What are your thoughts on EVPs? Also, example of one caught on multiple devices by a Patch reporte

I don't know what EVPs are, really. My feeling is that EVPs are often just an audio Rorschach test. Our minds pieces together non-paranormal sounds and interpreting them as words because our brains are programmed to find words and label noises as recognizable sounds.

I personally have this "thing" where I sometimes hear music or indistinct voices in white noise. I like to sleep with a fan on, so I'm next to white noise on a daily basis. I can't tell you the number of times I've been annoyed thinking the neighbors are having a party or gone around looking for a radio because I am certain that I hear faint music or (more rarely) distant voices. When I turn off the fan, the music/voices are completely gone. They were never there to begin with. I learned this is a somewhat common phenomena. Some people are more prone to it than others, so I guess I am just "lucky". The brain puts together patterns in the white noise. My mind is creating that music. Weird, right? And I am reasonably confident that I'm not crazy. Really.

So, back to EVPs... I am very interested in EVPs. I am curious if they are something similar to "hearing music" in white noise. Or perhaps they are stray radio signals? Or something else? The sound of a person's stomach gurgling, for instance, can sometimes sound comically like a voice. But what about those that are more clear? What about those that seem to answer questions? Is it possible that EVPs are voices of the dead, or perhaps voices from another dimension (or both)?

I'd love to hear your opinions on EVPs. I'd love to hear any EVPs you've caught that you'd like to post, or links to your favorite EVP stories. EVPs seems to be the most consistently obtained "paranormal evidence", so it seems like it would be a likely contender for a controlled scientific experiment...but I have yet to find one. Anyone know of one?

Here is my EVP offering. It was a story I came across just today. It was an EVP caught by a news reporter for The Patch.

Here is the story:
source: romeoville.patch.com...

EVP Caught on Our Cameras?
The following recording was made by Patch as we followed a team of paranormal investigators studying the Country House restaurant in Clarendon Hills.

Posted by Sabrina Wu

Patch has been working on a series about haunted venues in the Chicago area. As part of the series, I followed a paranormal investigative team that was studying the in Clarendon Hills.

Team members from All City Paranormal have been sending me audio recordings that they have identified as electronic voice phenomena (EVP), after concluding that the voices on the recordings did not belong to anyone on their team.

In the recording attached to this story, you can hear Jim O'Connor, co-founder of ACP saying, "Let's get this thing going."

Lisa Jahnke, the other co-founder, can be heard saying, "Wanna sit, sit at the bar?"

The two whispers that follow have been identified by the team as an EVP. To me, it sounds like two separate voices. One says, "Yes, sit at the bar."

The other says, "Yes."

The voices sound young to me, almost like children.

I sent the audio file to a videographer we work with at Patch, who ran it through an audio program and sent me back the visual representation of the sound waves.

When I listened to this latest recording, I couldn't help but wonder if it had been doctored in some way. The whispers sounded very clear.

I went through the video footage I had taken myself and found the video that corresponded to the same time ACP's audio was taken. It was in a section of the footage I wasn't planning to use.

I raised the volume for that section of footage and realized the EVP audio was on my tape, too. It was louder than the audio of Lisa and Shannon, who were not wearing microphones.

The only mic I was using at the time was the boom mic that was mounted on the camera. The voices sound as though they were speaking into the microphone. If that were the case, however, the sources of the voices would have been in the camera's field of vision or somewhere I could see them.

This recording may or may not make it into the final report, which is scheduled to be published on Patch the week before Halloween.

Here is the video/recording:




Have you ever experienced convincing evidence that EVPs are indeed "voices of the dead"? Or do you think they can all be explained by very non-paranormal phenomena? Please share any and all EVP-related experiences and theories.

Many thanks in advance!

I think its just random fluctuating frequencies.

Like wind blowing down a twisty lane might making howling or moaning sounds, i believe the electromagnetic waves 'gust like the wind' in their own way, bouncing of certain surfaces and getting distorted which when picked up by an aerial connected to an amplifier and speaker would produce the same sort of strange sounds (like when a mobile phone goes off, that sort of distorted frequency interference).

The rest is your brain trying to find patterns in the noise by using a little imagination to fill in the gaps. Very much like the age old "hearing someone whisper my name" in songs or the wind or some other non related audio.

From my own experience with EVP.. I wouldn't mess around with it. I've noticed that it's addictive (for one) and seems to bring up things that aren't actually there.

I've heard noises and voices and a sort of "white noise" before - with no fan or any droning sound going on - but it doesn't happen a lot for me.. And when I try to record it I get nothing or static.. Which is weird when it's quiet..
But I just don't think EVP is something for just anyone to do - It's just iffy.

reply to post by oblivvious


I have rather extensive experience with white noise/brainwave experiments as well. I too can hear music, (sometimes even really amazing music of all kinds of styles) from fan or AC noise. I can hear voices by creating white noise (brown noise, pink noise even better) in Adobe Audition.

I read LOTS of books on the subject recently, the one by F. Jürgenson and countless others.

I cannot say anything about the "origin" of EVP and so I cannot really say anything about whether the voices are really originating from "entities" *per se* (such as souls, extradimensional beings etc.)..or whether it is something entirely different or maybe even phenomenon similar to pareidolia.

It's my very own THEORY that if "entities" exists they require some sort of medium to be able to "modulate" themselves onto it since the entities can otherwise NOT communicate with our physical world. Maybe the white-noise etc. provides this medium.

There is SOME interaction between our brain & the receiver (radio, white noise etc.)..EVP is NOT a purely mechanistic phenomenon, the one who hears EVP is always involved to some extent and the "receiving machine", whether tape, radio, white noise etc. may not even play a role here. Check the story "The Ghost of 29 Megacycles", VERY good read..and definitely "Voice Transmissions with the Deceased" by Jürgenson.

I also notice(d) myself, I once had a phase where I heard all sorts of voices from white-noise and brainwave modulated sounds. And I noticed that the hearing of music from the fan etc. needs a certain state of consciousness, it's not always consistent.

I think the subject is highly interesting but I also noticed an odd "addiction element" so I am not doing much there anymore. Some of the books/reports just blow me away, see the story of the Spiricom and the recordings there, or the Raudive communications.

***

On a sidenote: I am always amazed seeing that the topic of EVP has hardly any mentioning here in the "paranormal" forum. For me this is a subject which definitely deserves attention...rather than the "ghost stories" and other stuff which makes 80% of the topics here.

Biigs
I think its just random fluctuating frequencies.

Like wind blowing down a twisty lane might making howling or moaning sounds, i believe the electromagnetic waves 'gust like the wind' in their own way, bouncing of certain surfaces and getting distorted which when picked up by an aerial connected to an amplifier and speaker would produce the same sort of strange sounds (like when a mobile phone goes off, that sort of distorted frequency interference).

The rest is your brain trying to find patterns in the noise by using a little imagination to fill in the gaps.

My stance is the BRAIN is always involved, with most paranormal experiences.

See, why do you think it's called "Parapsychology"

i do evp, been doing it for several years, i don't really like talking about it because you always get smart arses that go on about it being a 'radio station' or 'pareidolia' and its bloody well not, those that say that have no clue what they are doing and have no patience and have had no luck. i have an evp that i done earlier in the year, my eyes were sore, i mean really sore, the chest pain came and the pain down my left arm came, i was saying throughtout the recording (in my house) "who's trying to hurt me"? and had to end the recording. while listening back there was a very clear but nasty voice say "i'll kill you". i can assure anyone that that was no radio, its on my old laptop that is dead at the moment, im going to take it to a shop and get it sorted. i've been sworn at and all sorts, yes, i use a 'ghost box' sometimes, no-one in the world knows when i switch that thing on , yes, of course you get radio stations but then you learn which are dead and the living speaking. i've also got one from a few weeks back, i was in my kitchen, i asked "can anyone tell me what i'm holding"? the immediate reply was "eggs" which i was holding a box of! i have lots of lovely recordings. i don't use a ghost box while in graveyards, you don't need to, infact thats the best place to start evp with just a recorder, talk to them as though you can see them, people usually think a graveyard is the quietest place on earth i can tell you its not! and its really wierd when you get your name said and you know you're the only one there, but remember to tell them to stay where they are and not follow you home, i've made that mistake many a time. il have a look to see if i can upload a couple of recordings, alot of them ask for help, which is rather sad.

Try watching any EVP video without first watching the subtitled onscreen promt and you wouldn't have a clue what was being said .
Sorry , but it's all just fanciful rubbish .