Is it that the idea of insidious mind control is so terrifying we can’t help but to fear the “what ifs”? Surely we wouldn’t know if we had fallen victim to subliminal messaging?

In 2017, an online petition, signed by more than 740 people, claimed Mind Power, one of the most prominent subliminal YouTube creators at the time, had hidden some dark messages in her videos.

Ergo, if a person doesn’t immediately act on the subliminal messaging, the messaging evaporates from their mind and there is no further inclination involved. That’s one theory that has bounced ...