One of the funniest old Saturday Night Live sketches involved Kevin Nealon's character Mr. Subliminal. By softly speaking a series of commands and suggestions mixed in with casual conversation, he was able to — free money — get anything from cash out of registers — hot sex — to … hey, hot sex does sound pretty good right now! In a slightly subtler vein, Leonard Mlodinow tonight discusses his latest book: Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior ($25.95, Pantheon). Quantum field theoretician Mlodinow has authored everything from books with Stephen Hawking to episodes of MacGyver (!), and now he puts his fevered mind to work on a book detailing just how your unconscious mind shapes your conscious experiences. More importantly, Subliminal charts how the unconscious mind misrepresents our perception of reality even to ourselves, resulting in confusion, irrational behavior and wacky mix-ups just like on Three's Company. If you value your concept of what you think you know about your own life, you owe it to yourself to see what Mlodinow has to say. As with most scientific inquiries, you'll probably find out that everything you know is wrong. Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd.; Pasadena; Tues., May 1, 7 p.m., free. (626) 449-5320, vromansbookstore.com

Tue., May 1, 7 p.m., 2012

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