COPYRIGHT (1990) GREG ALBRECHT

If conscious and unconscious influences from the Left and Right hemispheres respectively combine in the mind in such a way that Reverse Speech is formed, what actually occurs to create the phenomenon of Reverse Speech? In other words, what is the actual mechanical process or processes responsible for Reverse Speech?

Two of the most common questions asked by people newly exposed to Reverse Speech are: ” HOW and WHY does Reverse Speech happen? The question as to why Reverse Speech occurs has been creditably answered. In this essay, I will endeavor to provide a possible answer, using holography as a model for HOW Reverse Speech actually is created in the mind itself. Please note that when I am using the word “holography”, I am only using it to describe phenomena that have similar features to holograms – it is an analogy.

Picture the hologram as a lenseless type of photograph. It may be defined in the following way…………………..

In holography a laser beam (A) is split by a prism (B) so that half the beam (known as the reference beam) travels onwards to the plate (C), while the other half (known as the control beam) illuminates the object (D) which shines on the plate (C) in such a way that the latter encodes the interference pattern of the two beams, thus storing a three – dimensional impression of the object. When the human eye (lower diagram) looks through a plate re-illuminated by the same laser beam, a three – dimensional hologram of the object is seen.

1.

I recently read an article about the work of Karl Pribram of Stanford University Medical School. Pribram suggests that vision and memory are inter-related in the process whereby they are formed, and that the formative factors determining their existence are analogous to holograms.

Pribram’s ideas are fairly complicated, but in the quoted extract below Turner seeks to explain them………….

“Pribram has made extensive experiments in the visual and memory systems of nearly 2,000 monkeys. Recordings from electrodes implanted in the visual cortex produce wave-forms that vary according to whether the monkey sees stripes or a circle. If the monkey is rewarded with a peanut for learning to push left or right panels, depending on whether stripes or circles are seen, then wave forms alter as he educates himself. This recognition and his “intention to press” alter the wave forms before they register in the visual cortex and before the action is taken. Mutual interference between vision and memory has taken place. Where? In further experiments, Pribram implanted multiple electrodes in: the visual or striate cortex, the inferior temporal cortex (responsible for visual recognition), the lateral geniculate nucleus ( the relay station on the main optic tract ), and the visual colliculus (believed to guide movement of the eyes to objects of interest). He concluded that a feedback system from the retinas of both eyes travel to the geniculate nucleus where they meet a feedforward system, processed in parallel, which has been assembled in the visual colliculus. This assembly includes VISUAL RECOGNITION PATTERNS, LEARNED MEMORIES, as well as inputs from the association cortex and the EMOTIONALLY VOLATILE limbic system and brain stem. WAVE FORMS from these CONVERGING systems MERGE in dialectical patterns of INTERFERENCE and we become conscious, perhaps painfully self-conscious, wherever memory and seeing conflict. Pribram has accumulated much evidence that many brain functions are analogous to holograms and such terms as “WAVE FORM” and “INTERFERENCE PATTERN have special meanings in holography.” (My emphasis.) 2.

It is highly interesting and pertinent to note that vision and memory are two factors that relate directly to Reverse Speech. Martin Stiles has discovered that Speech Reversals “speak” primarily in Visual terms, less frequently in Kinesthetic, and comparatively less frequently in Auditory. This has led Martin and David to wonder, in David’s words, if “Reverse Speech is not an auditory phenomenon, as was first thought, but is rather a visual phenomenon.” Second and Third level reversals sometimes feature details of memory, i.e. names of past lovers, enemies, hurts, etc. At a deeper level, we could think of the collective unconscious, collective memories, etc. Taking these factors into account and the fact that brain functions, like the physiology of the human body, generally are inter-related in an holistic way, it would follow that somehow Reverse Speech is linked to the forces governing vision and memory. If Pribrams theory has credibility, that vision and memory are formed “holographically” in a mutual process, then one might also consider Reverse Speech to be due to processes that are holographic in nature.

Furthermore, note that visual-recognition patterns and learned memories are assembled together with inputs from the emotionally volatile limbic system and brain stem. During the early stages of Reverse Speech research, David and I noted that reversals often occur in emotional situations. Here then, is another clue, together with vision and memory, suggesting that Reverse Speech may somehow be linked to these creative forces.

How do we actually hear speech reversals? We know that backward lip movements mirror the reversed speech. Do we “hear” speech reversals unconsciously through unconscious lip reading? If this were the case, then we would be unconsciously recognizing another person’s Reverse Speech through a process that is directly related to vision. However, this seems to be contradicted by EEG tests that have been conducted where subjects only listened to reversals. These tests provided evidence that simply by listening to reversals, brain activity alters significantly and alters when different types of reversals occur. Nevertheless, this does not discount that seeing may also be involved. TOTAL unconscious recognition of speech reversals may involve seeing and hearing in a way that one complements the other.

When David and I wrote “Beyond Backwardmasking: Reverse Speech And The Voice Of The Inner Mind”, we unknowingly used terms that were peculiar to holography, i.e., “waves” and “impulses” to describe those influences that “converge” in the Zone of Interaction. Pribram uses similar terms. His term, “Interference Pattern”, has a striking parallel to The Zone Of Interaction. He theorizes that wave forms from converging systems merge in dialectic patterns of interference. We theorize that unconscious and conscious waves merge in the Zone Of Interaction.

In a hologram a “ghost image” of an object is formed. Again, we have a similarity. David and I often said that the sound of Reverse Speech was “preternatural” or “ghost-like” in nature.

A hologram creates a three dimensional “ghost-like photograph” of an object. In other words, another visual dimension is created. Likewise in Reverse Speech. Whatever forces that are responsible for its creation are creating another dimension for speech, an auditory reversed dimension that has a ghost-like sound.

Another parallel may be seen in that as holography has a controlling factor, the “control beam”, Reverse Speech has a controlling factor which is the unconscious mind.

Taking all of these factors into account, could conscious and unconscious influences (visual recognition patterns, learned memories, emotional inputs,) assemble, and in the process of convergence, create wave forms that merge in patterns of interference – that encoded in this are two messages that become revealed in the actual act of speech as forward speech sounds that have an added dimension, a complementary message, or another side or face when reversed, thus forming what we call Reverse Speech? In other words, the holographic-like processes within the mind create speech sounds that are two-dimensional in nature, just as the optical illusion on the cover of “Beyond Backwardmasking” has two distinctive images embedded together.

In order to observe the extra dimension which has been added to a two dimensional object in a hologram, we have to look through a plate that has been illuminated by a laser beam. On the other hand, to observe the extra dimension which has been added to speech, i.e. the reversed message, we have to first record it, and then using the appropriate audio equipment, reverse the speech.

Adding fuel the exciting prospect that Reverse Speech may be due to holographic like processes is the following statement by Turner….

While many details about the brain resembling holography remain to be worked out, the experimental evidence for common operating principles is overwhelming. Numerous experiments conducted by different research teams in recent years have shown that cells in the sensory cortex encode holographically. 3.

David has evidence that by the age of four months children begin experimenting with Reverse Speech. This grows in sophistication until eighteen months when they begin to use Metaphors. At two years, Archetypes and Speech Complementarity begin to appear. Vision and memory would be a key factor in this development. Children learn to differentiate objects in their environment gradually, assimilating and accommodating to build memory. Left hemisphere cognitive operations are low at this time whereas the Right Hemisphere is dominant. Could the speech norm for children from four months to age two be due to this dominance? Holographic-like activity within the mind would then occur in the context of the Right Hemisphere being dominant, meaning the forward speech would be gibberish, unformed or undeveloped until maturation of Left Hemisphere processes, which develop as learned memories develop. During this time, children would be unconsciously “practicing” speech in reverse. By the age of two years then, learned memories and the Left Hemisphere are sufficiently mature for complementary forward speech to appear. This would enable a forward message to be holographically encoded or embedded with a reverse message ie. Speech Complementarity. The lack of left hemisphere development and learned memories before two years would restrict forward speech being formed, even though “holography” within the mind could create them, and so, as I said, the forward dimension of speech is unformed.

Could situations where reversals appear on stammerings, stutterings, sighs, laughter, etc. represent a sort of “regression” to the stage where children only speak in reverse? They are similar in that their formation is determined by a dominance of the Right Hemisphere and a forward speech pattern that is gibberish or part gibberish. That is, a reversal may appear on a sigh or on or a sigh together with a word.

Fritjof Capra makes some interesting observations about the use of the hologram as an analogy. He says that………….

“The universe is definitely not a hologram, but it displays a multitude of vibrations of different frequencies, and thus the hologram may often be used as an analogy to describe phenomena associated with these vibratory patterns.”

As in the process of perception, rhythm also plays an important role in the many ways living organisms interact and communicate with one another. Human communication, for example, takes place to a significant extent through the synchronization and interlocking of individual rhythms. Recent film analyses have shown that every conversation involves a subtle and largely unseen dance in which the detailed sequence of speech patterns is precisely synchronized not only with minute movements of the speaker’s body but also with corresponding movements by the listener. Both partners are locked into an intricate and precisely synchronized sequence of rhythmic movements that lasts as long as they remain attentive and involved in their conversation. A similar interlocking of rhythms seems to be responsible for the strong bonding between infants and their mothers, and, most likely, between lovers. 4.

Link reversals are a deeper level of unconscious exchange or connection or synchronization between one or more persons. So the hologram model may have a useful role to play in our understanding of the converging factors that create a link reversal.

All of the above factors have led to a formulation of the following theoretical propositions:

1. That processes akin to holography are a primary factor in the stages whereby a dual natured pattern is encoded in the mind and which becomes evident through the act of uttering sounds that we call “speech”.

2. That this applies to all Speech Reversals.

3. That these processes take place in the Zone of Interaction and occur in a holistic way, involving multiple factors, including the Left and Right Hemispheres of the brain, plus conscious and unconscious influences.

4. That the controlling factor determining the holographic encoding of this dual-natured pattern is the unconscious mind.

5. That factors governing the development of vision, memory and emotion are inextricably linked to this process.

6. That Speech reversals are high in clarity when the holographic processes that determine their existence are reaching a peak, and low when these holographic processes are low.

7.(a) That a dual message is not able to be encoded until two years of age due to an imbalance of hemisphere development the Right being more developed.

(b) That at age two, the Left Hemisphere is sufficiently developed to be able to holographically work together with the Right Hemisphere to create Dual Speech/Speech Complementarity.

8. That the key to understanding the nature and the formation of Link Reversals is the holographic model.

# Please note that in this essay, I am not putting myself forth as an expert in the area of holography or in the way that the human brain functions. I simply have seen some interesting possibilities whereby the holographic model may be useful for us to further understand Reverse Speech/Speech Complementarity. It is my hope that the experts will examine the theory of Reverse Speech seriously, and that perhaps the propositions above will provide a stimulus for further research.

1. Charles Hampden Turner, Maps Of The Mind: Charts And Concepts Of The Mind And Its labyrinths, ( New York, Collier Books, 1981 ) p.96

2. Ibid., p.94

3. Ibid., p.97

4. Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science, Society, And The Rising Culture, ( New York, Bantam Books, 1983 ) p.302

By Kathy J. Jeffries

Reverse Speech is a newly developed technique that reveals a persons true thoughts, feelings and emotions. Since man began speaking, he has communicated both forwards and in reverse. While man consciously speaks forwards, his unconscious is speaking backwards at the same time. The unconscious mind is automatically forming Reverse Speech, which indicates a dual speech process.

The Reverse Speech of a person indicates their subconscious or unconscious thoughts. The Reverse Speech of a person indicates truthful responses or thoughts. The subconscious cannot lie. These thoughts can be on a conscious level, contradicting or confirming the forward speech. This would be the first level of Reverse Speech. The second level of Reverse Speech reveal a persons personality make-up, emotions and thoughts that are not on a conscious level. These reversals use metaphors to communicate the messages from our unconscious mind. The third level of Reverse Speech indicates emotions and feelings from within our deep self. Third level reversals use archetypes as well as metaphors to describe ones’ innermost beliefs. As third level reversals come from the very core of ones’ being, they are very powerful in their meaning.

It has been discovered that children begin speaking in reverse before they learn to speak forwards. This indicates that forwards speech is learned in order to protect ourselves from those who would use our true feelings against us. As children are born without inhibitions, it is only logical that they would learn to speak from the unconscious first, then learn to speak forwards to keep their thoughts and feelings from being known, like a built in defense mechanism.

A child’s Reverse Speech progresses much like their forward speech development. Children begin speaking in reverse at about four months of age, using only one word reversals. As they grow older they begin to put more words together and by the time they are eighteen months old, they begin using metaphors. The metaphors children begin using are handed down to them from thelr parents. By the age of two years, the child’s reversals are very complex, the personality and future behavioral patterns are being formed.

Learning Reverse Speech is similar to learning a new language. The unconscious mind does not use all the colorful and detailed language that we learn to use in speaking forwards. Reverse Speech is very direct and to the point. Metaphors are quite commonly used in reverse. Metaphors describe a feeling, a situation or a behavioral pattern in a person. Many metaphors are common to all people (universal), while people also form metaphors that are representative of their individual self.

Archetypes are similar to metaphors except they indicate a deeper and stronger feeling or belief. Archetypes can be identified by their religious and mythological references. They are handed down through many generations, which explains why so many of the archetypal words are representative of ages many centuries ago.

The oral tradition theory of reverse speech explains how these archetypes and metaphors are passed along to one another, even over centuries of time. This theory states that through the process of reverse speech, people are continuously communicating on an unconscious level. These unconscious communications hand down metaphors and archetypes from generation to generation unknowingly of the conscious level. Carl Jung’s theory of the Collective Unconsclous states that the unconscious mind contains the entire spiritual and cultural heritage of humanity’s development, or more simply stated contains a universal knowledge known to all men on an unconscious level. So through the process of Reverse Speech, we are constantly communicating information passed down through our ancestors, as well as information passed along through our acquaintances, friends, relatives and from ourselves.

The information handed down throughout time is stored in our unconscious and becomes part of our everyday reversed speech. Unconscious knowledge is constantly passed along to others. Cases have been documented where there was no way someone could know a fact on a conscious level, but they did communicate it through Reverse Speech, on an unconscious level.

The newly discovered technique of detecting speech reversals will have a very profound effect on society as we know it today.

Locating and analyzing the reverse speech of a person can help to discover why a person has certain behavior patterns. In the field of psychology, it could possibly take years of therapy to discover why a person intentionally does things that have a negative effect on their life. With a few reverse speech sessions, you could locate the source of the problem, and then the change process could begin to take place, literally saving months or even years of psychotherapy. You would be able to locate circumstances that caused problems from early childhood or from a more recent situation.

This amazing discovery can be extremely beneficial to children. A child will often have a problem, but will not have any idea how to express it. They may not even recognize that there is a problem. Through Reverse Speech, one could locate behavior problems very early in a child’s life. Correcting these problems early on, the child can avoid destructive tendencies as it grows up. You could help a child build his self esteem, deal with everyday problems, and help with the more serious problems such as child abuse or molestation. I see reverse speech as an indispensable tool to help prevent teenage suicide, which seems to be so rampant in our times. I believe that through the reverse speech process child psychologists can learn how to help children if their parents become divorced. At the present time not enough is known about a child’s feelings to help them through a difficult time.

Since one’s Reverse Speech is truthful, detecting these reversals on suspected criminals could be a major breakthrough in law enforcement. It would probably take ten years for this technology to be accepted into evidence in a court of law, having to go through the Supreme Court for a final decision. In the interim, Reverse Speech can be used to help find hard evidence that law enforcement agencies could use to prosecute with. On the other side, Reverse Speech may help to convince police if a suspect is really innocent. Once reverse Speech goes public, I am sure there will be many lawsuits to determine if the police departments can use Reverse Speech on a suspect, or if it is an invasion of their privacy.

Politicians and other public figures will probably be the ones most effected by Reverse Speech. They may eventualiy resort to press releases instead of public speeches if they intend to hide their true feelings on sensitive issues. If you think politicians have a tough time dealing with their private life and public office, just wait until they are judged on their innermost thoughts and feelings, beliefs that have nothing to do with the office they hold.

There will be people who will try and find a way around Reverse Speech. Some of them may even learn to suppress certain reversals. I believe Reverse Speech could be the key to a more honest society. It will change the way people think, and will change the way parents bring up their children. This is a very refreshing idea. People have lost a lot of their moral values and Reverse Speech may give people a reason to find those values again. I don’t believe this is a gimmicky thing that will have a short term effect, but something that will change the lives of all future generations. The universe has a way of restoring order to chaos, and I believe Reverse Speech has that role to play in today’s society.

By Merle

Communication takes many forms. Our bodies communicate through body language, our eyes reveal the sensory modality we use to construct any thought which immediately becomes speech, and speech itself takes more than one form.

Our conscious speech, which will be referred to as forward speech, is not the first speech to emerge and to reveal the level of our language development. As early as four months of age a form of communication called reserve speech is used by some infants to communicate needs. So far as we know, all infants begin aural communication as reverse speech with forward speech developing some months later. Reverse speech merges with forward speech and the two are normally emitted simultaneously before the age of two years.

Reverse speech often is complementary to forward speech in that it enlarges upon the message, amplifies it, and broadens the scope. Reverse speech may also negate the forward message, or it may be an internal dialogue which has nothing to do with the message of forward speech. Unlike forward speech, much reverse speech is difficult to understand without specialized training Reverse Speech Theory.

The messages we get in reverse speech are referred to as reversals. Reversals may often be found in dialogue with a great deal of emotional content, sometimes coming seconds apart. In normal conversational dialogue reversals are usually found no further than 15 seconds apart.

Reversals are rated on a scale from one to five with five being the clearest. A five reversal is almost as clearly heard as forward speech. A reversal with a rating of one is very unclear and is detected with much difficulty. Rating a reversal has to do with the clarity of the speech reversal.

Another component of the reversal has to do with the language it contains. Reversals are categorized into 12 types. Categories are determined by the way the reversal complements, expands, contradicts, mirrors, emphasizes, and in some way relates to the forward message.

Usually, monologues, speeches which are read, and lectures have very few reversals, if any. As mentioned above, most reversals occur during conversational speech which has emotional content.

The phenomenon of reverse speech may be most readily explained by the dynamics of Carl Jung’s model of the psyche. His model breaks down into three categories, 1) Consciousness, which Jung said “is an intermittent phenomenon… Every night we sink into unconsciousness, and only phases between waking and sleeping have we a more or less clear consciousness. To a certain extent it is even questionable how clear that consciousness is.” Everything passes into consciousness by way of the unconscious according to Jung. Sense perceptions, objects and events all become conscious for moments and then pass out of consciousness as our awareness shifts to something else or turns itself off. The relationship between the conscious and unconscious states is extremely complex. 2)Personal unconscious is made up of contents which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed. 3) The collective unconscious Jung describes as “a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually, but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes.”

The inheritance of this collective unconscious can well be explained by the phenomenon of reverse speech. Reversals are not initiated by our conscious psyche so far as we can determine. It appears that they have their origin in the collective unconscious. Support for this is in the language we use for reverse speech. Metaphors and archetypes are sprinkled throughout reverse speech and we must know the meaning and intent of these symbols if we are to understand the message sent by the reversal. Reverse speech may explain how each of us gains our collective unconscious. David Oates and others have shown that each of us picks up metaphors from others and use them in our reverse speech, even though a metaphor may be a personal metaphor specific to one person. These metaphors and archetypes are used only in our collective unconscious (reverse speech) and are not seen in our conscious speech.

Although reverse speech is largely an unconscious activity, a good interviewer can elicit reversals, even reversals of a specific metaphorical nature. It takes training and a great deal of practice to use these communication tools.

Reverse speech has found a hook-up not only with Carl Jung’s theories, but also with the theoretical base of Psycholinguistic Programming (NLP). The eye movement detection which reveals the sensory mode of the cognitive pattern construction can also reveal the mode in which a person is constructing reversals. If eye movement can be observed along with forward dialogue, there is much information to be gained from correlating these with the reversals.

Returning to the messages we glean from reverse speech, we see that much of the reverse speech dialogue is couched in the same language as we use in forward speech. So we have language that we use consciously being used in reverse speech with interspersals of metaphors and archetypes. If all reverse speech was in the language of metaphors or archetypes, it would be much more difficult to decipher.

Finding reversals to interpret is the crux of reverse speech. Seventy-five percent of training and practice time is spent on locating reversals in reverse speech. They are normally found in dialogue of emotional content where the voice trails off into mumbles, where we stutter, where we repeat or where we back up and take another direction in our conversation.

The usual way to find reversals is to play a tape through to the end and reverse the direction of the tape slowing it to a speed which accommodates the listener. When the listener hears sounds which may be words, the tape is reversed to hear forward dialogue, the reversed again to hear the speech reversal. After this operation is repeated four or five times, and no clear message is forth coming, one can assume it was gibberish that was heard and continue on looking for reversals. When a reversal has been established, the exact forward dialogue is noted along with thepoint where the reversal begins and ends. In this manner, an entire tape is transcribed.

The transcription is validated with the subject of the interview as to its content. Transcriptions are held in strictest confidence and should be known only to the transcriber and the subject.

This confidentiality must exist for the benefit of the client for this person may be in psychotherapy or the client may be in the criminal justice system where confidentiality could mean the difference between a trial verdict which stands and a mistrial.

Possible uses for reverse speech other than psychological analysis, and criminal justice, is therapeutic use with children, therapy with the dying and validation of charges of abuse which children may lodge against adults. Reverse speech may also be used in espionage activity, as a part of interviewer techniques in personnel offices, and to aid sales persons. The uses it can be called to serve in detecting dishonest, wayward, or hidden communication is unlimited.

Resources

Jung, C.G. Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and the Practice (Vantage Books edition 1970) New York: Vantage Books, 1968.

Collected Works, Vol. 9i: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton: Bollinger Series, Princeton University Press, 1969.

Robertson, Robin. C.G. Jung and the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. Peter Lang: American University Studies, 1987.1