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Revision as of 02:46, 6 January 2007 editTom Butler (talk \| contribs)1,149 edits The AA-EVP recommends the piano-style controls for cassette recorders← Previous edit		Revision as of 02:57, 6 January 2007 edit undoTom Butler (talk \| contribs)1,149 edits No one who knows much about EVP call the communicators "spirits."Next edit →
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	A number of different paranormal explanations have been put forward in relation to EVP.		A number of different paranormal explanations have been put forward in relation to EVP.

	* '''Discarnate entities''': EVP represent the voices of discarnate entities; often referred to as '']'' or ''~~spirits~~'', that survived the deaths of their physical bodies, but which are still able to communicate with the living through electronic devices. <ref name=AAevp1/>		* '''Discarnate entities''': EVP represent the voices of discarnate entities; often referred to as '']'' or ''discarnate entities,'' that survived the deaths of their physical bodies, but which are still able to communicate with the living through electronic devices. <ref name=AAevp1/>

	*'''Extraterrestrial entities''': EVP represent contact with ''nature energies'' or ''beings from other worlds'' (]).		*'''Extraterrestrial entities''': EVP represent contact with ''nature energies'' or ''beings from other worlds'' (]).

Revision as of 02:57, 6 January 2007

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are what paranormal researchers claim are anomalous voices or voice-like sounds captured on a variety of recorded media - ranging from wax cylinder recorders to cellular telephones and computers. Typically, they are brief, the length of a word or short phrase, though longer examples are not unknown. As with all paranormal phenomena, the origins and existence of EVP are disputed by most mainstream researchers and there has been no peer reviewed scientific evidence supporting the claim that such phenomena are anything more than an auditory version of pareidolia or interference.

The primary paranormal belief is that such anomalous sounds represent the voices of discarnate entities that survived the deaths of their physical bodies, but which are still able to communicate using voices that are only able to be recorded using electronic equipment. Other beliefs include that EVP have been created directly on the recording device via psychokinesis or that they might be an attempt at communication by extraterestrial life.

Critics of the paranormal account for EVP recordings by more prosaic origins, including background noise mistakenly identified as speech due to pareidolia (the human propensity to perceive familiar patterns, such as a human voice, in situations where no such pattern exists) or including interference and cross modulation from local sources such as baby monitors and CB radios. Techniques employed in EVP anaylsis involve amplification and modification of noise to such great extents that the alleged signals become artifaces subject to selection effects rather than meaningful collection of data. Equipment on which EVP has reportedly been recorded ranges from broadcast quality systems in paranormal "laboratories" that were claimed to have been sheilded, to commercially available microphones and cassette recorders.

History

Throughout history, many different groups have attempted to contact the dead through a variety of means, but the use of recording devices and other forms of technology did not begin in earnest until the early 20th century.

In 1901, while studying the shamanic practices of a remote Siberian tribe, anthropologist Waldemar Bogoras captured what appeared to be disembodied voices heard during a shaman's ritual. While recording the shaman beating his drum while in a trance-like state, Borogas heard many voices from around the room speaking both Russian and English.

In the 1920s, the American inventor Thomas Edison told a Scientific American reporter that he was working on creating a machine that could contact the dead. However, a few years later Edison admitted that he been making a joke at the reporter's expense. The tall tale spread through a growing media circuit; whose audience was eager for paranormal news, and Edison's fiction has today achieved the status of an urban legend.

In 1933, four parapsychologists and two electrical engineers recorded a public seance in the New York studio of the Decca. During the course of the seance participants reported hearing many different sets of voices, some of which the engineers said fell outside normal human speaking range. The results of the seance are currently maintained by the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). The 1930's also spawned several independent researchers who stated that they successfully recorded EVP using phonograph recordings, including the American photographer Attila von Szalay. In the mid 1950s von Szalay was joined by Raymond Bayless in his research; according to the ASPR's journal, their results were good.

In 1959 Friedrich Jürgenson, who some refer to as the father of EVP, heard what he believed to be a discarnate human voice on a recording he had made of birdsong. Jürgenson, a film producer, made subsequent recordings that he said contained messages from his dead mother. This began his lifelong involvement with the taped phenomena, which attracted the interest of Jungian psychologist Konstantin Raudive. Raudive became deeply involved in attempts to capture spirit voices on recordings, so much so that these types of recordings became known as "Raudive voices." In 1960 Jürgenson presented his work on taped spirit voices to the Vatican. According to Jürgenson, in 1973 Archbishop Bruno Heim presented him to the Pope for investiture as Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an award honoring meritorious service to the church.

In 1971 Raudive and other engineers 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, when the recordings were played, observers reported that more than 200 other voices could be heard. Raudive's book Breakthrough was also published in 1971.

Since Jürgenson's report, thousands of people worldwide have attempted to replicate his experiments, and many believe they achieved 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.

In 1982, Sarah Estep founded the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena in Severna Park, Maryland, with the purpose of teaching people how to obtain EVP recordings and to educate the public about the various forms of transcommunication that are dependent on technology. Most members of this organization use the basic recording techniques of asking questions while an ordinary audio recorder is on, Ref: Basic EVP Recording Technique,AA-EVP, Tom and Lisa Butler http://aaevp.com/techniques/techniques_evp9.htm but other techniques and technologies are actively explored in an effort to improve the collection of the voices and understand their nature. ref: Book: There is No Death and There are No Dead, Tom and Lisa Butler, AA-EVP Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0972749306

Popular Electronics published an article in 1995 describing how to go about recording ghost voices in a tone "suitably deadpan in its treatment of their objective existence."

Paranormal standpoint

A number of different paranormal explanations have been put forward in relation to EVP.

Discarnate entities: EVP represent the voices of discarnate entities; often referred to as ghosts or discarnate entities, that survived the deaths of their physical bodies, but which are still able to communicate with the living through electronic devices.

Extraterrestrial entities: EVP represent contact with nature energies or beings from other worlds (extraterrestrials).

Psychokinesis: EVP are generated by living human beings via psychokinesis or other paranormal means.

Non-Paranormal standpoint

To date, no peer review evidence exists in support of EVP as a paranormal phenomena, and individuals skeptical to the concept have put forward a number of alternative explanations.

Interference: EVP represents genuine voices/sounds from prosaic sources, including interference from CB Radio transmissions and wireless baby minders, or they may be the result of cross modulation from other electronic devices.

Auditory pareidolia: EVP is a form of auditory Pareidolia. A condition created when the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns. In this case, resulting in an observer interpreting random noise on an audio recording as being the familiar sound of a human voice.

Hoaxes: A percentage of EVP are hoaxes created by frauds or pranksters.

Studies

Taking their inspiration from Jürgenson, EVP phenomena were investigated by the German parapsychologist Hans Bender and by the Latvian psychologist Konstantin Raudive. Following the publication of Raudive's book on his research (Breakthrough, 1971) these phenomena are now often referred to as "Raudive Voices".

In 1959, Bender, then leading a research team at University of Freiburg's Institute for Border Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, concluded that Jürgenson's recordings were "susceptible to a paranormal interpretation".

Dr Konstantin Raudive (1906-1974), a student of Carl Jung at Oxford University, was a Latvian philosopher, psychologist, and university professor who taught at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Raudive was preoccupied with parapsychological interests all his life (especially with the possibility of life after death), and he kept in close contact with leading British psychical researchers.

In 1964, Raudive read Jürgenson's book, Voices from Space, and was so impressed by it that he arranged to meet Jürgenson in 1965. He then worked with Jürgenson to make some EVP recordings, but their first efforts bore little fruit, although they believed that they could hear very weak, muddled voices. However, one night, as he listened to one recording, he clearly heard a number of voices. When he played the tape over and over, he came to understand all of them, some of which were in German, some in Latvian, some in French. The last voice on the tape, a woman's voice, said "Va dormir, Margarete" ("Go to sleep, Margaret").

Raudive later wrote in his book Breakthrough, "These words made a deep impression on me, as Margarete Petrautzki had died recently, and her illness and death had greatly affected me." Amazed by this, Raudive began researching such voices on his own, spending much of the last ten years of his life exploring electronic voice phenomena. With the help of various electronics experts, Raudive recorded over 100,000 audiotapes, most of which were made under what he described as "strict laboratory conditions." He collaborated at times with Bender. Over 400 people were involved in his research, and all apparently heard the voices.

Raudive developed several different approaches to recording EVP, and he referred to:

Microphone voices: one simply leaves the tape recorder running, with no one talking; he indicated that one can even disconnect the microphone.
Radio voices: one records the white noise from a radio that is not tuned to any station.
Diode voices: one records from what is essentially a crystal set not tuned to a station.

Raudive delineated a number of characteristics of the voices, (as laid out in Breakthrough):

"The voice entities speak very rapidly, in a mixture of languages, sometimes as many as five or six in one sentence."*
"They speak in a definite rhythm, which seems forced on them."
"The rhythmic mode imposes a shortened, telegram-style phrase or sentence."
Probably because of this, "... grammatical rules are frequently abandoned and neologisms abound."

It should be noted for item 1 that Raudive lived in Europe and understood a number of languages. In most known cases, EVP are in a language understood by the experimenter or an interested party.

References

Chisholm, Judith (2000). "A Short History of EVP". Psychic World. Retrieved 2006-12-03.
^ "EVP Question Time". Fortean Times. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ "About the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena: What is the Survival Hypothesis?". American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP). Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
"PK-EVP Experiment". Next Step Research. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Estep, Sarah (1988). Voices of Eternity. New York: Fawcett Gold Medal Book, Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-449-13424-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ "EVP". Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
MacRae, Alexander. "Report of an Anomalous Speech Products Experiment inside a Double Screened Room". SKYELAB: Researching the Fifth Dimension through EVP. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
Swenson, Alex. "Waldemar Bogoras (Biography of)". Minnesota State University, Mankato. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ "Don't believe everything you read in a textbook!". Edison National Historic Site. National Parks Service. 2004-11-05. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Bayless, Raymond (1959). J. Amer. S.P.R. (53): 35–39. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
Bjorling, Joel (1998). Consulting Spirits: A Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 68. ISBN 0313302847. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Alcock, James E, PhD. "Electronic Voice Phenomena: Voices of the Dead?". CSICOP. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Jürgenson, Friedrich (2001 (German to English translation; original work publishsed 1964)). . Sweden: Friedrich Jürgenson Foundation. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Estep, Sarah (May 1991). "Tapes from the Dead". Fate Magazine (44): 54. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Konstantinos (October 1995). Popular Electronics (12): 37–41. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
Peters, John Durham (1999). Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 101. ISBN 0226662772. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Jahn, Robert G. (1987). Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0151571481. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
Wiggins Arthur W. Wynn Charles M. (2001), ”Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins”, National Academies Press, ISBN 0-309-07309-X
Chisholm, Judith. "A short history of EVP". The EVP and transcommunication society of Great Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 2006-12-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Sconce, Jeffrey (2000). Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 85–91. ISBN 0822325721. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Raudive, Konstantin (1971). Breakthrough: Electronic Communication with the Dead May Be Possible. Buckinghamshire: Colin Smythe Ltd. ISBN 0900675543. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Tom and Lisa Butler, There is No Death and There are No Dead, AA-EVP Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0972749306

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