Poll: Can a person lie to your subconscious brain?
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This weekend I wrote about a fun social experiment I tried on my poor unsuspecting husband. He fell asleep while resting in the sun and I wanted to see if I could lie to his subconscious brain. I told him after he slept for maybe 5 or 6 minutes that he was out for an hour.
Was my lie successful? Did his subconscious brain know better or not?
What do you think? Can you someone lie to you and fool your subconscious brain?
Did you know I am holding publicly open 3-day course on how to spot a liar? Check it out!
I voted No, because in this particular case I don’t believe it was successful. However, I do believe that with the right tools and enough time, a brain can be re-programed to believe even subconsciously what it has been fed, regardless of the truth.
Well? Did it work? Hmm???
I voted I have no idea because I think sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t and that was the closest answer. 🙂
I voted “I have no freakin idea” because I don’t and I don’t know if it matters. These are my thoughts as far as my understanding of the conscious/subconscious. I have read a little about it over the last few years.
I’m confused in the last post by this part: “I wondered if I could lie to his unconscious brain. I know he wasn’t consciously awake. I could have gotten up and walked away and he wouldn’t have noticed.”
Do you mean unconscious brain or subconscious brain? Were you talking to him while he was sleeping, or as soon as he woke up? Regardless, if he was awake, you lied to his conscious brain. He woke up from being unconscious (asleep) and you spoke to his awake and conscious brain. If his conscious brain chooses to believe and accept that thought, then the subconscious can be affected. You can bypass the conscious brain, but that’s through hypnotic states, being in a trance, which is not being asleep. Explained another way. The subconscious brain is always right given the information it has. It’s like a calculator. If he woke up and you told him the wrong time has passed, and he believes it (which is to say consciously), his body may or may not adjust differently subconsciously. I don’t know, but I’m sure studies have been done. I’m not sure it’s a given he’ll be refreshed and more productive, but it’s definitely possible and could be likely.
I do think when somebody wakes up, that they are in a more vulnerable and susceptible state, and if someone who they trust and has no reason to lie about something trivial and low stakes as actual nap time, they will be believed, but how else that affects the body, I’m not sure. I’ve at times awakened at times in winter not being sure if I was missing dinner or late for work. It’s a horrible feeling until I can find my phone.
Good catch. I lied to his conscious brain to see if I could fool his subconscious brain. I could not. I think that’s cool!!! He somehow knew exactly how long he slept!
In the prior blog post you wrote, “And I can’t lie, so I confessed the truth to him in a matter of minutes and he found it quite humorous!”
I would infer from the above that you did lie to him (as an experiment) and that he believed the lie until he checked the facts (or you simply told him the facts). That’s how the mind usually works. If you would have told him he was asleep for 1,000 years, that would not have been believed once he woke up because people don’t live for 1,000 years.
The real question is not whether someone can lie to your subconscious brain – that’s already been established. The answer to that is yes. The question at hand is if your subconscious will believe the lie. That’s much less likely, especially if the lie is something the person disagrees with or has no connection to. For example, if you would have told Mr. Eyes that he was on Mars, that would not have been believed the moment he woke up and simply looked around.
The subconscious is powerful, but I don’t see it powerful in that way. Long term I would say no, a person can not lie and fool the subconscious brain for any length of time.
I ~~could~~ do the same with my husband. even IF his thoughts were otherwise, he would say, “yes” and believe me. I’m not bored or silly enough to open our long term, truth-telling marriage to junior high school games. Husband would believe me; I would find something better to do with my time. just me though.
Sad you don’t want to learn.
Projection. She was the one giving you the opportunity to learn. Your conscious mind has got your unconscious mind fooled.
Answer: He didn’t believe me! His subconscious mind which was keeping
tabs while he sleep knew exactly how long he slept. When I told him he
slept an hour, he didn’t miss a beat! He knew instantly how long he
slept. He said 5 to 10 minutes at most. And he was correct.
I know we can keep time in our sleep because many of us wake up at night
and have a sense of time. There are times too where we don’t. I don’t
know why that is. Deeper REM sleep?
I thought this was fascinating! I told the husband he was right
immediately and he didn’t even bat a lash. He knew it instinctually.
All lying involves the conscious and the subconscious. I don’t think you can “lie” to the subconscious, you can only give suggestions that are either accepted or rejected. Talking only to persons subconscious mind requires (at least to my experience) hypnosis.