Electronic Voice Phenomena ('EVP')

I tried EVP a while back after reading about it, but as James said, lots of time listening to white noise without result is involved. And yes, eating soot is far more entertaining. On a more exciting note, I once played back a tape to find there were in fact faint voices on there of the type associated with EVP. However, I could not make out what was being said, so it would be just my luck if it had been the next weeks lottery numbers:(
 
Many moons ago I bought a Grundig reel to reel recorder that had three speeds.....shows how long ago that was, anyway I wanted to record a radio play, I set it up as per instructions and left it to record with the sound off while I did something else, when I came to play it back all I got was white noise except for about ten minutes in what sounded like a chipmunk voice saying something inaudible but when slowed down it seemed to say"is it scientifically possible", that was all there was on the tape.:eek!!!!:
 
EVideoP

Red Dalek said:
I'm with noworries on this.

There's something very similar which I saw on TV once.
You tune into no channel (ie 'snow') and record the screen with a video camera. When played back your supposed to see people's faces in the 'snow'. As signal strength fluctuates sometines you'll get a signal and sometimes you won't, but the easiest thing to recognise is a face.
Click to expand...

:eek:

I saw or read about the same thing, and later tried it...with some interesting if not startling results. You're supposed to darken the room so that no reflection is cast by the tv screen and record as described above (left to run on its own in the room). What I saw and recorded was a swirling (and mesmerising) interference pattern resembling a bright whirlpool on a dark background. The effect was reminiscent of the 1970s Doctor Who titles screen. I saw on playback no figures, no faces, nothing of that nature. I accepted that the pattern was a kind of feedback interference pattern (for you play back and record simultaneously), which, to my mind at least, should have been essentially uniform in character. What surprised me was that occasionally a bright tadpole shape would break away from the outer rim of the whirlpool and fall, swirling, toward the central light - the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. I have no idea why this should have been so, and haven't repeated the exercise. I still have the sequence on tape somewhere...
 
Does anyone have any good website links to some examples of EVP (i.e. stuff maybe not ordinarily turned up by a web search). Has anyone tried recording EVP themselves, and have you/can you post the results online? What's your opinion of EVP - Rorshasch audio, radio signals or other?
This is an area I'd like to explore a little more. It's frustrating, though, as it's very difficult to prove a recording is real unless you're actually there when it's taken. And if it is radio signals, why hasn't anyone picked up a snippet of Buck's Fizz or Victoria Beckham?
 
you can get a decent number of recordings here.

Make sure you listen to them, preferrably with earphones, BEFORE you read what the people made of them. I listened to one a BUNCH of times and could make absolutely nothing of it. Then after reading their takes, it actually sounded like what I read. I think it's mental but who knows.

Go to the main page and there are theories/etc about the mechanics of recording, but their own reasoning doesn't hold up for digital recorders.

I'm planning a ghost hunt in the near future and I'll probably pick up a digital voice-activated recorder. There's already a thread here "how do I hunt ghosts" and I'll let you know if I get any kind of results whatsoever.
 
There is a freeware program called EVPMaker here -

http://www.stefanbion.de/evpmaker/index_e.htm

I downloaded it a while back but only played with it, so I don't have any idea how it actually works. Maybe someone here with more time could experiment with it?

Also, you might wanto get hold of a CD called The Ghost Orchid. Here's some info -

http://parc.web.fm/catalogue.html

There are also some MP3s there to download.
 
Good work guys, and thanks, keep it coming.

Mike - I look forward to the results and hope the hunt is successful!
 
There's already been a thread on EVP. See General Forteana>EVP.

I posted a reply on that one re: the video version of EVP, as inspired by the work of Klaus Schreiber, who obtained 'stills' of people, one of whom he claimed was his deceased daughter, amongst the noise.

I got somewhat different results (from General>EVP):

I saw or read about the same thing, and later tried it...with some interesting if not startling results. You're supposed to darken the room so that no reflection is cast by the tv screen and record as described above (left to run on its own in the room). What I saw and recorded was a swirling (and mesmerising) interference pattern resembling a bright whirlpool on a dark background. The effect was reminiscent of the 1970s Doctor Who titles screen. I saw on playback no figures, no faces, nothing of that nature. I accepted that the pattern was a kind of feedback interference pattern (for you play back and record simultaneously), which, to my mind at least, should have been essentially uniform in character. What surprised me was that occasionally a bright tadpole shape would break away from the outer rim of the whirlpool and fall, swirling, toward the central light - the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. I have no idea why this should have been so, and haven't repeated the exercise. I still have the sequence on tape somewhere...
 
Thanks, I'll take a look at the old thread later.
The TV effect really does sound like a Rorshasch effect. I frequently spot things in patterns that my mind interprets as something meaningful. The audio, however, is different. It seems to me some kind of a voice rather than random noise. Interpreting the words, however, is a different matter.
 
Dark Detective said:
Thanks, I'll take a look at the old thread later.
The TV effect really does sound like a Rorshasch effect. I frequently spot things in patterns that my mind interprets as something meaningful. The audio, however, is different. It seems to me some kind of a voice rather than random noise. Interpreting the words, however, is a different matter.
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I can't comment on the veracity of Klaus Schrieber's or other video experimenters' results re: faces, etc. They look pretty clear cut, but that doesn't mean they're true of course.
My brief experimentation produced globules of light that were distinct from the background and transitory - they emerged, travelled a course and vanished. I still make no claim for them, other than as an artifact of the process, an interference pattern anomaly, but it'd be interesting to know why these seemingly random events occurred.

As for EVP proper, there's massive scope for similar criticism, from stray radio waves, to confabulated patterns identifed with speech. Nothing's ever so pronounced, clear, or contextually relevant that it points to 'spirit voices' IMHO.
 
Yes, I've always had a big problem with the idea that EVP is the result of dead people trying to communicate with the living. I'm very interested in EVP, but I don't (unlike most of the major proponents of it) believe it to be anything to do with dead people. Although, on another level, I like the image of 'the other side' having all these transmitting stations with (in my mind) 1940s/50s era equipment!

It's interesting that people who can speak multiple languages tend to get voices in 'polyglot', so perhaps there is some form of transmission from the mind of the person recording the voice. Otherwise, it really is just random noise that is rendered intelligable by the fact that that person can make a sentence that consists of several different languages.

Hermes - I too have tried that video feedback technique. I liken it to a visual version of an audio echo. The outer edge of the picture = the 'louder' the 'sound' in an audio echo, and the middle of the picture = the 'quieter' or further away. If you have any kind of interference in the video signal, that will get repeatedly passed through the chain (from output to input) and appear to travel from the edge to the centre ie. in sound terms, a 'click' in the signal of an echo unit, gets progressively quieter until it dissapears (in visual terms, gets so close to the centre of the screen, where progressive images of the screen get progressively smaller, that it 'dissapears').

Phew! Hope that made some sense...
 
August is right... The effects you describe from the video feedback experiment are entirely normal and natural. They do indeed work in the same way as a sonic feedback echo... Though these 'echos' are spatial as well as temporal.

Any unusaul movement or alignment in the initial image is magnified and degraded over the course of the echo, thus if the camera is slightly angled, swirling will result. Even if there is only a slight change at the dge of the initial image this will be passed down through the generations changing and degrading on the way. The tunnel or shrinking is a consequence of the fact you are projecting an image of a thing into the thing itself.

Something like that.

It is a cool effect.
 
I take your point. It intrigued me that the blips appeared random - not what I expected from a regular feedback loop set up in an undisturbed darkened room - although I can see that even very minor aberrations in the signal could produce the effect.

And I agree - the effect is cool, but more than that, it's mesmerising - quite literally. Combined with the audio noise, it could make a really effective hypnotic induction tool.
 
ive tried the evp on my pc and there was nothing just a bit of hissing when i turned the speakers up full

just my luck but then again you can bet i did it wrong some how

cas
 
On the few occasions I've attempted recording EVP, I've never got more than hiss either. I just haven't got the patience to sit there listening to white noise or silence for hours on end... but then again, how many people have? And are these the kind of people who are more susceptible to hearing voices among that noise anyway? As someone mentioned before, when you hear examples on the internet or a CD of EVP, if you are aware of what is meant to be said before you actually hear the recording, then it's almost impossible to hear it as anything else. On the other hand, if you hear an EVP recording before you find out what the voice is meant to be saying, then in my experience, it will mostly just sound like gibberish. So, do people who have success recording EVP just have better imaginations? And then, by telling others of what they hear, impose their interpretations onto other listeners. But this still leaves us with what is causing the raw audio material which is being shaped into spoken words.
 
Hermes said:
There's already been a thread on EVP. See General Forteana>EVP.

I saw or read about the same thing, and later tried it...with some interesting if not startling results. You're supposed to darken the room so that no reflection is cast by the tv screen and record as described above (left to run on its own in the room). What I saw and recorded was a swirling (and mesmerising) interference pattern resembling a bright whirlpool on a dark background. The effect was reminiscent of the 1970s Doctor Who titles screen.
Click to expand...

The Doctor Who Titles were made by a process similar to the one you describe. I have experimented with it (for aesthetic rather than paranormal reasons and found the effect of rotating the camera just slightly can give extraordinary results. Often the whole screen will will fill with intricate fractal paterns. Its good fun!:cool:
 
Phone calls from beyond the grave

August Verango said:
Yes, I've always had a big problem with the idea that EVP is the result of dead people trying to communicate with the living. I'm very interested in EVP, but I don't (unlike most of the major proponents of it) believe it to be anything to do with dead people. Although, on another level, I like the image of 'the other side' having all these transmitting stations with (in my mind) 1940s/50s era equipment!
Click to expand...

There have been a few cases of people receiving answerphone EVPs left by anonymous callers. I can't remeber the datails but a few years ago there was a television report about a woman claiming to have received such a message and identifying the (very faint) voice as that of a dead relative.

Has anyone yet reported a telex, fax or email from "the other side" I wonder?;)
 
E.V.P

Electronic Voice Phenomena

We don't seem to have discussed this subject much in this forum, but that's not the only reason to start a new thread...!

Channel 4 documentary on EVP is on this evening, Sunday 9th December at 2100 (that's 9 pm for non-military types!)

Come back here afterwards and give your views.

(Apologies for Absence: rynner, who is out tonight and will have to watch the video of it tomorrow!)
 
EVP's - Witness

just a quickie.......................

anyone watching/ watched (depending on when, or should I say if, this is read) the Channel 4 "Witness" programme on EVP societies?
 
[Just giving the TV reminder a boost up the New Posts list, for the benefit of latecomers!]
 
I've watched half of it (am taping the rest-short attention span). Either the documentary is heavily weighted in favour of the sceptical or it's a load of old bummox. Maybe a bit of both. I'm very open minded but I couldn't hear the words I was supposed to be hearing on these tapes. Just as we see faces in the random pattern on the lino, our ears do the same.
 
It was very interesting, non-judgemental, too. I suppose these people are looking for hope and reassurance, like the spiritualists.

Some of it was pretty creepy, mind you. Although it was probably a hoax, that machine that the spirit talked through was really scary. What was it called again?

I've got a couple of CDs of EVP somewhere, but most of it's in Norwegian or something, so the spirits could be saying anything, for all I know...
 
I think that machine was called the Spiricom. And as the program pointed out, it sounded just like the piano from Sparky's Magic Piano or whatever the childrens cartoon was called.

It was spooky though, and very interesting. It made me wonder if I'd get any pictures if I left my video camera running unattended :)
 
Three words:

Sparky's. Magic. Piano.

That said, I can't seem to tune my radio properly this morning...arghhhhhh.
 
intaglio said:
:confused: EVP :confused:
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Electronic Voice Phenomena - where people claim to hear ghostly voices on previously unrecorded tapes and other media - something like the voice of the little girl in 'Poltergeist' when she was speaking to her family out of the TV set.
I tend to think it's a lot of wishful thinking on the part of those who claim to hear it.

Carole
 
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