Weight Loss Study 

Michael Urban, Ph.D.

Clinical & Experimental Psychology

Phone/FAX (208) 765-1026

October 8, 1991

Mr. Lynn Stitz
President
Midwest Research of Michigan
Walled Lake, MI. 48088

Dear Mr. Stitz;

I have just had an opportunity to examine the results of our recent field trial of your “Weight Loss Series” audio subliminal tapes that were made for the XXXXXXXX Corporation to use with their diet products.

I am happy to report that the subjects using the subliminal tapes lost twice as much weight as the control group, the subliminal group having lost approximately 12 pounds while the control group lost an average of 6. Since this was a brief pilot study of only weeks duration, I find the results to be quite excellent.

Perhaps even more interesting and worthwhile, was the fact that almost all of the tape users completed the entire weight loss protocol, while the control group had a dropout rate in the neighborhood of 50%. This is a remarkable result, as compliance is a major problem with this population. It is however, well in line with published results in the field of subliminal stimulation, notably the work of Silverman with respect to weight loss, and of Zajonc regarding increased arousal and sense of well- being. Since Bornstein’s recently published article makes it clear that the kind of effects I am describing above occur only if the stimulus is presented subliminally, it is clear that the SCWL tapes are achieving results similar to those described in the academic literature.

You might also be interested to know that a similar Weight Loss study, also using subliminal audio tapes, that was conducted in Germany by Professor Rainer Pelka and his associates (one of the leading behavioral science research groups in Europe), showed a successful outcome much like our own study. Their program ran about twice as long as ours, and the average weight loss among the tape users was about 25 pounds. This suggests that the trend that we saw in our short study would in all likelihood continue and achieve similar results. It is always reassuring to get this kind of corroboration from reliable sources like this.

At any rate, I believe it is safe to say that there is little doubt that the SCWL subliminals are a successful adjunct to any weight loss program. Since obesity and the need to lose weight is one of the more difficult problems to treat successfully from a clinical perspective, these tapes may prove to be of enormous benefit.

Finally, given their success in this application, I see no reason that the SCWL subliminals would not enjoy similar success with many other contemporary problems of daily life. Since so few of the latter are appropriate for formal counseling or psychotherapy, an affordable self-help product of this nature could be of great benefit. As a final note of encouragement for you, I must tell you that I recently had the opportunity to read a pre-publication version of Professor Paul Swingle’s upcoming book on audio subliminals. As you may know, Dr. Swingle is presently teaching at Harvard University. In any case, his book documents the fact that subliminals unequivocally influence the following: emotions, problem solving and memory, aesthetic judgement, task performance, general arousal and interpersonal behavior. I trust that you too, have programs which accomplish all of the above.

I suspect you will be swamped with orders from both the public and from professionals just as soon as Swingle’s publication hits the bookshelves. I hope you are prepared to do some high volume shipping! Best of luck.

Cordially,

Michael Urban, Ph.D.