Accessing The Unconscious Through Reverse Speech Therapy

The Journal for Audiology and Speech Pathology

Hidden Language

By Marc Iskowitz

A ‘hidden language’ that provides a window into the depths of a patient’s consciousness may help clinicians diagnose and treat a variety of disorders, according to Karen Boone, OMD, PhD.

Dr. Boone, a certified Reverse Speech™ master analyst who is vice president of Reverse Speech Enterprises, Inc., in Bonsall, CA, and has a private practice, called Reverse Speech therapy an alternative modality that can be used as an adjunct to other modes of therapy for a variety of problems, such as stuttering, insomnia and depression. She received her certification in Reverse Speech through the Reverse Speech Enterprises training program.

Company founder David John Oates, certified in hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming, discovered the phenomenon and developed the technology over a period of 15 years. He and Dr. Boone, who is also a licensed acupuncturist, believe that Reverse Speech emanates from the right brain, although scientific proof of this has not yet been validated.

“Our brains create the sounds of our speech to communicate two messages at the same time-one forward (overt) from the conscious mind and one in reverse (covert) from the unconscious mind,” Dr. Boone said. Speech “reversals” reveal what a person is thinking or feeling at the time of speaking and are complementary with the forward dialogue.

The Reverse Speech dialect expresses itself through thousands of unconscious metaphors that can be heard when typical speech is tape-recorded and played in reverse. Reversals appear in concise metaphor approximately 80 percent of the time, she said. The metaphors represent pictorial descriptions of the unconscious workings of the mind.

Dr. Boone and Oates attached meaning to these speech language patterns. The metaphors depict the core causes and symptoms of behavior, they claim. Discussions, hypnosis and visualizations are used to change these pictures and alter dysfunctional behavior patterns.

The practitioners often work together in treating patients. She conducts acupuncture diagnosis and treatment, and he analyzes the client’s Reverse Speech. The addition of herbs and massage enhance the therapy by helping to move stagnant energy.

In an initial 30-minute Reverse Speech session, they ask clients such questions as “What is going on in your life?” and “How long have you felt that way?”

The identification of metaphors is accomplished subjectively by listening to the speech on a Reversing Machine™, a cassette player that has been modified to play both forward and backward at variable speeds. To isolate the metaphors Oates compiled a Reverse Speech Metaphor Dictionary, which is added to regularly.

“Many times we don’t know what the metaphors mean until we hear them used again and again in the same way,” Dr. Boone stated.

The purpose of Reverse Speech therapy is to analyze the metaphors and shift dysfunctional patterns. Understanding metaphors and how they interrelate explains the source of many problems, she said.

Identifying the means to heal the problem metaphors and ascertaining that they have healed may require three or four 15-minute tapings. Once the metaphors are identified, the clinicians work with the patient to “heal” the dysfunctional ones and reinforce those that are healthy, which is called Metaphor Restructuring™. A complete round of treatment typically consists of 10 or 12 sessions over a period of several months.

For example, the reversal “My wolf is sick” contains the metaphor for the motivator or protector of the psyche. According to Dr. Boone, the wolf is a prime structural metaphor first described by Carl Jung. Clients who subconsciously utter this metaphor lack motivation.

Similarly, she said, the reversal “My wolf has fallen in the lake” means the client?s motivation and ambition in life are drowning in a sea of emotion. Through unconscious restructuring, patients can “heal” this metaphor by identifying with the sick wolf and then being guided through metaphoric imagery suggested in their own reversals. As the metaphor or unconscious script changes, so will their behavior.

An example of a positive reversals is “My goddess shines her light,” meaning “I have hope for the future, and it looks very bright.”

A reversal containing the phrase “I will” or “I shall” constitutes a future tense reversal, which will come to fruition unless something is done to change the programming, Dr. Boone said.

She and Oates use trance work with patients to restructure dysfunctional metaphors and change the scenario. Initially, in an awake state the practitioners ask their clients what they need to heal their goddess or wolf; then they conduct a trance following the instructions revealed in the reversals.

“Clients might say, ‘I have no idea what I need in order to heal,'” Dr. Boone said, “but the reversal will generally be there.”

She and Oates have used Reverse Speech therapy, in combination with other modalities, to successfully treat stuttering, insomnia, asthma and depression, which is one of the most common problems. Clients who initially seek treatment for psychological issues also have reported relief from certain kinds of pain, including fibromyalgia, arthritis and recurring headaches.

Reverse Speech also can describe the state of physical and emotional health, according to Dr. Boone.

“Reversals are not governed by the exact words spoken but by the sounds of speech,” she said. The same sentence spoken by two people probably will yield different reversals because subtle variations in speech alter the reversed sounds. Nuances of speech such as sighs and laughter also can reveal reversals.

When played in reverse, normal human speech contains messages that crop up at an average of every five to 15 seconds, Dr. Boone noted. Spotting reversals requires training the ears to hear a variety of tones. Novices may not always find reversals on their own, but they are “quite clear once located. If another person cannot substantiate a reversal, it’s probably imagined.”

Forward and backward modes of speech combine to communicate the total psyche of a person, she said. In children backward speech develops about six to 12 months before forward speech.

She has recordings of single-word reversals such as “hello,” “hungry” and “Mommy” in children as young as 4 months. Their reversals have an ethereal tone to them, said Dr. Boone. “It’s like a chorus of many voices speaking the same words.”

As people age, their personalities tend to fragment, she said. Their messages rarely are united in a single sentence like children’s; rather, they are expressed through a multitude of sentences occurring at multiple levels.

Individuals can self-administer a simple form of Reverse Speech therapy, said Boone. “It’s a phenomenal self-help tool.” However, “you typically will not hear your deepest reversals on yourself. If the problem is something you have taken years to repress, the ears are not eager to hear it. Generally you hear the most superficial reversals initially, accessing deeper levels in time.”

There are probably 10,000 Reversing Machines in existence, Dr. Boone estimated. Although more people are studying and utilizing the therapy, “the field is still in its infancy. It’s too early to state as scientific law, but the validity of Reverse Speech does seem to be borne out by experience.”

 

 

The Holographic Theory Of Reverse Speech & Speech Complementarity

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.
Holographic - Greg Albrecht

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

Essay On Reverse Speech

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.