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There are many opinions and theories about how EVP works.  This section is dedicated to providing many of these opinions as held by AA-EVP members.

Please remember that EVP involves communication with what we believe is nonphysical reality.  And so, describing how this communication is possible is necessarily an exercise in abstractions.

By Tom Butler

Experimenters have been working with Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) for many years now. While there has not yet been a conclusive hypothesis offered to explain why and how EVP works, much about the phenomenon is known.  Following then, is a list of characteristics that have been identified by EVP experimenters. These are not presented as rules or as part of a hypothesis. Not every experimenter has had the same experience.

We ask that you, as EVP experimenters, consider these items and provide your comments and suggestions that will help us improve this list. If you recognize an observation you have made or have made a similar but independent observation, please tell us know so that we can make a record to establish a more verifiable foundation for this information. If one person makes an observation, it is simply interesting. If two people independently make the same observation, it becomes a statistical trend.

Atmospheric Conditions

More messages are recorded at night or during stormy weather than during the day or when the weather is clear.

Is there a relationship between EVP and electrical or moisture conditions of the atmosphere?

EVP message length is typically very short, ranging from one word to short sentences. Several experimenters have found that messages will usually be less than two seconds in duration. Popular theories for why this is so are:

1. Aspects of quantum physics suggest that there may be a definable limit to the amount of EVP information that can be transmitted in a single message.
   

2. The energy required for transmission of messages is limited by available physical energy, such as that provided by sound, electricity or light.
   

3. The experimenter’s personal mediumistic ability is a limiting factor for message length.

EVP messages are usually relevant to the person doing the recording. Cross correspondence, in which two or more experimenters receive similar messages, has occurred, but this is not common. Personally relevant messages are received, even when a group of people record together with individual recording apparatus.

There have been reports that certain "communication stations" on the other side have communicated with more than one experimenter; however, the foundation for this has not been established. Additional information from members is needed for this area.

Messages are often found by listening to the reverse direction of a sound track. When audiotape is used, the tape is played in the reverse so that the experimenter’s voice is heard as reverse "gibberish" but entity words are clearly heard as if played in the correct direction. When a computer based sound editor is used as an audio recorder, playing the sound file in the reverse mode will often disclose messages. Popular explanations for the existence of reverse messages are:

1. The entities experience a different time frame from us; thus they are able to impress messages in either direction in our time frame. Imagine that a solid spiraling inclined plane, such as the thread of a wood screw, (I believe this is a helicoid) is cut away to expose the zigzag pattern of part of the inclined plane. That pattern may represent the fluctuation of time between realities. This is a three-dimensional view, now imagine this in many dimensions.
   

2. Most EVP recording is done in a sound-rich environment. Most recording situations have some amount of echo or reverberate, even if it is not obvious to the casual observer. Reverse voices may be made possible by the echoed sound, which would be out of phase.

Asking the entities to communicate at the beginning of a recording session helps contact.

Audibly speaking the invocation and questions during a recording session is more effective than doing so mentally.

At least for new experimenters, recording at the same time of day and week results in more messages than does choosing random recording times. At least one researcher has determined that this effect diminishes as the experimenter gains experience.

The entities use physical sound energy. Sound energy, such as a physically spoken word, may be remodulated by the entities to form a different word. Sound energy, such as that produced by a fan or a noise generator, may be modulated into recognizable words.

Sounds, usually off-station static, generated by television and radio speakers are often used. AM radio has been found to be more effective than FM radio.

Other types of energy, such as light energy and magnetism have been experimented with; however, the results have not been conclusive.

1. The same recording apparatus, used in essentially the same way but by different experimenters, will produce different results in the quantity, quality and subject matter of the EVP messages received.
   

2. The quantity, quality and subject matter of EVP messages are also influenced by the people who are present for the session.

EVP messages can be recorded on tape or into a computer using a microphone as a detector. Other detectors that have been used include:

1. The germanium device, which is a piece of germanium crystal sandwiched between, and under slight pressure from, two electrodes connected to tip and sleeve of the high impedance input (Line In or Microphone In) of a recording device. The germanium material is placed in proximity with opposing magnetic fields.
   

2. A variety of coheres such as the coal dust detector. A cohere is a signal detection device that has loosely packed particle that are acted on by electromagnetic energy.
   

3. A skin resistance biofeedback detector coupled to tone generators, resulting in variations of tones in response to person’s emotional/physiological responses.
   

4. No detector at all. Although few, it is possible to record messages without anything connected to the input of the recording device. (Please note that electronic devices have the capability of "receiving" electromagnetic energy via internal circuitry. Any rectification can turn ambient electromagnetic energy into a usable signal. A metal to oxide junction, such as in a poorly soldered connection, or a semiconducting junction, such as in a diode or transistor, will do.)

A microphone detector is the most commonly used and may be the most effective considering our current level of understanding.

The voices involved in EVP messages often exhibit a shift in frequency outside of the normal human voice, frequency range. The human voice generally ranges between 300 Hz and 1000 Hz. EVP voices have been measured to1400 Hz.

Although broad, there is a pattern in the type of entity communicating with experimenters. The entities fall into one of four generally categories:

1. A person who has lived in our world, but who has "died," and has "gone on," but has taken time to communicate with people still "living" in the physical world.
   

2. A person who has lived in our world, "died," but has not "gone on," and is thus remaining in the near locale of our world as a ghost.
   

3. An entity who has never lived in the physical. (Angels? Devas?)
   

4. An entity that lives in the physical is not from our world and is able to operate in nonphysical reality.

Entity characteristics may also be look at as "high level" or "low level," depending on the nature of their messages. This is not necessarily a subjective measure. "Low level" entities earn this identification because they can deliver very negative messages.

Entity voices may be clearly male or female, old or young, even mechanical or "human" sounding. Some messages are delivered in a singing voice. However, the messages are delivered, they have distinguishable characteristics, from which information can be inferred beyond simple message content.

EVP messages have been classified as Class A, B or C:

Class A:  easily heard and understood from the speakers of a sound system

Class B: can be heard over the speaker but there may not be agreement as to the message.  Some words may be agreed on.

Class C:  can only be heard with headphones and difficult to understand.

EVP messages are often preceded by a sound that has been described as a "click" or a "thud." A physical world analog to this sound is the sound that was heard on old Citizen Band radio sets. When the send key was pressed, there was a brief burst of static before the voice was heard.

Messages are usually in the language of the experimenter, but individual experimenters have received other languages. For instance, an English and German message has been received in a single session

This list will be expanded as more is learned about EVP. An experiment is currently being conducted in an effort to better understand the nature of the messages. This experiment is being conducted by AA-EVP members living in many different parts of the world who are recording at the same time and asking the same set of questions for any one session.

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