It's definitely a swanstucker of enormous proportions. Otherwise, why would the WTBTS remove the picture?
DD
Pornography on the back of the songbook Sing to Jehovah
by Londo111 105 Replies latest members adult
-
-
Island Man
The picture on page 12 of the September 15, 2014 Watchtower (study edition) uses the same color pallete as the cover of the Bible Teach book - especially the picture in the background to the right of the woman's head. The title of the article below the image is "Serve God Loyally Despite Many Tribulations". Are they trying to send a subliminal message equating serving God loyally with using the bible teach book to have more studies?
-
Apognophos
Once you see it as an arm and hand, it's quite clearly just an accident caused by the way our minds work. It's not even painted poorly, it's quite accurately painted from a photograph. That doesn't mean that the Society still wouldn't decide to remove it, just to get people to stop whispering about it in Bethel hallways.
-
OrphanCrow
Oh seriously!?
It seems people have too much time on their hands....
Yes. Seriously.
I have followed the controversy surrounding the subliminal images in WTS literature for years now - reading threads and discussions on exJW forums and observing the divisions amongst the members that this subject causes. And the accompanying ridicule and disbelief. This is the first time that I have come out and expressed my opinion and knowledge on this subject. I have already stated the physiological aspects behind subliminal imaging and the rationale for them being there.
I would like to add to why the acceptance of the subliminal images is important to a de-construction of the religion itself. Once a person is aware that the subliminal images exist, and can recognize them being there, the primary message of the image is diluted.
The expression 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is true. The image is considered to be a purer form of communication than the word itself. (I didn't say accurate - I said 'pure'). Here is an example. How many of you studied from that old red book Babylon the Great Has Fallen? Now, when I said that title and described the book, what came to mind? The text? Wiith all its obscure babble of politics and bibblical mumbo jumbo, or did an image pop into your head? Was it the image of the harlot riding the back of the beast with a glass of blood in her hand? Can you recall the text from the page that the harlot is on?
Or when I say 'Jesus', does the bibblical text spring to mind or does your brain bring to the forefront a man with both arms stretched above his head and nailed to a stake? What does the word Armageddon do? Do you immediately remember the bibble verse that the concept is based on or does one of the WT images flash into your brain?
And that is the power of the image - it stays imprinted in a person's memory and it is the easiest to recall. I doubt that most people can bring a page of text up in their mind and re-read it. But you can do that with an image - you can 'see' it without it being in front of you - the image memory is far more permanent than text. And therefore, more powerful, especially when it comes to spreading a propaganda message. And the image also transcends language differences - that is why sign language can be used across different dialects.
A lot of people get tied up in the type of subliminal image used by the WTS but the fact the WTS uses 'occult' images is not surprising - it is the image that stimulates the fear response - and the subsequent adrenaline that accompanies it. Everybody who was raised a JW has a fear of demons given to them. If the WTS taught that bunny rabbits are evil, then there would be bunny rabbits subliminally inserted into the illustrations. If sex was not forbidden in the JW religion, then sexual images would no longer have the same power to stimulate adrenaline production. Sexual images will almost always stimulate adrenaline production, but the effect is heightened when the sex is forbidden.
What subliminal images do for the WTS is create a closed loop - fear of the occult and occult images inserted in the 'nice' image, teachings that forbid sex and sexual images inserted - all done in order to reinforce the message of the primary image.
People spend much time absorbed into textual analysis and critiques of interpretation of text - they pick it apart, they excavate the sources, they give 'the word' the power - and 'the Word was God' - and ignore the image. And ridicule the image. And don't realize the importance of the image. Don't get me wrong - textual exegesis can excite me too, but image analysis - both exegecial and personal interpretation - is what really 'turns my crank'.
Too much time on my hands? I suppose so. But I don't think that the image is given enough credit in analyzing the process of mind manipulation that the WTs is so good at.
-
OrphanCrow
Are they trying to send a subliminal message equating serving God loyally with using the bible teach book to have more studies?
Yes. Not many people would recognize that association. You have a good eye.
But it is just that - a subliminal message as opposed to an actual image itself being inserted. The similar color palette is an association that is easily recognized by the brain. This isn't really sinister - it is just the way that illustrative work operates. Color associations are a common device used by illustrators and artists.
-
Londo111
I don't think I ever had an adrenaline rush reading Watchtower publications...
Maybe the opposite!
-
OrphanCrow
I don't think I ever had an adrenaline rush reading Watchtower publications...
Maybe the opposite!
Lol!
The adrenaline produced by viewing subliminal images isn't enough to 'give a rush' but even small, tiny quantities of adrenaline that are undetectable to our consiousness can create an addicitive environment.
-
compound complex
Thank you, OrphanCrow.
CC
-
OrphanCrow
CC - I just have to share this...
Yesterday, after I made the above post, I decided to 'test' my own assertions and do what I challenged others to do. I have used the image from the old Paradise book of the JW Jesus in one of my art pieces. It hangs on the wall right in front of me while I am typing on my computer. So I took it down off the wall and started examining the image.
This one:
I turned it upside down and lo and behold...I saw something I had never noticed before. And it was so obvious - I couldn't miss it. See that fellow kneeling on the ground throwing dice? The one on the left side of the image? Here he is turned upside down:
Maybe some of you can't see it...but I didn't know that Roman men were so well hung. Geez...he isn't wearing any underwear under that skirt! It isn't just the Scots that have breezes blowing up there...he should have tucked that thing back under his skirt before he bent down.
-
Apognophos
Sigh. That's the back of his knee. When you turn a picture upside-down, you are playing a cruel trick on your brain, scambling its symbol recognition when it comes to familiar shapes such as the human form. The fact that you see things that you don't see when the image is right-side up does not mean they are hidden images, it just means that your brain is confused and trying to make sense of the shapes it's seeing, and some parts of the image will look different as a consequence.
