E.V.P

Electronic Voice Phenomena

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EVPs are the sounds of spirits and ghost, which are captured on tape recorders and many other types of recording equipment. A few of our articles contain references to EVP, one being voices that were caught on the Queen Mary Ghost Ship here

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Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) is the practice of using radios, tape recorders or other electronic audio devices in an attempt to pick up communications from ghosts or spirits. EVP proponents claim that some electronic devices can pick up ghostly communications that are often inaudible to the human ear. ^[1] Skeptics say there are prosaic explanations for the phenomenon rather than communication from ghosts, spirits or other paranormal sources.

According to its proponents, the basic assumption behind EVP is the belief that spirits or other entities may find it easier to create noise that is inaudible to the human ear (which can nevertheless be picked up by recording devices) than to move solid physical objects, speak through mediums, or use other means of communication.  Critics say EVPs are likely created by interference from nearby items that emit noise on low-level frequencies, such as CB radios or through cross modulation. Additionally, critics say some of the "voices" people believe have been caught on tape are likely fueled by human nature's propensity to try to make sense out of random patterns �?in this case, noise.

 History

Attempts to contact the dead have persisted through the ages, but interest in using technology to speak with the deceased arose during the early 20th century. In the 1920s, the great American inventor Thomas Edison told a reporter for Scientific American that he was working on creating a machine that could contact the dead. But a few years later, Edison said he had only been pulling the reporter's leg.

In 1901 a Russian American by the name of Waldemar Bogoras was an ethnologist studying the shaman of a remote Siberian tribe. Whilst recording the shaman beating his drum and entering a trance-like state many voices, coming from all around the room speaking in Russian and English, were captured on his crude phonograph. And also, from the very early 1900`s Marconi, Tesla and Edison spent the last years of their lives trying to develop devices for communicating with spirit. It is known that Edison had taken out some patents on various machines for communicating with the dead. Also, in 1967, in a post-mortem message, he made suggestions how to modify TV sets and to tune them to 740 megahertz for the express purpose of receiving paranormal effects.

In 1933 there was a public demonstration of a seance in the New York studio of the World Broadcasting Company (that later became Decca). Four eminent parapsychologists and two reputable electrical engineers, under rigidly controlled test conditions, were shocked to hear many paranormal voices speaking to them. These entities even moved their voice levels high up into cycles which were way beyond the range of any human being, between 3 - 5,000 cycles. (This is incorrect. Healthy, young people hear in the range 20 - 20,000 Hertz) The results of this test were kept within the files of the ASPR (American Society for Psychic Research).

A Californian, Attila von Szalay, in 1936, started capturing paranormal voices on phonograph records and the in the mid 1950`s he was joined by Raymond Bayless. Together they acquired many evidential EVP on their new tape recorders and they published their findings in the Journal of the ASPR.

About this time also, dozens of reports of intrusive voices of unknown origin from military and civilian installations world-wide were gathered together and put in the book by John Keel called OUR HAUNTED PLANET.

A few years later in 1959, the so-called father of EVP, Friedrich Juergenson, a Russian born Swedish film producer, after recording birdsong on his tape-recorder, heard on playback what appeared to be a human voice. Subsequent recordings contained a message which seemed to be coming from his dead mother. This was the beginning of his lifelong involvement with the taped phenomena that became known as the RAUDIVE voices. He mentions his experiences in a book which made a deep impression on the Latvian psychologist Dr. Konstantin Raudive.

It is significant that Juergenson`s work on the taped voices was made known to the Vatican in 1960 and his suggestion that these recordings are voices from the dead was sympathetically considered. In 1973, Archbishop Dr. Bruno Heim presented Juergenson to the Pope for investiture as Commander of the Order of St Gregory for his work.

Since Jurgenson's report, thousands of people all over the world have attempted to replicate his experiments, and many have claimed success. Many people do not use specialized equipment to capture the voices, only a microphone and a means of recording, such as a tape/minidisc/CD recorder or a computer. Patience is required however, because many claim that it can take months of diligent recording before voices appear. Proponents recommend the use of headphones, because the voices are often faint, and a computer for processing the recordings is very helpful.

In 1971 Raudive, along with the engineers of Pye Records conducted a controlled experiment in a special sound laboratory that blocked out all external radio and TV signals. Raudive`s voice was taped speaking into a microphone for 18 minutes and no other sounds were made or heard. However, on re-play over 200 extra voices were received.

1971 was the year that Raudive`s book, BREAKTHROUGH, was published by Colin Smythe, in English and it is the book by which most EVP researchers of that day can pinpoint their entry into the field.