EVP: INFORMATION AND examples
Please Note: While INsight accepts many investigations, it is currently
INsight's policy not to release any evidence to the general public. We
do this to ensure our clients privacy as well as to protect certain
proprietary techniques that we have developed. A limited release of
evidence that is deemed useful for educational reasons will be either
posted in our forum or displayed at public events for education reasons.
EVP:
Electronic Voice Phenomena
EVPs are different from
human speech. The human range for speech and hearing can be found in the
20 to 20,000 Hz range, however EVPs are recorded above or below these
frequencies. Below you will find some historical information about EVP
and to the right you can listen to examples of EVP that members of
INsight Paranormal have captured over the years during various
investigations with INsight and while they were members of other groups.
INsight Paranormal uses
digital recorders to record EVPs and special software that can identify
the frequency that the EVP was recorded on. Please see our Equipment
Section for more information.
EVP: History
EVP is the first high-technology attempt to communicate with the dead
and other discarnate beings. Thomas Alva Edison believed that an
electronic device could be built for such a communication. He was
fascinated by spirit photography and believed that if spirits could be
captured on film, they could be reached electronically. Edison
announced in the October 1920 issue of 'Scientific American' that he
was working on such a device, but it was not completed prior to his
death in 1931. He left behind no machine and no plans for one.
In 1936, Attila Von Szalay began experimenting with a record cutter
and player in an attempt to capture voice on phonograph records. He
said that he began to hear a 'tiny voice' in the air near him in 1938.
He believed the voice belonged to his dead son, Edson. The experiments
yielded what sounded like male and female voices, whistles and
rapping. In 1947, Von Szalay tried using a wire recorder in an effort
to improve his results but had difficulty with the wire.
In the 1950's, George Hunt Williamson attempted to tape paranormal
voices. In 1956, Von Szalay began experiments with researchers
{including Raymond Bayless and D. Scott Rogo} to capture voices on
electronic tape.
The EVP remained in obscurity until the unexpected discovery of
Friedrich Jurgenson, a Swedish opera singer, painter and film
producer. In 1959, Jurgenson tape recorded bird songs in the country
side near his villa. On play back, he heard a male voice discuss
"nocturnal bird songs" in Norwegian. At first he thought it was
interference from a radio broadcast but nonetheless made other
recordings to see if the same thing happened. Though he heard no
voices during taping, many voices were heard on playback. The voices
gave personal information about Jurgenson, plus instructions on how to
record more voices.
Jurgenson wrote about his experiments in "VOICES FROM THE UNIVERSE",
published in 1964 with a record. In 1965, he met Konstantin Raudive, A
Letivian psychologist and philosopher, who was so intrigued by EVP
that he devoted himself to researching it and recorded over the years
more than 100,000 voices. Raudive published his research in the German
book "THE INAUDIBLE MADE AUDIBLE" which was eventually translated into
English in 1971 under the title "BREAKTHROUGH." EVP voices are also
called 'Raudive Voices,' named after him.
By the 1980's, thousands of EVP researchers around the world were
recording messages from the dead. Many engineers and electronics
experts have devised sophisticated experimental equipment for
capturing the voices. In Germany, 'The Association for Voice Taping
Research' was founded in the 1970's, followed by a second organization
a few years later, 'The Research Association For Voice Taping.' In
1982, Sara Estep founded the 'American Association - Electronic Voice
phenomena' in the U.S.
Estep rates voices according to three categories: Class 'C' are faint,
whispery voices that can barely be heard and are sometimes in
indecipherable; Class 'B' voices, are louder and clearer and can
sometimes be heard without headphones; and Class 'A' voices are clear,
can be heard without headphones, and can be duplicated onto other
forms of media.
