There Is No Gibberish And Other Reverse Speech Fallacies

By David John Oates
Copyright © 2007
redwolfe@adam.com.au

With the growing popularity of Reverse Speech come the inevitable copycats with a variety of differing theories and ideas about this complex phenomenon. It is the purpose of this article to explore some of these different theories and point out their weaknesses.

Probably the most pervasive of these others theories is the one that says there is no gibberish, and that every sound in reverse means something. There have been many proponents of this theory over the years however the evidence they produce to support it is weak at best. The problem comes down to one of comprehension. If Reverse Speech is ever to be taken seriously, it must be able to produce clear reversals that meet a pre-determined set of criteria that can be clearly heard by other listeners. This is not the case with the majority of tapes that are run backwards.

One is usually greeted with a variety of unintelligible sounds, some of which may bare resemblance to syllables and half words but only occasionally come together to form anything intelligent. When they do come together to form an intelligent phrase, this phrase is usually very obvious amongst the gibberish and can be clearly heard by other people. These incidences are called genuine speech reversals and they occur at regular and predictable intervals in backward run tapes. In private emotional conversations they can occur as often as once every 5-10 seconds. On the other end of the scale in media broadcasts they can occur as infrequently as once every 10 minutes or so.

The proponents of the no gibberish theory claim that every sound means something. They will produce pages of transcripts to support their theory. However these transcripts can rarely, if ever, be heard in the backwards tapes they produce. They will claim the tapes need to be listened to many times in order to hear them. Some of them claim to have listened to the tapes 50 plus times to transcribe it all. In doing so they have often completely missed the genuine speech reversals amongst the gibberish they have attempted to document. It’s a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. 

It must be emphasised that genuine speech reversals do exist, but they are scattered periodically throughout the gibberish and can be hard to find. Without guidelines to follow it is possible to hear anything you want in the gibberish in between genuine reversals. The careful researcher must ensure that every sound in the word they hear actually exists. If it cannot be determined after listening 6 times then it must be discarded. Additionally, if the phrase cannot be heard by others by the second or third listening then it must also be discarded. These are guidelines that I teach my students to reduce projection. Also, genuine reversals have a rather unique sing-song tone to them that is very obvious amongst the gibberish. This is an additional safety check to follow.  (Click here for article on how to find genuine reversals.)

I have been training students in the art of finding speech reversals for almost 20 years now. In that time I have learned that it takes a student several months to begin to locate the genuine reversals and stop projecting into the gibberish. Frequently the first set of homework assignments will contain many phrases that are mere projections. The students swear they can hear them but no-one else can. It is like trying to learn another language, or understanding someone speaking with a thick accent. It takes time, and misinterpretations and misunderstanding are common as anyone who has tried to understand someone speaking with a thick accent will know.

Genuine reversals that are clear and unambiguous occur at regular intervals in backward run tapes. However, there is a sea of gibberish in between these genuine reversals that, without training, it is possible to project anything into. 

Another common fallacy circulating about Reverse Speech concerns its source. This theory will state that Reverse Speech does not come from the unconscious mind but rather it has a spiritual source. Some will credit this source to demons or angels or even God, others say that it is the voice of dead people speaking; others yet again claim it is aliens or ETs. These theories show a basic misunderstanding of what Reverse Speech is.

For a start Reverse Speech is an unconscious human sense. It is unconscious because it is out of our conscious control. In other words, we have no control over what it says. That being said, the contention appears to be over what is actually speaking in reverse. I teach in my classes that all parts of the human mind are speaking. The conscious mind speaks in reverse at times. That is, thoughts we are actually aware of having as we are speaking. At other times, Reverse Speech comes from unconscious areas of the mind. It may talk about physical disease, giving warnings and at times solutions. Sometimes it will discuss behavioural patterns and personality quirks. There are also rare occasions where Reverse Speech will seem to stem from a deep wisdom within. I maintain that on these occasions it is tapping into a common collective unconscious.

The key thing to point out here is that even though different parts of the human mind, or psyche, can speak in reverse, the phenomenon itself is natural and another function of the human condition or another human sense. In that sense, it is unconscious like body language.

Another area that creates a lot of misunderstandings is the occurrence in reverse of metaphors. It is the metaphor Satan that caused much of the religious fervour in the 70s and 80s that claimed there were satanic messages hidden backwards in rock and roll records. Reverse Speech is riddled with metaphoric references using archetypal language with words such as wolf, whirlwind, garden of Eden, Camelot etc. In fact, in the official reverse speech dictionary there are over 1,000 metaphors documented, with many more yet to be inserted. There is no easy way to explain the meanings of metaphors. There are volumes of books written on metaphors and dream symbols and their psychological significance. The one thing that seems to be common, though, in many of these books is that metaphors are coming from some deep part of the human mind. (Click here to read an article on metaphors.)

It is this approach that I teach in my classes. I maintain that at the deepest level of consciousness the human mind thinks in pictures, or metaphor. The metaphoric images that we hear in reverse are describing various deep mental functions. The meanings in the reverse speech dictionary have been determined over 20 years of research by comparing the forward dialogue where the metaphors have occurred. The forward dialogue and the reverse dialogue relate to each other so over time when the same metaphor has appeared under the same circumstances many times, a meaning has been able to be devised.

Reverse speech metaphors show the wonderful complexity of the human mind and, once understood, can give amazing insights into human behaviour but they are not demons, satan or ETs!

There have been a few websites appearing lately that are making some rather dire predictions using reverse speech. In fact one website has predicted no less than 6 nuclear attack warnings in the last 18 months alone, issuing red alerts on his website and generally panicking people. Other websites have predicted massive ET landings and other such fantasies. Needless to say, their predictions have not come true. In all of these cases, their claims have been based either on faulty reversals, or poor understanding of those reversals, often metaphors.

Reverse Speech is a complex phenomenon both in its location and interpretation. Without adhering to some basic guidelines it is possible to make it say anything you want it to. I caution people to be sceptical of claims made by fringe Reverse Speech websites. Stick only to those accredited sites by trained and certified Reverse Speech Analysts and Practitioners.
 

David John Oates, aged 52 years, is the founder and developer of Reverse Speech technologies. He has spent the last 24 years of his life researching and documenting this phenomenon. He has written several books and 100s of articles on the phenomenon as well as appearing on countless radio and TV programs. He has trained 100 of students over the years and has an impressive track record for accuracy. David is also a certified hypnotherapist and attends to his busy therapeutic practice using Reverse Speech to work with his clients problems. He can be contacted in America by phoning 1866 978-5910