There is a constant and ongoing battle for control over society's thoughts. Big, money-hungry media companies use mass media to embed subliminal messages in hopes of influencing your thoughts. Using subliminal messages can impact your decision making and you won't even be aware of it. It is a subtle tool of manipulation first used in the late 19th century. The dictionary definition of subliminal refers to the unconscious mind and exists or operates below the threshold of consciousness. (dictionary.com) Therefore, a subliminal message is a message received from our unconscious. Research has shown that subliminal messages only work if they correspond to a biological need and if the behavior is associated with a positive effect. (NWO) The idea is to get people to behave in a particular way by planting an idea in their mind, also known as priming. This raises the question: who uses subliminal messages, why do they use them, and how do they use them? The idea of ​​using subliminal messages in mass media had to start somewhere. Early on, American intellectual, writer, and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Lippman influenced government leaders to create a like-minded society. His thesis was that it is easier to control the masses when they all think the same thing. (Lippman) This idea adhered to the psychology taught by Carl Jung. Carl Jung's thesis is as follows from The Concept of the Collective Unconscious:“My thesis, therefore, is as follows: in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is absolutely personal in nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (although we insert the personal unconscious in the appendix), there is a second psychic system of a... medium of paper... the archetypes and the collective unconscious. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980-1959. Print.Leroux, Kivi. "Subliminal messages". E: The Environmental Magazine 10.4 (1999): 14. Viewpoint Reference Center. Network. April 10, 2014. Lippmann, W. (1991). Public opinion. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: Transaction Publishers. Miele, Frank. "OPINION: What we know and what we think we know: snooping around the propaganda factory." Daily Inter Lake (Kalispell, MT) March 17, 2012: Viewpoint Reference Center. Network. 10 April 2014.NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research). “Subliminal messages motivate people to actually do things they already wanted to do.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, July 1, 2009. Web. April 10, 2014. O'Neill, Ian. "Is it really possible to be influenced by subliminal messages? - Curiosity." Curiosity. Np, nd Web. April 10. 2014.