Visual stimulation apparatus useful in therapeutic treatment

Claim 1

Visual stimulation apparatus useful for therapeutic treatment of psychological and psychic disorders by inducing information in a patient's memory system which is deemed by the patient to be self derived, comprising in combination, display means presenting a visual message at a viewing plane consciously visible to a viewer by an afterglow mechanism of the eye with a message content acceptable to the viewer, and means displaying the message to the viewer making it visible only with light flashes of a duration and repetition rate insufficient in view of the persistance of the eye to cause said message to persist and with sufficient intensity to cause the message to leave a perceptible afterglow image in the viewer's eye mechanism and of short enough duration and contrast that the context of the visual message affects the subconscious mind of the viewer but is visible consciously only by the afterglow phenomenon, wherein the visual message comprises an overt and a covert portion both of a motionless printed message type, wherein the covert portion is not consciously visible to the viewer in said afterglow, wherein the first overt message is displayed at said plane upon a partially opaque surface such as paper that is made transparent by a bright light directed therethrough, said second covert message is displayed on a second surface behind said opaque surface, and the means including the light displaying the messages flashes a lamp at a high intensity to display the overt message at highly visible intensity at said viewing plane, and wherein the covert message is on a similar partially opaque surface such as paper, and including means lighting the viewing surface of the first message at said viewing plane sufficiently to comfortably view the message displayed thereon without displaying the covert message.