by Murray Byfield
EVP stands for Electronic Voice phenomenon. It is the supposed recording of supernatural voices on recording media. EVP’s have been captured on Audio tape, Digital Audio recorders and also Video audio tracks. Today people are recording them on their PC’s, Laptops and even mobile phones.
Initially researchers used magnetic audio tape (reel to reel, cassette tape players etc) to record EVP’s – today most researchers use digital audio note takers. Unfortunately these kinds of cheaper digital recorders have very “open” or noisy microphones where lots of unwanted noise is generated and can be interpreted as speech (audio pareidolia) . Some experimenters argue that an noisy open microphone is better to catch EVP’s then more expensive higher quality microphones.
The majority of EVP researchers believe that voices caught are that of deceased people. While others believe they could be extraterrestrial, voices from other dimensions or realities, impressions of the Akashic records or an imprint of the subconscious mind.
Also known as Raudive voices after Latvian psychologist Konstatin Raudive a leading EVP researcher in the 60’s and 70’s who based his work on the experimentation of Fredrich Jurgenson. Who in 1959 unintentionally recorded voices speaking in Norwegian whilst out recording bird songs. Raudive recorded over 100 000 electronic voice phrases.
There are a few techniques used in EVP sessions.
1. Static: Whereby the experimenter records in attempt to capture EVP’s in the same place everytime. For e.g. a special room or studio set up specifically for this purpose.
2. Location: Where the experimenter travels to a location and records in suspected “active” areas. For e.g. a haunted building or cemetery.
Usually during EVP sessions experimenters ask questions out loud and invite entities voices to appear on their recordings. The voices are rarely heard at the time of recording but are heard later on playback. Sometimes questions are answered directly but more than often random words are picked up. Many of which do not seem to make sense. EVP’s quite often sound like broken English or other languages.
Critics of EVP claim the phenomenon is simply mis-identificaitons of random sounds such as wind, birds and other natural causes which are interpreted as speech by the experimenter. Others claim EVPs are simply stray radio signals.
The majority of EVP’s however don’t sound like normal human speech, quite often they are whispers which do not sound like they emanate from human vocal chords. Sometimes the voices sound very “electronic”.
EVP’s are usually very soft in volume and are very hard to pick up unless using good quality headphones with the volume up high. Quite often experimenters increase the gain of words heard to make them more audible. Most researchers like to keep the recordings as unaltered as possible.
Sarah Estep founder of AA-EVP designed the Estep EVP Classification system:
Classification A EVP:
“A clear and distinct voice or sound that is universally accepted and undisputed, because it must be understood by anyone with normal hearing and without being told or prompted to what is being said or heard. It can be heard without the use of headphones.”
Classification B EVP:
“A voice or sound that is distinct and fairly loud. This class of voice is more common and can be heard by most people after being told what to listen for. It is usually audible to experienced persons who have learned the skill of listening to EVP. It can sometimes be heard without the use of headphones.”
Classification C EVP:
“A faint and whispery voice or sound that can barely be heard and is sometimes indecipherable and unintelligible. It may have paranormal characteristics, such as a mechanical sound. Most investigators would apply objectivity and disregard it, but may save it for reference purposes.”
