Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

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SURPRISES WITH BACKWARDS PHRASES IN SONGS layed forwards, and recognised as an intelligent statement when As time went on, I conducted more controlled and elaborate the tape is played backwards. tests. I prepared a standard tape that had 10 reversals dubbed onto However, this explanation did not explain the vast majority of it, isolated from the gibberish. Then I chose people at random and ackwards phrases that I was finding. Most of them were obvi- divided them into three separate groups. In Group One, I would ously not occurring by technical tricks. There were no superim- ask them to tell me what they heard; in Group Two, I would ask osed soundtracks and they simply appeared like beacons of light them to hear something that wasn't there; and in Group Three, I in the midst of a sea of gibberish. Their occurrence was deter- would tell them what I thought was there. The results of these mined solely by the unique way that the forwards-speech sounds tests were encouraging. were sung at the time of recording. In other words, the backwards In Group One, most people could hear a word or two, if not phrases were a reversal of the phonetic sounds and structure of the most of the phrase as I had documented it; in Group Two, people forwards-speech sounds. could not hear what I asked them to hear; and in Group Three, These sounds were being formed and delivered by the brain in there was often an instant recognition of the backwards phrase’ as such a way that they communicated two messages at once—one soon as they heard it. These results demonstrated to me that there forwards and the other one backwards. This was certainly a curi- was clearly something at play here other than imagination. ous phenomenon—two modes of speech occurring simultaneous- Random occurrence eventually seemed to be ly, yet in the opposite direction to each other. highly unlikely, as the backwards phrases I There is one other explanation for these was finding were occurring with far too much backwards phrases that bears mention and that precision and design for them to be dismissed is Satanic manipulation. I must admit that in so easily. I did find that a small number of Just after he [Bob the first few weeks of research I did get eerie sounds often reversed to say the same thing feelings walking into my house late, and my each time the words were spoken, and I even- Hawke] won the 1987 emotions did become somewhat edgy. But tually compiled a separate list of these sounds. . fortunately, all the 'dreams' faded in time and However, the vast majority of backwards Federal election, he the phenomenon itself disproved this funda- phrases could not be explained away by ran- was asked how he mentalist explanation. dom generation. They were often long and For a start, not all the messages were occult eloquent, sometimes with rich, poetic language planned to celebrate. in nature as had often been claimed. It and metaphor, consisting of several words that i H depended on the song. If the song was about made complete grammatical — sense. He replied with the the occult, then the backwards message would Additionally, their occurrence appeared to comment, "Ah, also be about the occult. Love songs con- have intelligence and_ design. " tained backwards messages about love, Sometimes I would find several back- several cups of tea. political songs contained backwards wards phrases in one song, each phrase political messages, and so forth. Even relating to each other. Then there was Gospel songs had their own messages, the sheer volume of these phrases. and they were usually about God, but I was finding backwards phrases in not always. approximately 50 per cent of all the I found myself growing increasingly songs I looked at. It seemed to me that angry at the fundamentalist preachers as the chances of these phrases occurring my research continued, for they had all by themselves were almost incalcula- either misrepresented the phenomenon ble, similar to throwing letters of the or jumped to hasty conclusions based alphabet randomly onto the floor and upon only minimal findings. These expecting the Lord's Prayer to appear were not backwards messages about the magically. occult. They were backwards messages For the most part, I discounted random about anything! And the content of chance along with imagination early in the research. This is not these messages seemed to be determined not by demons but by to deny the effect of these two factors, for when I eventually what was on the forwards soundtrack. began to teach this process to others they became formidable ene- mies. Yet it was still obvious to me that something separate and | FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS COMPLEMENTARITY distinct was occurring in addition to incidences of random chance We thus come to the first of many observations about this phe- and imagination. I was convinced that this separate phenomenon nomenon that I noted in the first years of research. There were could be documented, proved and tracked. I became obsessed, intricate relationships between the forwards and reversed phrases, Backwards, this said, "Used to smoke the best marijuana." and all other activities in my life rapidly faded into insignificance. as well as a definite structure and form to the reversed phrases. I wanted to know what these backwards phrases were and how The most significant of these relationships was the fact that the they were getting there. forwards and reversed would usually relate to each other. The Another explanation I pursued in the early days was that the subject matter of the forwards would be the subject matter of the musical tracks had been altered and some recording technician reversed phrase. I called this simple observation the Principle of had cleverly placed these messages backwards into the sound- Complementarity. It eventually grew to become the cornerstone tracks. This explanation turned out to be true for a small percent- of my theory's future development. age of songs. Using a recording technique known as "backward Most of 1984 and '85 I spent researching a wide cross-section masking", it is possible to place backwards messages onto record- of music ranging from classical to hard rock. I remember being ing tracks. It is very easy to recognise when this has occurred: amazed that the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah was the superimposed track can be heard as gibberish if the tape is almost exactly the same backwards at it was forwards. I began to comment, "Ah, several cups of tea." FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS COMPLEMENTARITY We thus come to the first of many observations about this phe- nomenon that I noted in the first years of research. There were intricate relationships between the forwards 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 forwards and reversed would usually relate to each other. The subject matter of the forwards would be the subject matter of the reversed phrase. I called this simple observation the Principle of Complementarity. It eventually grew to become the cornerstone of my theory's future development. Most of 1984 and '85 I spent researching a wide cross-section of music ranging from classical to hard rock. I remember being amazed that the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah was almost exactly the same backwards at it was forwards. I began to 14 = NEXUS "Used to smoke the best marijuana." OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997