Night Chills (20 page)

Klinger said, “The penis doesn’t become erect until the viewer is told that obedience to the key equals satisfaction.”

“That’s right. And you’ll notice that both the man’s and woman’s orgasms are represented. This program would be effective with either sex.”

“Was all this taken from some porno movie?”

“It was shot especially for me by a professional pornographic film maker in New York City,” Salsbury said, pushing his glasses up on his nose and wiping his damp forehead. “He was instructed to use only the most attractive performers. He shot everything at regular light intensity, but I used a special process to print below the recognition threshold. Then I intercut the sex footage with the block-letter messages.” He unfolded some of the print-out. “This first sequence lasts another forty seconds. Then there is a two-second pause, and another message is presented in the same fashion.”

“I see the pattern,” Klinger said. “How many of these ‘legends’ were there?”

They were standing at one of the computer consoles. Salsbury leaned over and used the keyboard.

One of the screens mounted on the wall began a line-print:

KEY/LOCK STAGE ONE BLOCK-LETTER MESSAGES, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE, AS FOLLOWS:

Salsbury touched a tab on the console.

The screen went blank.

“The series was repeated three times through the film.”

“The same thing the second night?” Klinger asked.

“No.” He picked up another folded print-out from the seat of the console chair and exchanged it for the stage one analysis. “The first minute is spent securing the subjects’ undivided attention, as it was in the first film. The difference between stage one and stage two becomes evident starting with the second minute.”

“The second stage of the program alternates between negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement,” Salsbury said. “The next twenty-five seconds are devoted to a sex reinforcement sequence much like those you saw on the first print-out. Skip ahead just a bit.”

Looking up from the print-out, Klinger said, “Do you mean that death is as effective as sex in subliminal persuasion?”

“Nearly so, yes. In advertising, subliminals can be used to establish the same sort of motivational equation with death as with sex. According to Wilson Bryan Key, who wrote a book about the nature of subceptive manipulation a few years back, the first use of death images might have come in a Calvert Whiskey ad that appeared in a number of magazines in 1971. Since then hundreds of death symbols have become standard tools of the major ad agencies.”

Putting down the second print-out, the general said, “What about the third stage? What was hidden in the film you showed them on the third night?”

Salsbury had another length of computer paper. “In the beginning, this one reinforces and strengthens the messages and effects of the first two films. It’s broken down into tenths of seconds in some places because by this time the subjects are primed for faster input, rapid-fire commands. Like the others, it really begins with the second minute.”

Farther on, both the tempo and the emotional impact of the images increased drastically: