Words Come From Your Brain

[ChickenRamen]

So words are really just noise... a pattern of noise...hm. That actually makes sense when you think about it.. Different languages are just different sets of noise.

[princeofleastaction]

First time I heard "fuck" 2nd time "fuck Obama", assumed you were maybe a republican or something worse, 3rd time my brain began to work. For led zep,on first hearing, even though I had been exposed to this previously I heard satan. I wonder if alternative lyrics were printed we would "hear" them?

[CousinoMacul]

My original idea for this video was to come up with alternative (Christian) lyrics to "hear" but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop hearing the satanic lyrics. Go figure!

[princeofleastaction]

Probably a job for someone with too much time on their hands.

[Luburium]

Your bald

[hammerfyll]

@Luburium And you can't use grammar properly.

[585Potato]

SATAN EATS CHEEZ WHIZ!!!!!!!!

[DBZkamek]

i hear you WTF...

my mind wants me to say Wtf?

then job complete

[mamdk]

I heard the word tits alot :P

[Rsgamby671]

he actually said "vote obama"

[vexgodglove]

I also interpretted your moving lips as saying "Fuck Obama" which is odd since is not what I expected to hear. Perhaps it is indicative of my own proclivity for using the word, even if not in that context.

I grew up in the church and was forced to watch videos about back-masking. Even as a kid I thought it was silly and wouldn't have heard it at all if not for the subtitles. "Satan" is still the only thing i can hear plainly, the rest is a big stretch.

[simonboyd123]

ok thanks for the expanation, I never picked up the word in the vid myself however

[simonboyd123]

I guess youre point is that people hear what they want to here just like people see what they want to see. But what if you couldnt really care less?

[CousinoMacul]

I wouldn't quite put it like that. I would say that people hear what they're expecting to hear just as they see what they're expecting to see.  The main difference (I think) is that when input clearly contradicts expectation (as in corroborating some unexpected pattern as opposed to noise), then the brain corrects despite the confusion. But patterns will be found in noise if the expectations are strong enough--and they will be real.

[patflix]

Back in my day, youngster...claims of 'backward masking' on record albums were everywhere. From Pink Floyd to Black Sabbath. For a while, I was convinced the record companies started these rumors in order to boost sales. Sometimes, the rumored message didn't have to be played backwards.

"I buried Paul"

[lovasip]

I heard a story that a few decades ago in a Christian school the teachers played a Black Shabbat record backwards. They showed the kids that this music is full of hidden, evil messages. At least they thought. One of the kids liked the music -even backwards- and later became a rock musician himself. He goes by the name: Marilyn Manson.

True or false the multi-layered irony in the story is wonderful.

[rozeboosje]

LOL

Funnily enough I heard something that sounded like "Satan" alright, but probably because I was already expecting something like that. You also mention "666", now I didn't expect that, and I just listened again and originally at that point I heard "tits". Honest.

[CousinoMacul]

So if I were to change the the teleprompter from "he'll give you, give you 666" to read "he'll grip you, grip your tits" then that's what people will hear?

[rozeboosje]

yeah!!!!

[rozeboosje]

Yup. I SAW you say "Vote Obama", but in both cases I heard nothing.

[rozeboosje]

Having said that, however, I have TERRIBLE trouble following a conversation in a noisy environment. I think my hearing isn't the best.

[CousinoMacul]

Interesting.

[rozeboosje]

WHAT!?! SPEAK UP!!!

[Valclav]

Good vid!

To rozeboosje,

Turn your volume up fool - if you can't hear it.

Maaaaaaattt Daaaaaman.

[rozeboosje]

O_o NOW I'm getting it!!!!

Now THAT's just spooky.

[frankjohnson123]

Possibly because you were putting extra emphasis on your mouthing in the clip.

[rozeboosje]

Hm... Not sure what's going on but I've unsubbed and re-subbed just to make sure.

[CousinoMacul]

Make sure to watch my "Three Little Pigs" video.  ;-)

[Chrisnoscrub047]

I did not hear you on the 2nd one.

[SpookyFan]

Reading your lips and given your apology in the preamble, I thought you said "F*** you, Obama". I couldn't make out your voice in either party clip.

[Chrisnoscrub047]

I'm with you.

[Okastega]

Very cool XD

BTW the 99% and 90% both sounded the same XS

[azrienoch]

I didn't hear anything either time... but I don't think I can go so far as to say I'm not presumptuous.

I think this is all just fascinating. Not only does it explain a bit of what happens when people sing the wrong words to songs, it also shows us our rather animalistic side, like what a dog might hear. Very revealing of the fundamentals of language. Excellent, Javi.

[azrienoch]

By the way, here's another example you could use, perhaps for a future video.

watch?v=ONmhQJy1ViA

[Okastega]

This is a cool one too:

watch?v=amPQCVXmKk8 check the description

[jogayot]

"Words are like a trap. When you catch the meaning you can forget about the trap."

[randyhelzerman]

Amazing. Great video. Worth a 1 year wait ;-)

[CousinoMacul]

Great! Now I can procrastinate another year before finishing the series. ;-P

[TheMariborchan]

The word is still the bird.

[CousinoMacul]

Bird, bird, bird!

[itsbizbuz]

Interesting experiment.

[CousinoMacul]

Thanks.

[timeofnebula]

Interesting. I always thought it was "Oh here's to my sweet Satan." But then again, I probably wouldn't have heard anything if I hadn't heard so much about the secret backward message. I wonder if those beep censors are actually beeping out swear words.

[CousinoMacul]

There's some funny videos on YT where people take an innocent clip (like Sesame Street's "The Count") and add well timed bleeps to make it sound as though what's being said is racy. Very funny!

[Cristofer7]

impressive...

[CousinoMacul]

Thanks.

[TheAtheistPaladin]

Think it was "Vote Bob Barr!" :D

What I really heard in the song "Please, accept Satan."

[CousinoMacul]

Cool how that works.

[D4Shawn]

The ultimate "Satan" is in Black Dog. It's a totally righteous "oooooo Satan!"

[D4Shawn]

I thought you said, "Fuck Obama". I was thinking, "I hardly even know him."

[CousinoMacul]

He's not my type either. ;-P

[bubonicnate]

The way we pick out words is amazing - I can hear women talking about the size of my enormous genitals all the way in China!

[CousinoMacul]

No no! They were comparing you to an enormous genital.

[bubonicnate]

your face and your mom!

[premed2]

"Your lips are moving but I can't hear what you're saying". Not equal to Zep, but a close second.

That was fun. Good vid!

[CousinoMacul]

Thank you, kind sir.

[Maiyanna]

Very interesting! I've heard about the hidden message in the song, but beyond that didn't pay it much attention. The only word I picked up was Satan.

I did hear your "vote Obama" in the second clip with background noise.

[CousinoMacul]

The hidden message of course isn't actually there even though you really do hear it. There's someone who makes videos (I'll have to try to find them) where they take church choirs singing and add subtitles that are salacious and blasphemous and you really hear them singing those funny lyrics. Great stuff!

[Brianswers]

I read your lips, but didn't hear your voice. I 'rewound' and listened without watching, still didn't hear anything (@2:00)

Interesting experiment at the end. I definitely heard the lyrics after you posted the words. I tried listening to the original clip and coulent figure out which words were making the 'reverse words'. Especially 666. There was one 'yes' which migfht sound like six backwords, but not 3 'yes' in a row like that.

[CousinoMacul]

I hear the three sixes clear as day, but only after I had been primed. The first time I heard it, I didn't hear the 666 at all. That is so cool!

[Brianswers]

Funny thing is, now I hear the whole set of lyrics even if I don't watch the words on the screen. can't turn it off now! lol.

What I meant was that I wanted to figure out which part in the forward (normal) clip was makig the 6-6-6 when reversed.

[CousinoMacul]

I think your search might be futile, but let me know if it's not.

I also can't turn it off. When I first conceived this video, the plan was to come up with "Christian lyrics" that you'd hear and invent a story about how Page and Plant "found Jesus" between Zep IV and Best of... (the idea being that it would be the exact same backwards clip). The trouble was that no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't not hear the "Satanic" lyrics. Go figure!

[sy1234]

Please post the band name and song in the description.

[sy1234]

Oh, I see you have a tag which helps out a bit..

[2bsirius]

This video was SO intriguing. Exactly...We are pattern seeking organisms. Our survival depended on it. So we are preconditioned to discern and divide signal from noise. In fact, a whole industry around has grown up around reverse speech and hidden messages. If we weren't suggestible and gullible AND pattern seeking, it wouldn't be so successful. Again, really interesting!

[CousinoMacul]

"So we are preconditioned to discern and divide signal from noise."

And the way we do that is to find some recognizable pattern within the noise (almost all our sensory input is mostly noise) and build a model (filling in the missing spaces) that conforms to our expectations.

[Barklord]

Cool! This sounds like it may be similar to the unintended meanings found in another person's writings. Like patterns in poetry.

Almost the entire tradition of Kabbalistic interpretation of the Torah is based on new ways to dig up meanings.

A writer named Arthur Coulter also talks about "implicative residue" where he suggests that we feel that certain situations imply meaning.

Great video. Hail Satan!

;)

[CousinoMacul]

Hail Satan!

[TheGiggler1]

I could not hear the political statement through the party noises. However, when you played the raw clip I heard party noises. Haha. No, I've seen the Shermer clip before but it is still interesting. Is the bottom line that if we enter an environment especially expecting X that our brains will often interpret sounds/experiences as being X even if X is not there?

[CousinoMacul]

Sort of. I guess what I was trying to say is that even when "X is there", X is still only in our brains and what is there is a pattern with the ability to evoke X in our brains.

[mtanti87]

I didn't hear anything you said at 10% volume... And I didn't hear the word satan first time I heard the rewind. Is something wrong with me?? :(

[PursuitOfReality]

I did not either.

[Darwinsgift]

I must admit that in the first bit I had no idea what you were saying, probably because I'm English and as such outside US politics. Good vid though!

[loveisallneed]

I did hear Satan a few times the first time, but I was looking for that from previous knowledge. Must have been design, I mean words need a writer, yep. :)

[HaleyMary]

It's always interesting to me how when songs are played backwards that they sound completely different. And, yes I heard Satan the first time I heard it. Interesting how the brain works sometimes. :)

[CousinoMacul]

Most people do hear Satan the first time (I sure did), but did you hear the whole paragraph the first time? (I know you heard it the second time around.) ;-)

[HaleyMary]

No, I didn't hear the whole paragraph the first time. I heard some of the lyrics that were there and some that weren't. I heard: my sweet satan. The one outside that makes me sad. Hour of satan, my sad satan. Interesting how the mind will try to come up with some words when you can't see the lyrics.

[VoicesintheHead]

Great video Xavier! Brian Dunning made an excellent podcast adressing this. Go to skeptoid (dotcom), and it is episode number 105 titled: When people talk backwards.

This illusion of finding patterns is called Pareidola.

[CousinoMacul]

Yes, I'm a big fan of pareidolia. Some of the other videos I had planned in the series dealt with visual pareidolia.  I don't know that I'l make them all, but I will definitely be making at least one or two videos about the perception of color.

[VoicesintheHead]

Cool. Looking forward to it (eg face on mars, man on the moon, etc)

When I did my documentary on the Virgin of Guadalupe, I noted this as well when people claimed that you could see people in the virgin's pupils. Very interesting case. People usually find what they are looking for.

[musicisthegateway]

First.. that was the word that came out of my brain.

[CousinoMacul]

I knew it was going to be a word that started with "F" but I must say that you surprised me. ;-P