Dear Andrew:

Music is a very powerful force and influence on our soul. Although you may not be "singing" the lyrics of these songs, the very melodies of the songs will evoke the lyrics in our minds, or at least the generalized message or ambiance of the musical work. This can have the same effect as if you sung the lyrics outloud.

Thus, if you play with your guitar any familiar songs that are inappropriate, even though not singing the lyrics, the negative effects may still apply.

We should also remember the advice of St. Paul that we are not to even have the "appearance" of evil. Thus, it is prudent to avoid any music that is evil, or gives the appearance of evil. With this standard there are songs in nearly all musical genre that we should avoid.

Concerning Backmasking.....

Backmasking as been all the rage since the Beetles accidentally created a backmasking effect in the edit studio in the mid-1960's. The reported story is that...

John Lennon and producer George Martin both claim they discovered the backward recording technique during the 1966 recording of Revolver; specifically the album tracks "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I'm Only Sleeping," and the single "Rain". Lennon stated that, while high on marijuana, he accidentally played the tapes for "Tomorrow Never Knows" in reverse, and enjoyed the sound. The following day he shared the results with the other Beatles, and the effect was used first in the guitar solo for "Tomorrow Never Knows", and later in the coda of "Rain". According to Martin, the band had been experimenting with changing the speeds of and reversing the "Tomorrow Never Knows" tapes, and Martin got the idea of reversing Lennon's vocals and guitar, which he did with a clip from "Rain". Lennon then liked the effect and kept it. Regardless, "Rain" was the first song to feature a backmasked message: "Sunshine … Rain … When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads" (the last line is the reversed first verse of the song).

After this the race was on to find backmasked messages. I think the big "Paul McCartney is dead" rumor of 1969 was a result of alleged backmasking message.

Research has shown that all recordings can produce backmasking effects, even audio readings of the Bible.

In 1985, two psychologists, J. Vokey & J.D. Read, [Vokey, J.R. & Read, J.D. (1985) Subliminal messages: Between the devil and the media. American Psychologist, 40(11), 1231-1239] conducted an experiment using a biblical passage (Psalm 23), Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," and passages specially created for the study. Also used was a passage from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll which sounds like gibberish both forwards and backwards.

When their subjects heard the sentences played backwards, they were correctly able to differentiate between male and female speakers 99% of the time. They could identify with 79% accuracy whether a pair of passages were read by the same person.

The two researchers played the passages backwards many times, carefully listening for sounds that might be interpreted as phrases. They found that most people can only hear a phrase when a passage is played backwards, if they are first prompted with the wording:

• When the subjects heard the passage backwards, few could hear anything that made sense.
• When the subjects were primed to hear a phrase that the researchers had found, about 90% could hear the phrase.

They concluded that if backmasking exists, it is quite ineffective. Listeners [were] completely unable to get any meaning of the message when the tape was played forward, determine whether the message was a question or a statement, subconsciously get any meaning from the message, judge the "type" of message (Christian, Satanic, etc.), or be unwittingly led to behave in a certain way.

Psychologists, psychiatrists, and advertising experts have reached a near consensus that backmasking would be useless for three reasons:

• Subliminal messages are generally ineffective or quite limited in their influence.
  
• A message recorded backwards is unintelligible when the record played forwards. It could not be understood even if it was played apart from the music.
  
• A backmasked message superimposed on a musical passage would be itself masked by the music so that it would not readily be heard.

Sources:
F. Borgeat MD et al, "Psychophysiological response to Masked Auditory Stimuli", Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 30, 1985-FEB.

J. Vokey, & J.D. Read, "Subliminal messages between the devil and the media," American Psychologist, Vol 40, No 11, Pages 1231-1239 (1985-NOV).

T. E. Moore, "Subliminal advertising: what you see is what you get," Journal of Marketing, Vol 46 (1982-Spring), Pages 38-47.

A. Greenwald, "Unconscious Cognition Reclaimed," American Psychologist Vol. 47 No 6, Pages 766-779

When I listened to the Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" example of backmasking, other than the word "Satan", I could only "hear" the messages AFTER I read what the backmasked message was suppose to say. The word "Marijuana" in Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" backmask was rather clear.

In any effect, much of the alleged backmasked "messages" are no different than the "seeing images in clouds" phenomenon.

This is not to say that various groups have not purposely tried backmasking or subliminal messages. They have and such messages do exist. Many of the backmasked messages are benign, however, and not satanic. But, unless one plays the music backwards he will never hear the message. The backmask will not place the message subconsciously into the mind when hearing the music normally.

Even the famous subliminal message of "Drink Coke -- Eat Popcorn" that was used in a movie theater in the late 1950's has never been proven to work. One researcher claimed that the sales of coke and popcorn significantly increased with this subliminal message, but he refused to reveal his methods of research (a clue to its invalidity) and this "research" has never been successfully replicated.

Bottomline: subliminal messages have no real effect. Backmasked messages, even when purposely produced, have no effect as one will not of its existence -- the only way to know the message is to spend one's time listening to music backwards. People who spend a lot of time doing that have an altogether other problem.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary