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5 An Overview of Reverse Speech 5 An Overview of Reverse Speech An Overview of of backwards audio can be heard intelligible B was not told what the message said and were An Overview of Reverse Speech sentences scattered at regular intervals asked to write down what they heard. Group C Reverse Speech was given a control phrase in the form of throughout the backward sounds. Furthermore, these backward messages often have a unique backward message that did not exist and were relationship to what is being spoken forwards. asked if they heard the phrase, and Group D They can confirm the forward speech, or they was told there may or may not be a backward can be contradictory to what is being spoken message there and were asked to write down forwards. Sometimes they can expand upon the what they heard. forward speech, giving extra information or As can be seen from the graph, there clarifying details. was a high comprehension rate in groups A&B indicating that the backward phrase really OBJECTIONS existed, and a low comprehension rate on the group asked to hear the control phrase. This Some people call the idea of Reverse indicates that if the phrase is not there it cannot Speech preposterous. They say the brain isn't be heard and there is lot more going on than capable of doing such a thing and that it is all mere autosuggestion. the product of some over active imagination, like seeing pictures in ink blots or clouds. However, this criticism can be easily addressed By: David J. Oates by the production of 1000s of very easy to hear By: David J. Oates backward messages that are posted on the Copyright © 2008 reverse speech website alone, also by pointing Copyright © 2008 to some tests that have been done to gauge the INTRODUCTION comprehension ability of people to hear the backward messages. In one test, conducted in Did you know that hidden backwards in 1997 by a sceptical Monash University in the sounds of speech there is another form of Melbourne Australia, it was discovered that communication, or another part of you that is naïve subjects could easily recognise the also speaking? This secondary form of backward phrase once it was pointed out, and communication is called Reverse Speech. The could additionally hear several key words theory goes something like this. As the human without prompting. brain is constructing the sounds of speech, it is The graph below, published in the back automatically forming those sounds so that of their report, shows detailed results of their occasionally something intelligent is also tests. They divided their subjects into 4 groups. spoken in reverse. Or, to put it another way, if Group A was told what the backward message human speech is recorded and played was and were asked if they could hear it. Group backwards mixed amongst the normal gibberish Continued on Page 6