Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE ULTIMATE TRUTH-DETECTOR? 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. The backwards phrases became known as Speech Reversals. Thad achieved my original research objectives. To my satisfac- tion I had determined what these backwards messages, or speech reversals, actually were and I had some plausible theories con- cerning their source. I theorised they were another form of communication, possibly an undiscovered human sense. There was nothing occult 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 nat- ural function of the human mind. I wrote my Theory of Reverse Speech and Speech Complementarity 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 assump- tion 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 points of my theory, with some minor editing over the years: 1) Human speech has at least two separate yet complementary functions and modes. One mode occurs overtly, is spoken for- wards, and is under conscious control. The other mode occurs covertly, is spoken backwards, and is not under conscious control. The backwards mode of speech occurs simultaneously with the forwards mode and is a reversal of the sounds of forwards speech. 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, conscious and unconscious, of a person. This was truly a revolutionary discovery! I knew that if my theory could be proved, 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 behaviour and personality. And in my wildest musings I pondered the reli- gious 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? PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED! 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 I did. 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? 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 in 1988 with Manfred Clyne, of Melbourne University, 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 implore you to cease this endeavour and put your energies into something more use - ful...the road of research is long and tough and few survive it. Letters like these only spurred me on to new heights, for I knew the phenomenon to be real. At the very least, I had sufficient doc- umentation 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. l enlisted the help of my good friend, Greg Albrecht, who 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 struc- tures of the phenomenon began to emerge. CATEGORIES OF REVERSE SPEECH The first of these observations grew out of the Principle of Speech Complementarity. I knew that the forwards and reversed would usually relate to each other, yet I also knew that these relation- ships were not necessarily congruent. For example, the reversed phrase could some- times contradict the forwards phrase or it might say the same thing. I divided the different types of phrases into several separate categories of comple- mentary relationships, which I called 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 occa- sion, 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. Sa Y-| Bee vr A 16 = NEXUS OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997