This Man

[rattran]

That was it, couldn't remember the actual name, 'Alien Abduction' was the only text I remembered.

It didn't look like a good film.

[FatuousTwat]

This kind of viral marketing fills me with rage. It's probably all the people who think it's real and will stand by their beliefs probably even after whoever is putting this on announces it was all bullshit.

[Yegolev]

Are you calling Engels and craan a couple of filthy liars?

[FatuousTwat]

I think that if they aren't joking, they have given some random person they saw undue significance because he happened to look like a crude drawing they saw later.

[Engels]

I think you missed the point. GF -dreamed- of this guy, then later saw the picture. If its marketing, its subliminal suggestion, and that's sorta awsome. The marketing campaign got someone to -dream- of some random face.

[Samwise]

I think you missed the point. GF -dreamed- of this guy, then later saw the picture.

Or she dreamed of some guy whose face she wouldn't have been able to remember or describe if pressed, saw the picture along with the suggestion that he shows up in people's dreams, and then filled in her dream memory with that picture.

[Engels]

Actually, she described him (before seeing the picture) as a short, round faced latino looking guy with large soulfoul eyes and a comb-over. She described him well enough that when she said,"Hey, come look at this picture", even I  knew who she thought it was before she said anything. But hey, I may be a filthy liar!

[Merusk]

Yes, with such an exacting description it's miraculous that the picture captures it so much. Surely there are no other pictures of men who might fit such a description.

I think he looks Italian or Jewish or, perhaps Germanic!  freaky!

[Sheepherder]

People, you do realize that significant portions of your memory is completely fabricated by your brain, right?

[Riggswolfe]

I'm mostly curious what that sight is all about now. I doubt if it's "Real" but I am defintely curious to know.

[Signe]

Actually, she described him (before seeing the picture) as a short, round faced latino looking guy with large soulfoul eyes and a comb-over. She described him well enough that when she said,"Hey, come look at this picture", even I  knew who she thought it was before she said anything. But hey, I may be a filthy liar!

I believe you ARE a filthy liar, but I believe mostly everything you say.  Maybe you're a conundrum. 

[Engels]

Yes, with such an exacting description it's miraculous that the picture captures it so much. Surely there are no other pictures of men who might fit such a description.

I think he looks Italian or Jewish or, perhaps Germanic!  freaky!

I thought about that, but the thing is, she came across the website only 5 days after the dream, not months down the line. This makes me believe in the clarity of her recollection and, more importantly, that it was a targeted subliminal suggestion that happened at most a week or two before her dream.

[Sheepherder]

Except subliminal suggestion is pretty heavily debunked, insofar as you cannot prove a negative.  The only similar technique with any success being priming, which actually requires that the subject be cognisant of repeated suggestion for it to take hold and produce an effect at a later time.  However, under normal conditions the brain is an extremely lossy to the point where you can blindfold people and trip them up as to what colour clothing they're wearing.

[Lantyssa]

I believe you ARE a filthy liar, but I believe mostly everything you say.  Maybe you're a conundrum. 

Or a confidence man.

[Yegolev]

Or she dreamed of some guy whose face she wouldn't have been able to remember or describe if pressed, saw the picture along with the suggestion that he shows up in people's dreams, and then filled in her dream memory with that picture.

This is very L. Ron Hubbard... just so you know.

[Engels]

Except subliminal suggestion is pretty heavily debunked,

Maybe, maybe not

Careful laboratory research has explored the extent to which subliminal stimulation can affect our behavior. The best evidence for subliminal perception comes from studies on semantic priming. In a priming task, the viewer's task is to decide whether or not a presented letter string (the target) is a word or not. The task is not difficult. If the target is a legitimate word (e.g., DOCTOR), the respondent pushes the "yes" button. If it isn't a word (e.g., TORCOD), he pushes the "no" button. Of special interest is how long it takes the subject to make his or her decision. Reaction times are faster when the target is preceded by a word whose meaning is similar to the target's meaning (e.g., NURSE). Thus, people will identify the target string DOCTOR as a word more quickly if it is primed with NURSE than they would if it were primed with an unrelated word like TRUCK. This priming effect is a well-established phenomenon. Researchers interested in subliminal perception wondered what would happen if the prime was presented so briefly that the viewer could not recognize it. Would the priming effect still occur? The answer is yes, and this finding is interesting because it shows that the prime initiates cognitive activity in the brain, even though the viewer does not feel as if any word recognition took place. Thus, there is a discrepancy between what is perceived and what the viewer is aware of having perceived.

Also

Shapes that are rendered invisible through backward masking are still able to influence motor responses: this is called masked priming. Yet it is unknown whether this influence is on the control of ongoing action, or whether it merely influences the initiation of an already-programmed action. We modified a masked priming procedure (Schmidt, 2002) such that the critical prime-mask sequence was displayed during the execution of an already-initiated goal-directed pointing movement. Psychophysical tests of prime visibility indicated that the identity of the prime shapes were not accessible to participants for conscious report. Yet detailed kinematic analysis of the finger in motion revealed that masked primes had an influence on the pointing trajectories within 277 ms of their appearance, 56 ms earlier than the trajectory deviations observed in response to the visible masks. These results indicate that subliminal shapes can indeed influence the control of ongoing motor activity.

Admittedly a far cry from dream induction, but I always get a bit smirky when someone says 'has been debunked' about fairly complex psychological phenomena. I smell an objectivist a mile away.

[Samwise]

Or she dreamed of some guy whose face she wouldn't have been able to remember or describe if pressed, saw the picture along with the suggestion that he shows up in people's dreams, and then filled in her dream memory with that picture.

This is very L. Ron Hubbard... just so you know.

When does my boat full of money get here?

[Kail]

Except subliminal suggestion is pretty heavily debunked,

Maybe, maybe not

Careful laboratory research has explored the extent to which subliminal stimulation can affect our behavior. The best evidence for subliminal perception comes from studies on semantic priming.(snip)

I believe he mentioned priming in the very next sentence, though...

[Yegolev]

Or she dreamed of some guy whose face she wouldn't have been able to remember or describe if pressed, saw the picture along with the suggestion that he shows up in people's dreams, and then filled in her dream memory with that picture.

This is very L. Ron Hubbard... just so you know.

When does my boat full of money get here?

Fake religions turn into real religions after 50 years and with a minimum number of followers.

I don't know but for some reason your post reminded me of some stuff in a Hubbard novel.

[Engels]

I believe he mentioned priming in the very next sentence, though...

Yep, but there was a further assertion that it couldn't really happen if the subject were not aware of the priming.

which actually requires that the subject be cognisant of repeated suggestion

The two articles I posted state that it can happen with the subject not aware. In fact, that's the entire point of the latter.

 

[Sheepherder]

Yep, but there was a further assertion that it couldn't really happen if the subject were not aware of the priming.

The two articles I posted state that it can happen with the subject not aware. In fact, that's the entire point of the latter.

I could go on the defensive over shit I barely remember from a University course years ago and we could argue about the meaning of cognisant.  Or I could ask why the fuck you are trolling me with this bullshit that is completely beside the fucking point, because you can't prime people with complex information.

[FatuousTwat]

From io9:

"This website is actually the creation of a sociologist and marketer named Andrea Natella. He runs a company called Guerriglia Marketing which stages "subversive hoaxes" and creates weird art projects that are mostly about pornography, politics, and advertising."

[Sheepherder]

Does this mean Engel's GF is a sexy Manchurian Candidate?

Also, does anyone know Italian?

[Signe]

I know an Italian who knows Italian, if that helps.