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 which, if played backwards, the words "small step for man" become a supposedly clear "man will spacewalk".

However it has been argued that without prompting no one would hear this phrase, and only once we had been told what to listen for would we hear it.

The presence of negatively influencing, 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.

Any ideas about this?

Personally, unless prompted, I can very rarely hear the supposed voices in backwards-played clips. I suspect that noticing voices and words in backwards clips is an audio counterpart to pareidolia; Humans are likely programmed to find anything sounding like a human voice.

I agree. I find it intreuging, but I thought about it and saw the logical flaws in the theory. I found a good refutation of the theory here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040212182630/.../revspeech1.htm

Another very facinating topic

The most known "reversed speak" I've heard about is this:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/stairway.php

and like you said, would you hear the words in reverse if you haven't been told what to listen for?

Interesting.... On that link I provided it has an expirement involving people who did not know that there was reversed speech in the auido. They found a lot less words than the people who knew what to look for.

I've done quite a bit of research on this subject and listened to a lot of song clips with reverse speech in them. Listening to that stuff creeps me out. One of the more interesting clips I've listened to is one where this guys house is on fire and he screams "The house is on fire!" When played backwards it's the exact same as it is forwards. Pretty cool. The scariest one I've heard is the Led Zepplin one though. If it's true that a person's intentions can be heard by listening to their speech backwards, that'd be pretty damn awesome. Imagine how much easier it would be to solve crime.

Well, one person has to hear the words before they can tell others what to listen for.

I always just hear static, nothing significant, and then bam with the subtitles on...yeah, no sorry, even with subtitles, I still can't hear anything significant...

All I can say is: read "Broca's Brain" by Carl Sagan.

Deja vu. Haha, I did post in your other thread though. But I guess I can post in here too.
I was thinking that it did tie into the subconscious and I was going to get a proper link.

http://www.reversespeech.com/Simple_Examples.htm
try downloading those files before reading the text. I did it with one, and heard three out of five words

ty for the link
I'll check it out.

NP!
Also look at the "children and RS" or something. that' kinda freaky.

I've heard some of the "Satanic" reverse speech. I have to admit that that was entertaining. I'd like to reverse some of my speech one day (wonder what I would say).

Btw Yelekiah, what are those names in your signature? (the circle)
I recognize some (Adonay, Eloha and Uriel), but what do the tohers mean?
/off topic

It also says (Adonay) *Eieh Agla* (Eloha) on my sig. They are also angelic names. It's really like an acronym for God.

I to have studied reverse speech for quite some time know. Most of the time I cannot here anything in reversed speech. One theory in reverse speech is that the reverse will be different depending or your mood. That cannot be because reverse speech is soley dependent on the syllibals of the forward speech. So, the reverse speech should be the same, every time.

Another element in reverse speech is that children do it before learning forward speech. If this is true, all the things were learned about in child care and childs brain are completely flawed. And to think about it, how can researchers and scientists miss this huge aspect of the brain?

David John Oates must be a total wackjob. It is so painfully obvious that when you speak, all you are saying is what you have to say. One in twenty million sentaces might sound a little like another sentance when played backwards, but seriously, how can anyone possibly even dare to suggest such an enragingly ridiculous theory? These kind of people, who seriously misinform people all over the world seriously irritate me. Let me guess, somehow the guy makes money from his theory?

I also highly doubt that children learn to reverse speak before they learn to speak. Even if it did, how would that possibly make "all the things were learned about in child care and childs brain are completely flawed."?

The "satanic" reverse speech in songs is made intentionally. (Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven)

Here is a site with some interesting reversed pieces: http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

Can you only listen to reversed speech- like you can't write something down and try and reverse it?

You have to listen to reverse speech to avoid a big headache. This is why:

Take the letter I (i)
When you say it forwards, it sounds like this: "ai"

So take a word like "Pie"
If you read it backwards its: "Eip" (pronounced how it sounds)
But that's not how it works when you play it backwards.

Take the letter I (i) again
When you play it backwards it sounds like this: "ia"
So take the word "Pie"
If you play it backwards its: "Iap"

Get it?

I agree with Wombat, this is one phenomenon I really don't believe in. I mean, it's hard enough to talk forward, how the hell can you say what you want to say forward while at the same time managing to convey a thought backward? And the "evidence" I've heard has been less than convincing. It's very fuzzy and mangled sounding and it just doesn't sound that much like what they're claiming it is.

Some of it's funny, though. There used to be an X-Files reverse speech site and it had things like David Duchovny saying (backwards) "Why does the boy not bring my subs?", and speculating that he was hungry. And there is/was this one with a U2 clip from With or Without You where it sounds alot like, "Oooh, we slap you, oooh, we slap you... we want it".

It would make it seriously flawed because that means that the way children learn and act before they speak is all wrong. I think this guy is a nutjob also. He makes money by training people how to be 'reversed speech anylists'. You have to pay about a hundred bucks to learn how to interpret reverse speech.