It's Only A Metaphor
A personal journey of exploration
and the discovery of a technology
By David John Oates
My Third Book On Reverse Speech
Copyright (C) 1996. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reprinted in any form or by any means
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Reverse Speech Enterprises
Inc.
7373 Engineer Road, Suite E
San Diego CA 92111
Phone (760) 732-3097, Fax (760)
732-0229
Information line. Hear actual
speech reversals. (760) 571-3226
Other works describing Reverse Speech technologies by David John Oates
With special thanks to George Hetzel
and the graduates of the 1995 training class who have worked tirelessly
and hard to get this book out and Reverse Speech known. These
are Cynthia Scott, Binny Weston, Chris Greenhalgh and Kati Meissner.
May the revolution you helped create live long and prosper.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Important Notes
Preface
Introduction
Gidday Mate
Chapter One
Making The Discovery
Formulating The Theory
Chapter Two
Documenting Structures And Trends
It Takes Time To Find Reversals
The Right Brain Speaks
The Metaphor Mystery
Chapter Three
Electroencephalograph Testing
Practical Interest Begins
Reversals In Children
The Primary Mode Of Communication
Chapter Four
The Three Levels Of Reverse Speech
The Intricacies Of Speech
The First Experiments With Hypnosis
Hearing Reversals Consciously
Chapter Five
Moving To The United States
Training Classes Begin
Oral Tradition
Chapter Six
The Birth Of Metaphor Restructuring
Adverse Reactions
Judas Priest
Voices Calling Me Out Back
Desert Storm
Chapter Seven
Shewolf
Into The Outback
Some Illusions Are Shattered
Chapter Eight
Mirror Talk
Going Underground
Slaves Of The Unconscious
Metaphor Groups
Sexual Reversals
Neurons In The Mind
Chapter Nine
Introducing The Pre-Trance Tape
Rewriting The Script
Chapter Ten
Waco
Shewolf Awakens
Energy Shifts
Reversal Reaction
Unconscious Consent
Post-Trance Tape
The Completed Process
Chapter Eleven
The Cold Chill Of Death
Denny Sludge
Riding The Whirlwind
Dealing With The Situation
Chapter Twelve
A New Resolve
The Saga Continues
Big Brother
The Story Of The Mexican Restaurant
Chapter Thirteen
Remote Viewing
Psychic Impressions
Accessing The Collective
Shifting Reality
A New Insight
Chapter Fourteen
Ripples Of Change
The Psychic Body
Physical Shifts
Chapter Fifteen
Running With The Pack
Angelic Visitation
Chapter Sixteen
Venturing Beyond
Secret Research
Déjá Vu
Chapter Seventeen
Getting In Control Again
The Parable Of The Ugg
Reversing The Pictures
Chapter Eighteen
Banished From The Garden
Elvis Is Still King
The Mark Still Fries
Legends Of The Bad Seed
The Seed Grows
Chapter Nineteen
The Nazis March On
The Parable Of The Assault Unit
Unconscious Messages
Beam Me Up Hillary
The Curse Of Popeye
Changing The Collective
Chapter Twenty
The Winds Of Change
Frustration
Anti-Christ
Chapter Twenty One
Nightmares Of Power
Manic Delusions
Dreams And Visions
The Howl Of The Wolf
Chapter Twenty Two
The Prophecy
The Grapes On The Vine
Albert Jung
The Light In The Whirlwind
Towards Heaven On Earth
I Will To Do Thy Will
Chapter Twenty Three
Dances With Wolves
Clouds Of Coincidence
Shifting Words On The Wind
Chapter Twenty Four
The Nine Steps
Oh, What Those Oats Can Do
Forever Dreaming
Chapter Twenty Five
The Price Of Truth
Choruses Of Total Consciousness
The Stench Of Abortion
It's Calling Me Again
Chapter Twenty Six
Maps Of The Unconscious
The Collective Sea
Winds In The Mind
Kingdoms Of The Desert
Chapter Twenty Seven
Gray Wolf And The Boots Of Truth
It's Only A Metaphor
Finding The Keys To The Garden Of Eden
Chapter Twenty Eight
The Never-Ending Curse Of Rocelin
The Lamb In The Nest
The Log In The Eye
The Ark Of The Covenant
Rome Sails Forth
Chapter Twenty Nine
Entranced With Passion
A Negative Reaction
Stoning Superman
Chapter Thirty
Sticking To The Process
The Noose Of Judas
Powerful Spiritual Pictures
Chapter Thirty One
A Breath Of Fresh Air
Dogs Draw Blood
Sourcing Divorce
Mental Incest
Chapter Thirty Two
Unconscious Rapport
Reversing The Mark
Opening The Sepulchre
Chapter Thirty Three
Unleashing The Powers Of Speech
The Heavenly Voice In Limbo
Chapter Thirty Four
The Celestial Cellular Connection
The Mirror Of Isis
Welcome To The Twilight Zone
I Went To The Mountain Top To Snow Ski
Chapter Thirty Five
Numbers And Names And Jimmy Olsen's Rolls Royce
Heralding Elcarim
The Son Of Thomas
Chapter Thirty Six
Just Turn A Tape Recorder On Next Time
The Miracle Of The Number Plates
Chapter Thirty Seven
See Now The Sixth Lesson
The Oyster And The Pearl
Floods Across The Land
Chapter Thirty Eight
Sowing The Whirlwind With Oats
March Right On Through The Backward Gates
Chapter Thirty Nine
Take Notice Of All The Messages You See In The Media
Lessons For The Sheep
The Maturing Metaphors
The Light Is Calling Us Home
Chapter Forty
Dreams And Visions
Coming Full Circle
We Now Have No Choice
Rediscovering The Soul
Now I Really Am Forty
Appendices
Metaphors And The Structures Of The Unconscious Mind
The Emergence Of Jason
The Demon
IMPORTANT NOTES
This book details the events and theories
that led to the discovery of Reverse SpeechTM
and its associated technologies. These technologies, including
theoretical developments, were discovered, designed and developed
solely by Australian researcher David John Oates who claims ownership
of all rights pertaining to these technologies. These ownership
rights include but are not limited to, all intellectual property
rights and copyrights and trademarks, including the trademark
Reverse SpeechTM
and other names and processes mentioned in this document.
Whilst all historical events detailed
in this book are true and accurate, some of these events have
been presented in a metaphoric form to protect the identities
of those involved. For example, Denny Sludge is a combination
of several people and the Mexican restaurant meeting is a parable
for many similar talks and phone conversations that occurred during
that era. The lectures presented in this book are based on actual
lectures given but the information of many lectures have been
incorporated into one. The dialogue is fictional although it has
been based on my recollections of actual conversations that occurred
over the years.
All reversed dialogue is shown indicated
in text with bold type and has been quoted exactly
as it occurred. All examples can be heard with prior arrangement
and documentation can be provided to verify many claims made.
This includes an extensive tape library covering tapes analyzed
since 1983 together with transcripts prepared. Specific references
include written documentation, academic endorsements, personal
correspondence, videos and tapes of media interviews and private
conferences since 1987.
PREFACE
"In the realm of consciousness
we are our own masters; we seem to be the factors themselves.
But if we step through the door of the shadow we discover with
terror that we are the objects of unseen factors. To know this
is decidedly unpleasant, for nothing is more disillusioning than
the discovery of our own inadequacy. It can even give rise to
primitive panic because the anxiously guarded supremacy of consciousness
is questioned in the most dangerous way."
Archetypes Of The Collective Unconscious. C.G. Jung
WARNING WARNING WARNING
This book is a trance. I am a hypnotherapist.
The purpose of this trance is for you see who you are. I want
there to be no deception or misunderstandings about this fact.
If you do not want to experience this trance, do not read this
book. Close it now and continue no further.
Please. I am not joking. I mean it!
Already there have been some very unusual
happenings in the lives of those few people who have read the
first drafts of this book.
If, however, you want to experience
this trance to the fullest you may choose to put on some headphones
and listen to any music you wish. Then you might like to find
a COMFORTABLE PLACE and continue reading. Read from the beginning
to end straight through first, then go back and start again. It
will take you several readings to digest all the information and
it will take you several months after that to experience and process
it all.
I wrote this book in a little more than
two months. During this time, I continued working in my busy practice
and raised my two daughters with the help of my sister, Annie, and
office manager, George. I have written several books in my lifetime
but never before have I felt that a book I manifested was truly
inspired. This one was. I can barely remember writing it and I
was in complete shock when I finally came out of my long trance
and read what I had written.
I want to give you a couple more warnings
before you decide to continue reading. That was the first
one. It was obvious. Many of the others are not.
Next warning. Some of the language and
a couple of the scenes are unsettling. If you are offended easily,
do not read on because the unconscious mind is not a fairy tale
and I would not want my kids to read this book yet. However I
have been compelled to write in this manner because this is the
language and metaphor that the phenomenon I am trying to present
uses. My conscious mind tells me it too harsh for public consumption
but my instincts tell me I must remain faithful to the original
manifestation. So the manuscript is going to press essentially
unaltered. In point of fact, those people who edited it were amazed.
It needed very little editing and only minor proofing, grammar
and plot clarifications were necessary. You will understand why
after you have finished reading.
I wrote the book mostly in the early
hours of the morning before I went to work and I wrote with headphones
on music, usually playing full blast. I was constantly switching between
classic rock and heavy metal on the dial. Sometimes the music
I was listening to bore incredible similarities to the story I
was creating so I included them in the manuscript. They are in
brackets ( ) and I can assure that they were inserted in the manuscript
at exactly the time I heard them. It was very eerie to read those
little inserts after I read my original manuscript. I must confess
that some of them were so uncanny that they have been deleted.
However, they remain in the original draft which is locked away
in my secret vault along with all my other research notes and
tapes.
In many ways, this book affected me as
much when I read it for the first time as it will affect you now.
I still cannot put it down and I still examine some sections with
magnified eyes. I believe this book contains a most important
message that our entire planet must hear now. The time is right.
Welcome to the world of Reverse Speech.
David John Oates
Founder and Developer of the Reverse
Speech Technologies.
"Awake and rise from your sleep and hear the words of your letter. Remember your robe of glory and your splendid mantle which you may wear when your name is written in the book of life and is read in the book of heroes.
And serving as a messenger the letter was a letter sealed by the King with his right hand against the evil ones, the children of Babel and the savage demons of Sarbug.
It rose up in the form of an eagle, it flew and lighted beside me and became speech.
At its voice and the sound of its rustling, I awoke and rose from my sleep. I took it, kissed it, broke its seal and read. And the words written on my heart were in the letter for me to read.
I remembered that I was a son of Kings and my free soul longed for its own kind.
As I gazed upon it suddenly the garment seemed to be a mirror of myself. I saw in it my whole self, and in it I saw myself apart, for we were two entities yet one form. The treasurers bought me one robe, they were two of the same shape with one kingly seal.
All its seams were fastened with stones of adornment and the image of the King of Kings was embroidered on it, and it glowed with sapphires of many colors.
I saw it quiver all over with the movements of gnosis and as it prepared to speak it moved towards me murmuring the sound of its songs."
The Deeds of the Apostle Judas Thomas; The Hymn Of The Pearl
INTRODUCTION
"Preach from your housetops
that which you hear with your ear and in the other ear."
The Gospel of Thomas v. 29
GIDDAY MATE
My name is David John Oates and I am
a forty year old Australian researcher. I claim to have made a
discovery and developed a technology that has the potential to
change the whole face of society. This discovery is so profound,
its implications so vast, that at first glance it may seem to
be preposterous, almost too good to be true, certainly too fantastic
to be taken seriously. With these caveats, I ask that you open
your mind as you read this book and remember some of the other
great discoveries in history. Remember how they at first seemed
strange, unbelievable almost. Then remember how these discoveries
changed civilization. Discoveries like electricity, magical forces
transferred across wires. Or radio waves, even more magical, speaking
to people across the planet without the use of wires. Then there
was the horseless carriage, the airplane and now we have technologies
that can take us to the moon and beyond.
These discoveries and inventions permanently
changed the course of history when they were first made, yet we
take them for granted now because we grew up with them. They seem
normal because they are a part of our everyday lives. Yet many
of them had very rocky beginnings, were born in ridicule and repression,
and sometimes even labeled as "the work of the devil".
So it is with the discovery I made in
1984. Like other discoveries in history, this discovery may also
have a significant impact on civilization. Its implications are
likewise vast and may seem threatening. Once taken seriously,
I expect that the ideas I am presenting will challenge society's
concepts of language, psychology, and maybe even our concepts
of the soul itself. My discovery goes to the very core of who
we are as people, our personalities, our internal behavioral structures
and why we do the things that we do. Then it offers a tangible,
realistic method to alter these structures and to permanently
rewrite dysfunctional behavioral patterns that exist within humans,
both individually and collectively.
I make these claims with great confidence.
They have been researched and proven many times during my twelve
year career. My research has led me to believe that I have discovered
the covert voice of the unconscious mind. Or, to be more accurate,
I have uncovered a hidden method, existing outside of conscious
control and awareness, that the human psyche uses to communicate
verbally at all levels of consciousness. This hidden voice will
speak of things that were not spoken of consciously. For example,
if a person speaks a lie, the hidden voice may correct that lie.
If a person leaves facts out of a statement made, the hidden voice
may add those facts. The voice may also communicate unspoken agendas
and motives. Additionally it will describe, in metaphor, the precise
reason and cause for any person's behavior. With prompting, it
can also detail methods that will alter that behavior according
to desired outcomes.
This discovery will significantly affect
the state of civilization because it means that the human mind
is no longer inaccessible. We now have an accurate way to go in
and shift things about. With this discovery, any hidden secret
can be revealed, any part or function of the mind exposed. I am
about to present you with a set of keys that will unlock the mind,
lay the human soul bare, and open up a doorway to the Infinite.
What religion and psychology have been seeking for centuries has
now been found: A reliable and concise method to access, to hear
and to alter, the blueprints of Mankind and to gain conscious
control of our evolution, possibly for the very first time.
This is my discovery and this is how
you can avail yourself of its many benefits.
CHAPTER ONE
"The regions of the south will
receive the word of the Light. He was hiding in a desolate place.
A wind will come forth from his mouth ... Then nature will have
a final opportunity. The mouth of error will be opened in order
that the evil Darkness may become idle and silent."
The paraphrase of Shem; The conflict of Light and Darkness. Codex
VII 1-49.9
MAKING THE DISCOVERY
The whole thing really began as an accident.
It was October, 1983 and I was living in Los Angeles at the time.
It was a week before my 28th birthday and I was in the bathroom
preparing to go out for the evening. I had a portable walkman
attached to my belt and I was listening to music at full volume.
Suddenly I tripped and my walkman fell straight into the toilet
bowl. Somewhat upset, I retrieved my water logged walkman and
tried to repair it. However, my electronic skills were not as
good as I thought and I somehow managed to wire up the unit so
that it only played backwards. Attempts to return it to normal
failed and I was left with a somewhat useless portable tape player.
I returned to my home country of Australia
a few weeks later after hitch hiking through Europe for a short
time. I had thrown all my belongings away in London to lighten
my load and for some strange reason I took my backwards playing
walkman with me. I also carried a sleeping bag, a thick brown
sheepskin jacket and Ugg boots. These kept me warm as I slept
in the snow. After many adventures the reversed walkman ended
up back in Australia in my junk drawer gathering dust.
A few months later in April, 1984 I was
the director of a halfway house for teenagers in Berri, a small
South Australian country town. This town was the central hub of
the Riverland, a major wine manufacturing region, and was totally
surrounded by grape vines. The halfway house was situated on the
banks of a large river that flowed through the center of the town.
The river was called the River Murray and the halfway house was
called The Abode.
While running this halfway house, I heard
about rumors, perpetuated by American evangelists, that rock and
roll was the devil's music. It was said that if certain records
were played backwards, subliminally suggestive and occultic messages
could be heard. My mind immediately raced back to my teenage years
and I remembered that some of the Beatles' records were supposed
to contain backward messages. These messages reportably gave clues
that hinted Paul McCartney had died.
There seemed to be nothing too sinister
in that, just a marketing exercise. However the evangelists' claims
went further, stating that many of these backward messages had
not been placed on the record intentionally, but rather seemed
to "appear out of nowhere", mixed in the gibberish.
Some of them even claimed that they had been placed on the record
by the forces of Satan himself with the sole intent of brainwashing
the youth of the world. Eventually I had several frightened teenagers
on my hands who believed they had heard demons speaking to them
backwards on rock and roll records.
I was somewhat intrigued but more angry
at this ridiculous rubbish scaring the teenagers in my charge.
I remembered my broken walkman that only played backwards and
decided to investigate these claims with the sole purpose of debunking
them so I could calm the teenagers down. I retrieved my walkman
from the junk drawer, somewhat amazed that I had actually kept
it, and began my project by beginning to play tape recordings
of music backwards. I fully expected to hear nothing but meaningless
sounds that had probably excited someone's over-active imagination.
I was wrong. As I played these tapes
backwards I began to hear intelligent words and statements mixed
in among the gibberish. My first thoughts were that they were
merely random sounds or the product of my own over-active imagination.
I checked my hearing by asking friends and associates to confirm
my findings. Initially I would play them the tape backwards and,
without prompting, ask them what they heard. In nearly all situations,
people could hear "something", if not close to the exact
words that I also was hearing. As time went on, I conducted more
controlled and elaborate tests.
I prepared a standard tape that had
ten reversals dubbed onto it, isolated from the gibberish. I chose
people at random and divided them into three separate groups.
In Group One I would ask them to tell me what they heard. In Group
Two I would ask them to hear something that wasn't there and in
Group Three I would tell them what I thought was there. The results
of these tests were encouraging.
In Group One most people could hear
a word or two, if not most of the phrase as I had documented it.
In Group Two, people could not hear what I asked them to hear,
and in Group Three there was often an instant recognition of the
backward phrase as soon as they heard it. These results demonstrated
to me that there was clearly something at play here other than
imagination.
Random occurrence eventually seemed
to be highly unlikely as the backward phrases I was finding were
occurring with far too much precision and design for them to be
dismissed so easily. I did find that a small number of sounds
often reversed to say the same thing each time the words were spoken and I eventually compiled
a separate list of these sounds. However the vast majority of
backward phrases could not be explained away by random generation.
The phrases were often long and eloquent,
sometimes with rich, poetic language and metaphor, consisting
of several words that made complete grammatical sense. Additionally,
their occurrence appeared to have intelligence and design. Sometimes
I would find several backward sentences in one song, each sentence
relating to each other. Then there was the sheer volume of these
sentences. Backward phrases were being found in approximately
50% of all the songs I looked at. It seemed to me that the chancesof these phrases occurring all by themselves was almost incalculable,
similar to throwing letters of the alphabet randomly onto the
floor and expecting the Lord's prayer to magically appear.
For the most part, I discounted random
chance along with imagination early in the research. This is not
to deny the effect of these two factors and when I eventually
began to teach this process to others they became formidable enemies.
Yet it was still obvious to me that something separate and distinct
was occurring in addition to incidences of random chance and imagination.
I was convinced that this separate phenomenon could be documented,
proven and tracked. I became obsessed and all other activities
in my life rapidly faded into insignificance. I wanted to know
what these backward phrases were and how they were getting there.
Another explanation I pursued in the
early days was that the musical tracks had been altered and some
recording technician had cleverly placed these messages backwards
into the soundtracks. This explanation turned out to be true for
a small percentage of songs. Using a recording technique known
as Backward Masking, it is possible to place backward messages
onto recording tracks. It is very easy to recognize when this
has occurred. The superimposed track can be heard as gibberish
if the tape is played forwards and recognized as an intelligent
statement when the tape is played backwards.
However this explanation did not explain
the vast majority of backward phrases that I was finding. Most
of them were obviously not occurring by technical tricks. There
were no superimposed soundtracks and they simply appeared like
beacons of light in the midst of a sea of gibberish. Their occurrence
was determined solely by the unique way that the forward speech
sounds were sung at the time of recording. In other words, the
backward phrases were a reversal of the phonetic sounds and structure
of the forward speech sounds. These sounds were being formed and
delivered by the brain in such a way that they communicated two
messages at once: One forwards and the other one backwards.
This was certainly a curious phenomenon.
Two modes of speech occurring simultaneously yet in the opposite
direction to each other.
There is one other explanation for these
backward phrases that bears mention and that is Satanic manipulation.
I must admit that in the first few weeks of research, I did get
eerie feelings walking into my house late and my emotions became
somewhat edgy. But fortunately all the dreams faded in time and
the phenomenon itself disproved this fundamentalist explanation.
For a start, not all the messages were occultic in nature as had
often been claimed. It depended on the song. If the song was about
the occult, then the backward message would also be about the
occult. Love songs contained backward messages about love, political
songs contained backward political messages and so forth. Even
gospel songs had their own messages, and they were usually about
God, but not always.
I found myself growing increasingly
angry at the fundamentalist preachers as my research continued,
for they had either misrepresented the phenomenon or jumped to
hasty conclusions based upon only minimal findings. These were
not backward messages about the occult. They were backward messages
about anything! And the content of these messages seemed to be
determined, not by demons, but by what was on the forward soundtrack.
FORMULATING THE THEORY
We thus come to the first of many observations
about this phenomenon that I noted in the first years of research.
There were intricate relationships between the forward and reversed
phrases, as well as a definite structure and form to the reversed
phrases. The most significant of these relationships was the fact
that the forward and reverse would usually relate to each other.
The subject matter of the forward would be the subject matter
of the reverse.
I called this simple observation, the
principal of Complementarity. It eventually grew to become
a foundation cornerstone of my future theoretical development.
I spent most of 1984 and '85 researching
a wide cross-section of music ranging from classical to hard rock.
I remember being amazed that the Hallelujah chorus from Handle's
Messiah was almost exactly the same backwards at it was forwards.
I began to keep an organized filing system of all my tapes and
notes. I researched libraries and computer nets trying to find
any information I could. I was convinced that with something as
significant as this, there must be some work or research being
conducted somewhere else. But I searched almost in vain, finding
only the odd book by religious fundamentalists and the early work
of Californian researcher, William H. Yarroll II.
Yarroll worked primarily in the area
of rock music and its effects on the brain from 1980 to 1983.
It was his initial scientific research that unwittingly prompted
much of the religious hysteria of the '80s. William Yarroll was
also responsible for backward messages being discussed in the
Californian State Assembly and also in Arkansas. Both cases occurred
in 1983 and the Arkansas case resulted in Governor Bill Clinton's
signing a bill requiring all rock and roll records that were suspected
of containing backward messages, to be labeled with the following
warning:
"Warning, this record contains
backward masking that makes a verbal statement which is audible
when this record is played backwards and which may be perceptible
at subliminal level when this record is played forward."
The bill did not proceed to become law
but the questions persisted. Other than the aforementioned cases,
I could find no other work on the subject. This seemed to be a
new area of research and I felt a renewed sense of excitement.
I was like a pioneer exploring a new frontier.
Then in 1986 my work took a significant
turn. I decided to research the history of backward phrases in
the broadcast media since its inception to see if any further
trends could be unraveled. I find it difficult to believe, looking
back now, that up until that time I had researched only music
and hadn't seriously considered looking at normal speech. All
that was about to change.
I obtained a recording of the history
of radio from the 1920s to the present and began to play it backwards.
One of the very first things that I heard backwards said, "Man
will space walk". This was a remarkably clear phrase
that seemed to "jump out at me" from the gibberish.
I immediately played the tape forwards and heard Neil Armstrong's
famous first words on the moon, "That's one small step
for man, one giant leap for mankind."
I was stunned both at the clarity of
the backward phrase and at its direct connection with the forward
phrase. Later that day I was to be stunned again when I heard
the clear words backwards, "He's shot bad. Hold it.
Try and look up."
I played the tape forwards and heard
a live commentary of the 1963 assassination of President John
F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. I isolated the precise forward words
responsible for the backward phrase. They were, "...Parkland
hospital, there has been a shooting..." They occurred at the precise moment that the radio commentator realized that
a shooting had occurred.
This was amazing to me. It was a live
commentary and the backward phrase occurred as the reporter spoke
in the field, not in a recording studio. There was no way this
could have been orchestrated and the phrase seemed to be a logical
reflection of the thoughts this man might have had at the time.
These are, horror at the realization of an assassination, "He's
shot bad", and a frantic search for the source
of the gun shots, "Hold it. Try and look up."
The moon walk was similar. It was a
live commentary with the backward phrase communicating what I
assumed would have been Neil Armstrong's logical thoughts at the
time. That is an expression of hope for the future of Mankind
in space or "Man will space walk".
I continued to find significant backward
phrases on this one record. There was the backward phrase found
on JFK's Presidential inauguration. His famous words, "Ask not what
you country can do for you, but what can you do for your country",
contained the backward message, "Give Jack all your
food."
Other famous historical events contained
similarly amusing or poignant backward messages that completely
related to what was being spoken forwards, including one reversal
on Lee Harvey Oswald that said: "Hear them. Wish to
kill the President." This reversal was found on a
radio broadcast recorded two weeks prior to the assassination
of JFK. Oswald was talking forwards about the Fair Play For
Cuba Committee.
One particularly amusing example was
found on Australia's Prime Minister at the time, Bob Hawke. He
was asked, after he won the 1987 Federal election, how he planned
to celebrate. He replied with the comment, "Ah, several
cups of tea." Backwards this said, "Used to
smoke the best marijuana." This example was later
played repeatably on Australian television as news of my research
began to surface.
I should point out here, that the moment
of discovery of these phrases was particularly exciting for me
because I usually had no idea what was on the forward tape. I
would do my research by playing my tapes backwards only. I did
this deliberately to try and reduce my own bias. Thus a tremendous
excitement was created simply by the process of hearing a backward
phrase and then discovering its incredible relationship, or Complementarity,
with the forward soundtrack.
1986 and '87 were exciting years. I
ceased researching music and concentrated my efforts solely on
speech. This added an entirely different dimension to my work.
I started to record normal room conversations and found backward
messages to be occurring constantly, often as frequently as every
ten or fifteen seconds of speech. These backwards phrases were
nearly always complementary. I started to find hidden secrets
of my friends. - Things like lies they were telling, facts they
were hiding, an affair someone was having including the name of
the person involved.
Backward phrases would often discuss
topics such as thoughts and feelings people had about each other.
Then I started to find reversed conversations. Questions were
being asked, answers were being given and it was all occurring
backwards.
My entire world was turned upside down
at that point. Any doubts I still had about random sound or imagination
vanished. This was something very real and tangible, something
very significant. This was the voice of truth, the real self speaking.
It all seemed to fall into place in the early months of 1987.
I had discovered something. I had to
give it a name, write a theory, tell people about it. I pondered
my research notes. I thought and theorized. Then in April, 1987,
at three o'clock in the morning, I awoke with two words etched
on my brain. The words were Reverse Speech. That is what
I called the phenomenon from that day onwards and the backward
phrases became known as speech reversals.
I had achieved my original research
objectives. I had determined to my satisfaction what these backward
messages, or speech reversals, actually were and I had some plausible
theories concerning their source. I theorized they were another
form of communication, possibly an undiscovered human sense. There
was nothing occultic or bizarre about it. Those were merely sentiments
people expressed when faced with the unknown or unexplained. The
actual truth was far simpler and far more logical. The phenomenon
was a natural function of the human mind.
I wrote my theory on that morning in
April, 1987 while I pondered these thoughts. The theory initially
contained two points. Implicit in these points, but not specifically
stated, is the assumption that the human brain automatically creates,
hears and responds to both speech modes. A third point was added
at a later stage. Here are the first two with some minor editing
over the years.
I entitled it: "The Theory
of Reverse Speech and Speech Complementarity."
(1) Human speech has at least two separate
yet complementary functions and modes. One mode occurs overtly,
is spoken forwards, and is under conscious control. The other
mode occurs covertly, is spoken backwards, and is not under conscious
control. The backward mode of speech occurs simultaneously with
the forward mode and is a reversal of the forward speech sounds.
(2) These two modes of speech complement
and depend upon each other. One mode cannot be fully understood
without the other mode. In the dynamics of interpersonal communication
both modes of speech combined communicate the total psyche of
a person, conscious and unconscious.
This was truly a revolutionary discovery.
I knew that if my theory could be proven, the implications would
be staggering. It could certainly be the ultimate truth detector.
It might help explain aspects of human intuition, possibly even
provide an explanation for some forms of ESP. Maybe it could help
us understand the human mind and discover the causes of behavior
and personality. And in my wildest musings, I pondered the religious
possibilities. Could Reverse Speech help us discover the nature
of the soul? What indeed was speaking backwards? Was it the unconscious
mind or something deeper? Maybe even the spirit of the person.
And what did those terms mean anyway?
At that point I knew my research was
not over but had only just begun. I had opened a pandora's box.
I needed to tell others of this discovery and obtain help from
people whom I assumed would have far more knowledge than me. After
all, I was only a moderately educated youth worker from the outback,
the son of a simple Methodist preacher. I was actually aspiring
to be a writer at the time I started my research despite a few
rejection slips already.
Who was I to be putting forward new
theories about the nature of language and the unconscious mind?
The entire concept was overwhelming. The task daunting. Where
should I start?
CHAPTER TWO
"Normally consciousness is quite
narrow. You see what you have to see and no more. Even that is
quite difficult, because the left brain and right brain are usually
fighting like a couple of dinosaurs. You can knock them out with
booze or valium but in the long run it blunts your concentration
even worse." The book of the SubGenius: The Sacred Teachings
of J.R Bob Dobbs
DOCUMENTING STRUCTURES AND TRENDS
I contacted the media and academic institutions
but was met with rejection and sometimes open hostility. An example
of this was a series of correspondence I had with Manfred Clyne
of the Melbourne University in 1988 who was quite forceful and opinionated
in his letters.
"These are nothing more than illusions
of the mind ... for the sake of humanity and your family I emplore
you to cease this endeavor and put your energies into something
more useful ... the road of research is long and tough and few
survive it."
Letters like these only spurred me onto
new heights, for I knew the phenomenon to be real. At the very
least, I had sufficient documentation and enough evidence to warrant
more consideration than I was receiving. I decided to prepare
a convincing case and I began to compile all of my work into manuscript
form. I would write a book. Maybe then people would listen to
me. I enlisted the help of my good friend, Greg Albrecht. Greg
assisted me for the first few months of 1987 as I began to prepare
the book manuscript. I entitled the proposed book "Beyond
Backward Masking - Reverse Speech and the Voice of the Inner Mind."
It was a significant step in the research
because during the time of manuscript preparation, other trends
and linguistic structures of the phenomenon began to emerge.
The first of these observations grew
out of the principle of speech complementarity. I knew that the
forward and reverse would usually relate to each other, yet I
also knew that these relationships were not necessarily congruent.
For example the reverse phrase could sometimes contradict the
forward phrase or it might say the same thing. I divided the different
types into several separate categories of complementary relationships.
I called these The Categories Of Reverse Speech.
(1) Sometimes reversals would confirm
what was being said forwards, saying the same thing with different
words. I called these Congruent reversals. On rare
occasion, I would find reversals that said the same thing in exactly
the same words! I found these examples fascinating, especially
when they were six or seven words long.
(2) Then there were Contradictory
reversals These reversals were incongruent and contradicted
what was said forward. In time, I began to understand that it was
the reverse statement that was the correct, or true, statement.
(3) Expansive reversals were
reversals that added additional information and expanded upon
the forward speech. They would insert facts that were left out
either wittingly or unwittingly from the forward dialogue. They
also showed hidden motive and agenda behind the things that were
said in forward speech.
(4) Internal Dialogue reversals
showed actual thoughts the person was having at the time of speaking.
Sometimes these reversals would show internal conversations that
someone was having with themselves. For example, if part of you
wanted to go out for the evening but another part of you wanted
to stay at home, the entire struggle might appear backwards as
a dialogue with self.
(5) External Dialogue speech
reversals were specifically directed out to others in the form
of requests, commands, questions and conversations. Have you ever
thought something else was going on underneath the conversation?
For example, boy meets girl and they talk about the weather but
we all know what they were really talking about. Sometimes I would
find an entirely different conversation backwards than what was
happening forwards.
(6) Lead and Trail reversals would occur that said something several seconds or even minutes before or after the same thing was said forwards. Have you ever had the feeling that you have said something before? Or, you know that someone is just not "letting something go". You were probably quite right. It was just all happening backwards. Or maybe you have been about to say something but someone else said it first. Possibly you thought, "Gee. I was just about to say that." You were probably experiencing the action of Trail and Lead reversals starting a conversation before it started and continuing it after it has finished.
(7) Eventually I found a category of
speech reversals that initially had me puzzled. I called these
Comparative reversals. I had originally called them Non-related
because they seemed to have no relationship whatsoever with what
was being said forwards. They annoyed me because they were the
only hole in my theory of Speech Complementarity. It wasn't until
a couple of years later that I finally saw the relationship. It
was emotional. These reversals talked about events in someone's
life, or detailed statements, that had exactly the same emotion
as that being expressed forwards. Someone might say forwards that
they had a bad day at work and then say backwards that they had
a flat tire last week, or even talk about Fred Jones who they
didn't like at the supermarket two years ago. The complementarity
was not in the words. It was in the emotions. I breathed a sigh
of relief. Not only was my theory intact but it added an even
greater dimension to complementarity.
The next observation was one relating
to grammar and linguistic structure. I noticed that many reversals
had a standard structure, usually between two and five consecutive
words in a single sentence. However there were those reversals
that obviously deviated from this. I noted all these different
forms and called them The Structures Of Reverse Speech.
(1) There were Long sentences.
Not very often, but sometimes, I would find reversals of staggering
length. There were perfectly formed, long flowing sentences that
could be up to fifteen or twenty words long sometimes with two
three sentences in the one reversal.
(2) Then there were Single words.
I was very suspicious of single words backwards. They could easily
be explained by random occurrence. In time, though, I began to
feel safe about documenting certain types of single words such
as the expression of an emotion or an external command.
(3) Cause and Effect reversals had
a unique grammatical structure that was very common to find backwards.
They usually consisted of two sentences that related to each other.
They would frequently make a statement a fact and then suggest
a course of action. For example: Book. Please read it
or Pain. Let it go.
(4) Sentence Building reversals were
amazing and helped dispel any lingering doubts I still had about
all this. The forward and reverse would combine to form a complete
sentence. For example: "...I think they should eradicate
all the crime in [Washington DC]." Reverse Is the
capitol of America. The words Washington DC represents
the actual forward words where the reversal might occur. They
would thus expand upon complementarity yet again by reversing
to create another sentence all together. "Washington DC
is the capitol of America.
(5) Mirror Image reversals similarly
defied the imagination. The forward and reverse would be a mirror
image of each other. For example: "I love my husband very
much". Reverse: I love my husband very much.
(6) Finally came Semi-formed reversals:
Nearly all reversals I was documenting were well-defined. They
were separated from the gibberish and it was very obvious where
they began and finished. However some reversals disappeared into
the gibberish. They would always begin very clearly but the last
word simply vanished. This was frustrating especially when it
said something like "The plans are in the..."
As I formulated categories and structures,
I noted that certain people tend to run the same type of reversal
structures. For example, someone may have a majority of long sentences
or sentence building reversals. Then came other significant findings.
IT TAKES TIME TO FIND REVERSALS
I was comparing the transcripts I had
compiled over the last year when I noted that many more reversals
were being documented in normal conversation compared to public
media broadcasts. So I started to do a time and reversal count
on all my transcripts using a stop watch. I then prepared charts
that compared the average rate of reversal occurrence in any given
conversational setting. This was a task that yielded tremendous
results but one which significantly added to my already overloaded
research time.
It takes an incredible amount of time
to analyze tapes for speech reversals. At that early stage in
1987, one thirty minute tape would take me three or four days to
analyze thoroughly. Consequently I would spend hundreds of hours
at my desk with headphones on, listening to tapes, making notes.
This process would include the following steps:
(1) First I would do an initial run-through of the tape backwards only and prepare a preliminary transcript
of the reverse phrases.
(2) This was followed by a second run
through of the tape from beginning to end, checking for reversals
as I went by rapidly switching between forward and reverse directions.
(3) A more detailed transcript was then
prepared, initial reversals checked, more reversals found, and
sections of the forward dialogue transcribed.
(4) Then I did a final third run through
and checked all my results.
(5) The transcripts were then analyzed
and complementary relationships were determined.
(6) Finally, I began to conduct a precise
time count of all reversals from the beginning of the tape to
the end.
THE RIGHT BRAIN SPEAKS
Within a few months, I had a sufficient
cross section of transcripts from different settings to make some
preliminary observations. In normal relaxed room settings, speech
reversals occurred on an average of one reversal every ten seconds
of conversation. If you were to add some emotion such as a heated
argument the reversal rate would go up rapidly sometimes as often
as one reversal every second, or almost continuously. On the other
end of the scale, in structured settings such as lectures, the
rate of reversal occurrence would drop to an average of one reversal
every thirty to sixty seconds. Sometimes it would drop to as low
as one reversal every one or two minutes if someone were reading
without emotion from a prepared script.
So consistent were these observations
that I used to test myself by randomly picking up tapes and playing
them backwards only. I could usually tell what type of conversation
it was simply by the number of reversals that were occurring in
any given minute of tape time. Soon I began to recognize other
differences such as differing tonality and expression in speech
reversals. These differences were determined not only by the type
of conversation, but also by the topic being discussed at the time.
Thus another hypothesis was formed.
This hypothesis stated that the amount of reversals occurring
in any given conversation will be directly determined by the amount
of emotion involved and the free flowing, spontaneous nature of
this conversation.
The similarities of my observation compared
to the functions of the right brain hemisphere are striking. The
right brain is considered to be highly emotional and creative.
It is also believed to be responsible for the tonal inflections
of speech, or the emotional content. The left brain hemisphere,
on the other hand, is considered to be logical and ordered, responsible
for the actual verbal content of speech.
Given these comparisons, I theorized
that forward speech was coming from the left brain hemisphere
and Reverse Speech was coming from the right brain hemisphere.
I noted further similarities with other similar mental phenomena
such as Dyslexia. I found it fascinating that vision was reversed
before being processed by the brain and I wondered if there might
be a connection between these phenomena and reverse speech.
THE METAPHOR MYSTERY
Probably the most significant observation
that was made as the book manuscript was being prepared was that
concerning metaphors. Ever since I had began research in 1984,
I had noted the appearance of many unusual words and mythological
motives in backward phrases. These included references to the
Garden of Eden, Camelot and Merlin, Satan and Lucifer, Wolves
and Eagles, Whirlwinds and Saucers, even Hitler and Nazis, to name
just a few.
In music they had been easy to explain
by the imagery of song and my main concern at the time had been
to validate their actual existence without getting too concerned
about possible meanings. Yet as I now reviewed the transcripts
of speech, it became strikingly obvious that these metaphors were
just as frequent as those found in music and I realized I needed
to understand what they meant.
My first clue came from my historical
research of music and radio broadcasts since the 1920s. Reversals
that I found here had indicated that these metaphors were not
constant over the years but they rather seemed to ebb and flow
with the changing tides of history. For example, I frequently found
the words Jesus or Lucifer in the 1920s and 30s and Nazi or Hitler
in popular recordings from the 1940s and 50s. Then in the 1960s,
70s and early 80s, a new theme began to appear with words like
Satan and Whirlwind. I assumed it was these references that prompted
some of the early religious hysteria.
I was faced with a new problem. What
did these words mean? I began my research with religious writings
and was eventually led to the works of Carl Jung who extensively
explored mythology and metaphor in the early twentieth century.
I was particularly attracted to his work because of the many similarities
between his findings and that of my own. The metaphors I was finding
in Reverse Speech were also present in other phenomena, such as
dreams. Jung theorized that these words were archetypes of the
mind. Although I didn't really know what that meant at the time,
it put me on a new direction and I went back to the transcripts
seeking answers with a fresh approach.
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