Dear Panpanpan,
I noticed that you brought up an unusual way of learning while going to sleep, or while asleep and I thought I should draw it to the attention of the other friends here because it was buried in a reply under some one else's root article. Your topic also caused me to think of a somewhat similar second and third way of
"subliminal learning."
You wrote that you have a habit of "listening to some English program while in bed sleeping". You might have written "of listening to some English program or other while in bed sleeping". Or you might have written "listening to an English
program while in bed sleeping." It is clear that you wrote correctly, but more
as one would speak rather than write. For a written communication it could have
been slightly more clearly worded. When we write it is always more important than when speaking verbally to be sure that what is written is clearly understood
, since we lose the tone of voice used by the speaker, as well as some kind of connection that happens between the minds of two people interested in talking with each other in real time in person, or on the telephone. When writing we also
lost the ability to immediately be able to ask a question to clarify something not quite understood.
To Learn as you are doing during sleep is a good way. You may need to limit the
time so that you have enough undisturbed rest without learning. If you run the
English on a repeating tape all night long, then it might interfere with the quality of sleep
In a somewhat related situation my brain became very weary once because of a constantly repeated subliminal message. It was a very short messaged embedded under music, and was so quiet that it only registered with me unconsciously. I played the same music many times during the course of an afternoon while I worked on
a project that was related to the subliminal message. My mind became unusually tired in an odd sort of way that could only have come from the constant positive subliminal message.
Once Ben and I had great financial difficulties. We were overstressed by the situation so we used a sleep tape about finances. It was a very quiet recording which is placed under your pillow so that your mind absorbs the message during sleep without consciously hearing any words. In that case the message was so effective that we began to find ourselves too blase about our money problems. We began to realize that we cared so little that if we continued with the tape at night we might not care at all. We really needed to generate more income so that we could pay our bills. Therefore after the initial rest that the tape gave us,
we turned it off so that we wouldn't go to the other extreme.
To me this last experience proves that subliminal learning by tape can be very effective during sleep, probably because your mind is open and doesn't block the
message which you aren't even aware that you are hearing as it is just below conscious hearing level. English students could do the same by turning the volume
down to just below where you can consciously hear it. We didn't find thatthis much longer message made us weary the next day. Of course it didn't play all night, but it did play after we were asleep for quite awhile.
Subliminal messages embedded in music or in "white noice" are something to be aware of. They can be used in commercial places to change people's behaviour, or
to cause them to want and buy something they didn't intend to buy. Subliminal messages on tv or movies, or embedded in store music and so on have been outlawed
in Canada. Hopefully the laws are followed. I think if you know yourselves well enough you won't be overcome by such messages. If they go against your nature you should be able to be aware of that when you know that such things exist.
Messages that say good things, such as "drive carefully and caringly" could be good messages, you must admit, though.
I hope these two additional ideas are of help, and that all three of them willbe of use to many of the friends here. If you find a good English lesson you might tape it for use in this way.
Warmly, Mary
