They’re called “Paraliminals,” and if you haven’t experienced one, they’re a bit hard to explain. But they’ve got a big following worldwide, thanks to the Minnesota company that developed them.
Paraliminals are audio CDs intended to help the listener experience a relaxed form of learning by sending different messages into each ear. The left voice addresses information to the “creative” right brain, the right voice to the “analytical” left brain. These messages are designed to work their way into the brain more effectively than similar “subliminal” audio CDs.
They’re the creation of Paul Scheele, founder and CEO of Minnetonka-based Learning Strategies Corporation, which has quietly become an international personal-development mini-empire.
That’s not what Scheele had in mind when he started the company. He founded Learning Strategies in 1981 to provide sales, communications, and management training for clients including IDS, Honeywell, and Northern States Power. One day, a client asked for a speed-reading application. So Scheele, who was also working on a master’s degree in adult learning and human development at the University of St. Thomas, created PhotoReading, a technique that teaches people to read faster by activating the subconscious mind. It became a hit: Tens of thousands have graduated from the program, and a PhotoReading book has sold more than 700,000 copies worldwide.
Learning Strategies’ shift from business consultancy to personal-development product publisher began in 1988, when Scheele, who had studied a psychological concept called “suggested-accelerative learning and teaching,” introduced his first Paraliminal audio tape. Titled New Behavior Generator, it was designed to teach listeners how to “acquire new behaviors and skills to help them achieve a goal,” says Learning Strategies President Peter Bissonette—for instance, improving one’s presentation skills. It, too, sold well. Learning Strategies now offers more than 30 Paraliminal programs and 15 “personal learning” courses. Current course titles include Memory Optimizer, Million Dollar Vocabulary, and Spring Forest Qigong, the latter a Chinese meditation technique.
Learning Strategies products have been translated into 18 languages and are sold in 155 countries. Now employing 39, the company had more than $20 million in sales in 2007.
“We were seeing astounding, miraculous kinds of results with this technology,” says Scheele of Paraliminals. Hey, they worked for him—and his company.
