Hello. Today, I have a rather enigmatic experience to share. It's going to take me a while to explain, but the past two weeks have been anything but the norm. I won't say it was a particularly scary or negative experience, in fact, I rather enjoyed it for the most part, but it did make me think, and I still ponder if anything else will come of it. Also, if you're one of those people who likes having their stories wrapped up nicely, you're in for some disappointment. The fact of the matter is, that doesn't always happen in the real world.
Anyhow, I'll start by explaining a bit of back history that incited me to do what I did, and ultimately lead up to my experience. It might be a bit longer that way, but you wouldn't really be able to get the context of it otherwise.
Whether you are someone who embraces mainstream culture, or some kind of hipster that I've probably never heard of, it would only be logical to assume you're familiar with the eccentric pop superstar, Lady Gaga. The strange, self-made, enigmatic, and sometimes confusing musician who's one of, if not the most famous living celebrity. I obviously don't know your opinion of her, but a good deal of my friends, especially ones I know over the internet, to put it lightly, generally dislike her. It's understandable as to why, considering she's often lumped in with the rest of the mainstream radio pop that kids and teens eat up. Me? Though I also tend to stray from anything heard on my local pop stations, I've always taken a shine to the 'monstrous' singer. It started when I found her video for Poker Face around when it came out, one day after school on YouTube. I was sixteen at the time, and quickly developed a crush on her. Strange, yes, I know, but I've always been known for my exotic taste in women. Enough about me, though. I'll get plenty of time to go into detail later.
Beyond the garden-variety 'haters', there were some who had more apparent negative emotions towards her, making innumerable controversial claims, such as saying that she was satanic, or some other form of evil not of this world. This kind of thing was, for the most part, limited to extreme religious groups. One such notable group was the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, who tried to picket(and altogether stop) one of her concerts in St. Louis in 2009. Though they failed, they also produced a parody of Poker Face criticizing Gaga and her style, demeanor, etc. It was complete with a poorly-made music video with effects a 10-year-old could do in WMM.
Far more interesting however, are the conspiracy theories surrounding Lady Gaga's various songs. These are all over the internet, some more serious than others, and almost all of them tie into The Illuminati, much like the conspiracies surrounding Tupac Shakur's songs and his death. There's a lot of smaller theories out there, but the biggest and most discussed one revolves around the fifth and final single from The Fame, and one of my personal favorites, Paparazzi. The song, at face value, is about a stalker chasing after any given famous person. The music video tells a story(it's also much longer than the song itself) which had a sequel in the video for Telephone with Beyonce later on.
The video itself is a subject of conspiracy right off, having quick, rapid flashes of strange imagery, such as gold blood, goat heads, and other seemingly out-of-place, somewhat disturbing things. Given how avant-garde and generally weird Gaga has always been, this wasn't all that out-of-place after all. Hell, she probably did it on purpose to get people thinking. Still, there are always those who believe there is 'more to it', so to speak. This imagery, combined with Gaga often putting her hand over her eye(this is also done in Just Dance and Poker Face) sparked the initial discussion of her involvement in the Illuminati. Though the theories themselves are skewed every which way, and the fact that this is pretty far-fetched when you think about it, it's still something interesting to read into.
However, let's get to the most intriguing theory about Paparazzi. The one that drove me to actually try and find out...more; The reversed version of the song itself. Now, backmasking is nothing new. Just about every popular song has been played backwards on YouTube or some other media site, and claimed to have alternate, backwards lyrics, often with an unsavory motif. As you may have guessed, Paparazzi is no exception. Because there are dozens of videos claiming to have the "real" lyrics, I can't tell you exactly what they are. As you may expect, the lyrics vary from video to video, but the general idea remains the same: satanic themes, Illuminati, death, and the like. Furthermore, some also say that they feel uneasy, frightened, or sick after hearing the backwards song, similar to the theories about the Lavender Town theme.
I've looked into this several times, and, well.. I don't want to sound like a skeptic, but I didn't hear anything that I felt could be similar to a secret message. It honestly didn't even sound like real words to me, just the typical nonsense you hear when you reverse speech. I figured people were just being paranoid, or looking for something that they could say they discovered and scare people with it. My little investigation was not completely fruitless, though. After listening to the reversed song a few times, I did feel a bit unnerved, and had a headache as well. I ended up having to just get off and lay down for a bit. This could have easily just been from the generally weird sounds(the song does have a unique, peculiar beat to it, so you can only imagine how it is backwards), but it did cause me to wonder even more. I decided the following week that I would, well, let's call it going on an adventure. I was after all pretty bored, and there was nothing going on in my life of real significance, though I'd soon learn this was going to change.
Remember, every rumor has a kernel of truth to it.
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