Experiences of Back Masking

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Faithful One
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Experiences of Back Masking

Post #1

Post by Faithful One »

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

This technique was used on many vinyl records going as far back as the Beatles , with the " number nine" repeated over and over , if you ran the track backwards .


My personal reaction when I heard the first ones was very eerie and spooky.

1. Did any of you who experienced this feel this same way ?
2. Many had satanic , or devil worshipping undertones , even outright ones , do you think this was mostly to sell records , or were these mainly metal groups , actually worshipping the devil .
3. Share a personal experience and or, give examples of the one you first heard .


The time I first heard of this ironically was at church , ( many moons ago) as these people were traveling from church to church showing the " evilness " of it , the presentation was cool , and shown to the youth groups. This was an eerie experience. The irony of it all is that we had never heard of this , so it made me dive into it more , having the opposite effect , as they were going from church to church , naively showing the youth this back masking , and how to find it .

Never affected my faith , just my curiosity , now I see these " devil worshippers" on their t.v reality shows , hardly the devil worshippers .

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Re: Experiences of Back Masking

Post #2

Post by OnceConvinced »

Faithful One wrote:
1. Did any of you who experienced this feel this same way ?
Yes. As a committed Christian at the time I fell completely for Christian claims that it was satanic. I can remember sitting listening to a cassette about back masking and finding that some of my favourite groups and songs were guilty of it. I felt totally creeped out by it.
Faithful One wrote:
2. Many had satanic , or devil worshipping undertones , even outright ones , do you think this was mostly to sell records , or were these mainly metal groups , actually worshipping the devil .
I think the back masking on Queen's "Another one bites the dust" is purely coincidental. If you take the sounds and reverse them you get something that sounds very similar to "Start to smoke marijuana", but the musical instruments would also help to give it that sound. Even then it's very slurred so why would anyone think it was deliberate?

Same with much other back masking. It's often very unclear sounding and very vague.

There is also intentional back masking too. The group Electric Light Orchestra were accused of back masking one of their songs. "Livin' Thing" I think. But Jeff Lynne insisted it was purely coincidental. And he got so fed up with Christians accusing him of doing it deliberately that he started doing back masking deliberately just to get at them. They even did an album called "Secret Messages" which had a lot of back masking on it. All done just to get back at those idiot Christians who accused them of being satanic.
Faithful One wrote:
3. Share a personal experience and or, give examples of the one you first heard .
Sadly after listening to the cassette tape on back masking, I did a very stupid thing and sold almost all my non-Christian music, which I later regretted big time.
Faithful One wrote:
The time I first heard of this ironically was at church , ( many moons ago) as these people were traveling from church to church showing the " evilness " of it , the presentation was cool , and shown to the youth groups. This was an eerie experience. The irony of it all is that we had never heard of this , so it made me dive into it more , having the opposite effect , as they were going from church to church , naively showing the youth this back masking , and how to find it .
My experience was something similar. I can't recall where I first heard about it. I think it was a Christian friend of mine and somehow I ended up with a cassette tape on the subject where they played these bits of music and the reverse of them. Very creepy. Talk about using scare tactics to try to drive you to Christianity!
Faithful One wrote:
Never affected my faith , just my curiosity , now I see these " devil worshippers" on their t.v reality shows , hardly the devil worshippers .
Oh it really had me thinking that a lot of secular musical artists were evil buggers. KISS (Knights in Satan's Service), Ozzie Osbourne... many others. But of course they are all just putting on acts. Portraying characters on stage. Most of them are just normal guys and many of them very nice guys too. I have gotten to know some heavy metal guys on line who portray these evil characters on stage, but they are the nicest guys, with good morals and principals. I have a work colleague who plays in a death metal band. Really nice guy. No evil tendencies that I can see whatsoever.

Society and its morals evolve and will continue to evolve. The bible however remains the same and just requires more and more apologetics and claims of "metaphors" and "symbolism" to justify it.

Prayer is like rubbing an old bottle and hoping that a genie will pop out and grant you three wishes.

There is much about this world that is mind boggling and impressive, but I see no need whatsoever to put it down to magical super powered beings.


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Re: Experiences of Back Masking

Post #3

Post by Faithful One »

[Replying to post 2 by OnceConvinced]


Yes. As a committed Christian at the time I fell completely for Christian claims that it was satanic.
I would not say you "fell for it ", as there were satanic connotations in these back masking records and tapes, enough to creep us out at that age. I see you shared that same feeling .

I think the back masking on Queen's "Another one bites the dust" is purely coincidental. If you take the sounds and reverse them you get something that sounds very similar to "Start to smoke marijuana

This was a popular one , this one was pretty clear as far as my memory of it goes, but you are correct , some were a stretch .

There is also intentional back masking too. The group Electric Light Orchestra were accused of back masking one of their songs. "Livin' Thing" I think.

Interesting I did not know about the ELO back masking . I love that song also. I believe many did start to do it on purpose to sell records , why not ?



Oh it really had me thinking that a lot of secular musical artists were evil buggers. KISS (Knights in Satan's Service), Ozzie Osbourne... many others. But of course they are all just putting on acts
Do not feel like a sucker , I am willing to bet others had the same experience and feelings as us . You were actually doing the right thing , but under false pretenses that were not your fault.

Excellent response .

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Post #4

Post by OnceConvinced »

Sucker? Yeah I guess so. The problem back then for me in the 80s is I used to take anything like that seriously. It wasn't really until I reached my late 20s that I started to realise I couldn't just take every claim made by fellow Christians seriously.

Fortunately I have most of the music back, but there was a lot of music I taped off the radio onto cassette and I destroyed those. I can no longer remember some of those songs or the artists. Songs that were released as singles but never charted. It sucks that I will most likely never hear those songs again.

That is one thing the backmasking phenomena robbed me of... and dare I say it Christianity robbed me off. Some wonderful music I could still have in my collection today.

Society and its morals evolve and will continue to evolve. The bible however remains the same and just requires more and more apologetics and claims of "metaphors" and "symbolism" to justify it.

Prayer is like rubbing an old bottle and hoping that a genie will pop out and grant you three wishes.

There is much about this world that is mind boggling and impressive, but I see no need whatsoever to put it down to magical super powered beings.


Check out my website: Recker's World

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Post #5

Post by tam »

What are "devil worshiping undertones"?


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Post #6

Post by Faithful One »

[Replying to post 5 by tam]

un·der·tone
ˈəndərˌt�n/
noun
plural noun: undertones
a subdued or muted tone of sound or color.
"they were talking in undertones"


The back masking itself contained subdued messages, or were subdued messages, even forward in some versions.

eg. Led Zeppelin, stairway to heaven .

"If there's a bustle in your hedge row, don't be alarmed though. It's just a sprinkling for the may queen."

Can you figure this one out ?

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Post #7

Post by tam »

No. But admittedly I am too tired to try. More admittedly though, I am quite poor at interpreting things.


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Post #8

Post by Faithful One »

[Replying to post 7 by tam]


In the bible Job is protected by what is described as " hedge " against satan. The May queen is a devilish poem by a Alister Crowley, the may queen also is usually a wicken who leads the May Day parade .

This verse refers to satan trying to get to you , but not to worry .

Just one reference to God and satan in this song .

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Re: Experiences of Back Masking

Post #9

Post by help3434 »

[Replying to post 1 by Faithful One]

We can't process backwards messages anyway, so what is there to be afraid of? Thinking of back-masking as sinister is just paranoid silliness.

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Re: Experiences of Back Masking

Post #10

Post by Faithful One »

[Replying to post 9 by help3434]



Yes , but it was still eerie to listen to back in the day and we listened to all of them. They gave me chills at times ,,but of course you get older and are not so wrapped up in these things and understand them better .

What was your first experience of back masking ?

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