NationStates Jolt Archive

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are speech or speech-like sounds that occur on electronic devices, but are not heard in the environment at the time they are recorded, and thought by some to be of paranormal origin. The term itself was coined by publishing company Colin Smythe Ltd in the early 1970s.[1] Previously the term “Raudive Voices”, after Dr. Konstantin Raudive whose 1970 book Breakthrough brought the subject to a wider public audience, was used. [2][3]
Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon\)

So what do you guys think of E.V.P.? In the Paranormal research arena, E.V.P. tend to be the voice of ghost, and what they would usually do is take a tape recorder or a digital recorder and ask questions to the 'ghost' that's sussposely there, let the recorder run from anywhere of five minutes to ten, and then play it back and they sussposely hear a voice. Now I've hear several E.V.P. and I have to be honest, most of the time it just sounds like static. I would have to say about 60% of the E.V.P. recordings I've heard sounds like static, and that's it. 30% could be argued to be real and legit.

I've also had my own experience with E.V.P., well not so much as E.V.P. as with a weird message that I got on my answering machine one day. I came home one day and there was a message on my answering machine. So I push the "play" button and there was a voice that said "Help him" and then hung up. Now this machine recorded not only the message but the time the call came in. So I called the phone company that provide the service and ask to see if anyone called during that time, and they couldn't find any record of anyone calling when the message was recorded on my machine.

Go figure.

I believe there are some legitimate EVPs, and I have heard ones that are pretty unmistakable. Usually these are recorded by professional paranormal investigators who have the equipment and the know-how to correctly record without static or other potential interference that could be mistaken for EVP.

However, the overwhelming majority of ones recorded by amateurs are a combination of static and wishful thinking.

Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon\)

So what do you guys think of E.V.P.? In the Paranormal research arena, E.V.P. tend to be the voice of ghost, and what they would usually do is take a tape recorder or a digital recorder and ask questions to the 'ghost' that's sussposely there, let the recorder run from anywhere of five minutes to ten, and then play it back and they sussposely hear a voice. Now I've hear several E.V.P. and I have to be honest, most of the time it just sounds like static. I would have to say about 60% of the E.V.P. recordings I've heard sounds like static, and that's it. 30% could be argued to be real and legit.

I've also had my own experience with E.V.P., well not so much as E.V.P. as with a weird message that I got on my answering machine one day. I came home one day and there was a message on my answering machine. So I push the "play" button and there was a voice that said "Help him" and then hung up. Now this machine recorded not only the message but the time the call came in. So I called the phone company that provide the service and ask to see if anyone called during that time, and they couldn't find any record of anyone calling when the message was recorded on my machine.

Go figure.

It's supposedly.
I watch Ghost Hunters and the EVPs can sometimes be chilling, but I always wonder if it's real or if -- tada -- someone created it.

Certainly some of the visual effects (like orbs) you see in pictures are easily reproduced with simple camera tricks. Some of the things they call vortexes are simply someone putting the camera on long exposure and using a light of some kind.

Actually, most "Orbs" are really dust.

I remember a site I once went on the OKCGC, they had a long term investigation of an abandoned hospital and since they had been watching the place for months they picked up a ton of things.
Since the cameras were showed real time and refreshed often, people would often visit the site to watch and see if they themselves see anything.

There main site had a ton of EVPs. Some pretty creepy ones.
(Of course now the site is dead and bought out by an adware company, meh)

Actually, most "Orbs" are really dust

Yes -- I've also gotten them in caves from water droplets in the air.
I won't say all, but some pictures of "ghosts" are simply double exposures or long exposures..

I think that they are merely artifacts of recording and amplification. Ghosts in the machine, so to say.

I believe there are some legitimate EVPs, and I have heard ones that are pretty unmistakable. Usually these are recorded by professional paranormal investigators who have the equipment and the know-how to correctly record without static or other potential interference that could be mistaken for EVP.
You mean they have the know how to make it sound authentic.

It's all a bunch of delusion and lies.
Dead people are gone forever. Get religion or deal with it. Don't bother people with faux-science bullshit. Leave that to the IDers and proponents of "natural" medicines.

I am an investigator myself and i have never beleived in the existence of the after life. thats why i do this i want to find out the genuine scientific explanations. such as the low frequency yet complex electro magnetic fields that have been proven to cause apparition hallucinations under lab conditions.

EVP though im not sure about yet, the jury is still most definately out. all i can say is that it isnt voices of the dead. mainly because the dead dont have throats, lungs, mouths or any other equipment classically used to create a voice.

Yes -- I've also gotten them in caves from water droplets in the air.
I won't say all, but some pictures of "ghosts" are simply double exposures or long exposures..

I'd probably say most or even "vast majority" of ghost photos are either intentional fakes or unintentional false-positives.

Orbs are easy to understand once you know how cameras work and the way images out of the "depth of field" for focus works. Small objects - drops of water in the air or specs of dust floating in the air that are too close to be "in focus" that would normally show up as a point will be rendered by the lens of the camera as a blob of light in the shape of the camera's iris - in other words, a circle of light. Being hit by flash makes this even more obvious - the result, a glowing circle or sphere of light in the photo. There's your orb.

"Vortexes" can be caught accidentally by having an object pass through the scene outside the depth of field moving too fast to be caught as anything but a blur - think of a blurred orb. Also, I've seen photos with a "vortex" in it where the solution turned out to be the wrist-strap of the camera accidentally getting in front of the lens when the photo was taken - blurring the strap into an unrecognizable streak in the image. I find it VERY hard to find a photograph that gives me convincing evidence of a ghost, and in fact have plans for a photographic project to create faked ghost photos (without resorting to photoshop computer trickery, which is just plain cheating) with film and darkroom techniques - and filming myself doing it to show how these fakes and accidental ghosts happen.

EVPs are a different type of beast of course, but I suppose the same principle applies - many can be explained as amplification glitches that people hear as voices and whispers, but it gets more difficult when there are recognizable words and sentences.

The only way to totally trust any of this is to control the circumstances the evidence is recorded under, so that you can eliminate all the elements that create false positives - something nearly impossible to do "in the field" even by the most honest, trustworthy and skilled investigators.

After that, the best you can do is trust the people who are recording these EVPs and other evidence to be both honest and skilled enough to recognize a false positive from the real deal. When you're dealing with the "supernatural" though, the stigma attached to the field really makes that hard to do. For honest investigators, that's the REAL uphill battle.

I am an investigator myself and i have never beleived in the existence of the after life. thats why i do this i want to find out the genuine scientific explanations. such as the low frequency yet complex electro magnetic fields that have been proven to cause apparition hallucinations under lab conditions.

EVP though im not sure about yet, the jury is still most definately out. all i can say is that it isnt voices of the dead. mainly because the dead dont have throats, lungs, mouths or any other equipment classically used to create a voice.

Regarding EVP's, I've always understood that the way they are recorded actually has nothing to do with sound - instead, it's the "energy field" of the "spirit" recording sound directly to the microphone's magnetic "sensor" - kind of like the way an electric guitar pickup doesn't "hear" the pitch of the string by sound waves but by the movement of the steel string through the magnetic field of the pickup. No lungs, mouths or other equipment needed - just a field of energy and a pickup that can read it - which regular microphones can.

Now as to how a ghost can manage to modulate its energy to "talk" to the device I leave up to the reader's inventive imagination, but the physical apparatus isn't as necessary as all that I suppose... :-D