If you voted for the
man you're wasting time ♪

♪ He's got his fingers
dipped in everyone's pie ♪

♪ The news can't wait to promote ♪

♪ All the bullshit this
government is selling ♪

♪ I've got this plan
in motion, countdown ♪

♪ Assassinate terminate smack down ♪

♪ There's a war in my head
and it needs to be said ♪

♪ If they think they can
take me they're dead ♪

♪ Because I'm free ♪

♪ I deserve everything I can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm free ♪

♪ And I'll get everything I can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪

♪ What do you believe in ♪

♪ What are you living for ♪

♪ Do you want what they're selling you ♪

♪ Another television war ♪

♪ I can't stop I feel I gotta have more ♪

♪ That's right more ♪

♪ I want more ♪

(guitar solo)

♪ Yeah I'm free ♪

♪ I deserve everything I can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪

♪ Yeah I'm free ♪

♪ And I'll get everything I can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪

♪ Are you free ♪

♪ You deserve everything you can get ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪

♪ Yeah I'm free ♪

♪ I deserve everything ♪

♪ I'm American I'm American ♪