Question about EVP

[ttjoon]

Okay, this question may sound stupid to those of you that have been around the paranormal block, but I have to risk looking like an idiot because my curiosity is bigger than my pride.  I have listened to quite a few EVP recordings (including ones taken in my own home...by someone who knows what they are doing, and that aint' me), and I have noticed that a lot of them sound like a whisper, but others sound like a lot of static in the background and some are loud and quite clear while others just sound garbaley (is that even a word?).  Of course people sound different so why not spirits or ghosts or what ever you want to call them.  My main question (if I haven't lost sight of it yet) is this; do different EVP recorders have better quality than others and thus making a huge difference in the recordings they produce?  If not, what is the main reason, if it even exists.  Thanks for humoring me.

Tracy   : 

[PPI Brian]

Hi Tracy,

Those are very good questions. Although it?s true that the quality of EVP recordings can be directly attributed to the quality of the recording device, paradoxically even the most sophisticated recorder cannot make a Class C EVP a Class A EVP. The same can be said for the audio software used to analyze possible EVP. And it?s worth mentioning that unless additional evidence is captured during an investigation, possible EVP should be heavily scrutinized. Many groups of EVP researchers claim that EVP can be captured anywhere at anytime, and do not in and of themselves constitute evidence of a ?haunting?.

PPI?s investigative teams use good recorders but we tend to be ?purists? and do not filter our EVP captures very much. Some groups heavily filter their EVP captures and end up with bizarre sounding clips that are really just auditory matrixing.

The different examples you described in your post are very accurate; some EVP captures are better than others. The ?classic? EVP is usually a whispered phrase, very short in duration, which is preceded by an environmental sound such as a click or a knock. Other EVP captures seem to draw ambient noise from the environment and modulate it into speech. Some EVP captures appear to be rambling or nonsensical, similar to someone talking in their sleep, while others seem to be direct responses to questions that seem to indicate self awareness and intelligence. Others are residual, and just loop like a tape when environmental conditions are right. We tend to discard a lot of one syllable whispered EVPs unless they are really crisp and clear. And anything that can be attributed to environmental background speech or electronic bleed through also gets discarded.

Here's a link to a section on our site that you might find useful: http://pacificparanormal.com/forums/index.php/topic,327.0.html

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Brian Miller

[ttjoon]

Brian -  Thanks for your awesome reply. I went to a lot of the sites you mentioned in your prior postings. One of the many sites I found to be very helpful and wealth of information was the site for the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena or AA-EVP.  Sadly, the founder, Sarah Estep apparently passed away just two weeks ago on the 3rd of January.  What a great organization she founded though. I have been reading up on this as much as possible and really getting an education on the subject.  Thanks for taking the time to reply with so much great insight.  I appreciate it.  As always, thank you sooo much!

-Tracy

[PPI Brian]

My pleasure, Tracy.

The American Association for EVP is indeed a wealth of information. These worldwide EVP research networks have made some outstanding contributions to the field of EVP research. Their study groups such as The Big Circle have deomonstrated that EVP can be captured anytime and anywhere, and do not necessarily coincide with localized paranormal activity. And yes, it was sad to hear of the passing of Sarah Estep. Her book "Voices of Eternity" is available online and is worth reading if you have the time.  Here's the link:
http://www.aaevp.com/resources/evp_books.htm#Sarah%20Estep%20Voices

Regards,

Brian Miller

[ttjoon]

Hi Brian,
I was thinking of picking up that book.  It looks fascinating and seems like it would have a wealth of information.  I have searched Barnes and Noble as well as Borders, and haven't come up with anything that is worth looking at in the section they have for paranormal studies.  They should call it "Paranormal Light".  (Heavy on self help -think Maryann Williamson- and light on anything relevant).  No serious books with anything of substance.  If I want to read about the life and times of Sylvia Brown, learn how to win at poker by listening to my personal spirit guide, align my chakras or communicate with the cat I had when I was 9 years old, I am completely set.   

[PPI Brian]

LOL!. I was at B&N in Huntington Beach friday night and actually thumbed through the Ghost Cats book.  No, I didn't buy it. But I agree with you; their selection of relavent books on the subject is rather limited. However, they will order anything you want at no charge.

Regards,

Brian Miller

[ttjoon]

Yes, Sir Brian, but the big question is...(drum roll..)...WHAT to order?  There are so many books and periodicals to choose from. If you are first learning....like some people... : you don't know what is good and what is doggy doo. There are a lot of "authors" (and actors) out there that really don't know what they are talking about and just want to write a book (or star in a show) to portray themselves as being in a PARANORMAL STATE...of mind, to cash in. (ohhh, i'm sooo bad...heh, heh).  They act as if they have a PhD in the subject.  But as far as I am concerned their "PhD" stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper".  Sorry...that's a REALLY old one.

I did have a question about a book that Karl read a while back I believe.  Others may have read it as well. It is The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook by Troy Taylor.  I posted the question here on the Paranormal Book Discussion Forum. (I'm trying to mend my evil ways and post stuff in the CORRECT board/forums  )  I wasn't able to find the original post/strand.  Like I said in the post-I'm lucky to find my socks.

[PPI Brian]

Hi Tracy,

Well, I would start with "Voices of Eternity" by Sarah Estep because it's a free download. You can save it to your flash drive and read it on your computer or print it out at home (or at work if you can get away with it  ) and read it as your schedule allows. The new book "Ghost Hunting" by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson is very good, but you'll have to ignore the jabs at Brian H and the corny pictures. And you can't go wrong with any of the books by Hans Holzer, although he presents his investigations in anecdotal form. Holzer often used psychics in his investigations, and some of his evidence is a little too subjective for my tastes, but interesting nontheless.

[ttjoon]

Was going to order it. But it is free?  Free is good.  Repeat after me... Free is good!  I WILL download it.  Thanks!   

Hawes/Wilson "Ghost Hunting" is on my bed side table - 70 pages into it and really like it.  Didn't know they had witnessed/been involved with exorcism stuff...now that is pretty major. 

Ghost hunting - you bet. 
Exorcisms - snope.  Now THAT is the sh** that freaks me out. Too much for me.  My hat is off to them, though. (Till this day, visions of Linda Blair STILL come back and haunt me when I'm walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night!)  :o

These people that say, "Oh I laughed through the whole movie"....yeah, right....shut up. 

[ttjoon]

Brian,
Downloaded it, printed it out (yes..at work -  perks of having your own office ) and I have been reading it the last two evenings.  It is very interesting. In my humble opinion, I think Sarah Estep was really a pioneer and a visionary. I feel like am going to learn a lot from this book.  Thanks so much for the tip.  You are a walking wealth of knowledge! 

[Attamom]

This maybe a very basic question but I'm new and just learning. Is EVP the same as white noice messages?

[Brigham]

Related, but not synonymous. Some people think white noise can be used by ghosts to construct speech. EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) is any unexplained voice that is recorded in an electronic medium but not heard at the time by people present. In the broader sense, EVP might include other noises besides voices, and things that were heard by witnesses at the time they happened.

[PPI Jason]

This maybe a very basic question but I'm new and just learning. Is EVP the same as white noise messages?

Thanks for this post. It is a basic question, but a very good one . It hits at the heart of an essential, but misunderstood, aspect of paranormal investigation.

Like Brighammer said, White Noise Messaging and EVPs are related, but there is a difference. I think Karl explained the distinction best in one of several posts which are part of a series of articles he wrote describing EVPs. Here is a link to one of those articles/lectures.

http://pacificparanormal.com/forums/index.php/topic,1251.0.html

In this particular lecture Karl was relating white noise to poor quality EVPs, or Class C EVPs.

• White Noise Matrixing:  There's an entire cult of paranormal enthusiasts dedicated to the "capture" of white noise EVPs.  Probably the most infamous of these is a west coast woman named Charli, who has referred to her coffee pot as a spirit communication portal.  Although the title of her book is "The Coffee Pot Ghost," Charli doesn't make claims her percolator is haunted; rather, she believes the white noise generated by the brewing coffee is a medium through which transient spirits are stopping by to say hello.  She's collected thousands of alleged EVPs this way, and she inspired a generation of ghost hunters to create white noise generators in order to create more optimal conditions for detecting these sotto voce spirits.  More often than not, what is captured instead is just a lot of white noise, recorded with equipment that has even greater acoustic precision than the human ear can discern. People expect white noise to be static and random, but the truth is that it is really a confluence of random sounds whose waves occasionally intersect to create musical notes, or whose cadence and patterns occasionally sound a little like human speech.  Why don't we hear revving cars and recitations of the Ghettysburg Address instead of human spirits chattering away?  Because our brains are conditioned to recognize human voices and human faces, and to make order out of chaos--a psychological phenomenon referred to as pareidolia.  We just can't help ourselves.  It's the same phenomenon that occurs when you watch static "snow" on your television:  when it looks like some of the static is moving with intent in a single direction, it isn't really; it's just your brain finding intent.  So it goes with most White Noise matrixing in EVP.  This isn't to say that every poor quality EVP is just a load of matrixed white noise.  However, a sizable amount of it is.  And, to make matters worse, many will attempt to convince themselves and others that it is not merely white noise, by performing as much cosmetic surgery on the clip as they can.  I'm speaking here of over-filtering.
  
  

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I highly recommend that if you want to get an even better understanding of the difference, take a look at Karl?s EVP discussions in the Evidence section. Really, really good stuff.

Jason

[Attamom]

Thank you both for the information-I'm off to do some reading