From: lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism,alt.satanism
Subject: Re: Backward Masking
Date: 9 Apr 92 19:15:00 GMT
 <8APR199215152365@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> <ogorman.702838203@unix1.tcd.ie>
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In article <ogorman.702838203@unix1.tcd.ie>, ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie (Lucifuge) writes...
>In <8APR199215152365@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
> 
>>In article <ogorman.702753753@unix1.tcd.ie>, ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie (Lucifuge) writes...
>>>In <7APR199209183545@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
>>> 
>>>Ok. This is true. I gave the generic definition of a backmask. It's just
>>>as easy to do the other. Get a tape. Record your message (say "Jesus
>>>Saves" - it's been done though with heavy sarcasm). Play backwards. Work
>>>out from the phonetics off the phrase (it will sound nothing like sevas
>>>susej BTW) some words that approximate that sound. Record this forwards.
>>>Listen backwards and you'll hear a muddy version of the original
>>>message. No technical difficulty. For the record, I've never been able
>>>to hear anything in 'Stairway...'.
> 
>>Actually, this isn't what I meant, but you're right that this is yet
>>another type of backwards message.  What I meant was that the fundamentalists
>>claim that vocal tracks which are ordinary, plain English when played
>>forwards (not "manually" reversed words), e.g., "if there's a bustle
>>in your hedge row, don't be alarmed now, it's just a spring clean for
>>the May Queen"--becomes a satanic message (again in English) when played
>>in reverse (e.g., "he will give you 666").  The Beatles' "Revolution #9"
>>is another example--the "number nine" that sounds like "turn me on, dead
>>man" when reversed.  (If you try this at home, you need to say it like
>>"number nye-nuh.")
> 
>I don't think you get me. This is what I mean. You can, with a bit of
>work, get a phrase which sounds like another phrase when played
>backwards. The forwards piece is formed of real words which you get by
>the method I descibed. For instance "I'm" forwards becomes "my"
>backwords. Anyway this is getting away from the original claim that the
>technology for such a backmask did not exist. I think anybody can see
>that it did. 

OK, sorry I misunderstood.  I thought you were referring to messages
such as those used on one of Christian Death's albums, where English
words were simply spoken backwards.
   I don't think that the technique you describe above is a plausible
explanation for many of the "messages" perceived by fundamentalists
(for instance, the "Stairway to Heaven" example).  I think they are
imposing the message on a highly ambiguous stimulus by means of their
expectations rather than there being any message intended by the
recording artists.

>Ollie
> 
>----------------------Do you want what I want?-----------------------
>                         More alternatives?
>            Energy derives from both the plus and negative. 
> 
>------------------------ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie-------------------------

Jim Lippard              Lippard@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy      Lippard@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Newsgroups: alt.atheism