Do the messages of Rock music toy with the mind? Are there hidden lyrics, that if played backward reveal an evil message? Are the messengers of Rock messing with the minds of their listeners, and they, the listeners, do not even know it? Yes...very definitely!

The technique of "backmasking," or backward masking falls into the category of subliminal persuasion which is as close to being mind controlled as people can be without becoming consciously aware that they are being directed by an outside force. A subliminal message is a message that is below a discernable level. The conscious mind picks up one message...the subconscious mind picks up another.

The mind works much like a computer. It is very precise with the information it stores...and it stores everything. Of course, one may not be able to recall certain things, but if data has ever been received by the empirical sense system, it is stored.

There has been much scoffing, from the defenders of Rock, at the notion that the subconscious mind can understand lyrics played backward. However, subliminal communications experts have clinically proven that the mind can decipher the garble. One particular organization in Louisiana has yielded information stating the positive uses of subliminal messages for therapy patients and weight control. Their experience demonstrates that the brain has "uncanny" abilities to decode messages that are played backward. In fact, the above-mentioned organization holds a patent on a device called a "subliminal processor." This is a very efficient, and sophisticated piece of equipment. However, one can do backward masking with parts that can be purchased at Radio Shack.

The process is fairly simple. One records the purposed message, then plays it backward. After listening to the backward message there needs to be found an innocuous message that sounds similar to the backward message to be played forward. Or, one can simply reverse the word forms. With the equipment found in many of the more elite studios, this would be a very simple task.

Subliminal messages, for the purpose of advertising, are against the law. However, the use of this approach to the mind is very much open in the music industry. There has been nothing to prevent it thus far.

Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones said in a recent interview, "We've had their bodies...now, we want their minds." Jagger is called the "Lucifer of Rock." (More later.)

The late Jimi Hendrix once said, "Music is a spiritual thing. You can hypnotize people with music and when they get at their weakest point you can preach into their subconscious minds what you want to say."

Grand [sic] Nash says, "Rock music is the most popular method of conditioning the way people think."

It could be said that music is the single most powerful instrument known among the methods of affecting the thought processes. As has already been stated, a person who has been in the dimension of Rock music for even a short period of time has in his subconscious an influence that will wage war against the hearing and doing of the Word of God.

There is no doubt that our society is accepting things that even a few short years ago we would not have accepted. Why? We have been brainwashed! Our youth think hardly anything about things that horrify their parents. They have become deadened to God's standards; consequently, their parents have compromised in order to maintain some peace in the home.

Young people are saying to their authorities, "Aw! Everyone is doing that!" Where did they get that idea? Where did they begin to think that promiscuous sex is all right? Where did they get the idea that there is nothing harmful about drug abuse? How could they be so dull to the danger of rebellion against their parents, their teachers, their government, and God? Who told them that it was all right to worship idols. After all, they aren't real, so what's the big deal? Where could they have possibly gotten their faulty thinking about Satan? LISTEN CAREFULLY! If they didn't get it directly from their parents, and if they didn't hear it directly from their other authorities, and no one that you can think of has been outwardly teaching these errors, that leaves only one place. THE MEDIA!!!! Rock music is the greatest teacher of false doctrine ever devised by the destroyer. Herein lies the FAULTY CLASSROOM, and most youth do not even know that they are being decieved.

In his book, The Big Beat, Frank Garlock states on page 11: "The disciples of chaos and disorder could not have found a more perfect vehicle to promote and instill their ideas and philosophies in a generation of young people. The two countries where Rock 'n Roll is most popular, the United States and England, have not only the highest juvenile delinquency rates in the world but also the greatest rate, in over-all crime rate, and the worst suicide rate in the world. After his daughter's death in 1969, Art Linkletter blamed 'secret messages' in Rock music lyrics for encouraging young people to take part in the growing problem of drug abuse.

There has definitely been a subliminal attack on the mind through the vehicle of Rock music. It has been a secretive yet systematic move of the adversary. Although Rock is extremely dangerous, it is thought to be harmless, therefore, it does its damage unchallenged. When are we Christians going to see this and do something about it?

Some of the many groups that use the technique of "backward masking" are THE BEATLES, LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK OAK ARKANSAS, QUEEN, BLACK SABBATH, ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, SANTANA, KISS, BLUE OYSTER CULT, THE ROLLING STONES, and others. Many messages, we are sure, are yet undetected.

To give a very brief idea of what is being said through the subliminal approach, notice the following excerpts.

In the songs "Stairway to Heaven" from the Led Zeppelin album of the same name [that album actually had no title. it is commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV, 4 runes or Zoso. -ed] the backward message of one verse says, "I will sing because I live with Satan...my sweet Satan, the one who will be the sad one who makes me sad, whose power is Satan."

In the song "The Day Electricity Came to Arkansas," the group Black Oak Arkansas uses backmasking to say "Satan, Satan, Satan, he is god, he is god, he is god."

In Queen's song, "Another One Bites the Dust," the words of the title are repeated several times at the end of the song. Played backward, one will hear, "Decide to smoke marijuana...decide to smoke marijuana."

With lyrics that advocate godlessness both frontward and backward...sounds played at such a high decibel level as to cause deafness...a strong, driving, throbbing beat which releases undisguised and uncontrolled impulses in the listener, the phenomenon of Rock music could be the most devastating force of all times.