The Mystery of EVP

By: Christy Selfridge

    What exactly is EVP or "Electronic Voice Phenomenon"?  

    This question has been a good topic for debate amongst many paranormal investigators & researchers.  Many different people have their own definition for evp, but our group recognizes it as  voices of the dead which are recorded on various types of audio equipment.  Evp is not listed in the dictionary, but if each word is broken down for definition, you get the following taken from Webster's Dictionary:

Electronic:  Generating musical tones by electronic means

Voice:  The sounds produced by speaking; the ability or power to produce musical tones, v.  To express; to utter; to give voice.

Phenomenon:  Something that can be observed or perceived; a rare occurrence.  An outstanding person with remarkable power, ability, or talent.

General Classification For EVP:

Class A---Can be easily heard & understood and is usually loud & clear.
    Examples:  "You'll All Be Dead"      "The Flesh of a Human Burns"      "That's Me & Mike"      "Headstone"

Class B---Can be heard & understood, but not with as much clarity & volume.
    Examples:  "Check My Hat, I Need a Picture"      "Hi, I'm Samantha"     "Help Me To Find Him"      "Upstairs"

Class C---Voice is present, but is usually hard to hear & understand.
    Examples:  "Hey, your boots"    "It's Right On The Table"    "Caught On Fire"    "Getting Tired"

    Who Discovered EVP?

    Most of us are aware that Thomas Edison started his work in 1920 & was the inventor of the light build and the telephone, but who actually discovered evp?  On April 23, 1933, The American Society For psychical Research (ASPR), along with engineers from Western Electric Company worked with studio engineers and produced Decca Records, which were "Records that recorded communication with the dead through "so-called" dead recording equipment.  Testing was conducted to eliminate any chances of recording fraud.  A research engineer in the science of sound, spoke several times into many unusually placed microphones & moved his voice levels up to 3-5000 cycles, way beyond any human's range.  Records were kept at the ASPR offices, but crucial tests stayed in the hands of studio engineers who refused to testify publicly that they had indeed recorded spirit voices.  Then in 1938 an evp was recorded on phonographic records.

    How Does EVP Work? 

    Voices involved in EVP messages often exhibit a shift in frequency outside of the normal human voice range, also known as "Voice Frequency Shift".  The human voice generally ranges between 300hz & 1000hz.  Evp voices have however even been measured to 1400hz.  The questions of "How Does EVP Work?" has also been a long debatable subject amongst paranormal investigators & researchers.  Some would argue that somehow ghosts are able to imprint their voice onto the tape of an analog recorder, but others argue that that cannot be true since digital recorders use a digital chip instead of cassette tape.  This would then lead us to wonder how do ghosts do this then since evp has been recorded on both analog and digital recorders?

    Some argue that ghosts use the sound waves from our voice to produce the needed sound in order for the audio recorders to record their voices.  Then again, others disagree and raise the question that if this were true, then how do ghosts record their voices when an audio recorder is left stationary and no one is around to produce the needed sound waves?

    Skeptics have argued that all evp is merely radio waves bouncing off the atmosphere, but investigators and researchers alike ask "How could all evp be radio waves when some of the recorded evp actually correspond with questions or conversations conducted by those of us present?"

    Perhaps science will one day be able to produce evidence to explain the exact origin of evp, but until then, may paranormal investigators & researchers will continue to collect evp and utilize it as valuable research data as a link to the spirit world and our own.

How Do Paranormal Investigators & Researchers Record EVP?

    Any regular audio recorder will be able to record evp whether it be a cassette, digital, or mp3, etc.  There are some differences though between the recorders as far as quality is concerned.  For example, analog (cassette)-vs-digital.  When we first started our quest for recording evp, we started with a basic GE analog recorder.  After reviewing our audio, we found that the cassette recorder did indeed record several evp, but it also recorded the internal motor of the recorder as well.  This created a lot of background noise that we had to try to listen through which caused a lot of headache in trying to decipher clarity & legitimacy with the evp that we had recorded.  We then began using an external microphone which seemed to help eliminate most of the internal motor noise, but still the quality of recorded audio was not what we had exactly hoped for as we still had a low hum from the internal motor.

    We then did some research on digital recorders and purchased an RCA digital recorder.  We found that it recorded a lot better in the way of background sensitivity and although the the quality was better than the cassette, it still had a low hum that affected the quality of our audio.  So we then learned that some digital recorders can also record the background hum of the recorder's motor. 

    We mentioned our trouble to a friend of ours and he told us he preferred the Olympus VN model brands of audio recorders because they had better recording qualities and he hadn't noticed any background noise at all.  So, we bought a couple of different Olympus VN models, and were very pleased with their performance.  The only downfall to these recorders is the short recording time.  On high quality the VN's have less recording time than other recorders.  For example, the VN1800 holds 45 minutes of recording time and the VN3600 holds only 91 minutes of recording time.  We just had to make sure that we had several VN's purchased to take along with us on our investigations!  There are some of the newer brands of audio recorders now that much longer recording time so it if a person was interested in buying one, we would recommend doing some research on all aspects of the models before purchasing one. 

    We do however, recommend that external microphones be used in order to help pick up the evp's more clearly.  As most paranormal investigators can tell you, a lot of evp's come either in the form of a whisper or in lower audible tones which sometimes have to be amplified to be heard.  We have also done experimentation with this, by having investigator's use external microphones attached to their audio records and then other investigator's not use an external microphones.  We then put the two investigator's side by side during an investigation so their recorders could record in sync and pick up the same audio.  Later upon review of the audio, we found that the investigator who had the external microphone picked up evp that the other investigator didn't.  This made us start to wonder and so after more experimenting, we found that using an external microphone with an audio recorder greatly increases ones chances of recording evp.

    Recording evp in general is not hard.  Once you have the audio equipment of choice, you simply go to the location that you would like to test for evp and turn your audio recorder on.  Some people wonder which is better, to have the location totally quiet or normal conditions where there is background noise.  Evp can be recorded in both conditions.  However, our group has found that we have better results when we either carry our audio recorders on our person or if we leave them stationary in the same room that we are present.  We have found that spirit(s) usually will try to speak when there is people present in the room/area more so than what they would do if the recorder is left alone by itself. 

How To Listen For Evp:   

    Once your audio has been recorded, it is simply a matter of reviewing over the audio to listen for any evp that your audio equipment might have recorded.  For beginning investigators, picking out some evp from recorded audio may be a bit harder than what it is for an experienced investigators who already has a trained ear.  We know there may be times when an investigator is rushed to review their audio so they might try to do some of this review while driving, etc.  I have found (by experience) that when an investigator reviews their audio, they should try to do this in a quiet place where there is no outer noise or distractions such as the hum of a car's motor, music or any type of external noise in the background.  By keeping all noises and distractions out, we have learned that you will be able to hear more evp, especially those that are light sounding in nature.  We also recommend that when reviewing audio, one should use a pair of high quality headphones as this will also increase the listener's ability to hear more evp.     

    If while listening to the recorded audio, you think you might have an evp, but are unsure because you can't quite hear it well enough, don't erase it or ignore it.  Make sure that you record the evp onto your computer first to fully analyze it before you discredit it.  Sometimes by putting it on the computer, you can hear the evp a lot better than you could with just the headphones, especially if you have software which can amplify the evp and show the audio wave patterns. 

How To Record Sound (EVP) to your computer:

    This is a common question that our group gets asked.  There are different ways that you can actually record your audio to your computer if you are experienced or very familiar with the different capabilities that your computer has.  However, if you are a beginner and you aren't very familiar with your computer, you can still transfer your audio over to your computer very easily. 

    First off, if you are unsure of any software programs that help record & analyze evp, (such as Adobe Premiere Audacity, Cool Edit, etc.), most all computers come with a basic program installed called "Sound Recorder."  You can pull up this program and use it to transfer your audio.  One of the other things you will need is a patch cord which is the cable that transfers the evp over to your computer using the Sound Recorder program.  You can pick up the mono patch cord from an electronic store such as Radio Shack for about $3 or $4.  Once you have the patch cord, all you have to do is plug in one end of the patch cord into the back of the computer's microphone jack and then the other end of the patch cord into the recorder's ear jack.  Then all you have to do is turn on your audio recorder and hit the record button on the Sound Recorder program.  We do recommend making sure that the volume on your audio recorder isn't turned all the way up, but more like  1/4-1/2 the way up in order to prevent your final recorded audio on the computer from sounding blared out or so loud that you can't properly hear the audio.  If you find that you have recorded your audio to softly (not loud enough), you can also go back and amplify your audio (even with Sound Recorder) or other software program to the degree desired.

    Your Sound Records recording settings should already be preset, but if you have trouble recording your audio onto the computer, then try looking at the settings on your Sound Recorder to make sure they will allow you to record.  We do recommend to anyone serious about recording audio on a regular basis, to eventually invest in a good software program.