Backmasking

Play it backwards, hear the confession. The panic was real even when the messages weren't.

Reversed messages in records became a moral panic after 1970s evangelist campaigns; the Judas Priest trial (1990, Nevada) tested it — the court found the alleged phrase unintentional and subliminal causation unproven. Some backmasking is real and deliberate (The Beatles' 'Rain,' Pink Floyd's joke message); perception of hidden speech in noise is a documented pareidolia effect (priming makes people hear the 'message' once told what to hear). The node is the audio wing of the pattern-hungry-brain file. Links Paul-is-dead, its parent panic.