Dateline: Monday, July 3, 2006
By: EDWARD O'TOOLE
By: Phenomena Esotericist-at-Large
My interest in EVPs, Electronic Voice Phenomena, or Instrumental
TransCommunication (ITC) as it is now known, is quite recent. Last year we
experienced some odd activity at night in our kitchen and so I looked into the
various means of not just dealing with it but recording it also. Following
guidelines given to me by helpful members of the ghost hunting community
worldwide – and armed with a whole bucketful of warnings – I set about
attempting to capture our nocturnal visitor with a 35mm camera and a
noise-activated Dictaphone (as I had no wish to fork out a vast quantity of
money on ‘official’ ghost hunting merchandise). Secure that the cause of the
noise and movement was not some rodent, and following Sherlock Holmes’ advice
that
“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must
be the truth.”
I set about getting proof that we did indeed have some non-mortal guest. I had
visions of producing material that would be a contender for a ‘White Noise’
sequel.
Flash photography in the dark resulted in my aging camera producing a roll of
ruined film; so ruined in fact that I threw away the camera in disgust and
bought a new, digital one. The noise-activated Dictaphone went from me saying
the time that I had set it up to the sound of my sons screaming and running
around as they got ready for school – some seven hours later. To summarize,
after several attempts I managed to record absolutely zip. This is not to say
that I have given up the idea that EVPs are plausible entirely, far from it. The
area in which I live is filled with the settings of death and carnage resulting
from multiple wars throughout the ages and the local Slavs and Poles mark every
road accident death with fresh flowers and crosses so the highways are teeming
with possibilities. I just haven’t got around to pursuing that ghoulish activity
yet.
Time passed and I concerned myself with other things – specifically my new books
– and I forgot all about EVP.
Until the other night when at 12:04 precisely I heard a noise that would send
most people quaking.
I quaked.
The skeptic in me instantly dismissed the sound in the most logical way possible
– a mouse with a bullhorn using a voice synthesizer.
Still quaking, I decided to look for other possibilities.
After a day sifting through various sites on EVP – especially large resources
such as the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, various
paranormal chat rooms and groups – and hearing everything from plausible Class A
types (you can actually hear a voice and understand what it’s saying) to
unrecognizable sounds which have the remarkable appearance of being nothing more
than static (‘Orbs’ of the audio world) – I was pointed in the direction of
another type of recording entirely.
The reason for this change in direction was that the sound I had heard bore a
striking resemblance to a phrase spoken backwards, almost metallically, and thus
this led to me delving into the realms of Reverse Speech (thanks to the advice
of my correspondent Ceara).
Well, the world of Reverse Speech stretches from the possible to the outright
lunatic, but it was a field of esotericism I had never explored before and as it
appeared, at first glance, to give access to the Unconscious (the use and access
of which being my primary area of interest), I got stuck in.
My initial exploration, following Ceara’s advice, was that of Peggy Kane’s work.
For those of you who don’t know who Peggy Kane is, don’t worry, you don’t need
to as she’s no longer in this realm and has gone to join her alien colleagues in
their travels throughout the galaxy. Using the same methods of other Reverse
Speech analysts, she came to the conclusion (along with Sherry Shiner) that the
Annunaki Reptilian aliens from Planet X are about to bring about Doomsday. Last
May. You can view her goodbye speech here:
Peggy Kane says goodbye to the world.
Quickly moving along from Von Daniken meets the Marx brothers, I took my
advisor’s advice and read up on David Oates, the Australian who owns the
copyright to Reverse Speech technology. His site - http://www.reversespeech.com/
- holds an enormous and diverse selection of examples of Reverse Speech.
Covering everything from Coast to Coast interviews, to Presidential Inaugural
Speeches to NASA cover ups concerning Mars and just what’s on the planet, it
appeared to be exactly what I was looking for. So much so in fact that I almost
started typing out my credit card details for the special Reverse Speech TM
technology advertised on their equipment website,
Luckily my wife has a distinct aversion to the spending of any money whatsoever
– especially when it comes to my peculiar interests. Instead of handing over
several hundred dollars for a cassette recorder and reverse speech software,
plus several thousand dollars for the analyst’s course, I instead decided to
attempt to recreate the findings myself using good old tight-fisted spend-thriftness
along with lashings of improvisation.
Surprisingly, it worked and, after a few hours of downloading and
experimentation, I could recreate the same results having spent the sum total of
nothing. For those of you who are also interested in attempting Reverse Speech
analysis, this is what you will need:
A Computer
A microphone (connected to the computer)
Audio editing software (Audacity is what I am using as it is freeware and I find
it better than many of the expensive versions, plus it’s a lot easier to use for
someone like me who has absolutely zero experience in audio editing)
A sound player (RealPlayer is probably your best bet and offers a freeware
version – you’ll also need RealPlayer to listen to the Reverse Speech examples
on David Oates’ site, plus the Codec that it asks you install automatically)
Armed with these, we may begin.
As I stated earlier in the article, my interest lies in accessing the
Unconscious – specifically, The Jungian Shadow. According to the blurb on the
Reverse Speech site, when one speaks, one does so on two levels: forward speech
is what you consciously want to say, and can be deliberately distorted (a lie or
‘spin’) or missing vital facts. Simultaneously to one speaking forward, the
brain somehow corrects itself – and the forward message – by imprinting, in
reverse, the truth or omitted facts or what the speaker is currently thinking
about. The Unconscious adds to the discussion. Called the 7th Sense, Reverse
Speech has amazing possibilities in the field of psychological and psychiatric
treatment as it would mean access to a schizophrenic or autistic mind directly
in order to learn just what is going on behind the warped Conscious veil. As a
means of screening job applicants in interviews, or as a method of lie detection
in law enforcement or witness testimony, it would be ground breaking.
Concerning myself with child psychology to start with, as that would be the most
useful application for my family, I attempted an experiment with my sons.
One of the biggest questions I had was would Reverse Speech work in any
language? The biggest turn-off on Oates’ site was that Arabic speakers such as
Colonel Gadafhi gave their Reverse messages in English. Oates justifies this by
stating that they were speaking English in Press Conferences, etc, Reverse
Speech accesses higher brain functions and therefore also works in English. My
wife, a Slovak Child Psychologist, pooh-poohed that one straight off so I
attempted to interview my children, whose mother tongue is Slovak.
The result was astounding.
I asked my 5 year old to describe his family, while recording his speech
directly onto the computer. As was expected he talked a little about each member
and their most relevant attributes in terms of a 5 year old’s perception. Daddy
was big and 32 years old, Mummy was pretty and works a lot, brother fights with
him all the time, baby cries a lot. In reverse however, an astonishing thing
occurred. Seen as ‘waves’, each section of speech is like an island with gaps
between sentences. The sentence ‘daddy is big and is 32 years old’ was followed
by a distinct gap and then ‘mummy is pretty and works a lot’. In the speech
island, the spiky audio wave cluster, for the ‘daddy’ sentence – very clearly
but at a much faster tempo than the surrounding reversed sounds – is:
“mama, pekny, mama” (mummy, pretty, mummy)
While describing me he had been thinking about what to say about his mother
next.
I was stunned and amazed. Lacking further subjects to experiment on (baby
gibberish is gibberish whether forward or reverse), I tried it on myself. Given
the more ‘out there’ implications of reverse speech – that as prophetic rather
than quasi-scientific – I recorded myself reading the first two lines of the
Sophia Bestiae – The Wisdom of The Beast. In the second sentence I discovered:
“Seize the Earth, see their Seer”
This soundbite, along with the forward original, may be listened to here:
The beginning of the second sentence:
http://www.supload.com/sound_confirm.php?get=212952854.wav
Here is the segment fragment played normally:
http://www.supload.com/sound_confirm.php?get=1019677164.wav
And here is what you hear in reverse (slowed down a tad and pitch increased):
http://www.supload.com/sound_confirm.php?get=995492560.wav
Further experimentation has shown that Reverse Speech occurs quite regularly.
The best way to look for it is thus:
Start a new project in Audacity, try to ask yourself some prying question and
then record the paragraph-sized answer via microphone. Select all and then
reverse it. Choose one of the ‘spiky islands’ – you’ll know what I mean when you
see your voice as soundwaves, copy it and then paste it in a new file. Select
all and change speed to minus 20 or 30. Listen to it again. Keep changing speed
or pitch until you can hear words. You’ll find words hidden in the tiniest gaps
between one letter and another. If, after playing with that one ‘island’ for a
while you still get nothing, close it and try another. Eventually, and I
guarantee it, you’ll hear something.
From a scientific point of view, however, I am uncertain whether this playing
with pitch and tempo is not in fact creating words rather than discovering them.
To date, my son’s ‘mama, pekny, mama’ is the clearest and rawest I have found
personally and has encouraged me to continue experimenting.
A word of warning though – you really don’t want to be doing this alone at night
in a dark room. You really, really don’t.
Edward O’Toole, Slovakia, July 2006 – Non Serviam
