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Template:Totally-disputed Template:Infobox Paranormalterms According to some paranormal believers, electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are speech or speech-like sounds of discarnate entities found on electronic recording media that were reportedly inaudible during recording. They are typically brief, usually the length of a word or short phrase and are sometimes said to be in direct response to the questions of researchers. The sounds have been observed on diverse media, including: radio, television, tape recorders and videorecorders. The term was coined by publishing company Colin Smythe Ltd in the early 1970s. Previously the term “Raudive Voices” was used, after Konstantin Raudive, an early researcher. References to EVP have appeared in the reality television show Ghost Hunters, the fictional Supernatural and the Hollywood films White Noise and The Sixth Sense as well as literature including the novels Legion and Pattern Recognition. EVP are a subset of the paranormal field of instrumental transcommunication.

EVP has been studied primarily by paranormal researchers since the 1950s, who have concluded that the most likely explanation for the phenomena is that they are produced by the spirits of the deceased. In 1956 Attila Von Szalay said he had recorded 'voices of the dead', which led to the experiments of Friedrich Jurgenson. The 1970s brought increased interest and research including the work of Konstantine Raudive. In 1980, William O'Neill backed by industrialist George Meek built a 'Spiricom' device which he said could facilitate very clear communication between this world and the spirit world. Investigation of EVP continues today through the work of many experimenters, including Sarah Estep and Alexander McRae. In addition to spirits, paranormal researchers have suggested that EVP could be due to: psychic echoes from the past, psychokinesis unconsciously produced by living people, or the thoughts of aliens or nature spirits. Paranormal investigators have used EVP in various ways including, as a tool in an attempt to contact the souls of dead loved ones and in Ghost hunting. Organizations dedicated to EVP include the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, the International Ghost Hunters Society, as well as the skeptical Rorschach Audio project.

Critics of electronic voice phenomena contend that the sounds are due to non-paranormal reasons such as fraud, misidentification or low-quality equipment. They explain that the human brain is naturally evolved to interpret familiar patterns from sound and that this accounts for many instances of apparent 'voices' or 'voice-like' sounds. The condition known as auditory pareidolia (or Rorschach Audio) can cause random sounds to be interpreted as voices in the hearer's own language. Sound engineers who use equipment at a much higher quality than that which is used by many EVP researchers have stated that they have never heard voices after years of listening to tape and hard disk recordings and that the low quality of the equipment used could account for many of the apparent voices. Critics have also concluded that certain cases might be apophenia (finding of significance or connections between insignificant or unrelated phenomena), misidentification, or hoaxes.

History

Following on the Spiritualist movement in the 1840s, people became interested about the possibility of communicating with the afterlife. These included seances and other non-technological methods. With the creation of the wireless, the idea of communicating with the dead expanded to the use of modern technology to achieve contact. Concerted research on technical means of communication grew rapidly in the latter part of the 20th century.

Early recordings

American photographer Attila von Szalay was among the first to try recording what he believed to be voices of the dead. He began his attempts in 1941 using a 78 rpm record. It wasn't until 1956, after switching to a reel-to-reel tape recorder, that he believed he was successful. Working with Raymond Bayless, von Szalay conducted a number of recording sessions with a custom-made apparatus, consisting of a microphone in an insulated cabinet connected to an external recording device and speaker. Szalay reported finding many sounds on the tape that could not be heard on the speaker at the time of recording, some of which were recorded when there was no one in the cabinet. He believed these sounds to be the voices of discarnate spirits. Among the first recordings believed to be spirit voices were such messages as "This is G!," "Hot dog, Art!," and "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all." Von Szalay and Bayless' work was published by the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1959. Bayless later went on to co-author the 1979 book, Phone Calls From the Dead.

In 1959, Swedish painter and film producer Friedrich Jürgenson was recording bird songs. Upon playing the tape later, he heard what he interpreted to be his dead father's voice and then the spirit of his deceased wife calling his name. He went on to make several more recordings, including one that he said contained a message from his late mother.

Raudive voices

Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist who had taught at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and who had worked in conjunction with Jürgenson, made over 100,000 recordings which he described as being communications with discarnate people. Some of these recordings were conducted in a RF-screened laboratory and contained identifiable words according to Raudive. In an attempt to confirm the content of his collection of recordings, Raudive invited listeners to hear and interpret them. He believed that the clarity of the voices heard in his recordings implied that they could not be readily explained by normal means. Raudive's research was formally published into his first book, "Breakthrough - An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead" originally released in 1968 and translated into English in 1971.

Since their release, Raudive's interpretations of his recordings have been criticized as being highly subjective, and for the fact that the speech they are said to contain is often unrelated to questions that investigators posed during their recording. Both Jürgenson and Raudive's recordings were said to contain sentences that were made up of several languages.

Spiricom

In 1980, William O'Neil constructed an electronic audio device called "The Spiricom". O'Neil claimed the device was built to specifications which he received psychically from George Mueller, a scientist who had died six years previously. At a Washington, DC, press conference on April 6, 1982, O'Neil stated that he was able to hold two-way conversations with spirits through the Spiricom device, and provided the design specifications to researchers for free. However, nobody is known to have replicated O'Neil's results using their own Spiricom devices. O'Neil's partner, retired industrialist George Meek, attributed O'Neil's success, and the inability of others to replicate it, to O'Neil's psychic abilities forming part of the loop that made the system work.

Modern era (1980s-present)

In 1982, Sarah Estep founded the "American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena" in Severna Park, Maryland, a nonprofit organization with the purpose of increasing awareness of EVP, and of teaching standardized methods for capturing it. Estep began her exploration of EVP in 1976, and says she has made hundreds of recordings of messages from deceased friends, relatives, and other individuals, including Konstantin Raudive, Beethoven, a lamplighter from 18th century Philadelphia, PA, and extraterrestrials whom she speculated originated from other planets or dimensions.

In 1997, Imants Barušs, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, conducted a series of experiments using the methods of EVP investigator Konstantin Raudive, and the work of Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) researcher Mark Macy, as a guide. A radio was tuned to an empty frequency, and over 81 sessions a total of 60 hours and 11 minutes of recordings were collected. During recordings, a researcher either sat in silence or attempted to make verbal contact with potential sources of EVP. Barušs did record several events that sounded like voices, but they were too few and too random to represent viable data and too open to interpretation to be described definitively as EVP. He concluded: "While we did replicate EVP in the weak sense of finding voices on audio tapes, none of the phenomena found in our study was clearly anomalous, let alone attributable to discarnate beings. Hence we have failed to replicate EVP in the strong sense." The findings were published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration in 2001, and include a literature survey.

In 2005 the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research published a report by paranormal investigator Alexander MacRae. MacRae conducted recording sessions using a device of his own design known as ALPHA. MacRae reported that ALPHA is able to convert electrodermal responses into noise, which is then examined for EVP. In an attempt to demonstrate that different individuals would interpret EVP in the recordings the same way, MacRae asked seven people to compare some selections to a list of five phrases he provided, and to choose the best match. MacRae said his results indicated that the selections were not a form of Rorschach Audio, but were of paranormal origin.

Paranormal explanations

Various explanations have been put forward for EVP by paranormal experimenters such as Raudive, MacRae and others, who say they have attempted to rule out non-paranormal explanations for their origins. These include:

Discarnate entities

Communications from discarnate entities is one paranormal hypothesis to explain EVP. These spirits, while unable to communicate verbally with humans, are able to imprint information on recording media by an unknown method. According to some EVP experimenters, questions have been asked during EVP recording sessions, and the audio recordings made during those sessions have contained utterances properly answering the questions. EVP experimenters believe these are the voices of deceased persons, because the recorded words are often spoken in a voice and with mannerisms very similar to the characteristic voice and mannerisms remembered of the deceased person thought to be speaking. Many EVP recordings contain messages that identify the speaker as a person known to be deceased. For instance, Margaret Downey made audio recordings heard to include the utterances, “Jo’s Nick’s mommy," “Mom, it’s Nicky" and “Nick O'Neill is talking.” She was recording on behalf of a lady named Joanne who is the mother of a deceased boy named Nick O'Neill. During life, Nick was accustomed to referring to his mother as "Jo" and as "Mommy."

The question of whether or not audio recordings thought to be EVP are just noise mistaken by an individual listener to be words, or actually form words, has been addressed with the use of listening panels. If EVP really forms words, then a significant percentage of panel participants will be able to agree on what is said. In one online experiment, 32% of the words which the experimenters thought to be in five examples were correctly identified by participants even though there was no indication of what the EVP were thought to say. Protocols used to explore EVP routinely use such a listening panel to rate results. In what is called the 4Cell EVP Demonstration, the results of an experiment are not considered a "hit" unless the response is clearly appropriate to the question asked, and at least three people who are not in the 4Cell are able to agree on what is said. Such experiments have had a success rate of better than 60%. For instance, in an experiment conducted by the 4Cell called "Cease2Dcease", the Receiver recorded an EVP saying "Leans to side." The question, which was not known to the Receiver at the time, was "What was the nickname Mary Jo’s sister Sheila gave her after she got her Harley?" The expected answer was the nickname, "Tilt," because she always leaned to the side while riding her Harley. A system of grading EVP as Class A, Class B and Class C has become widely adopted by EVP experimenters. A Class A example of EVP is a possible utterance that will be heard and understood by the average listener without prompting.

Portable digital voice recorders, which are currently the technology of choice for EVP experimentation, are very susceptible to Radio Frequency (RF) contamination. To account for this, the everyday experimenter depends on previous research conducted under controlled conditions which has established that EVP can be recorded when the recorder is shielded from RF signals. One such test was conducted by Alexander MacRae in the Institute of Noetic Sciences', RF- and sound-screened room. Bill Weisensale, also used a shielded chamber and reported that he successfully recorded EVP. EVP experimenters say that since it is established that EVP can be recorded in screened conditions, the content of the utterance is felt to provide sufficient reason to eliminate RF interference as an explanation. Important to this conclusion are some of the common characteristics of EVP: EVP have a logical beginning and end, are appropriate for the circumstances and questions asked, and are typically only a few words- whereas radio interference would extend for random lengths of time. EVP typically only occur when there is noise in the audio circuits of the device used. Experimenters believe that this noise itself is used to produce the EVP. For this reason, many experimenters use two recorders, such as a digital voice recorder and a video camera. The higher quality audio circuit in a video camera is not as prone to record EVP, and any sound found on both recorders are usually discarded as being mundane.

EVP experimenters say that there are many ways in which technological artefacts can create false positives. For instance, the intake of breath before speaking can sometimes be mistaken as an EVP. As can be seen with an Internet search for EVP, people around the world are experimenting with EVP, representing a wide range of education in the field. Processing errors do happen, but experimenters say that such errors are just that, processing errors and not the explanation for EVP.

EVP are very difficult to understand. Experiments using forensic-quality audio analysis software show that cues in timing, frequency distribution, and emphasis are found to be different in most examples of EVP than in normal human speech (another reason that radio interference is an unlikely explanation). Further, the voices have been shown to have characteristics that could not have been sounds formed in a human mouth. Based on this and similar research, experimenters believe that the difficulty people have in distinguishing the sound of EVP as words is partially due to the unusual way the words are formed. As such, hearing the words in EVP is usually an ability, much like learning a new language.

Psychokinesis

According to this explanation, communications might be imprinted directly on an electronic medium by a living human, through an unknown form of matter/energy manipulation. Some EVP experimenters say they have received messages from a sleeping colleague.

Extraterrestrial entities

Experimenters such Sarah Estep say that some EVP may be caused by nature energies, beings from other dimensions, or extraterrestrials.

Criticism

Mainstream science and technology has generally ignored EVP, but some such as psychologist Jim Alcock and sound engineer David Federlein have offered a number of non-paranormal explanations, which account for EVP by such mechanisms as radio interference or the tendency of the human brain to recognize patterns in random stimuli. These include:

Interference

Certain recordings, especially those recorded on devices which contain RLC circuitry, represent radio signals of voices/sounds from broadcast sources. Interference from CB Radio transmissions and wireless baby minders, or anomalies generated though cross modulation from other electronic devices, are all documented phenomena. It is even possible for circuits to resonate without any internal power source by means of radio reception.

Auditory pareidolia

Auditory pareidolia or Rorschach Audio is a condition created when the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns. In the case of EVP it could result in an observer interpreting random noise on an audio recording as being the familiar sound of a human voice. The propensity for an apparent voice heard in white noise recordings to be in a language understood well by those researching it, rather than in an unfamiliar language, has been cited as evidence of this, and a broad class of phenomena referred to by author Joe Banks as Rorschach Audio has been described as a global explanation for all manifestations of EVP.

Skeptics such as David Federlein, Chris French, Terrence Hines and Michael Shermer say that some EVP are recorded by raising the "noise floor" - the electrical noise created by all electrical devices - in order to create white noise. When this noise is filtered, it can be made to produce noises which sound like speech. Federlein says that this is no different from using a wah pedal on a guitar, which is a focused sweep filter which moves around the spectrum and creates open vowel sounds. This, according to Federlein, sounds exactly like some EVP. This, in combination with such things as cross modulation of radio stations or faulty ground loops can cause the impression of paranormal voices. The human brain evolved to recognize patterns, and if a person listens to enough noise the brain will detect words, even when there is no intelligent source for them. Expectation also plays an important part in making people believe they are hearing voices in random noise.

Apophenia

Apophenia is related to, but distinct from pareidolia. Apophenia is defined as "the spontaneous finding of connections or meaning in things which are random, unconnected or meaningless", has also been put forward as a possible explanation.

Capture errors

Capture errors are anomalies created by the method used to capture audio signals, such as noise generated through the over-amplification of a signal at the point of recording.

Processing artifacts

Artifacts created during attempts to boost the clarity of an existing recording might explain some EVP. Methods include re-sampling, frequency isolation, and noise reduction/enhancement, which might cause recordings to take on qualities significantly different from those that were present in the original recording.

Hoaxes

A percentage of recordings may be hoaxes created by frauds or pranksters.

Organizations

There are a number of organizations dedicated to EVP and Instrumental TransCommunication. Individuals within these organizations may participate in investigations, author books or journal articles, deliver presentations, and hold conferences where they share experiences.

• The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) is an "educational association that is dedicated to the support of people who are interested in or who are studying Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC)." The AA-EVP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose current directors are Tom and Lisa Butler. The AA-EVP averages around 500 members in 47 USA states and 22 countries including the USA (current: 2007)." The AA-EVP maintains the "Big Circle," with the mission to "establish contact with one or more individuals we know and love that are now in the spiritual world," rather than merely record spirit voices in haunted locations.

• The Rorschach Audio project, initiated by sound artist Joe Banks, presents EVP as a product of radio interference combined with auditory pareidolia, and discusses possible methodological shortcomings of EVP research and the (sometimes involuntary) misdirection techniques that may be used when EVP researchers present their work to the public.

• The International Ghost Hunters Society, states that it is "the largest ghost research society on the Internet" with over 1,000 "EVP ghost voices" on file.

• Spiritualists, as well as others who believe in Survivalism, have an ongoing interest in EVP. Many Spiritualists believe that communication with the dead is a scientifically proven fact, and experiment with a variety of techniques for spirit communication which they believe provide evidence of the continuation of life. According to the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, "An important modern day development in mediumship is spirit communications via an electronic device. This is most commonly known as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)". An informal survey by the organization's Department Of Phenomenal Evidence cites that 1/3 of churches conduct sessions in which participants seek to communicate with spirit entities using EVP.

• The Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernetics Research, is a no-profit organization dedicated studying anomalous psi phenomena related to neurophysiological conditions. According to the AA-EVP, it is "the only organized group of researchers we know of specializing in the study of ITC."

Popular interest

The concept of EVP has had a wide impact in popular culture. It is popular as an entertaining pursuit, as in ghost hunting, and as a means of dealing with grief. It has influenced literature, radio, film and television.

Investigation of EVP is the subject of hundreds of Internet message boards, regional, and national groups. According to paranormal researcher John Zaffis, "There's been a boom in ghost hunting ever since the Internet took off." Investigators, equipped with electronic gear such as EMF meters, video cameras and audio recorders, scour reportedly haunted venues, trying to uncover visual and audio evidence of hauntings. Many use portable recording devices in an attempt to capture EVP.

Literature

• Legion, a 1983 novel by William Peter Blatty. Written as a sequel to his 1971 novel The Exorcist, Legion contains a subplot where Dr. Vincent Amfortas, a terminally-ill neurologist, leaves a "to-be-opened-upon-my-death" letter for Lt. Kinderman detailing his accounts of contact with the dead, including the Dr's recently deceased wife, Ann, through EVP recordings. Amfortas' character and the EVP subplot do not appear in the film version of the novel, Exorcist III.
• Pattern Recognition, 2003 novel by William Gibson. The main character's mother tries to convince her that her father is communicating with her from recordings after his death/disappearance in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• The Dung Beetle Flies in the Twilight, 1978 novel by Maria Gripe. Three protagonists make a tape recording of their exploration of an area around an old house, which appeared to one of them in his dreams. Only later they notice another voice whispering on the tape. It turns out it is the voice of a dead girl that used to live in the house. She gives them clues where to explore further to find out her fate and guides them to an ancient egyptian artefact.

Radio, film and television

• The Sixth Sense (fictional), a 1999 film starring Bruce Willis. The main character, a psychologist, realizes that audiotapes of his former patient interviews include the voices of dead people, who have been haunting the patient.
• Ghost Whisperer (fictional), 2005 TV series. In the episode "Voices", a dead woman tries to reach her son using EVP.
• Supernatural (fictional), a TV series launched in 2005 which draws from many legends and paranormal phenomena, frequently uses EVP as a plot device.
• White Noise (fictional), a 2005 film starring Michael Keaton, focuses exclusively on the phenomenon of EVP and the main character's attempts to contact his recently deceased wife through it. The filmmakers assert at the end of the film that 1 in 12 EVP messages received is threatening in nature, a figure disputed by many in the field.
• Coast To Coast AM (talk radio) hosts George Noory and Art Bell have explored the topic of EVP with featured guests such as Brendan Cook and Barbara McBeath of the Ghost Investigators Society, and paranormal investigator and demonologist Lou Gentile.
• The SciFi Channel's Ghost Hunters (reality televistion) TV series often features EVP as part of investigations conducted by Atlantic Paranormal Society members.
• The Spirit of John Lennon (reality televistion), a pay-per-view seance broadcast in 2006, in which TV crew members, a psychic, and an "expert in paranormal activity" claim the spirit of former Beatle John Lennon made contact with them through what was described as "an Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)".
• Dead Whisper (documentary), a film by Ronald James Television and Media in 2006, in which Canadian psychic Robbie Thomas and Indiana Ghost Trackers investigate Manteno State asylum, Rico D's in Illinois, and the Studebaker Mansion in Indiana. Michael Esposito and Mike McDowell use EVP to confirm Robbie Thomas' communications with spirit entities. The film focuses heavily on EVP.

Instrumental transcommunication (ITC)

Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) is a more general term than EVP and refers to communication between spirits or other discarnate entities and the living, through any sort of electronic device such as tape recorders, fax machines, television sets or computers. ITC include visual and other anomalies, rather than only auditory effects. The term was coined by physicist Professor Ernst Senkowski, of the Faculty of Engineering in University of Mainz, Germany.

For example, according to Claus Schreiber an instance of ITC occurred at 1:22 p.m. on October 21, 1987 in which the image of EVP researcher Friedrich Jürgenson (whose funeral was held that day) is appeared on a television in the home of a colleague, which had been purposefully tuned to a vacant channel. . It is claimed that similar effects can be achieved using a TV and video camera via the Droste effect. This involves aiming a video camera at the television and feeding the output of the camera back into the TV, in order to achieve a feedback loop.

ITC is highly controversial, and skeptics say that there is not enough evidence to conclude scientifically that ITC is of paranormal origin.

See also

• Parapsychology
• Mediumship
• Backward message
• Ghost hunting
• Reverse speech

Notes

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Further reading

• Is There an Afterlife: A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence, David Fontana, (2005) ISBN 1903816904
• Voices of Eternity, Sarah Estep, Fawcett (1988)
• EVP, Cinderella Science, by Gerry Connelly, Domra Pub. (2001)
• There is No Death And There are No Dead, by Tom & Lisa Butler, AA-EVP Pub. (2003)
• Roads to Eternity, by Sarah Estep, Fawcett (2005)
• Experimenting With "EVP" - The Skeptic Express

External links

• American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AAEVP) - Dedicated to EVP research.
• Electronic Voice Phenomenon at The Open Directory Project - Dedicated EVP phenomena.
• World ITC - Dedicated to ITC research.
• ITC Journal - Research, opinion and background articles about ITC available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
• ITC research site. - Website dedicated to showing ITC in video.
• VTF, the German Association for Transcommunication Research - German organization dedicated to study of ITC and EVP.

• Ghosts
• Paranormal
• Recording
• Spiritualism