Psychorama

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Hidden messages
Subliminal messages Audio Backmasking Reverse speech Spectrogram Numeric Numerology Theomatics Bible code Cryptography Visual Fnord Paranoiac-critical method Pareidolia Psychorama Sacred geometry Steganography See also Anagram Apophenia Easter egg (media) Clustering illusion Observer-expectancy effect Pattern recognition (psychology) Paradox Palindrome Unconscious mind
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Psychorama (or "The Precon Process") is the act of communicating subliminal information through film by flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind. Nevertheless, they leave an unconscious imprint on the viewer.

In 1958, a film called My World Dies Screaming (later retitled Terror in the Haunted House) marked Hollywood's first attempt to make use of this technique. At different points in this film, a skull is flashed to inspire terror, a snake to inspire hate, two hearts to inspire love, and large letters spelling out "blood" to create fear. One of the best-known lines from this film is "You hold the answer deep within your own mind," which was used by the band Evanescence in two of their songs ("Understanding" from the Evanescence EP and "Origin" from the Origin demo disc). Another line, "Death in its most hideous form," was also used by Evanescence in "Origin", as well as on the Sound Asleep EP song "Whisper". Evanescence uses this technique again in their Sweet Sacrifice music video. In it, images of bones, skulls, houses, fires, and videos of the band performing are flashed at various intervals.

The following year, 1959, saw another film produced using this same format, titled A Date with Death. Both movies starred Gerald Mohr.