Reverse speech
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Reverse speech is a hypothesis first put forward by David John Oates. It was widely publicized on the radio show of Art Bell.
Oates' claim is that every time humans speak they convey two related sentences, only one of which we can hear naturally. The second message is embedded backwards into the person's speech.
This means that if a person's statement was recorded and played backwards, the speaker's unconscious thoughts could be heard. The most famous recording that allegedly demonstrates this is the speech given by Neil Armstrong at the time of the moon landing, in which, if played backwards, the words "man will spacewalk" can supposedly be clearly heard.
However it has been argued that without prompting no one would hear this phrase, and only once we had been told what to listen for would we hear it.
The presence of negatively influencing, even satanism-themed reverse speech has been argued to be present in heavy metal music by some conservative groups, claiming that this music made or can make their children perform antisocial acts.
See also: Backward message
External references
- Scientific analysis of Reverse Speech (http://web.archive.org/web/20040212182630/http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/revspeech1.htm)
- David Oates website (http://www.reversespeech.com)