Story
by Mark Goldberg, Artwork by Ricardo Pustanio
Ghost hunting is certainly getting a lot
of open air play in popular culture these
days and most recent and notably through
the Sci-Fi Channel hit shows"Ghost
Hunters, Sci Fi Investigates, and a host
of others on other cable channels."
And radio shows like Coast to Coast Am With
George Norry and Art Bell who have carried
the torch for years. All which is helping
to bring the so-called science of the paranormal
investigation of EVP's into the mainstream.
The tools of the trade are all being opened
up to the public to understand. And recording
of EVP's is at the top of everyones A- list.
Americans are trying to communicate with
spirits in record numbers; half of all
Americans believe in extrasensory perception.
A new 2000 Gallup poll reports that fully
28 percent of Americans believe people
can hear from or communicate mentally
with the dead.
Regardless of whether spirits are attempting
to communicate with us, people are trying
to communicate with them—spouses
with deceased spouses; parents with deceased
children; children with deceased parents—says
Greg Barrett of the Gannett News Service.
Skeptics and believers alike say it is
this love—and love lost—that
drives our undying desire to talk to the
dead.
Longtime skeptic and magician James Randi,
a.k.a. "Amazing Randi," says,
"People not only want it to be true,
they need it to be true. It's the feel-good
syndrome," says the 72-year-old,
who has standing offer of $1 million to
psychics who can independently verify
their "magic."
Between 1972 and 1995 U.S. taxpayer,s
unbeknownst to them, supported the paranormal
profession. Before the ties were severed
to psychics in 1996, the CIA and various
U.S. Defense Department intelligence agencies
spent $20 million in an effort to turn
psychics into spy satellites. Some of
the details of the government program
may soon be released, as they are in the
process of being reviewed for declassification,
according to CIA spokeswoman Anya Guilsher.
Guilsher adds that the government's conclusion
of the use of psychics was "unpromising."
Psychic Noreen Renier doesn't agree.
She was lecturing on extrasensory perception
at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia,
when she warned that President Reagan
would soon receive an injury to the upper
chest. Two months later, John Hinckley
shot Reagan.
Skeptic Paul Kurtz says all of this medium
stuff is "nincompoopery." "But
for whatever reason, it's all the rage."
Kurtz is chairman of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims
of the Paranormal and he tackles claims
of psychics and the like in his Skeptic
Inquirer magazine.
Gary Schwartz thinks he has evidence
that the living can talk to the dead.
Schwartz, Harvard-educated and head of
the University of Arizona Human Energy
Systems Laboratory, claims the lab, which
is a psychic testing ground, is revealing
some interesting data. Several years ago,
five mediums that Schwartz refers to as
the "Dream Team" were flown
to Tucson and put through a battery of
tests. Most psychics scored 83 percent
in revealing personal details about others,
when asking yes or no questions.
When asked if any of his "Dream
Team" will take Amazing Randi's challenge
for the $1 million prize, he answers that
Randi is an eternal skeptic who will never
convert, no matter what evidence confronts
him, so it is unlikely.
SOURCES:
Barrett, Greg. USA Today, 20 June 2001.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) or a
form of Instrumental transcommunication
(ITC), which means the use of the tape recorder,
video recorder, TV, radio, computer, telephone
and other technical devices for the express
purpose of getting meaningful information
from the quantum realm in such forms as
voices, images and text. In the case of
telephones, many people report having received
phone calls by someone claiming to be a
deceased relative or a colleague.
The voices can also manifest via the white
noise between untuned stations on a radio
or televison. Paranormal Researchers believe
that the voices of the dead can be recorded
and played back on magnetic audio tape.
It is the most modern way to communicate
with the spirit world. Some skeptics believe
that they are not voices of the dead but
radio or CB transmissions.
Some of the most remarkable EVP cases involve
television and computers; a distorted image
of a dead person's face will sometimes appear
on a television screen, and some images
even appear as a clear "full body"
snapshot of the deceased individual. In
some of these cases, the spirit will use
the television to say that the scene behind
them is an actual view of the "astral
world", and that the background scene
is depicted in order to reassure the living
that their deceased loved ones are in a
safe place.
Sony Professional Portable 24-bit Linear
Audio Recorder
The PCM-D1 Portable Linear PCM Recorder
takes mobile recording beyond the boundaries
of typical field recording, making it
the ideal choice for capturing live musical
or theatrical performances, for recording
sound effects, or for journalists in the
field. With built-in, highly sensitive,
electret condenser microphones; a circuit
design that processes stereo sound with
virtually no extraneous noise; and 96
kHz 24-bit recording quality, this recorder
is capable of capturing even the most
subtle performance nuances. Convenience
features such as a 4 GB internal Flash
Memory, a slot for Memory Stick PRO™
(High Speed) storage media, a USB port,
four AA size nickel metal hydride rechargeable
batteries, and a battery charger make
this unit super-equipped for field recording.
Free of drive mechanisms, this lightweight,
portable, and rugged recorder is audio
refined – and cool redefined.
Thomas Edison saw new technology, part
of which he invented, as a means by which
spirits might try to contact us. Apparently,
he strove to make contact through some sort
of phonograph device in the 1890s. Then,
in the late 1920s, he tried to make contact
with the souls of the dearly departed by
means of some sort of special chemical equipment.
It is claimed that spirit voices were first
captured on phonograph records in 1938,
seven years after his death.
However, it was with Friedrich Jürgenson
(1903-1987) that the study of EVP really
begins. Jürgenson was in some ways
a Renaissance Man – an archeologist,
a philosopher, a linguist, a painter who
was commissioned by Pope Pius XII, a singer
and recording artist, and a film documentary
maker. Jürgenson’s interest in
Electronic Voice Phenomena apparently began
when, after having recording bird songs
with a tape recorder, he could hear human
voices on the tapes, even though there had
been no one in the vicinity.
Sony
ICD-SX25 Digital Voice Recorder
Professional quality sound and high-level
functionality are what distinguish
the ICD-SX25 Digital Voice Recorder.
Sony has designed a powerful, sleek
recorder with a seamless aluminum
body. The slim-style design is only
one-half inch thick, with "record"
and "pause" controls located
on the side of the unit for easy operation.
This tiny device fits neatly into
a shirt pocket. Record grandma for
an audio-genealogy or interview a
famous celebrity -- whether you're
recording for personal or professional
reasons, you'll be extremely pleased.
This surprising event naturally piqued
his interest, and he turned his attention
to making recordings of nothing –
that is, recordings made in a quite place
with no one around. He continued to detect
voices on these tapes, and his studies led
to the 1964 publication of his book Rosterna
fran Rymden (“Voices from space”).
He subsequently recognized some of the
voices that his tape recorder picked up,
including that of his mother, who called
him by her pet nickname for him. However,
as we say where I grew up, his mother was
already “on the wrong side of the
grass;” that is, she was deceased.
It seemed natural to him to assume that
she was communicating from beyond the grave.
Thus, he came to the conclusion that all
the voices that he had recorded were voices
of the dead. In 1967, he published Sprechfunk
mit Verstorbenen (“Radio-link with
the dead”).
E.V.P stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena.
This Phenomena occurs when the voices of
a Spirit interrupt an Electro Magnetic Field,"E.M.F's",
so inturn using audio tape i.e. from a micro
cassette recorder reveals these voices where
as before they could not be heard by a human
ear. It is the same way with a dog-whistle,
the dog in this case being the audio recorder.
We as humans cannot pick up the sound of
this dog-whistle because the frequency is
to high. The dog, on the other hand can,
because its ear drum is designed for hearing
higher frequencies. The audio recorder uses
magnets to record onto tape when an Electro
Magnetic field is interrupted such as when
paranormal activity occurs. This inturn
effects the tape i.e."E.V.P"
Olympus
WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder
and Music Player
Slim, attractive, and highly functional,
the Olympus WS-320M digital voice
recorder packs 1 GB of internal flash
memory into its lightweight housing,
letting you record up to 277 hours
of high-quality audio in WMA format.
It's ideal for recording notes or
long lectures, interviewing sources
for an upcoming story, or capturing
spur-of-the-moment song ideas before
they disappear into the air. As an
added bonus, the WS-320M can store
up to 266 WMA or MP3 songs for high-quality
stereo playback, letting you listen
to your favorite tunes between (or
during) classes or while waiting in
line at the DMV. All this in a tiny
body that measures 1.5 inches wide
by 3.73 inches tall--roughly the size
of a pack of gum.
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.
Recording EVP's
The quality, volume and durations of recordings
are said to be increased by using a sound
source placed within audible distance of
the microphone during recording. Typically
this would be a radio tuned to between stations
so only white noise is audible; the theory
being that this provides an acoustic basis
for the voices to be constructed from, similar
to vocoder technology.
First you need a tape recorder. A digital
recorder or one that needs tape both work
well. An external microphone is helpful
with the old fashioned recorders since without
one you tend to record the mechanism inside
that's running and tends to interfere with
interpreting a EVP. It is also very important
to be in a place where there is quiet. Now
a cemetery is a great place to get an EVP,
but there is always a car going by or some
outside noise. The best place to record
EVPs as creepy as it seems is a controlled
environment like your house. No, your house
doesn't have to be haunted, but there are
spirits out there that are "dying"
(sorry) to communicate and your house is
the best place to get them. I know it can
be a bit expensive but using a new tape
every time eliminates doubt as to whether
you got a voice or it was on tape previously.
Also a bit of white noise will help since
the "spirit" seems to use whatever
noise is available to manufacture their
voice. The hum of the computer or a fan
on low speed work very well.
EVP'S Submited
by: MICHAEL FIRMAN
I am ghost hunter from New York...
These are the EVP's of the little
boy ghost that haunts my house.
To hear these EVP's use the highlihted
links below.
KITTY
WAV. This is the little
boy ghost that haunts my house
the first one my cat meows and
the little boy spirit voice will
say kitty. Recorded Jan. 8, 2006
The best time I have found to get EVPs
is from 10pm to 4am. I don't know why but
it seems to work. A good rule is to tell
the "spirits" your intention;
that is that you want to communicate with
them. You can ask questions and leave 10
seconds or so at the end for a response
or just let the tape run. Don't get discouraged,
you WILL get them.
This need for background noise fits the
alternative explanation that the white noise
provides random sounds that may be interpreted
as voices by people who expect or want to
hear voices. This explanation is consistent
with the theory that the entire "phenomenon"
is an example of pareidolia, in which a
vague or random stimulus is mistakenly perceived
as recognizable ).
Voices are said to be known for being rapid,
faint, and often spoken in grammatically
unusual and simplified language—or
even multiple languages during the same
sentence. The interpretation of such recordings
is often highly subjective and may differ
from listener to listener; some listeners
may hear nothing at all, while others report
hearing specific phrases or sentences.
If you have any real EVP's to contribute
please email them to us or we can convert
them to sound files if you send us a cassette
tape. Ghosts can be recorded on regular
audio tape.
You may not hear anything while you are
taping, but when you play back the tape
listen carefully. This should be done in
areas of suspected ghostly activity.
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