Can Listening to ‘Subliminals’ Make You Beautiful? Plenty of Women Believe It

听“潜意识音频”能让你变美吗？许多女性对此深信不疑

“Do you think about me?” So asks a disembodied voice at the beginning of a TikTok from user @velvet.mind. The question is followed by hypnotic synth pulses, hissing static, and sped-up, garbled human speech. An accompanying visual: a montage of immaculately made-up and stylish women who could all be models—indeed, some of them probably are. The text overlaid on the video reads “extreme beauty subliminal.”

“你在想我吗？”TikTok用户@velvet.mind发布的一段视频开头，传来一个虚无缥缈的声音。紧随其后的是催眠般的合成器脉冲声、嘶嘶的静电噪音，以及经过加速处理、模糊不清的人声。视频画面是一组精心化妆、打扮时尚的女性剪辑，她们看起来都像是模特——事实上，其中一些人可能确实是。视频上覆盖的文字写着：“极致美貌潜意识音频”。

The minute-long clip has nearly 300,000 likes and 1.4 million views. Why all this engagement for a bit of vaporwave ephemera? Because an online community of young women sincerely believe that sustained exposure to these sounds and images will improve their physical appearance.

这段一分钟长的短片获得了近30万次点赞和140万次观看。为什么这种带有“蒸汽波”风格的碎片化内容会有如此高的参与度？因为一个由年轻女性组成的在线社区真诚地相信，持续接触这些声音和图像能够改善她们的外貌。

According to the creator, the indecipherable words are a series of affirmations that include “My face is naturally symmetrical, balanced, and breathtaking” and “I have flawless, poreless, glowing skin.” Listeners are meant to subconsciously internalize and manifest such ideals; they echo that language in their replies, speaking their beauty goals into existence. “I am drop-dead gorgeous,” one comment reads.

据创作者称，那些难以辨认的话语是一系列肯定语，包括“我的脸天生对称、平衡且令人惊叹”以及“我拥有无瑕、无毛孔、容光焕发的皮肤”。听众旨在潜意识里内化并显化这些理想；她们在回复中呼应这些语言，通过言语将自己的美貌目标变为现实。一条评论写道：“我美得惊人。”

Welcome to the world of “subliminals,” a subculture of feminine self-optimization that rests on the power of suggestion and hypnosis. Whereas recent media coverage has scrutinized young men’s extreme “looksmaxxing” strategies for enhancing their features, which arose from toxically misogynist web forums of the mid-2010s, the subliminals genre is perhaps even older (one subreddit dates back to 2012), albeit with far less mainstream recognition.

欢迎来到“潜意识音频”（subliminals）的世界，这是一种基于暗示和催眠力量的女性自我优化亚文化。虽然近期的媒体报道多在审视年轻男性为提升外貌而采取的极端“颜值最大化”（looksmaxxing）策略——这些策略源于2010年代中期充满毒性厌女情绪的网络论坛——但“潜意识音频”这一流派的历史可能更为悠久（一个相关的Reddit板块可以追溯到2012年），尽管它在主流社会中的知名度要低得多。

The diversity of these audiovisual artifacts shows their branching evolution over time. Some take the form of music snippets. Others are ASMR monologues or ambient soundscapes that make use of white noise effects like the patter of falling rain. Some feature footage of attractive celebrities—see this video that purports to make the viewer more closely resemble the actress Megan Fox—while others rely on trippy abstract shapes and colors.

这些视听制品的多样性展示了它们随时间的演变。有些以音乐片段的形式呈现；另一些则是ASMR独白或利用雨声等白噪音效果营造的环境音景。有些视频包含迷人名人的影像——比如那个声称能让观众长得更像女演员梅根·福克斯的视频——而另一些则依赖于令人产生幻觉的抽象形状和色彩。

Though there are “subs” for every imaginable makeover (fuller lips, curvier hips, silkier hair, smaller nose, bigger breasts, longer legs, even eyes of a different shape or color), the practice extends to all aspects of well-being. The right subliminal can supposedly help you ace an exam, achieve financial success, or make your crush fall head over heels for you. No matter what you want to change about your circumstances, there’s a subliminal for it.

虽然针对各种想象得到的改造（更丰满的嘴唇、更弯曲的臀部、更丝滑的头发、更小的鼻子、更大的胸部、更长的腿，甚至不同形状或颜色的眼睛）都有相应的“潜意识音频”，但这种做法已扩展到幸福感的方方面面。据说，合适的潜意识音频可以帮助你考试拿高分、获得经济成功，或者让你暗恋的人为你神魂颠倒。无论你想改变什么现状，总有一款潜意识音频适合你。

Still, appearance-focused videos are far and away the biggest category, and as the recent proliferation of subliminals using terms including “looksmaxxing,” “facemaxxing,” and “beautymaxxing” make clear, they have links to the anxieties over perceived physical flaws that continue to drive young men into radicalizing online communities. Male looksmaxxers have occasionally voiced curiosity about and debated the techniques involved. Last week, a Redditor on r/subliminal asked if anyone could point him to a “male enhancement” subliminal that would potentially double his penis size.

尽管如此，关注外貌的视频依然是最大的类别。正如近期大量使用“颜值最大化”、“脸部最大化”和“美貌最大化”等术语的潜意识音频所显示的那样，它们与对自身外貌缺陷的焦虑有着千丝万缕的联系，而这种焦虑正是驱使年轻男性进入激进网络社区的原因。男性“颜值最大化”者偶尔也会对其中的技术表示好奇并进行讨论。上周，Reddit的r/subliminal板块上的一位用户询问是否有人能为他推荐一种“男性增强”潜意识音频，声称这能让他的阴茎尺寸翻倍。

Young women, of course, have always been under enormous pressure to meet unrealistic body standards. Apparently the internet has pushed a large contingent of them toward this quasi-spiritual solution rather than the brutal gym routines, hormone therapies, and radical surgeries favored by disillusioned young men.

当然，年轻女性一直承受着巨大的压力，被要求达到不切实际的身材标准。显然，互联网将她们中的很大一部分推向了这种准精神层面的解决方案，而不是像那些幻灭的年轻男性那样，去追求残酷的健身计划、激素疗法和激进的手术。

Kyla, 20, tells WIRED that at a very young age, she was unhappy in life but then discovered “self-love” subliminals, which are intended to shift the listener’s image of themselves. (She requested that her last name be withheld out of concern for her professional standing.) “Once I realized I was viewing myself more positively and feeling happier with who I am, I tried some other subliminals for weight loss and desired features,” Kyla says, acknowledging how “insane” it sounds to claim that they produced results. “I lost 70 pounds and reached a healthy weight when I was previously overweight, without changing my lifestyle drastically,” she says. Kyla went on to make her own subliminals to help her work through other issues and find a relationship. She has since met both goals.

20岁的凯拉（Kyla）告诉《连线》（WIRED），她很小的时候生活并不快乐，后来发现了旨在改变听众自我形象的“自爱”潜意识音频。（出于职业地位的考虑，她要求隐去姓氏。）“当我意识到我开始更积极地看待自己，并对自己感到更快乐时，我尝试了其他用于减肥和获得理想特征的潜意识音频，”凯拉说。她承认，声称这些音频能产生效果听起来很“疯狂”。“我减掉了70磅，在之前超重的情况下达到了健康体重，而且没有大幅改变生活方式，”她说。凯拉后来还制作了自己的潜意识音频，以帮助自己解决其他问题并寻找伴侣。目前，她已经实现了这两个目标。

For Kyla, subliminals are the background texture to everyday activities, the same way a person might put on a favorite album or podcast while doing chores or commuting to work. “Since subliminals are intended to target our subconscious, I find it best to forget they’re playing and do something else in the meantime,” she says. “Preferred times would be after waking up and before sleeping. I find my body’s in a limbo state between awake and asleep, and I absorb the affirmations better.”

对凯拉来说，潜意识音频是日常活动的背景音，就像人们在做家务或通勤时播放最喜欢的专辑或播客一样。“由于潜意识音频旨在针对我们的潜意识，我觉得最好在播放时忘记它们的存在，同时做点别的事情，”她说。“最好的时间是在醒来后和睡觉前。我发现那时我的身体处于清醒与睡眠之间的临界状态，能更好地吸收这些肯定语。”

As one might expect, overwhelming faith in these methods for self-actualization lends popular creators the opportunity to monetize their work by taking personal commissions that run anywhere from a couple of bucks to upward of $50. Reviews of these services vary widely—for every rave review from a satisfied customer, there is a public warning about a creator who allegedly scams, ghosts, or otherwise betrays their clients. There are micro-dramas, too, around subliminals influencers accused of including unsafe, negative, or harmful material in their affirmations, whether maliciously or not. Those fed up with the difficulties of finding a reliable guide in this space may turn to subliminals-editing apps like VibeSesh to strike out on their own.

正如人们所预料的那样，对这些自我实现方法的狂热信仰，让热门创作者有机会通过接受个人定制来将其作品货币化，费用从几美元到50美元不等。对这些服务的评价褒贬不一——每当有一位满意的客户给出好评，就会有关于某位创作者涉嫌诈骗、玩失踪或以其他方式背叛客户的公开警告。围绕潜意识音频网红的微型闹剧也时有发生，他们被指控在肯定语中包含了不安全、负面或有害的内容，无论是有意还是无意。那些厌倦了在这一领域寻找可靠向导的困难的人，可能会转向VibeSesh等潜意识音频编辑应用，开始自力更生。

“At first, I was mainly drawn to body-related subliminals, which is what got me really interested in the whole concept,” says Nana, 23, who quickly got started creating videos herself. (She also requested we withhold her last name for professional reasons.) On her YouTube channel, which now has more than 150,000 subscribers, Nana shares content designed to help listeners achieve the “mindset” of Olympic gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu and a “glow-up/rebranding” for 2026. Like Kyla, she plays subliminals for herself while doing household tasks. “I also like to play them overnight while I sleep,” she says.

“起初，我主要被与身体相关的潜意识音频所吸引，这让我对整个概念产生了浓厚的兴趣，”23岁的娜娜（Nana）说，她很快就开始自己制作视频。（出于职业原因，她也要求隐去姓氏。）在她的YouTube频道上，目前拥有超过15万订阅者，娜娜分享的内容旨在帮助听众获得奥运花样滑冰金牌得主刘美贤（Alysa Liu）的“心态”，并为2026年实现“蜕变/重塑”。和凯拉一样，她在做家务时会播放这些音频。“我也喜欢在睡觉时整晚播放它们，”她说。