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 1969. If played backwards, the words "small step for man" seem to become a supposedly clear "man will spacewalk."
The presence of negative, even neo-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. However, it has been argued that without prompting, no one would hear these phrases, and only once we had been told what to listen for would we hear it.
[edit] External links
- David Oates website
- The Demon-Haunted Sentence: A Skeptical Analysis of Reverse Speech
- reverse speech from the Skeptic's Dictionary
- Criticism of Reverse Speech
