The Truth About Reverse Speech
L. Eddie
(Investigator 131, 2010
March)
Reverse Speech
(RS) is
claimed to be, "... the amazing phenomenon of a
hidden language that is imbedded backwards into the sounds of our
speech." [1] Proponents of RS claim that what we perceive as speech is
really a "two fold" process, and that, in addition to normal or Forward
Speech (FS), there is another verbal level of communication, one that
is the reverse of FS, namely RS!
Since
1984 the theories
behind RS have been developed by Australian
David John Oates, who has invested considerable time, energy and
finance into promoting this particular theory; so much so that he
admits, "... my little hobby had turned into an obsession." [2]
Over
some twenty or so years of his obsession with RS he has developed a
number of quite startling theories, for instance, he claims that:-
•
...the process of spoken communication is two fold,
forwards and backwards. As the human brain is constructing the sounds
of speech, it is putting those sounds together in such a way that two
messages are communicated simultaneously, one forwards from the
conscious mind and the other in reverse from the unconscious mind. [3]
•
RS
occurs, ...approximately once every 15-20
seconds of normal relaxed conversation; [4]
•
RS
...acts almost like an ultimate truth detector,
...It can reveal the guilt or innocence of a suspect ... reveal the
location of missing evidence and the motives for a crime. [5]
•
If a
lie was spoken in forward speech the backwards
speech would often correct that lie and speak the truth instead; [6]
•
...if
pertinent facts were left out of the forward
speech, the backward speech would often put them in. [7]
•
Children commence using RS early in life, "...with
single words being detected as early as four months, then, as forward
speech begins the two modes of speech gradually combine into one." [8]
Oates'
confidence in RS is
quite extraordinary, he describes it as "The
7th Sense"…an awesome discovery that has the potential to revolutionize
our understanding of how the human mind works, and possibly bring
society into an age of truth and awareness. [9]
He
perceives RS as a
multifaceted tool, one that offers fast and
efficient treatment solutions in areas as diverse as Child Psychology,
Psychological Therapy, Behavioural Therapy, Self
Improvement, Counseling, Personal Relationships, Physical and
Educational difficulties and Criminology.
He even
claims that RS
provides not only a means of opening up channels
of communication with children who are so severely retarded or autistic
that normal means of verbal communication are impossible, but also that
RS can enable individuals to gain access to their higher level of self,
their actual soul.
In what
appears to be a
quite hazardous application of his theories,
Oates promotes RS as a therapeutic tool. Operating on the belief that
some 90% of RS originates in the unconscious level of the mind, he
proposes that, since RS originates in this area, it has the potential
to, "...often reveal information unknown to the conscious mind. This
can prove to be extremely beneficial in working with psychological or
physical illness." [10]
In one
instance he claims
that he, "...found a reversal that said "I
have been molested." [11] Such an indiscriminate approach to therapy
has a number of inherent problems. Given the seriousness of such claims
and their potential to cause serious personal trauma, destroy
relationships, and even possibly to lead to criminal charges, one must
consider the validity of their origins.
The fact
is that Oates is
using what is nothing more than an arbitrary
collection of the words spoken by an individual, then reversing them to
obtain a random collection of abstract sounds, and, should it eventuate
that some of these appear similar to recognizable words, they are then
"interpreted" in such a way as to give them a meaningful connotation.
Of
course a principal
danger is that in these situations, the "therapist" is far from being
objective; they have a specific mind-set
actively seeking "clues,"
and given their heightened level
of
expectancy, it is extremely likely that they will hear recognizable
words or phrases.
However,
in spite of the
complex RS rigmarole, Oates admits these
insights are not always easily gained, for many of the messages
obtained through RS "...were a mystery to me ..." [12] Undaunted by
such problems Oates conveniently identifies these mysterious messages
as metaphors, so now, rather than revealing the problem outright, the
therapist then has to go through the process of translating the
metaphors. To assist practitioners in this process Oates sells a
dictionary of reverse speech metaphors and a whole new form of
treatment Metaphor Restructuring. [13]
Oates
proposes that RS
offers an explanation for "…many aspects of
human intuition, why we often get a gut feeling when talking to someone
that they can or cannot be trusted." He attributes this to our
unconscious recognition of reversed messages, yet, in fact, there is
nothing mystical about such feelings. It is well known that some 80-85%
of human communication is non-verbal, and that "gut-feelings" about
people is a well-known and understood cognitive process so there is no
need to have to resort to RS to explain such feelings.
When
human speech is played
in reverse, because the basic sound
patterns are also reversed, most of the sounds tend to be almost
unrecognizable. However, it is a fact that, even when reversed, some
sounds are recognizable, however, there is no evidence to support Oates
claims that they occur, "approximately once every 15-20 seconds..."
[14]. If one listens to long pieces of speech in reverse it is very
likely that occasionally recognizable sounds may be heard either as
words or as what appear to be several words in sequence. However, the
reason they are heard and recognized in this fashion is due to the
remarkable ability of the human brain to make sense of the most
obscure, random patterns of sound. Who has not heard what appears to be
human voices as a train rattles along the track, or in the howling of
the wind?
Such
examples of auditory
misperception are common. They have been
recognized for thousands of years, and, in ancient times such sounds
were known as Nature's voice; indeed the whistling wind, the rustling
and creaking of trees in the forest, and the calls of animals and
birds, were once believed to be forms of communication, warning them of
imminent danger. The Romans believed these warnings came from elemental
nature spirits, while David (2 Samuel 5:24), interpreted the rustling
of the trees as a message from God revealing the location of the
Philistine forces.
These
sounds were often
used as a form of divination and the Uape
Indians of Brazil, in a process known as Paxaibu, interpret
sounds made
by the trembling leaves of palm trees as a guide to the future. One of
the more bizarre examples of auditory divination was Gastromancy
whereby the rumbling sounds coming from the belly were interpreted as
having significant meanings. It is possible that RS is really nothing
more than a modern form of auditory divination.
RS
appears remarkably
similar to Shell Hearing, a form of divination
popular in China and Asia. In response to a given question the diviner
would place a large conch shell to their ear and listen for sounds in
the shell; these were then interpreted as a divine form of guidance. As
in most forms of divination there was always a degree of compulsion for
the diviner to obtain a suitable answer to the question being
considered; this inevitably led to the diviner obtaining results, even
if they had to do some cheating by [a] pretending they actually heard a
message in the shell, and [b] that the answer was appropriate to the
question.
At a
public lecture (27th
October 2003) Oates expressed his extreme
disappointment that so few professionals take his work seriously,
however he appears to be unwilling to accept evidence suggesting that
the theories underlying RS are unsound.
Skinner
(1936), [15]
investigated somewhat similar auditory patterns;
he used a phonograph to record a selection of random vowel sounds in
such a way that there were no regular phonetic combinations. When these
abstract sounds were played constantly at a low volume, subjects
reported hearing recognizable words or groups of words. In another
experiment when Vokey and Reid (1985) [16] played recordings of words
spoken in reverse, subjects had extreme difficulty in identifying the
various words. This would suggest that subjects may need some
preparation, or prompting to assist them to identify such sounds, a
practice that, as detailed later, Oates seems to commonly use when
teaching his theories.
More
recently RS has also
been examined; in a study by linguists
Newbrook and Curtain (1997) [17] some of the claims made by Oates about
RS were tested using several groups: -
a)
Group A was given a list of the six RS statements
claimed to be audible in the recordings;
b)
Group B was given a list of phrases that were
different from the ones claimed to be audible in the reversed
recordings;
c)
Group C were not given any list of phrases but
were told there were identifiable phrases in each of the reversed
recordings and were asked to listen for these phrases;
d)
Group D were not given any list of phrases,
neither were they told that there were identifiable phrases in each of
the reversed recordings; they were simply told that there might be.
Participants
in Group A
recorded the largest number of hits; those in
Group B recorded a higher score than Groups C and D. Overall, the
results appear to confirm that RS has no factual scientific basis and,
"...that the power of suggestion is an important factor in the
recognition of RS sequences." [18] The observation that suggestion
played an important role in recognition of RS supported the conclusions
reached independently by the author when he attended the October 2003
public lecture on RS.
It was
noted that Mr. Oates
always prompted the audience beforehand as
to what words or phrases would be heard on the reversed recordings he
was about to play. The audience appeared genuinely amazed on hearing
that the reversed material was exactly the same as Mr. Oates had
previously suggested they would hear. On the other hand the author
found most of the examples incomprehensible gibberish, and that only a
few examples sounded similar to what Oates had previously suggested
would be heard on the recording.
One
objective of RS appears
to be primarily financial. Oates offers
training courses for aspiring RS analysts ($2,195.00 for eight
weekends) who will also need cassette players that can reverse speech,
$395 - $495.
The
outline of the training
[19] suggests that students are heavily
conditioned to form a mind-set that will enable them to readily hear
RS. This is a common psychological ploy and, in this instance, by
constantly exposing students to reversed auditory material, and
encouraging them to intentionally seek coherent sound patterns in the
midst of the abstract noise, individuals tend to develop an ability to
hear recognizable sounds in the midst of random noise.
The
manner in which RS
operates' can be easily explained by comparing
it to the manner in which birds mimic human "speech." Many birds have a
remarkable ability to copy sounds. Wild birds copy the calls of other
birds and animals, while pet birds tend to mimic the speech of humans,
especially regularly repeated words or phrases. However, while human
speech is formed by an intentional interaction between the brain, the
tongue and the larynx, to communicate specific messages, birds simply
mimic certain sounds. The fact that these appear to be recognizable
words or phrases is purely accidental.
There
are many problems
with the claims made for RS. Communication
skills, both spoken and unspoken, are amongst the most important
abilities possessed by humans. These skills have been honed over
millions of years to assist human survival in a hostile environment.
One must ask then, what role would RS have served in the distant past
when these skills were developing? Unable to translate RS without
specialized equipment it would have been a useless form of
communication with no place in evolution. On this basis alone the
entire concept of RS is outlandish; human skills evolve as they are
used and perfected, they do not lie dormant for millions of years
awaiting technology to enable humans to access them.
Oates'
claim that RS is
already present in infants (from Latin infans,
literally meaning "without speech") contradicts all known studies of
child development and suggests the existence of an area of brain
activity that remains hidden from modern science.
In fact
children do not
develop true verbal communication skills until
their third year, when they discover the inherent power of language,
(it is the time when, much to the annoyance of their parents, they
discover they can say, NO!)
Although
Oates claims that
patterns of RS are extremely common, with
over twenty years of recording RS, one would expect that in this time
he would have accumulated a vast selection of examples of RS, yet
evidence suggests that he has not been able to do so, but instead
relies upon a very limited number of RS examples.
For
instance, the RS
material presented at his public meeting appears
to consist primarily of the same reversals he mentioned in his 1996
book, some of it from his 1963 recordings. In all fairness, one must
ask, why does he not have anything new to present as evidence?
(1)
Reverse
Speech promotional brochure, p. 1.
(2)
Oates, D. J. (2003).
Reverse Speech — Voices From the Unconscious;
RS advertising material.
(3)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(4)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(5)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(6)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(7)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(8) RS
brochure, op. cit.
p. 2.
(9)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 4.
(10)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
pp. 2-3.
(11)
Oates (2003). Ibid.
p. 3
(12)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 3.
(13)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 4.
(14)
Oates, (2003). Ibid.
p. 2.
(15)
Skinner B.F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts Inc. pp. 259-262 and Skinner, B. F. (1936). The
verbal summator as a method for the study of latent speech. Journal
of
Psychology 2: 71-107.
(16)
Vokey, J.R., and
J.D. Reid. 1985. Subliminal messages: Between the
devil and the media. American Psychologist 40: pp. 1231-1239.
(17)
Newbrook, M. and
Curtain, J, (1997) Oates' theory of Reverse
Speech: a critical examination. Skeptic, 17:3, pp. 40-44.
(18)
Newbrook and
Curtain, ibid. p. 42.
(19)
Reverse Speech
Analyst Training 2004 — RS advertising material.
A website with over 2000 articles analyzing religion, the supernatural and the paranormal,
including alternative healing methods, miracles, strange beliefs, various religions, and the Bible:
https://ed5015.tripod.com/