EVPs…What Are They?
Note: For the uninitiated, the term Electronic Voice Phenomenon (or EVP) refers to the anomalous appearance of voices, voice-like sounds, or any other seemingly human sounds, often thought to be of paranormal origin, that are heard on audio recordings, but not by the human ear. They are therefore only heard on the playback of a recording, and not by a human observer when the sound would have seemingly taken place. Unexplained voices are also widely reported to be heard in the real world by human observers. But because these are heard with the ear, they are not, it should be noted, considered to be EVPs.
EVP is hardly new to us. The name wasn’t coined until the mid 20th century, but this surprisingly common audio effect has been observed roughly since the dawn of mankind’s ability to record sound. It has taken place with essentially every type of media across the vast array of sonic recording techniques we‘ve used. Yet in over 150 years now, no one has been able to offer up a definitive, final solution to the question of what is going on when these eerie voices show up in our recordings. The answers to this mysterious occurrence are anything but common, it seems.
So quite understandably, not everyone agrees on exactly what EVPs really are. Several camps or categories have sprung up. Among them…
There are skeptics who, despite a long and well documented history, scads of reliable evidence, and in spite of their own ears it would seem, refuse to acknowledge that EVPs exist at all. Most mainstream scientists and skeptical researchers, however, accept that the phenomenon is actually taking place, but can’t offer any practical “rational” explanations that take into account all of the complexities of EVP. Dismissive skeptical arguments unfortunately run into the problem-- as is so often the case with skeptics and the paranormal-- of poor research into the actual phenomenon in a hands-on basis. The two main skeptical arguments-- that EVPs are stray radio signals, or the products of false identification of noises as voices due to a psychological phenomenon-- can both be easily ruled out, as will become apparent later, if these researchers were only to experience the phenomenon in the field.
There are some EVPs that fall into the category of doubtless hoaxes. However this represents, in most researchers’ opinions, a relatively small number of the examples out there.
There are varied categories of paranormal explanations that have been presented, including theories related to EVPs being communications from other dimensions, communications from aliens, or to the possibility that they may actually be the telekinetically-imprinted thoughts of EVP researchers themselves on their own recording media.
And that brings us finally to the paranormal theory that I’d like to stick with for the purposes of the rest of this article. It is one of the most widespread and deftly supportable of paranormal propositions-- that EVPs are the voices of discarnate entities. This belief refers either to human spirits that have survived the deaths of their physical bodies, but which are still able to communicate with the living through electronic devices, or occasionally to inhuman entities that may occupy a similar domain. Based on the EVPs I've personally worked with along with the evidence surrounding them, this is the explanation that I have had no other viable choice but to arrive at myself. It can be logically concluded that there is some sort of consciousness behind them. They take on the intonations of average people-- including children, adults, and seniors, both male and female. They often take on emotion, and sometimes even display accents or languages concurrent with their location or situations. There seem to be real personalities behind these voices. Quite commonly they actually respond to questions posed by researchers, comment on situations in a relevant manner, ask questions of their own, and occasionally even address the researchers or others involved by name. The same interpretations of these recordings occur to many people, often on an entirely individual basis, offering significant peer support.
So are these the voices of the dead? Many scientists and researchers, otherwise traditional in their theories and methods, have accepted this belief, and a few have gone on to devote much of their research to it. Though now occasionally lambasted by some, it is a generally accepted fact that the well known American scientist Thomas Alva Edison-- inventor of the electric light bulb, the motion picture camera, and the phonograph-- was a firm believer that what we now call EVPs were indeed spirit communications. He set out in the 1920s, during his latter years, to invent a device to achieve communication with the dead, contending that, “If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore… if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something.” His assistant, Dr. Miller Hutchinson, further added, “Edison and I are convinced that in the fields of psychic research will yet be discovered facts that will prove of greater significance to the thinking of the human race than all the inventions we have ever made in the field of electricity.” Unfortunately, Edison died before he was able to complete his invention, and apparently his work died with him. For those in our field, EVPs offer some of our best evidence not only of the existence of ghosts, but also that they retain some amount of consciousness or awareness after death-- something we refer to as intelligent haunting. If these truly are communications from the dead, the implications of what that might mean to our views of the nature of life and what happens when we die would be immense, incredible, and mind boggling.
By Steve S.