The Medical Post

Back Talk

By Lawrence Segel

It used to be getting the truth out of someone's speech was pretty straightforward - now an Australian researcher says the reverse is actually true. You may find the researcher's technique a little backward in more ways than he intended ...

Did O.J. Simpson commit murder? What do JonBenet Ramsey's parents actually know about their daughter's death? What is your patient really telling you in those tugging psychotherapy and counselling sessions? According to Australian researcher David John Oates, the answer to these questions and many of life's other mysteries reside in a new psychological discovery - Reverse Speech.

Oates' research efforts began in 1984 when he was director of a privately-funded halfway house for teenagers in the Australian town of Berri. At that time there was a controversy swirling over rock and roll music. A sinister theory was making the rounds that backward Satanic messages were subliminally being inserted into the music by a recording process known as back-masking. Perhaps one of the most famous examples is a Beatles tune that supposedly has the hidden message, "Paul is dead!"

Oates was skeptical of these concealed messages, and so rewired his stereo equipment and began to investigate. To his surprise, he could indeed make out hidden intelligible phrases that seemed to go beyond anything simply attributable to back-masking. With the right equipment he could detect it in everyday taped speech. In 1987, Oates published his findings in a book titled, Beyond Backward-Masking: Reverse Speech and the Voice of the Inner Mind. Other books, training courses, the selling of specialized playback recording equipment (modified auto reverse cassette players with a variable speed control), talk show interviews - including the Larry King Show - and magazine articles have followed.

According to Oates, human speech is composed of two distinctive, yet complementary functions and modes. The "overt" mode is spoken forward and is under conscious control. The "covert" mode is spoken backward, imbedded in the sounds of our speech, and is involuntary. Both occur simultaneously, but the backward speech represents our mind's voice speaking from the deepest regions of consciousness - the involuntary voice of truth.

Oates believes this form of communication can be heard when human speech is recorded, and then the tape is played backward. Once every five to 10 seconds precise phrases can be detected, often hidden in the high tonal range. They can be easily missed unless a person is trained in detecting their subtleties. Oates has labelled and trademarked this phenomena, Reverse Speech.

The following are two examples of hidden reverse messages Oates said he has translated, and have been reported in the press:

O.J. Simpson on taped TV interview: "I would say anyone out there that's married and in a relationship, just turn a tape recorder on the next time you have an argument and play it back. You will not believe that was you." Oates' reverse translation: "I skinned them all." (Skinned is also a colloquialism for conned or fooled.)

Patsy Ramsey on taped interview: "We feel that there are at least two people on the face of the earth who know who did this, and that is the killer and someone else that person may have confided in." Oates' reverse translation: "I'm that person. Seen that rape."

Oates says he was consulted during the Waco siege in Texas. FBI agents asked him to do a Reverse Speech analysis of sect leader David Koresh. "They gave me some tapes and I submitted a report. It basically said that he (Koresh) would not come out. The reversals I did on Koresh predicted great disaster if the FBI stayed there."

There are interesting family practice implications should Oates' theory pan out. Taping patient interviews and counselling sessions (with permission) and then analysing them in reverse may uncover hidden findings. For instance, Oates feels Reverse Speech describes subconscious areas such as personality patterns, behavioural agenda, hidden memories and experiences, and the state of the physical body. Oates believes the most significant value of Reverse Speech comes in the form of expressing metaphors, since 90% of all language reversals speak in pictures and images. It can be used as a tool in everyday psychotherapy and counselling sessions where these metaphors and hidden memories may give the underlying reasons for psychological problems, even when the patient voluntarily refuses to divulge them. As an example, the metaphorical speech reversal "The wolf has fallen in the lake," may give clues to a patient's cries for survival or protection. A physician detecting this may be clued in to the patient's possible suicidal ideation or abuse, and take corrective steps more quickly. Oates does not stop at simply elucidating these key metaphors, but feels the phenomena is adaptable to hypnotherapy where more appropriate healing metaphors can be introduced through suggestion.

Other uses for Reverse Speech put forward include employers using it as a employee selection tool, lawyers in deposition analysis, law enforcement in the investigation of crimes, and reporters for analysing politicians' speeches.

Is the human mind no longer private? If the theory is true, the implications are scary.

Much controversy exists. Oates has been called a charlatan, con man and pseudoscientist. Oates has a different take. "If it becomes common practice, it will force everyone - politicians, friends, employers, employees, religious leaders - to tell the truth out loud. No wonder some people are running scared!"

Decide for yourself. Family practitioners can learn more about this unusual hypothesis, or listen to some examples of reverse speech at the Reverse Speech Web site:www.reversespeech.com.

Lawrence Segel is a physician and assistant vice-president for medical research and development at a Toronto financial firm.

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