# Backwards speech - I'm skeptical **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203 "2006-01-09T19:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/1 "2006-01-09T19:57:32Z")
I just stumbled onto this website and I recall hearing something about this phenomenon on the radio a few years ago. I was highly skeptical then and remain so now. I suspect the people who support this are experiencing confirmation bias and nothing more, but I’m just wondering what anybody else thinks? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/2 "2006-01-09T20:14:09Z")
.em pihsroW .nataS ma I. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/3 "2006-01-09T20:46:00Z")
Almost all cases of backmasking are of the “I heard it once I was told what to listen for” variety. If I needed a real-life reason to dismiss this idea, that would be it. If you recorded a conversation and played it in reverse, you’d hear some things that sounded like words and maybe a few phrases. But it requires so much interpreting and is usually so muddy that I can’t believe anyone thinks people really communicate this way. There are plenty of real examples of this stuff in music. But it’s almost always a joke at the expense of people who are so obsessed with this stuff that they played their records backward. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/4 "2006-01-09T20:52:01Z")
Human pattern-seeking behavior. If you don’t know what the examples are “supposed” to say when reversed, they sound like complete gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/5 "2006-01-09T21:06:33Z")
Go to [http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm](http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm) Listen to all the backwards recordings **without looking at the supposed backwards messages**. Then look at the backwards messages the second time you play them. See how many you could understand without reading the backwards messages first. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/6 "2006-01-10T01:47:38Z")
Absolute claptrap and nonsense; for many, many reasons, but chiefly: WHY would human speech do this? And the fact that the hidden messages the reverse speech guy claims to find are at best stilted and garbled and at worst, completely nonsensical. So even if it works, it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Bernard\_Marx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@Bernard\_Marx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernard_Marx)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/7 "2006-01-10T04:13:59Z")
Aus. Dopers who like watching weird stuff on SBS may have seen _Speaking in Tongues_ which is a religious talk show kind of thing hosted by John Safran(Mondays 9pm, SBS). They had a bloke on a few weeks ago who was a proponent of reverse speech. He played a few samples which somehow “proved” that the Prime Minister was a racist or something like that. As already noted, if you didn’t read the subtitles the reverse speech was just gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/8 "2006-01-10T04:32:49Z")
!htarw ylohnu yM rednu gnimaercs eid ro ,nataS pihsrow dna nwod woB !smrow gnillevins uoy ,yllaer ,oN. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/9 "2006-01-10T05:27:10Z")
That’s so weird… suddenly I feel like bowling until dawn, and wishing that Santa would dye silkscreened underwear for **BrainGlutton**. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/10 "2006-01-10T15:54:31Z")
That is weird. I have this sudden impulse to sing “row, row, row your boat” while treating **BrainGlutton’s** warts. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backwards-speech-im-skeptical/339203/11 "2006-01-10T16:37:53Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Go to [Backmasking](http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm) Listen to all the backwards recordings **without looking at the supposed backwards messages**. Then look at the backwards messages the second time you play them. See how many you could understand without reading the backwards messages first. Cool link. While most of them are a stretch, the Eminem one sounds like it could have been intentional, and I’m certain the Pink Floyd and Weird Al ones _were_ intentional. There’s also a bit of backward talking on Butthole Surfer’s “Pepper” (if that’s the name, I haven’t heard it in a long time) but it’s just the chorus in reverse.