Electronic Voice Phenomenon

This is an interesting phenomenon that I just came across, while reading about a haunted jail in Colorodo. Apparently, if you let a tape recorder just tape, and then play back the track afterwards, you can pick up voices speaking, sometimes to you. This is an experiment anyone can try out with a minimal investment. I have an old tape recorder lying around, I intend to try and make a recording myself to see if there is anything to this alleged phenomenon.

Electronic voices are also called "Raudive voices," named after a Latvian psychologist, Konstantin Raudive, a leading researcher into the phenomenon during the 1960s and 1970s. Raudive was inspired by the experimentation of Fredrich Jurgenson, Swedish opera singer, painter, and film producer. In 1959 Jurgenson tape recorded songs of birds in the Swedish countryside near his villa. When playing the tape back he heard a male voice discussing "nocturnal bird songs" in Norwegian. At first, Jurgenson thought he had picked up a radio broadcast, and then thought it seemed strange that such an accident should be discussing bird songs. He made more tapings. During the tapings he heard no voices, but on play backs he heard many voices, which seem to have personal information for him, plus instructions as how to record more voices.

Of course, there are detractors to this as well...

This phenomenon has been investigated by many psychical researchers around the world and has generated much controversy. While some researchers agree the voices are paranormal others attribute them to natural sounds such as someone rubbing the case of a tap recorder, or the white sounds on tape.

Between the years of 1970 and 1972, the Society for Psychical Research in London commissioned D. J. Ellis to investigate the phenomenon. Ellis concluded that the voices most likely were a natural phenomenon. He indicated that the interpretation of the sounds was highly subjective and was susceptible to the imagination.

Should make for an interesting experiment. Although I will probably flip if I actually do record a voice!

www.themystica.com...

Yeah man get some sound clips, even stuff from other peoples experiments would be cool. Sounds like an interesting topic.

I will definetly try this. How could it be "natural sounds such as someone rubbing the case of a tap recorder, or the white sounds on tape" if its talking to you and you can understand it. How interesting! Now I just have to borrow my sisters tape recorder. Ill update on whether I hear anything or not.

The Electronic Voice Phenomenon is a interesting subject that in have read about on various web sites to do with the paranormal. These sites have audio files that the people investigating the Phenomenon have recorded that you can download. But I must say after hearing a lot of there audio files the results are subjective in nature and I believe lead them selves to the person listening projecting subconsciously then own idea�s in to the recording which is in realty a recording of white noise.

I found some examples. But these have to be fake, right? I mean if they are real, this is seriously spoooooooky! These examples at the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena are very disturbing. The thing that makes these suspect in my mind is that they are asking for money to join their organization.


I also found a ton of examples here: www.ghostwave.com...

Alot of these seem very subjective, but some of them are definitely human voices. In fact, this site is a ghost site, so that puts a new spin on this so-called phenomenon, that they are ghosts speaking into the tape recorders.

All in all, I would have to say that all of these recordings could be fake, however it wouldn't be fair of me to make that accusation without any proof. So to convince myself definitively, I am going to have to try this experiment for myself. I will post my findings here one way or another, and if I think I here something I will upload those files for discussion.

[edit on 6-14-2004 by William One Sac]

I did a paper on raudive voices about a year ago. There is definately something to it.

Have you downloaded the Mp3s? They are very creepy. I contacted a couple in Florida who had worked in the field for some years. They told me that they had hundreds of hours of these voices on tape.

I would love to try this myself. I actually tried to do it with my computer, but I don't think my bedroom is haunted after all.


Nutzo

I have several EVP's of my own that I need to upload for you all to hear. They were obtained while 'ghosthunting' in various cemeteries and old, abandoned houses. This phenomenon is real. Just give it a try.

Here are some great EVP's. I haven't listened to these in months, but I remember hearing some very spooky ones!

www.ghostpix.com...

I have not downloaded any mp3's as of yet, but I have been listening to these wav files for a while now. I really want to try this out for myself, so I am going to invest in a small digital recorder. Although I could upload anything I find with a regular tape recorder, I can never seem to get the things reassembled after I take them apart!

Originally posted by William One Sac
I have not downloaded any mp3's as of yet, but I have been listening to these wav files for a while now. I really want to try this out for myself, so I am going to invest in a small digital recorder. Although I could upload anything I find with a regular tape recorder, I can never seem to get the things reassembled after I take them apart!

I tried this on my old computer. The mic doesn't work very well for this type of experiment. I had a program that was designed for filtering out noise. It filtered white noise and static noise. It was pretty cool , but using a computer mic , you get alot of background clutter.

I can't remember where I found this program, I don't have it anymore and I don't remember what it was called. But I do remember that I found it on a site that dealt with raudive voices.

If you have a good external mic with a long cord, that may be all you would need. Of course if you don;t have a laptop , you would have to drag your tower to the 'haunting'.


Nutzo

Originally posted by Bangin
Here are some great EVP's. I haven't listened to these in months, but I remember hearing some very spooky ones!

www.ghostpix.com...

That is a great link Bangin, thanks! Just remind me not to listen to these things at 2 am. I seem to be alot more prone to suggestion during the wee hours, especially about things like ghosts, axe murders and the like!


nutzobalzo, I once got a really strange message on my answering machine. In order to get it on the computer, I took apart the answerer, cut the microphone off of the wire. Then I spliced the wires onto the speaker wires inside of the answering machine and plugged the jack into the computer. By fiddling around with the recording settings I was able to get a very clean copy of the answering machines message. You can listen to it here.

But I had a great mentor to give me tutalige on how to do everything, Kano. (A member here.)

If I can get a little recorder that has a usb jack, it will make my life that much easier. There are definitely some places I can think of that are supposed to be haunted that I can try this out on.

Be careful when you do any clean up of your audio... Any type of electronic "enhancements" may actually detract from your evidence. If you have to manipulate your recording to enable you to hear it the skeptics have a legitimate argument that you could have somehow altered the sounds to get the desired result. Be sure to always have the original recording available for comparison.

[edit on 14-6-2004 by Gislebertus]

Originally posted by Gislebertus
Be careful when you do any clean up of your audio... Any type of electronic "enhancements" may actually detract from your evidence.

An excellent point, duly noted.

I think though the problem with the answering machine came from the way I had it hooked up to my computer. Hopefully it wont be necessary to clean up the recordings from a digital recorder when transferring the files to the computer.

The sound on the answering machine is a modem calling u by accident.
It's nothing supernatural (i'm not saying that i don't believe in evp).

If it was a modem calling, then why do you hear a human voice (after the answering machines own voice)? And after you hear the last screech, it sounds like someone is closing the phone. I doubt it's a modem...

is it just me or does anyone else see the defense applications to this. It sounds like you can record to some extent peoples thoughts. They would have no idea. Hell, put UN negation room or a chinese consulate on one of these sites and bug it up.

all i know is that the first part of it was a modem.

Originally posted by mcs1627
all i know is that the first part of it was a modem.

We had a rather lengthy discussion on this if you want to look it over. It really was quite odd:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

As Bandit pointed out, a human voice called me by name on that recording. Also, after the person hangs up the first time, and then the phone sounds as if it gets picked up again without disconnecting, you can hear someone whisper "one, two, three" or something that sounds very close to that. For a while I wondered if it was the mothman that pulled that little trick. No # sherlock!

It would be interesting to learn the results of your experiment. I hear a baby monitor and room intercom works as well. But can't record. I think I would be too afraid to try it. I used to get calls at work and at home. These calls had alot of static. This went on for about 6 mos....then one day I heard a voice in it, didn't sound like a humans voice. VERY scary! The calls finally stopped.
Let us know how it goes.

When my mother gets back...I will get her tape recorder. (She had an interview) and try it. I think there is one ghost in my house...so we will see what turns up.

i've tried this a couple times. i haven't gotten very good results, the best was something that sounded like a dragging or poking of the microphone.