What Is Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)?
Electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) are sounds captured on recordings made with electronic devices that are perceived as spirit voices. These sounds were either accidentally recorded or deliberately requested and recorded in ghost hunting and parapsychology.
EVP is a form of paranormal phenomena frequently found in recordings with static or other background noise, according to enthusiasts.
“Frank’s Box” also known as the “Ghost Box,” developed in 2002 by paranormal investigator Frank Sumption for purported real-time contact with the dead, is another electronic gadget specifically designed to catch EVP.
Sumption claims he received his design instructions from the spirit world. Paranormal claims for the EVP’s origin include living human beings imprinting thoughts directly on an electronic medium through psychokinesis by entities such as spirits, elementals, supernatural beings, or aliens from another dimension.
What is Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)?
On what is often referred to as paranormal radio, spirit voices have been claimed to be present on EVP recordings and are often described as malevolent or humorous. In his book Phantoms of the Air: Strange Voices from the Airwaves, Gordon Thomas provides an overview of the concept of EVP and claims that some people can be driven to madness and can even be driven to self-destructive and suicidal behavior after witnessing EVPs. A short list of events or topics which have been claimed to be influenced by spirit voices include the assassinations of U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, the German mining disaster at SilverTowne in Colorado, and an apartment building fire that resulted in the death of the occupant.
EVP and Spirit Communication
Despite these famous cases and reports, skeptics such as Sy Miller, author of Ghost Cams: The Paranormal, ESP, and Modern Technology, argue that EVP is not proof of the existence of spirits or extraterrestrials, but rather a byproduct of natural psychokinesis and electronic phenomena. Miller argues that reports of EVP as “real” evidence of paranormal phenomena are “ridiculous” and “meaningless”. “Evidently, reports of EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) cannot possibly be real. If they were, we would all be doing it all the time,” said Miller. Electronic voice phenomena do not provide any direct evidence of spirit communication, unless a human being is claiming to hear voices.
Ectoplasm and The Scole Experiment
One paranormal researcher who claims to have investigated and claimed to have captured EVP is Carl Sefsky, author of “Ectoplasm: The Secretive Spirit Molecule”. Sefsky states that during his EVP investigation in England, he identified ectoplasm within an old water tank outside the British Museum of Natural History. After drinking several bottles of ether and chloroform prior to the operation, Sefsky claims to have identified some sort of ectoplasm within the tank, but could not identify its origin.
Ectoplasm: A “Shapeless Moist Substance” Sefsky goes on to claim that his sources reported that the air surrounding the tank was “jagged, glistening” and littered with “big and fat” growths of ectoplasm.
EVP and The Ovilus
Many audio recordings of EVP or ghostly voices are captured on a commercial device called an Ovilus. The device was developed as a way to produce electronic recordings by “spooky” means, and only creates tapes of these supposedly hauntingly formed whispers or echoes. The Ovilus, which is currently available on Amazon for a price of $69.95, claims to produce an EVP in one or two seconds using a special echo-causing instrument within it. The Ovilus method is often utilized with spirits and can often be recorded over and over, sometimes with no repeating sounds. Since these EVP recordings have no logical start or end point, there is no way to identify or analyze them meaningfully.
Conclusion
So where does EVP stand today?
To skeptics, EVP is a viable scientific phenomenon with a multitude of possible explanations. In the paranormal and the paranormal investigation community, EVP is still a young, emerging paranormal subject.
Although the EVP recording field is still young and unsettled, it continues to develop and grow in popularity among paranormal researchers and enthusiasts.
What Do You Think?
Have you ever made an EVP recording? If so, what did you record? How did you try to make an EVP recording? How did you interpret the recording?
