Satanic Backwards Masking

[DeanLautermilch]

I’m most of you recall the backwards masking hysteria of the 70s and 80s.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backwards_masking

 

Anyway I was a former fundamentalist and this to me was absolute proof of Satan his staff at work.

 

The one example of this is something I don’t see easily explained is a live incident on the ‘Rush’ album ‘All the Worlds a Stage’. The song is the concert opener, ‘Anthem’

 

I’ve uploaded the same section of ‘Anthem’ in MP3 format in both directions.

 

http://www.swindledforjesus.com/forward.mp3

 

http://www.swindledforjesus.com/reverse.mp3

 

As you listen to the reverse copy, the speech changes from garbled to something you can understand at around 15 seconds into it.

 

‘Oh Satan, you are the one who is shining.

Walls of Satan. Walls of sacrifice.

I know it’s you are the one I love.’

 

 

I think about putting this on my website http://www.swindledforjesus.com/ as part of my Christian history.

[Grandpa Harley]

I listened and I can't hear that... I do hear the word 'satan' a couple of times, but with my near autistic talent for spotting patterns with in patterns, I can also hear that it's across two words (that indicated by a non natural inflection change mid word) So.. I'd say it's mental Rorschachery... one thing the human mind fears more than any other - random noise. Be it audio or visual... our mind flees from it faster than it does a hungry tiger (I think we find the horror of being hunted less stressful than no meaning at all...)

[Guest Marty]

When I was at school learning recording engineering we took a seminar about the ears and brain. This day was a part of my de-programming from xtianity, because I grew up in the mid to late 80's and listened to heavy metal, so I was always warned of the satanic origins of the music genre. I also believed in "backwards masking".

 

In the seminar we were learning how every aspect of how the human ear works can be traced to what cavemen would need to survive in the wild. Our hearing is most sensitive in the mid range, which just happenes to be where human speech is. The ability to hear higher frequencies can be for hearing leaves rustle which may be a predator in the bushes. The loudest thing cavemen would hear would be thunder, and even today if you flash a camera in your eyes your hearing will "compress" for a split nano second because the brain is thinking loud thunder is comming right away. Our ears plug up during air flight because if a caveman went from a lower altitude to a higher one, it was gradual as he was walking up a mountain. If he went from a higher to lower quickly, well, he fell off a cliff and died. So the eustation tubes didn't need to work differently untill just recently. I could go on and on with the examples the teacher was listing.

 

The he said the most elegant thing. "So can anyone tell me why the caveman brain would need to pick up on words that were softer than the ambient noise level and were backwards, then decipher them sub-consiciously and make the caveman act on them"? All of a sudden backwards masking made no sense to me anymore.

 

We had lab classes too, where we would load on tapes of bands the school had recorded and learn mixing techniques. One night we were learning effects like backwards reverb (very popular in the middle 8 sections of 80's hair rock) and just by chance, the tape we had for that lab was a xtian band.

 

To do a backwards reverb on analog tape, you must put the reel of tape on backwards so the whole bands is in reverse. Then record the reverb on an open track, then when you flip the tape back correctly, voila! Backwards reverb.

 

Well, all 6 students in the lab plus the teacher heard plain as day from the xtian bands background vocals "Lord Satan, Lord Satan, Lord Satan."

[kellyb]

This is an excellent site on backmasking. Listen to the songs backwards first WITHOUT reading what they're "supposed" to be saying.

Then listen again, reading the words.

Very, very weird how once you know what to listen for, suddenly you can hear it clear as a bell.

 

It's an illusion, though.

 

Oh...do Stairway to Heaven first. It's the coolest one. I think the Pink Floyd one actually probably was intentional, too. It sounds backwards when listened to forwards.

 

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

 

ETA:

Hahaha...the Weird Al one..."Nature Trail to Hell"...that one's probably intentional, too...

[Sparrow]

... text ...

 

Well, all 6 students in the lab plus the teacher heard plain as day from the xtian bands background vocals "Lord Satan, Lord Satan, Lord Satan."

 

This is a good point.

 

One wonders of course what an gay, athiest, heavy-leather, country-and-western. punk band would sound like if it was backward-masked!

 

The mind boggles at the very thought.

 

Spatz

[Amethyst]

The human mind tries to make sense out of chaos. It is how we learn. Unfortunately, it can go too far when the human mind is obsessed with something (like avoiding Satan). So I'm not surprised someone's mind would make something sound like Satan when it's random.

[Taphophilia]

Why is it always Satan? Why doesn't Jesus ever put backward masking stuff on songs? I've yet to hear a Christian say, we've played a Marilyn Manson song backwards and it's Jesus. Is Satan just more creative than Jesus?

[Brother Jeff]

The Christian band Petra intentionally put a backmasked message into their 1982 song "Judas Kiss" (from their More Power to Ya album). It said:

 

"What are you looking for the Talking Snake for, when you ought to be looking for the Lard?"

 

It made my brain feel funny.

[Ahh!]

Proof backmasking doesn't work:

 

Average "message from Satan":

 

"Satan Satan Satan, I want a tuna sandwich, Satan."

[AKR]

When I was at school learning recording engineering we took a seminar about the ears and brain. This day was a part of my de-programming from xtianity, because I grew up in the mid to late 80's and listened to heavy metal, so I was always warned of the satanic origins of the music genre. I also believed in "backwards masking".

 

In the seminar we were learning how every aspect of how the human ear works can be traced to what cavemen would need to survive in the wild. Our hearing is most sensitive in the mid range, which just happenes to be where human speech is. The ability to hear higher frequencies can be for hearing leaves rustle which may be a predator in the bushes. The loudest thing cavemen would hear would be thunder, and even today if you flash a camera in your eyes your hearing will "compress" for a split nano second because the brain is thinking loud thunder is comming right away. Our ears plug up during air flight because if a caveman went from a lower altitude to a higher one, it was gradual as he was walking up a mountain. If he went from a higher to lower quickly, well, he fell off a cliff and died. So the eustation tubes didn't need to work differently untill just recently. I could go on and on with the examples the teacher was listing.

 

The he said the most elegant thing. "So can anyone tell me why the caveman brain would need to pick up on words that were softer than the ambient noise level and were backwards, then decipher them sub-consiciously and make the caveman act on them"? All of a sudden backwards masking made no sense to me anymore.

 

We had lab classes too, where we would load on tapes of bands the school had recorded and learn mixing techniques. One night we were learning effects like backwards reverb (very popular in the middle 8 sections of 80's hair rock) and just by chance, the tape we had for that lab was a xtian band.

 

To do a backwards reverb on analog tape, you must put the reel of tape on backwards so the whole bands is in reverse. Then record the reverb on an open track, then when you flip the tape back correctly, voila! Backwards reverb.

 

Well, all 6 students in the lab plus the teacher heard plain as day from the xtian bands background vocals "Lord Satan, Lord Satan, Lord Satan."

 

 

very interesting post, and the last part made me laugh.

 

we were having this discussion on another forum, and i've been tempted to take some christian songs into cubase and see what i can come up with. as a student of psychology, the idea of subliminal messages like this are a joke to me. sure, colors and styles of music can subconsciously influence you to feel a certain way, but only when your conscious mind is processing those things. when you can't consciously see or hear or understand those things, it's nonexistant to your brain. the whole idea of backward messages just seems so ridiculous. if i listen to the message being played forward, and i can't consciously understand what that message sounds like backwards, then how the hell is my subconscious going to do any better?

[Robbobrob]

I should have killed a whole bus load of people by now because of all the music I listened to back in the 80's.

 

Well, I can say that until they find the bus I buried....BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Fweethawt]

!pu em skcarc tihs ykaerf siht llA

[Guest ThemOrUs]

The Christian band Petra intentionally put a backmasked message into their 1982 song "Judas Kiss" (from their More Power to Ya album). It said:

 

"What are you looking for the Talking Snake for, when you ought to be looking for the Lard?"

 

It made my brain feel funny.

 

Yeah, and they stuck it right out in the open at the beginning of the track before the music started!

 

Not a bad record actually, I still have it. They had more of a classic-rock sound then, and Greg X Volz was the best singer that band ever had. I don't buy the fairytale anymore, but they were a pretty decent band otherwise. Better than a lot of the saccharine schlock on Christian radio today...even before I deconverted I couldn't abide the "Life" or "Family" or "Way FM" type stations after awhile...the mediocrity was excessive!

 

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Purple]

... text ...

 

Well, all 6 students in the lab plus the teacher heard plain as day from the xtian bands background vocals "Lord Satan, Lord Satan, Lord Satan."

 

This is a good point.

 

One wonders of course what an gay, athiest, heavy-leather, country-and-western. punk band would sound like if it was backward-masked!

 

The mind boggles at the very thought.

 

Spatz

 

 

The mind boggles at the very thought of of that band forward.

 

Would it sound a little like Hank 3?? Has giggle fit by myself.

[Luke Wolf]

What I heard listening to it backwards:

 

Rollover!

Allover (indistinguishable)

Awesome your (indistinguishable) Satan

I love your balls and love want to memory fuck

(indistinguishable) and I love to fight

Oh Satan your (indistinguishable) shining balls

I love you Satan

your walls of sajewfice

I loves you all and your blue

 

Cradle of Filth IMO has the best backwards mask. The song Dinner at Deviants Palace is indistinguishable throughout the entire song, save for a few words, and when played backwards, it's the Lords Prayer. The next best is Pink Floyd's congratulating you on discovering the secret message.

Unless it's intentionally done, you will hear what you are looking for. I talked to one guy who swears up and down the Legend of Zelda games have a hidden Christian theme/message to them, thus making them Christian in nature.

[Eric_PK]

I’m most of you recall the backwards masking hysteria of the 70s and 80s.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backwards_masking

 

Anyway I was a former fundamentalist and this to me was absolute proof of Satan his staff at work.

 

The one example of this is something I don’t see easily explained is a live incident on the ‘Rush’ album ‘All the Worlds a Stage’. The song is the concert opener, ‘Anthem’

 

I’ve uploaded the same section of ‘Anthem’ in MP3 format in both directions.

 

http://www.swindledforjesus.com/forward.mp3

 

http://www.swindledforjesus.com/reverse.mp3

 

As you listen to the reverse copy, the speech changes from garbled to something you can understand at around 15 seconds into it.

 

‘Oh Satan, you are the one who is shining.

Walls of Satan. Walls of sacrifice.

I know it’s you are the one I love.’

 

 

I think about putting this on my website http://www.swindledforjesus.com/ as part of my Christian history.

 

He who wants to hear "satan" will hear "satan".

 

The original backmasking controversy is just another version of "music is spoiling the youth". They said that Elvis was too suggestive, they told the Stones to change their lyrics for TV, and they put "Warning: explicit lyrics" (the mark of a fine sound recording) on CDs.

 

The song that you show has perfectly sensical lyrics when you listen to them forward. So, what you're basically saying is that Lee and Peart got together, and figured what words had backwards meaning and then created the song so that backward meaning was what they wanted while *still* making sense forward?

 

Why would they bother?

 

Not to mention the fact that if you're religious and worried about the kids, you should be more worried about:

 

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice

If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill

I will choose the path that's clear

I will choose freewill...

 

Peart/Freewill/Permanent Waves

 

or

 

Faith is cold as ice

why are little ones born only to suffer

for want of immunity

or a bowl of rice?

well, who would hold a price

on the heads of the innocent children

if there's some immortal power

to control the dice?

 

Peart/Roll the bones/roll the bones

 

 

But, you know, those freethinkers are dangerous...

[Toxic]

Back in the 80s it was a real craze with a lot of Born Agains that rock was "The Devil's music". There doen't seem to be so much hysteria about it now though.

Or maybe there still is, it's just that now I avoid Christians as much as I possibly can. A lot of Born Agains I knew really believed all Rock music was part of a satanic conspiracy and that AC/DC stood for Anti Christ Devil's Children, and that KISS stood for Kids/Knights In Satan's Service.

 

Has anyone heard of a book called "Boppers, Bands and Believers?"

[sithprincess]

Back in the 80s it was a real craze with a lot of Born Agains that rock was "The Devil's music". There doen't seem to be so much hysteria about it now though.

Or maybe there still is, it's just that now I avoid Christians as much as I possibly can. A lot of Born Agains I knew really believed all Rock music was part of a satanic conspiracy and that AC/DC stood for Anti Christ Devil's Children, and that KISS stood for Kids/Knights In Satan's Service.

 

Has anyone heard of a book called "Boppers, Bands and Believers?"

 

LOL. WOW. That brings back memories. I grew up believing Ozzy was evil. Not that my mom ever told me that, but the imagery and so forth (which I actually liked deep down, but figured I shouldn't.) I wasn't allowed to listen to rock though, so I figured there MUST be something wrong with it. Now I love Ozzy, as well as - gasp! - Black Sabbath. And we all KNOW they were full-on animal-sacrificing Satanists.

 

I remember my youth leader telling us in church about all this backwards masking crap. She said she was listening to an album and when she played it backwards it said "Smoke marijuana, smoke marijuana" and she found herself actually wanting to do this. I bought this crap, of course, but alway wondered why they would go through the trouble, and why the first people who did it ever assumed that someone would play their album backwards.

 

There's a book called "Boy's Life" that has a pastor in it who screams that if you play a Beach Boys song backwards you can distinctly hear the message "The devil is my strawberry", and he whips his congregation into a frenzy with this. It's pretty funny.