Ed My experience with Electronic Voice Phenomenon

[AmericanFamilyGuy]

When I was younger, I was a big paranormal buff. On my 15th birthday, my father gave me a cassette tape recorder so I could go to cemeteries and capture ''voices''. One night, when my father was at work, I opened up a brand new cassette tape, inserted it in the recorder, and walked across the street to the local cemetery. A deceased friend of my dad's, Annie, was buried there. I approached her grave, placed the external microphone in front of the headstone, and said ''Hello, Annie.'' After about 30 seconds, I stopped recording and headed home. Later, I played the tape and discovered a ''voice'' could be heard immediately after I said ''Hello, Annie.'' To my paranormal mind, it was a voice from beyond the grave. Today, I am a lot more educated about the subject and know of the ways a sound could be recorded that wasn't audible to my ears at the time of the recording.

My father played it for Annie's friends, and they all said ''It's her spirit's voice!'' While my father presented that as evidence that it was actually her voice, I said the fact that they were told they were going to be listening to a ghost tape tainted their judgement. I replied with a suggestion: Let's take this tape to Annie's mother and play it for her without telling her how we got it. If she identifies it as Annie's voice without knowing what she's listening to, I may consider it as evidence. We never tried this experiment because my dad was not confident she could identify it without being told of it's origins.

Resources on EVP are rather scarce. Can anyone point me to some resources on EVP so I can offer a thorough refutation of this as evidence of the paranormal?

Edit: Can the moderators correct my spelling in the title?

 

[Ashles]

Skepdic is always a good place to start:

EVP in The Skeptic's Dictionary

 

[rjh01]

I added a tag to this thread. Click on the tag (just below the title of the thread to the right of the word tag) and there are several threads about evp.

 

[CasaRojo]

When I was younger, I was a big paranormal buff. On my 15th birthday, my father gave me a cassette tape recorder so I could go to cemeteries and capture ''voices''. One night, when my father was at work, I opened up a brand new cassette tape, inserted it in the recorder, and walked across the street to the local cemetery. A deceased friend of my dad's, Annie, was buried there. I approached her grave, placed the external microphone in front of the headstone, and said ''Hello, Annie.'' After about 30 seconds, I stopped recording and headed home. Later, I played the tape and discovered a ''voice'' could be heard immediately after I said ''Hello, Annie.'' To my paranormal mind, it was a voice from beyond the grave. Today, I am a lot more educated about the subject and know of the ways a sound could be recorded that wasn't audible to my ears at the time of the recording.

My father played it for Annie's friends, and they all said ''It's her spirit's voice!'' While my father presented that as evidence that it was actually her voice, I said the fact that they were told they were going to be listening to a ghost tape tainted their judgement. I replied with a suggestion: Let's take this tape to Annie's mother and play it for her without telling her how we got it. If she identifies it as Annie's voice without knowing what she's listening to, I may consider it as evidence. We never tried this experiment because my dad was not confident she could identify it without being told of it's origins.

Resources on EVP are rather scarce. Can anyone point me to some resources on EVP so I can offer a thorough refutation of this as evidence of the paranormal?

Edit: Can the moderators correct my spelling in the title?

Interesting account. Did you only make the one recording? Do you still have the original recording? You said that you were 15. How long ago was this? Your dad gave you the cassette specifically for the purpose of recording spirit voices? This certainly implies a great deal of expectation if so. I assume that you were brought up in some sort of religious environment, not necessarily traditional Christianity? Maybe Spiritualist? Please provide as much information as you are comfortable with on each of these questions. If any questions remain unaddressed I'll assume you are uncomfortable speaking to them.

 

[skepticalbeliever]

I wouldn't get involved in EVP. I believe it is dangerous. You don't know who is talking, if it is indeed anybody. It may be grandma, or a demon. I for one, do not believe people wander around in a stuck-state on earth after they die. They either go to heavin or hell. That is my view as a Catholic. I don't think we will ever get definative proof of the paranormal even if it is possible that it exists and effects our lives.

I am intrested in scientific evidence on EVP.

 

[ChongLee]

Interesting post, perhaps something I could probably relate to from my childhood memories. That was a long time ago. A different environment, a different culture, and a child's mentality on the paranormal. But I'm not implying the same to you because I was way younger then 15.
I'm quite curious on the answers to Casarojo's questions tho.

Did you only make the one recording? Do you still have the original recording? You said that you were 15. How long ago was this? Your dad gave you the cassette specifically for the purpose of recording spirit voices? This certainly implies a great deal of expectation if so. I assume that you were brought up in some sort of religious environment, not necessarily traditional Christianity? Maybe Spiritualist?

 

[AmericanFamilyGuy]

Interesting account. Did you only make the one recording? Do you still have the original recording?

I still have the original, and it's the only copy. It's in excellent condition; I haven't played it for about 6 years.

You said that you were 15. How long ago was this?]

Almost 8 years.

Your dad gave you the cassette specifically for the purpose of recording spirit voices? This certainly implies a great deal of expectation if so.

Yes, it was given to me for paranormal purposes. Expectation? I wasn't sure. I did believe in EVP, but I didn't think I was ''lucky'' enough to capture a voice. I did firmly believe it was possible for me record a voice, and I didn't have a skeptical bone in my body, at least when it came to paranormal investigating.

I assume that you were brought up in some sort of religious environment, not necessarily traditional Christianity? Maybe Spiritualist? Please provide as much information as you are comfortable with on each of these questions. If any questions remain unaddressed I'll assume you are uncomfortable speaking to them.

My father was an agnostic who believed in some New-Age concepts he got into in the 70's like astral protection, telepathy, ghosts etc. I believed in these things as well. Interestingly enough, when I was 17 and he was 49, he turned atheist after a year of me presenting arguments against theism. I don't mind answering any questions, and if I missed anything then let me know.

 

[AmericanFamilyGuy]

Skepdic is always a good place to start:

Thank you.

 

[Cuddles]

There are several threads around the forum already discussing this kind of thing, but I'll summarise a few of the main points here. Firstly, picking up voices on electronic equipment is not at all unusual. The entire Earth is bathed in all kinds of radio transmissions, and just about any piece of metal can act as an antenna to pick them up. Attach it to something that plays or records sounds and it's very easy to hear things you weren't expecting. For example, the wire connecting my mp3 player to my car stereo picks up radio signals all the time. Even assuming your tape recorder was functioning perfectly, it would be easily possible to pick up stray radio signals. If it had a loose connection or was just a cheap design, it could even be accidentally recording from its radio input.

Secondly, a similar case can be made for sound. While you may not have heard anything at the time, sound can carry a surprising distance and the microphone could have simply recorded an actual, but entirely non-paranormal, sound.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, is paredolia. Humans are great at finding patterns. Unfortunately, that applies even when there aren't actually any patterns to be found. This makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view - better to run from a tiger that isn't there than not run from one that is. However, in a modern setting we tend to see less tigers and more of Jesus' face on toast. Exactly the same applies to sounds. When you hear some random noise, your brain tries to make sense out of it, and that often results in hearing voices where there are none.

This is especially the case when this is some expectation. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the situation where one person sees a shape in the clouds or in a picture, but no-one else can see it until it is pointed out, whereupon everyone can see it clearly. This happens a lot with EVP. If people are told there is a voice, they are more likely to hear a voice. What is particularly interesting is that even if people are told there is a voice, they rarely agree on what it is saying unless prompted in advance. Would it be possible for you to record this sound to your computer and post a link to it here? If everyone who hears it thinks it says the same thing that would make paredolia less likely (although still wouldn't necessarily rule it out), but if they all hear something different, or nothing at all, then it seems very unlikely that it could be anything else.

As a final point, did you only try this once? After having such an apparently successful experiment (in the sense that lots of people said they heard something) the first time it would seem odd not to try to repeat it. If you go to the same place and do the same thing, do you get the same results? What if you go to different graves? What if you try recording somewhere else entirely? This is one of the big problems with EVP claims, along with many other paranormal and pseudo-scientific ones. One result on its own means very little, especially when acquired under uncontrolled conditions and with several possible normal explanations. It's only if you can get consistent, independently replicated results that there's really any need to start wondering exactly why you're getting them.

 

[CasaRojo]

I still have the original, and it's the only copy. It's in excellent condition; I haven't played it for about 6 years.

It may not be in such great condition if you've not listened to it in six years. What type of tape is it? It should say on the cassette.

It seems like you produced very positive results. At least from your Dad's POV. Why did you not try it again? Did your Dad not encourage you to do so? I assume that you only did this the one time as you didn't actually answer that question. Perhaps you thought I meant did you make copies. Not what I meant. What I want to know is, did you make any more attempts at capturing "EVP"? If so, what were the results? If not, why not?

I think you should listen to your tape and see what you hear now. If you still feel like you've received a nod from beyond then you may want to have it digitized and pass it around, so to speak. I suggest using a professional recording studio to do this. Maybe even three or four different ones with different A/D converters. Then compare them. You can probably isolate the "voice" as well. It would be easier for people here to help you, possibly, if we could listen to exactly what it is that you are referring to.

 

[AmericanFamilyGuy]

It may not be in such great condition if you've not listened to it in six years. What type of tape is it? It should say on the cassette.

It's in a climate-controlled storage unit right now, so I don't have immediate access to it. I know exactly where it's at and will get it out either today or tomorrow.

It seems like you produced very positive results. At least from your Dad's POV. Why did you not try it again? Did your Dad not encourage you to do so? I assume that you only did this the one time as you didn't actually answer that question. Perhaps you thought I meant did you make copies. Not what I meant. What I want to know is, did you make any more attempts at capturing "EVP"? If so, what were the results? If not, why not?

I attempted it again in the same location several times following the inital recording, but I came up empty. I even went to several graveyards and ''haunted'' locations, but came up empty. I was never able to duplicate the results.

I think you should listen to your tape and see what you hear now. If you still feel like you've received a nod from beyond then you may want to have it digitized and pass it around, so to speak. I suggest using a professional recording studio to do this. Maybe even three or four different ones with different A/D converters. Then compare them. You can probably isolate the "voice" as well. It would be easier for people here to help you, possibly, if we could listen to exactly what it is that you are referring to.

I don't think it's a voice from beyond like I did when I was younger, and I will probably laugh at it when I hear it again. I am going to work on getting the cassette audio transfered to my computer.

 

[AmericanFamilyGuy]

There are several threads around the forum already discussing this kind of thing, but I'll summarise a few of the main points here. Firstly, picking up voices on electronic equipment is not at all unusual. The entire Earth is bathed in all kinds of radio transmissions, and just about any piece of metal can act as an antenna to pick them up. Attach it to something that plays or records sounds and it's very easy to hear things you weren't expecting. For example, the wire connecting my mp3 player to my car stereo picks up radio signals all the time. Even assuming your tape recorder was functioning perfectly, it would be easily possible to pick up stray radio signals. If it had a loose connection or was just a cheap design, it could even be accidentally recording from its radio input.

Secondly, a similar case can be made for sound. While you may not have heard anything at the time, sound can carry a surprising distance and the microphone could have simply recorded an actual, but entirely non-paranormal, sound.

This makes perfect sense, thank you.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, is paredolia. Humans are great at finding patterns. Unfortunately, that applies even when there aren't actually any patterns to be found. This makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view - better to run from a tiger that isn't there than not run from one that is. However, in a modern setting we tend to see less tigers and more of Jesus' face on toast. Exactly the same applies to sounds. When you hear some random noise, your brain tries to make sense out of it, and that often results in hearing voices where there are none.

This is especially the case when this is some expectation. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the situation where one person sees a shape in the clouds or in a picture, but no-one else can see it until it is pointed out, whereupon everyone can see it clearly. This happens a lot with EVP. If people are told there is a voice, they are more likely to hear a voice. What is particularly interesting is that even if people are told there is a voice, they rarely agree on what it is saying unless prompted in advance. Would it be possible for you to record this sound to your computer and post a link to it here? If everyone who hears it thinks it says the same thing that would make paredolia less likely (although still wouldn't necessarily rule it out), but if they all hear something different, or nothing at all, then it seems very unlikely that it could be anything else.

In this case, I'm pretty certain it was some kind of radio signal of a human voice. I agree that a lot of so-called spirit voices are simply noise interpreted as words.

As a final point, did you only try this once? After having such an apparently successful experiment (in the sense that lots of people said they heard something) the first time it would seem odd not to try to repeat it. If you go to the same place and do the same thing, do you get the same results? What if you go to different graves? What if you try recording somewhere else entirely? This is one of the big problems with EVP claims, along with many other paranormal and pseudo-scientific ones. One result on its own means very little, especially when acquired under uncontrolled conditions and with several possible normal explanations. It's only if you can get consistent, independently replicated results that there's really any need to start wondering exactly why you're getting them.

I went to the same location and attempted to record something several times after the initial recording. I picked up nothing. I went to several different graveyards and so-called haunted places, but picked up nothing except random noises and pops. One night, my dad and I hit a few graveyards and several ''haunted'' places we read about in a book, but came up empty.

I will need to google some information on transfering cassette audio to a computer, so I can allow the forum members here to listen to it.

Thank you for your reply, it was very helpful.

 

[Denver]

...If people are told there is a voice, they are more likely to hear a voice. What is particularly interesting is that even if people are told there is a voice, they rarely agree on what it is saying unless prompted in advance. Would it be possible for you to record this sound to your computer and post a link to it here? If everyone who hears it thinks it says the same thing that would make paredolia less likely (although still wouldn't necessarily rule it out), but if they all hear something different, or nothing at all, then it seems very unlikely that it could be anything else.

This is an experiment I've seen done before against claims of EVPs. It works very nicely, as long as the person posting the EVP (and the people listening to it) do not post their results in public. I'd recommend that when the EVP is posted, the poster not explain what is supposedly on the tape. And when people listen to it, that they PM someone here with what they think they hear. After a certain date, the test could end and the results be posted.

 

[Uncayimmy]

Just another example of hearing what we want to hear. In this case the closing credits to WKRP in Cincinnati.

 

[slingblade]

Just another example of hearing what we want to hear. In this case the closing credits to WKRP in Cincinnati.

Trying an edit; I couldn't get the file to open.

ETA: it works now. The problem was too much info in the link. All you need between the yt tags are those numbers after the equals sign. In this case, the t8uH76COzk8 part.

 

[Uncayimmy]

Trying an edit; I couldn't get the file to open.

ETA: it works now. The problem was too much info in the link. All you need between the yt tags are those numbers after the equals sign. In this case, the t8uH76COzk8 part.

Thanks SB. I used to know that. Then I didn't know that. Now I know it again. Hopefully I will keep knowing that. Ya know?

 

[slingblade]

Ya know, I do know.