I understand the conflict that occurs whenever this subject is brought up.
Those who reject the existence of subliminal images in Watchtower literature, are rejecting the cause of the images appearing as they do, along with denying their existence in the first place.
Once a person accepts the existence of the subliminal elements in the images, they are faced with the task of determining who put the images there, how did they do it? And why?
I will get to why some people perceive the images and some don’t in more detail later but basically, it is a combination of ‘seeing’ equipment – our body technology combined with what the way our brains have been conditioned to process information that is transmitted to it by the limitations of said seeing apparatus.
I think everybody is right, from each of your perspectives. If you deny the existence of the subliminal images…you are right – they don’t exist within your capacity to perceive them. I believe you – you don’t see them. The act of seeing is a very personal act. Seeing involves the ‘camera lens’ (our eyes) and the brain – to process and interpret what it is that our ‘lens’ has captured from the light bouncing off our environment. So, what we ‘see’ is very personal – our brains have all developed differently depending upon the culture we have been exposed to – including the womb environment our brains have been formed in - it is our brain that has the bulk of the responsibility in the seeing process.
It is also the brain that operates as the primary component responsible in the act of image making. In other words, the artist’s brain is what is responsible for the artist making the image. People think that an artist draws with their hands – but the hand is just the tool that the brain uses. How well the brain directs the hand is attributable to training – the trained artistic hand is the one that is ‘finest’ – it has a trained pathway that allows it to operate ‘in the background’ while the right side of the brain – the one that can’t speak…it has no language – can ‘create’. The right side of the brain, the creative side – is spectacular at both creating and recognizing pattern.
So, a trained artist, one who has developed the ability to allow functioning of left brain processes to operate in the background while freely allowing access to right brain creativeness, may often produce what some people call ‘accidents’ in the art. I take exception to the notion that art is ‘accidental’ It isn’t. Art is the result of the artist’s brain – even if the artist themselves think that the ‘subliminal’ image produced by them were not put there by them, I disagree. The artist put them in there, regardless of if it was their left side of the brain (logic, rationality, choice) made the decision to put it there or the right side of their brain decided to do it.
That is why ‘accidents’, hidden images, things the artist didn’t really intend to put in their images end up in there at times. I have painted deliberately this way at times – allowing the patterns to emerge from repetitious left brain decision making in the painting process – curious at what will emerge from right brain freedom.
So, to all of those who are ‘embarrassed’ to read or view this thread, or who are shocked, consider that the artists who are producing these images are actually very fine artists – it is within the image making process that they find peace – where they can ‘shut down’ that left brain noise – and allow their trained hand to function in the background, and allow that right brain to go to work. It is a beautiful place to visit – to total right brain space – it is a quiet place…the right brain has no voice…it is total silence and pure image. And the artist ‘floats’ because the right side of the brain can see and function upside down and sideways. It doesn’t need a ‘reference point’ to operate, like the left side of the brain does.
And that is what we are seeing when we see those ‘accidents’ in Watchtower images – we see inside that silent, right brain, of the Bethel artists. These are the images that reside inside of the brains of Bethel people. The artist is showing them to us – their images contain the ‘speech’ of the right side of their brains. And you will notice that the themes of those images are the ones that are forbidden – they are denied expression in the left brain world – the world of false rationality that has been created by the WTs restrictive doctrine. So when all that constant indoctrination is given to people about sex and demons being bad, and told to not think about them, the brain just tucks those images into the right side of the brain and doesn’t let them surface – unless the left brain slips and lets the right brain talk – through image. The image is the language of the right side of the brain – it has no words.
So that explains the ‘accidents’ that occur on one level of image production – right brain dominance of trained artists. But the artist makes conscious decisions along the way of in the steps of image production – the left brain is always ‘in the picture’ – assessing the image, deciding which colors to use where, what surface to make the image on, etc. – especially when it comes to figurative representations. Choosing where to make a line where becomes a left brain function and artists who work primarily in the forming the human figure are very much aware of what the lines can and do represent to the viewer. Because the placement of the lines are so critical to accurate representation, the artist makes small compensatory ‘adjustments’ to erase those areas that sexual connotations and such occur. Their left brain recognizes those areas immediately – especially when they do as most artists do – they assess their image from all sides, including upside down – to evaluate the formal balance of the overall image. And when ‘accidental’ areas occur, like the Cain’s chest area – they change it so that it doesn’t resemble female genitalia anymore. Or they enhance it. And artists who work with human body representations are very much aware of which areas are the most manipulative – that is why when I first viewed the image posted that this discussion is based on, the chest area of Cain was so apparent. As an artist, I knew that that spot was vulnerable to image manipulation, especially sexual imagery.
So I think that everybody can be right. A person’s ‘lens’ can be different – their camera might not recognize the full spectrum of light that enters their ‘camera’ – some people do not have a full range of color recognition in their cameras. Their ‘camera’ doesn’t register the full light spectrum. Some people have a touch of ‘color blindness’- men more than women lack the ability to differentiate changes in light quality. And many of these subliminal images are color based. Not everybody has the body technology to perceive them. You may not see the images. That is true.
And then there is artist to consider – did they or did they not do it deliberately? I think it is a combination of both. Some subliminal elements are right brain ‘speech’ and some are deliberate – both the artist and persons involved in the image making production doing deliberate acts, a result of left brain rationality.
There is a whole other level to the image production that is not in the hands of the artist. And that is the publisher of the image themselves. We are not viewing the original artwork. Once Watchtower art leaves the artist’s control, other people and their brains take over – each with their own type of brain functioning. And the process of image making and decision making starts all over again. There are many brains besides the artist’s that are involved in the steps of image production.
I have a difficult time believing that someone, somewhere inside that organization, did not look at the image on its way to final copy, and say, “Hey…that looks like a goat!”, or, as they passed the table the image was lying on, but viewed it from the other side of the table instead of right side up didn’t say “Holy crap! Look at the hair on Cain’s chest! Oh My Jehovah!…we must correct that.” My question is this – accidental or not, why are the subliminal elements not changed before the image is released into copy production? Accident or not, these images have passed approval and it is not reasonable to think that somebody didn’t see the subliminal elements before they arrived into the realm of the intended audience.
On a previous thread about this subject, one of the comments referred to the ‘moon landing’ and said that people who didn’t believe in the moon landing were the same as those who believe in subliminal images. I propose, though, that it is exactly the opposite – those who take the position that the subliminal images are not there are the same as those who refuse to accept that the moon is made of rock and stubbornly hold onto their idea that the moon is made of cheese quite simply because that is the way that they see it. If you can accept that someone walked on the moon, and accept that the moon really is made of rock instead of cheese, from people who have been there, even though you have never personally walked on the moon, then I would ask you to accept the existence of the places that the artist has been as well.
The moon isn’t cheese – the astronauts who went there can attest to that. If you can accept that, then you have the capacity to accept the word of the artists who have been to the right sides of their brain and returned with evidence of those excursions.
