Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (PEN Literary Award Winner)

I enjoy books with great stories mixed with mind-blowing, insightful scientific experiments, and how they affect our daily, ever-accelerating lives in this mysterious, expanding universe wherein even a second is sacred. I was curious to know more about "how our unconscious minds rule our behavior," so I read Mlodinow's new, well-written book, Subliminal. I enjoyed M's description of the intricacy and power of our brains, and became more convinced than ever that the balance between the conscious and unconscious in evolving human beings is worthy and necessary for survival and growth. As a teacher, I was interested to see if I could transform knowledge acquired from this reading into usable and practical strategies for improving y performance in the classroom. Kids learn both consciously and unconsciously. Our kids are always picking up vibes, good, bad and nuanced, and neutral. As M puts it, the "unconscious rules your behavior." What and how children learn make all the difference in the world. Perhaps if we teachers understood the emotional context, originating in the unconscious, from which the individual student is evolving, we'd adapt our teaching methods, schedule, learning environment, and study materials, with access to the Internet, smart boards, and the like. We'd adjust our attitude to view teaching as collaborative with the students. Students are now programmed to respond to connectivity, and so we are adapting teaching methods. M's book can be a stimulus for an explosion in flexibility and modernizing the world of U.S. education, or at the very least can initiate a meaningful discussion. Our environment and experience affects on many levels, much of which is on the unconscious level. Having read Feynman's Rainbow and The Grand Design, I knew M's book would be hard to put down. He's conversational and humorous, a popular writer who makes scientific concepts clearer for the lay person. Though some scholars may disagree, popular writing is its own art form and I think as a writer, M is both an artist and able craftsman. I recommend this book to those interested in forming a workable inquiry into a fascinating topic: the unconscious of the brain in play with the conscious brain. It's a fascinating read, inviting exploration and debate, a five star book for sure. Mlodinow serves up many experiments; I've picked two for consideration. Experiment one: Remarkable Power of the Brain M gives a masterful description of how an experiment is conducted. Using an fMRI (which measures the blood flow in the brain and maps it in three dimensions), data was collected from the brain to reconstruct an image of what a person is looking at, be it a bridge or a group of people singing, through reading the electromagnetic pictures of the brain. Without any reference to what the person is viewing,"the computer puts data from areas of the brain that respond to particular regions in a person's field of vision together with data from other parts of the brain that respond to different themes. A computer then sorted through a database of 6 million images and picked the one that best corresponded to those readings." Amazingly close matches. Understanding how the brain operates and who we are as human beings is called "social neuroscience." To what degree does our brain determine and create so called reality? Can we participate in the evolution of our brain, and therefore of our experience? Is compassion based on understanding the unconscious expressions of the individual to feel good about himself or herself? Experiment Two: Well-Designed but Convincing? M states the second experiment to be "the first scientific demonstration that the unconscious mind possesses knowledge that escapes the conscious mind." M writes: "Peirce found a way to translate his ideas about unconscious perception into a laboratory experiment by adapting a procedure that had first been carried out by E.H. Weber in 1834. Weber had placed a small weight of varying degrees, one at a time, at a spot on a subject's skin, in order to determine the minimum weight at which a difference could be detected by a subject. In the experiment performed by Peirce and his prize student, JJ, the subjects of the study (Pierce & JJ experimenting on each other) were given weights whose difference was just below the minimum detectable threshold. Although they could not consciously discriminate between the weights, they asked each other to try to identify the heavier weight anyway. Despite their lack of confidence, they in fact chose the correct object on more that 60 percent of the trials, significantly more than would have been expected by chance." Does this experiment prove unconscious knowledge is the difference or were both subjects just better guessers than average? And if a valid experiment, how many subjects should be tested? I e-mailed two scholarly friends, Terren & Gary, for their opinions. Terren responded, "I remember when that first experiment was publicized, with sensational headlines like 'scientists can read your mind.' It is great stuff, and lots more of that is no doubt headed our way. One of the best applications of that will be to try and determine where people are when they are comatose, or to find new ways for brain injury/stroke victims to communicate (this has already happened actually). However, the experiment as such does not really deal explicitly with the distinction between conscious and unconscious, so not sure why Mlodinow included it, although that might be clear if I read the book myself. The second experiment indeed does not prove anything. In science you never really prove any kind of positive result. You can prove that a theory is wrong, but you can't ever prove that a theory is right. That said, the experiment does provide some evidence that unconscious perceptions can influence conscious ones. The evidence provided isn't very strong, as the number of subjects (2) is tiny, and I'm not sure how many trials they did, but it's probably not enough to make the evidence very strong... but it's evidence nonetheless. Personally I find the idea that unconscious processes affect conscious processes to be totally uncontroversial. " Here is Gary's perceptive response: "'Guess' has two different meanings: predicting an event uninfluenced by any knowledge; predicting an event uninfluenced by any conscious knowledge. Good guessers -- i.e., those whose guesses do better than random -- can be explained only if we identify some unconscious factor that accounts for their outperforming randomnitude. Peirce plausibly points to an unconscious perception of the difference in weights. In other words, `good guessers' can't be an explanation of anything: it merely references the explanandum = the fact that the `guessing' follows a pattern that is not purely random. If we hold `proof' to the certitude of conceptual/deductive proof, then of course nothing empirical can be proven. Strictly speaking, hypotheses are only supported. This is why, as Terren said, they can only be refuted, since we are able to determine conceptual inconsistencies. " ******** M subtly draped subliminal messages in light print on the cover, back and spine of the book: "Pssst...Hey there. Yes, You, Sexy, Buy! Buy! Buy!." The unconscious possesses knowledge that escapes the conscious mind and is therefore a critical part of our evolutionary growth. What we might most passionately need may well reside in the unconscious. The unconscious is continually absorbing, learning below the surface. We might use the term "subconscious" is useful to explain subliminal messages on a movie screen or book cover since they are fairly accessible to consciousness with some attention in contrast with the deeper, less accessible unconscious. Or is it sufficient to consider any knowledge not immediately in present consciousness, no matter how shallow, unconscious? Terren wrote "For what it's worth, the term "subconscious" is not really used in academic circles as its meaning is too imprecise. It is too hard, in other words, to try and parse a difference between "subconscious" and "unconscious." To access hidden knowledge, to make the unconscious more conscious, is a very human endeavor says M. The brain is building memories, some conscious, some unconscious. Can we create rich memories? Do we call on deep memories to enrich us? Can we balance the bad ones? M gives examples of memories and experiences which fuel how we categorize things and stereotype people; how we favor our intimate circles; approach life from an unconscious emotional context; and humanly grow as we become aware of this process, the interplay between conscious and unconscious life. Leonard Mlodinow's Amazing Mom Mlodinow tells engrossing stories about his mother, who tragically lost family in the Holocaust. Having that memory so deep within her, at times when her son failed to call her, she would be unduly anxious that "something bad had happened." At one time, she was even convinced that her beloved son had been kidnapped. M's mom had to be reassured to feel safe and secure. I taught English in a refugee program. I will never forget Cambodian students and their families relating their horrific experiences under Pol Pot. I don't believe we ever completely survive an atrocity of this magnitude, even with forgiveness. M's Mom presently lives in a completely different environment, yet as author David Brooks might say, "the soulscape," not only the landscape, permeates us, ever deep and present. In America, Mom wasn't really threatened by the cowardly, brutal, and inhuman Nazis. But going through her experience has emotional reverberations to this day as M beautifully relates. How could such an agony and violation not? Emotional memories are real for all of us even if we don't know it. Mrs. Mlodinow, many blessings to her, is worthy of a book in her own right. What is more emotional than the significance of one's personal history? M is a generous writer, well worth reading for a general audience searching for a scientific introduction to both the unconscious and conscious brain, and how such knowledge relates to modern day living. As M says,"Some scientists believe that the need for social interaction was the driving force behind the evolution of superior human intelligence. Social cooperation and the social intelligence seem to have been crucial to our survival." Mlodinow's gift is that he is both funny and expert in his writing; his wake-up call is for us to pay attention to our minds, to let all the knowledge deep within our unconscious, as well as our conscious minds, conspire to make us better human beings.

The study of the unconscious is a realm of psychology that even the most educated and knowledgeable psychologists throughout history have had trouble deciphering and understanding. The human unconscious is captivating due to its hidden nature; access to the unconscious is not direct and not easily attainable. The book Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow is an informative book that explores the unconscious and the extent to which it influences our behavior on a daily basis. The unconscious is a controlling force in all of our thoughts, actions and beliefs, and heavily influences all of our decision-making. Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior provides revealing information regarding the unconscious, which helps the reader gauge a deeper and more thorough understanding of the effect it has on our psychological activity. Leonard Mlodinow was born in Chicago, Illinois in the year 1954. During a semester off school, he discovered his love of physics. He then studied as a doctoral student at the University of California Berkley, and quickly became a professor at Caltech University. From there he published numerous theories in quantum physics. Intrigued by the human mind and how it functions, he has written many books, including The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives and The Grand Design with Stephen Hawking, which are just two of his New York Times best sellers. Mlodinow's background in physics makes his voyage into the world of the unconscious an interesting one, as he has made the transition from hard and fast equations to a world of more abstract and murky theories. This makes Subliminal a particularly engaging read because the reader feels as if he or she is discovering the unconscious world with Mlodinow, rather than be lectured at. The book has ten chapters, the first half of which deals with the research and history of the unconscious. The second half of the book applies this research and information to clearly illustrate the affects of the unconscious on daily scenarios and circumstances that humans encounter. Each chapter discusses and explores a specific function of the psychological domain, such as vision, and how it is influenced by the unconscious. I really enjoyed the organization of the book because it had a structure that started with black and white research that was then followed by real-life examples, which made it very easy to follow the material being presented. One example of the function of the unconscious is portrayed in Chapter 2, "Senses Plus Mind Equals Reality". Mlodinow recounts the story of the patient TN. TN had severe damage to the visual center of his brain (the visual cortex), which caused him to become completely blind. What intrigued scientists is that TN could navigate through a room full of obstacles successfully, despite being unable to see anything. His conscious aspect of sight was lost, but it was assumed that his unconscious still sensed the objects and sent messages to other parts of his brain to react. This phenomenon is now known as "blindsight," which is when the conscious visual system is non-functional, but the unconscious system that tells us to move out of the way when something is coming at us, or to step over something that is on the floor in front of us. This experiment proves that the unconscious is highly developed and adapts with challenging situations, such as the loss of one's sight. Even more importantly, it shows that the unconscious and conscious minds operate independently of one another, which was a huge milestone in the world of neuroscience. Mlodinow also discusses memory storage and brain energy consumption, citing a study that compared physical activity and brain consumption in which it was discovered that the brain does not change its energy output depending on the task. For example, let's think of our muscles during strenuous exercise. Our muscles consume 100 times more energy for intense activity than simply sitting on a chair. But that is not the situation when it comes to the brain. The unconscious mind is constantly at work, even when the conscious mind is at rest. Mlodinow's puts it this way: "Regardless of whether your conscious mind is idle or engaged, your unconscious mind is hard at work doing the mental equivalent of push-ups, squats, and wind sprints" (Mlodinow 187). We take for granted the fact that our unconscious mind is always working and analyzing. Mlodinow's consistent use of conclusive scientific evidence is illustrated in chapter one (The New Unconscious). The Pepsi Paradox is a term used to describe the fact that in blind taste tests, Pepsi consistently wins, yet people seem to prefer Coke when they know that they are drinking it. One cause of this disconnect is the effect of the brand name on their opinion, but when asked if this influenced their opinion, people replied, "No." He supports this claim using scientific research; for example, one study used brain-imaging techniques that discovered an area next to the orbitofrontal cortex called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC). The VMPC is a part of the brain activated when we experience happiness due to a familiar brand name product. In another study, conducted In 2007, VMPC was studied. In this study, there were two different groups participating, one group was volunteers with VMPC damage and the other group consisted of volunteers with intact VMPC. The first situation was a blind test between Pepsi and Coke, and as expected, both groups favored Pepsi. Next, another test was done with the brands labeled. Here the group with the healthy VMPC preferred Coke while the group with the damaged VMPC still preferred Pepsi. What happened was not an explicit factor affecting their choice, it was an implicit factor, such as the brand that the unconscious acts on. Mlodinow states, "Our brains are not simply recording a taste or other experience, they are creating it" (Mlodinow 25). I felt this study was a great way to illustrate the role that the unconscious plays in complex decision-making; our unconscious prompts us to take into consideration factors other than taste, such as status or popularity, when making decisions. The study also rang true to me because it showed the way in which we as humans differ from animals, who would have simply chosen the more tasty option. Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior provides new information regarding the unconscious. I enjoyed reading this book because it taught me about the different ways in which the unconscious controls our actions, thoughts and decisions. At first I thought Mlodinow was only going to explore and contrast the common theories relating to the unconscious that are discussed in most educational institutions, such as the Oedipus Complex. However, he takes a new, refreshing approach in exploring the more common day-to-day ways in which the unconscious presents itself in our lives, such as unconsciously turning right to head to work when you really want to turn left to go to the store. This is a must-read for anyone who has even the slightest interest in how our mind controls our behaviors by balancing the effects of the conscious and unconscious. The author eloquently provides evidence into each of his statements and justifies them with interesting research. I believe this book deserves a five star rating due to its ability to accurately shed light on the mysterious yet powerful psychological domain we call the unconscious.

The author does an excellent job of explaining how the subconscious handles a lot of our day to day function and why we need to understand the how, what, and why of it. For those that have read "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahnemann (highly recommended), the subconscious is like the fast part of the brain. There are a lot of these books out there now. Frankly if you read Kahnemann, you can save yourself from many other books as a lot of this stuff is redundant. Some of them call them different things, so you think you are learning more, but then realize they are all talking about the same things, but calling them different. Bottom line is that we have the analytic (thinking) part of our brain and we have more automatic part, which necessarily handles most of our day to day interactions. That automatic, fast, subconscious also handles emotions. Could you imagine having to think about "better step on the brake now" every single time we drive....best to leave that to our automatic. But with that, our automatic will also try to solve problems when we should be using our analytic brain. Since the fast part of the brain requires little effort, we like to use it and it dominates our decisions naturally. But at times we need to override and allow the slow (thinking) part of the brain to analyze and make the decision. The primary downfall of this author is because he commits 2 behavioral biases that he is supposedly an expert on. In an effort to interject his views on evolution and global warming, the author is supremely overconfident and suffers from confirmation bias. He dismisses those that believe in creationism by stating evolution is the only way, offering the typical evidence of evolution theory without even attempting to discuss the weaknesses of that argument nor that science still cannot explain how initial particles came to be in the first place. (Overconfident in something that is still uncertain and not proved) When interjecting his view on global warming, the author states only the evidence that supports his position, while not reporting on conflicting research. Neither of these comments directly relate to the content of the book, except for the author's desire to inject politics/religion into an overall good scientific book. But this goes to show that just because someone may be an expert on behavior, does not mean they are immune from the biases! If you only have time for one book on this topic, I would recommend "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahnemann over this one. But this is still a worthy read.

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow "Subliminal" is the provocative and fascinating look at the unconscious part of our minds. One of my favorite authors and physicists, Leonard Mlodinow, takes the readers on a journey into the science of the unconscious. What a fun and enlightening book this was. Mlodinow is the master of making the difficult accessible and fun for the masses. How are mind works is one of the most interesting subjects and I was thrilled to see that the coauthor of both the Grand Design and the equally interesting book War of the Worldviews makes his latest venture into this intriguing science. This excellent 272-page book is composed of the following ten chapters: 1. The New Unconscious, 2. Senses Plus Mind Equals Reality, 3. Remembering and Forgetting, 4. The Importance of Being Social, 5. Reading People, 6. Judging People by Their Covers, 7. Sorting People and Things, 8. In-Groups and Out-Groups, 9. Feelings, and 10. Self. Positives: 1. A fascinating topic (science of the unconscious) in the hands of a master. 2. Elegant, conversational tone that makes this book a treat to read. 3. Mlodinow consistently produces great books and this one lived up to my expectations. 4. As accessible a book as you will find. A difficult topic made easy and fun to read. 5. The book is loaded with great and I mean great examples to help the reader grasp the latest in the science. One of the books strengths. 6. Great use of science history. 7. The pioneers of the science of the unconscious. 8. Great use the latest scientific research in this fascinating topic to support well-stated positions. 9. You will end up with a better grasp at how our brains work. 10. A good use of illustrations. 11. Great quotes and factoids abound, "The truth is that our unconscious minds are active, purposeful, and independent." 12. Evolution...why our brains evolved to be what they are. 13. A truly exceptional study that mirrors the subjects' sexual preferences. 14. What modern neuroscience tells us about our brains and how we perceive the world. 15. How our memory system works. Who does it change over time? Find out. 16. Social interactions and the subliminal. Theory of mind. The three regions of the brain and the three basic types of nonverbal communication. 17. An interesting look at stereotyping. 18. Popular misconceptions analyzed. 19. What do we know about our feelings our emotions? Find out. 20. The ways to the truth...our worldviews. 21. How our brain creates unconscious biases. 22. Is unrealistic optimism good for you? 23. Great links. Negatives: 1. Notes are great but a formal bibliography never hurts. 2. Nothing about supernatural beliefs and why they are so prevalent. 3. Having to get multiple copies to share. In summary, I loved this book. It was an intellectual treat. The science of the unconscious is a fascinating topic and this book was loaded with a lot of great research. Mlodinow is a great author who is able to tackle complex topics and make it fun and interesting to read. If you want to learn about the science of the unconscious, make a conscious decision to get this one, I highly recommend it!! Further suggestions: " The Grand Design " and " War of the Worldviews: Science Vs. Spirituality " coauthored by this same author were excellent, " Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time " and " The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths " by Michael Shermer, " The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature " by Steven Pinker, Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality " by Laurence Tancredi, " Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain " Michael S. Gazzaniga, " The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life " by Jesse Bering, " 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True " by Guy P. Harrison, " Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts " by Carol Tavris. For the record, I have reviewed all the aforementioned books, enjoy.

Some of the best introductions to a work of non-fiction such as Subliminal are found when an author is sharing final thoughts. That is why I always read the epilogue or final chapter first. Here is what Leonard Mlodinow has to say when concluding his brilliant book: "We choose the facts that we want to believe. We also choose our friends, lovers, and spouses not just because of the way we perceive them but because of the way they perceive us. Unlike phenomena in physics, in life, events can often obey one theory or another, and what actually happens can depend largely upon which theory we choose to believe. It is a gift of the mind to be extraordinarily open to accepting theory of ourselves that pushes us in the direction of survival, and even happiness. And so my parents did not sleep that night, while my father taught my mother to sew." The details of that scene are best reveled within the narrative, in context, and have significance only if you have thought about all that Mlodinow has previously shared. I remain unconvinced that my subconscious mind rules my behavior or that it rules Mlodinow's but I realized decades ago that the subconscious was -- and remains -- one of the most powerful and yet least understood forces in neuroscience. Only recently has it been possible to quantify at least some of its influence on decision-making, for example. The Latin root of the word "subliminal" translates to "below threshold," suggests that there were a few curious souls who sensed, at least, that there was something other than reason involved with choices. One of Mlodinow's primary purposes is serve as a travel companion for his reader during an exploration, in his words, "of our evolutionary heritage, of the surprising and exotic forces at play beneath the surface of our own minds, and of the impact of those unconscious instincts on what is usually considered willed, rational behavior -- and impact that is much more powerful than we have previously believed it to be." These are among the dozens of business subjects and issues of special interest and value to me, also listed to indicate the scope of Mlodinow's coverage. o Interpretation of behavior (11-126, 38-41, 79-80, and 115-118) o Collective behavior (26-29) o Sensory input for brain (45-51 and 96-100) o Phonemic restoration (48-50) o Groups (68-70 and 161-175) o Aggressive behavior 92-96) o fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging (100-104) o Perception (107-125, and 199-203) o Impact of physical appearance (Pages 126-144) o Competitive behavior, in-groups, and, conscious behavior (161-175 and 30-35, 42-45) o Illusions (183-188) o Introspection and self-identity (196-218) o Motivated reasoning (200-214) Mlodinow's narrative is lively and eloquent. However, Subliminal is by no means an "easy read but will generously reward those who read it with a combination of curiosity, attention, and patience. I re-read it before setting to work on this review and, as with a great novel rich in compelling drama involving memorable characters, my mind picked up points of information, insights, and wit I previously missed. For non-scientists such as I, Mlodinow manages somehow to cover a great deal of important material without dumbing it down. In this context I am reminded of the works of Richard Feynman and, more recently, Daniel Dennett. Frankly, I have always been suspicious of "positive illusions" which, in my opinion, are actually delusions. Mlodinow has convinced me that such positive illusions/delusions can sometimes help people to overcome or at least cope more effectively with unpleasant realities. The value of this book will be determined almost completely by how receptive and accessible a reader is to material that may be unfamiliar or inaccessible. Trust him and trust yourself. So, I urge you to read this book if you are curious to learn more than you know now about (a) the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind, (b) how they interact and sometimes compete, (c) what their interactions and separate activities reveal about decision-making, and finally (d) how an increased (albeit incomplete) understanding of what is happening "below threshold," ours and everyone else's. New knowledge and understanding await you, as do Leonard Mlodinow and his book. Let the journey of exploration begin.

Usually I love reading books in the genre. I love learning how people make decisions and how our subconscious mind directs our behavior. This book really tries to do a good job of explaining what our subconscious is and how it influences our behavior. Yet, for me it is a little heavy on the science and a little light on the application. To be fair, the author really tries to intertwine interesting analogies and folksy anecdotes with the science of how life is really a subjective experience. But, it seems, he can't help himself from proving his point through reference to numerous studies and minute description of the brain and it's physicality. Yes, it's interesting to know that out subconscious helps us function in life by filtering out a multitude of activities, sights and sounds. It's interesting that our memory isn't as accurate as we would like to believe. It's interesting that even our vision isn't as all encompassing as we think. It's when he gets wades into the weeds of highly scientific explanation of evolution and neuroscience that he loses me. Many of the later chapters also reveal what most of us know, if not factually, then intuitively. Women like deeper voiced men, tall men. Both sexes attribute positive characteristics to good looking people, in general. So, toward the end, I put it down. The books of Dan Ariely are more to my liking. I also thought that The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business was a lot more engaging and memorable. Read the book if you like a lot of scientific backup for the author's assertions of how your subconscious mind rules your behavior. If you're looking for ways to help change your own behavior or better understand and possibly influence the behavior of others, you may be disappointed.

The main message I got from this book is that the brain is divided into two major parts, the conscious or cognitive mind and the unconscious, subconscious, subliminal mind or heart. The book has numerous studies to prove the point that the subconscious mind is the primary driver of our actions and cognitive thoughts, and thus our happiness and success in life. Our normal mental processing consists of these two elements, the subconscious and the cognitive. And the primary driver is the subconscious mind in almost all cases. We are not typically aware of these subconscious or subliminal processes and most people believe they are governed at the cognitive level, but with the numerous examples cited, this is patently not true. In fact, for every final action or word a person does, there are dual processes going on in our minds with something like 95% of the effort going on in the subconscious mind and only 5% to the conscious or aware mind. So if you want to understand how and why people, or even yourself act, you must consider the subconscious mind as primary, even if you are not aware of it. Leonard Mlodinow makes a very complex subject simple to understand, and as a primer and update on the layman's view of that state of the art in psychology and neuroscience of the brain, this book is wonderful. A lot of my previous tenants of how I actually think were re-adjusted as I read this book. It is a good read and while some brain biology is covered, it is not so extensive as to be confusing to the biology aware reader. If you agree that the subconscious is the term called the "heart" in the Bible, then the Bible has much to say that fits very well with the latest findings. One of the most challenging to what I see going on in our culture is the popular belief that feelings or emotions drive behavior. The author points out that this idea is wrong, and the reverse of how it actually works, and yet is a prime tenant of most popular psychology and drama. Science is continually re-affirming what God has commanded in the Bible. By using the principles the author describes I came up with the following application. What I have taught and seen work in business and Christian ministry for decades using the Bible principles, but now have the science to understand the basic process is this. The primary tenant is that emotions come AFTER matching thoughts and behaviors. To produce godly emotions you start with agreeing that God is great, cannot lie, the Bible is truth, He loves you, Jesus is Lord and His way is best. This writes these facts on your subconscious mind or heart (and does take some time). Then you obey commands like, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." As you start the behaviors of obedience (Jesus-like fear) of God you are telling your subconscious mind you are going to rejoice, and the subconscious mind then creates the thanksgiving, praise and joy feelings in your conscious mind and body as you do the matching actions. That is provided we have previously programmed it that way. We are built to operate this way. So this is a God-designed and built process. This is no different than putting on your "game face" or "fake it till you make it" or "be beave and do it anyway with a glad heart." Just as you dress your body to fit the occasion, you can also fit your soul so it matches the best of what is needed in any situation. Make a cognitive choice to obey God anyway (called fearing God) and then do the associated behaviors. Had you been obeying this along with the other some 1050 commands in the New Testament, you already would have written God's ways on your heart or subconscious mind and would be 1) working miracles with Jesus, 2) living in divine health, 3) living in divine prosperity, 4) walking in persecution from the devil as you destroy his works, 5) your family would be heaven on earth, 6) have supernatural and wonderful wisdom for any situation, and 7) walking in peace that passes understanding knowing you are doing the right things to release God to make heaven on earth. If that is not working for you then you are not thinking the right thoughts and doing the right actions to produce the right emotions, and thus you have wrong programming in your heart or unconscious mind. Remember, the joy of the Lord is our strength. No strength in the true and living God means wrong thoughts in your heart and wrong actions. Fix both with Christ Affirmations and you will see God's love, strength and power. Since a primary directive of the Bible is to keep your mind renewed into God's truth, I look forward Dr. Mlodinow's next work that will hopefully explain, not just our current understanding of the existence and control of the unconscious mind or heart on our daily life, but how to reprogram it to achieve the results we desire in life. I recommend this book highly.

One of the quotes I remember from high school English was the stanza from Invictus by William Ernest Henley, "It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." I think we all like to think that we are rational beings, are in charge of and totally control all we do. I believe we like to think we are the "Captains of our souls." But what Leonard Mlodinow shows us rather conclusively in Subliminal is that our subconscious is actually in charge. So much of our behavior is completely automatic. It happens without our conscious awareness. If you are fascinated by reading about how the mind works, then you will really love this book. Mr. Mlodinow shows us time and again that the mind does not work quite like we think it does. For example, our vision has certain blind spots. But these do not register. The mind is quite marvelous in that it is extremely good at filling in gaps. With our hearing, we can miss certain words or sounds and the mind will understand the context of the material and fill in the missing sounds. In one experiment the audience heard a recording with the first syllable of one word missing. The experimenters altered the sentence so that different groups heard a different word at the end of the sentence. In other words, the context was totally changed. The audiences did not notice the missing sound, their minds being able to fill-in the missing sound based on the context. In another set of experiments, the researchers had waiters, survey-takers, lightly touch the customers, respondents on their elbow or shoulder. The slight tough was for the most part not noticed by those being touched, but had a statistically significant impact on the results the researchers wanted. There are numerous other extremely interesting psychological experiments discussed in the book. The results are truly amazing. They basically show that no matter how rational and in control we think we are, we are all subject to unconscious beliefs which control our behavior. The book is well written, easy to read in a conversational format. You will gain important insights into what actually controls our behavior. The book has an excellent index and complete set of end notes for those wishing to do further research.

C est un livre que je recommande du debut a la fin. Certains ouvrages de neurosciences donnent l impression de copier-coller par rapport a des ouvrages anterieurs Celui ci est inspirant de bout en bout L intelligence de l auteur affleure a chaque page

Das Buch ist voller wissenschaftlicher Studien und Experimente, die auf geniale Art und Weise einige Mechanismen unseres Gehirns beleuchten. Es ist zudem sehr kurzweilig aufbereitet. Eine absolute Leseempfehlung für jeden den Psychologie u. Gehirnforschung interessiert.

An essential book for every modern educated person. It will change your life. The simplicity with which the reality of mind is explained makes it very easy for the common person to understand what research is now showing.

Leonard has done an excellent job in telling us how a underlying processing goes on in our brains which we are not aware of and which is important for our survival nonetheless...it is an important read for psychologists as well as for neuroscientists and lay scientists... But thus unconscious he tells is just part of brain processibg unit...its different from Jungs collective unconscious....its a pure physicalist view of the brain.

Una excelente herramienta de reflexión que nos abre a un universo sabio, desde nuestras experiencias vividas y nos enseña sobre lo que podemos cambiar para avanzar en las posibilidades que tiene el ser humano. Un libro lleno de conocimiento y sabiduría.