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What is EVP/ITC?
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is the term
traditionally used to describe unexpected sounds or
voices sometimes found on recording media. EVP
initially involved audio tape recorders, but in
later years, virtually any recording medium became a
vehicle for phenomena. The term Instrumental
TransCommunication (ITC) came into being to describe
these expanded modes of audio- and video-format
communication. Other acronyms used in the literature
include Electronic Disturbance Phenomena (EDP) and
Trans-Dimensional Communication (TDC).
Who is causing
EVP messages?
The policy of the AA-EVP is that the experimental
evidence must determine what is believed or
hypothesized. At this time, the Survival Hypothesis
best accounts for the experimental evidence.
It is important to note
that the description of the Survival Hypothesis
stated here is possibly unique to the AA-EVP, and
may not be described the same by other
organizations.
The
Survival Hypothesis: The working
hypothesis proposed by the AA-EVP may be summed up
this way:
There is an aspect of reality that is not yet defined by physical
science. This may be termed "nonphysical reality."
Entities exist in nonphysical reality. Evidence
indicates that there are the following types of
entities:
Self that has survived physical death. When
you transition out of your body at the time of
death, you as Self, apparently continue to exist
in nonphysical reality. These discarnate Selves
appear to reside on many levels of existence.
They also represent many different levels of
spiritual maturity. These are loved ones who
have transitioned out of physical life.
Entities who are Self but who have not
experienced physical existence. Perhaps these
are people who evolved in other levels or
dimensions of reality.
Entities who are Self, but who are focused
on the operation of reality, rather than
experiencing reality. In more popular terms,
these are devic entities or angels.
Entities who may actually be Self existing
in other parts of physical reality, but who have
learned to transition in and out of nonphysical
reality at will. (Could these be
extraterrestrials?)
There is an energetic difference between
physical and nonphysical reality. Bridging this
difference is not a trivial task.
Nonphysical objects, including things, emotions
and ideas, must somehow energetically agree with the
level of reality that they are to occupy.
The EVP experimenter provides the necessary
circumstances with technology and by "gathering"
energy used by the entity to communicate. By
"gathering energy" it is meant that there is a form
of energy that is a product of life processes
probably best described as "auric energy," and that
this energy naturally accumulates, bounded by
physical objects. As such, any place that has had
long-time human occupancy and/or the expression of
extreme emotion is apt to have ample energy of the
kind necessary for etheric to physical influences to
occur.
The EVP
experimenter is an etheric Self in a symbiotic
relationship with its physical body. The
Self-physical body entanglement, that occurs at the
time of birth, allows the etheric Self to be
energetically in agreement with the physical aspect
of reality. It is this "embodiment" that allows the
EVP experimenter to bring the etheric object of
reality--probably as an image or gestalt "thought
ball"--into the physical.
The EVP
experimenter must supply the vocabulary and library
of image/concepts used by the communicating entity,
thus explaining why the EVP is in a language
understood by the experimenter or an interested
witness.
To paraphrase this hypothesis, EVP experimenters
know they are communicating with some form of
intelligence. Different experimenters report contact
with different types of entities. The experimenter
uses technology, yet there is also considerable
evidence that the experimenter is an important part
of the "circuit." In other words, if long-dead Uncle
John is to communicate, he must find a way to bring
his thoughts/words into physical substance. That
channel of communication is provided by the
experimenter and the electronic equipment. Exactly
how this is accomplished is not clear; however,
mediumship and the ability to record have been shown
to be learned abilities. The attitude and desire of
the individual is central to this experience.
We understand that this hypothesis may
challenge your worldview, but the AA-EVP invites you to
learn to record so that you may experience these
phenomena for yourself. There is ample instruction
for recording in the Techniques section of this site. The
Association will approach the who, what, and how of
these messages from an analytical perspective. By
maintaining a rational view, it is hoped that people
from a broad range of backgrounds and divergent
views will feel comfortable participating in the
field.
How are
EVP messages formed?
There is considerable speculation about this
question and much of the past and present research
is designed to provide a definite answer. The short
answer that appears to be emerging from the research
is that there is mind-to-mind communication between
the communicating entity and the experimenter. The
experimenter functions as a medium for this exchange
in much the same way that spirit mediums bring
messages to the physical. The message, itself, is
then thought to be telekinetically impressed into
the recording media. Even though the evidence seems
to support this view, it is apparent that the
experimenter is normally unaware of his or her part
in this transfer of information.
How can you
tell if an EVP is
genuine?
It is easy enough to tell if an EVP is true
phenomena. EVP do tend to have characteristics that
set them apart. For instance, they usually do not
have the fundamental frequency. They will tend to
have normal spaces between syllables but the
syllables themselves are often spoken at odd speeds,
even several speeds in a single word.
If you doubt, always record in a metal enclosure
such as a paint can or a metal candy box. That will
eliminate stray radio and TV. Some recorders will
record radio from nearby transmission towers, but
the voices are usually obviously not EVP.
If you ask a loved one to say hello and you record
"Hello" after that, then you probably have an EVP.
The problem is knowing who is talking. We know some
entities are jokesters and will tell you anything.
It is a lot like listening to a conversation in
another room of a library. You have trouble hearing
and understanding the words and you really do not
know who is talking. Do they know what they are
talking about? Are they telling stories to one
another?
You would not want to rely on what is said in an EVP
by itself. Is the comment appropriate for the
circumstance and the person you think is speaking?
Were you trying to contact that person? Is the
information positive or helpful? These are people
you are speaking with and if a loved one would not
tell you to go rob a bank in life, they certainly
would not tell you to do so in the etheric.
You must use discernment with EVP messages just as
you must when talking to people in the flesh.
What should I do in
preparation
for experimenting with EVP?
The short answer is that you need only turn on the
recorder to record an EVP.
The long answer is that we recommend that you
prepare yourself by learning to focus your attention
on the subject at hand. You need not meditate, but
we would like you to learn to relax a few minutes,
steady your breathing and think about what you are
about to do, as opposed to something like whether or
not you have time to make a recording before dinner,
or if you remembered to let the dog out.
We like to see people speaking out loud as if you
are speaking to someone in the room and ask for
protection and that only the highest good come to
you, your family and your home. Ask that a friend on
the Other Side stand by you and protect your
communication channel from any negative influences.
Then make your recording, confident that you are
standing in the white light of protection.
The above may seem a little melodramatic or a little
too religious for you, so look at it this way: By
practicing a ritual something like the above, you
are focusing your attention on the outcome you
desire. By asking for protection, you are telling
the world that you intend to be safe and do
not want any negative contact. Remember, your words
are heard by many people on the Other Side, so
declare your intention.
Don’t those on the Other Side
have to be near for me to record their voices?
None of us really understands how they communicate.
We can only gather up all of the hints and try new
ways based on those hints.
Experimenters/researchers have found that people on
the "Other Side" seem to be better able to
communicate in locations that have had long-term
human occupancy, the expression of strong emotion
(love, fear, anything that is strongly felt), and a
"place" to contain it, such as a building or a
landmark. These places seem to have accumulated
energy of the type that is useful to support etheric
to physical influence. That is why they become known
as haunted---not so much because there are resident
ghosts, but because etheric entities can more easily
make their presence known when they visit.
With that said, we know that people can also
establish a contact individual or group on the Other
Side. This is usually accomplished by experimenting
over a long period of time, and in effect, getting
those on the Other Side used to communicating with
you. In this way, they learn to communicate wherever
the experimenter is. That is why we recommend that
you begin by using the same room and time of day.
Anyone may record a voice anywhere; however you can
increase your chances by following the hints
described above. More information on EVP recording
technique is available in this
techniques article.
Why was I
unable to contact a
loved one?
We do not know all of the reasons why someone
communicates or does not. We suspect that, when or
if a person reincarnates, they have much more
difficulty "checking in." This is also apparently
true for those who "move on", "out of range" for
communication, such as in going to a "higher realm
of awareness."
When a person firsts transitions, they are usually
able to communicate with us because there is a lot
of energy from emotions that helps the transfer of
information across the veil. The person is also
still familiar with the physical and is apparently
more able to project his or her attention into the
physical. Once they have been across for a while,
they do seem to have more difficulty, but they also
have more experience that may help.
If a person was very sick in the last days, then
they may not communicate for a time while they learn
to be "well."
As for communicating with someone else, someone else
may be the path of least resistance.
If you try, be clear in your mind about how you feel
doing so. Also, develop a clear image of the person
by reviewing your memory. Have a strong and focused
desire and follow a routine of attempts in the same
location. Speak to them as if they are in the room.
How can I know, and convince
others, that the
entities speaking in a EVP I record
aren't demons?
That is a good question. First, if a person is
offended by EVP on religious grounds, then you are
probably not going to convince them one way or
another. Even some people, who believe in all sorts
of New Age phenomena, become defensive when you try
to tell them that the existence of EVP might mean
that there is such a thing as survival of the Self
after physical death. As such, we avoid discussing
EVP with people who might be offended. (By the way,
we know that there are many “stuck” or “earthbound”
communicators, and that what they learned from their
religion while in the physical is usually the reason
they have been unable or afraid to “go to the
light.” It is so important that we know what to
expect when we cross over.)
It could be said that the first contacts across the
veil were made by “dead people” reaching out to us.
That is how most contacts are initiated today, and
we believe that a lot of the instances of a ghost in
someone’s home are actually a loved one trying to
say hello. We like to point out that people around
the world have been studying EVP for over fifty
years, and to our knowledge, none of them have been
harmed. Yes, there is the occasional angry person
who yells at us, even cusses, but we can experience
the same thing with people still in the flesh.
If you look at the messages people record, it is
difficult to attribute anything sinister about them.
If the communicators were demons, then would they be
able to be so consistently loving and supportive, as
we see in some cases? Look at
http://bigcircle.aaevp.com/, or read
Children Together on the Other Side. If the
communicators are really demons, then your religious
leaders need to rethink what a demon is, because
many people are learning to continue their
relationship with loved ones who are now on the
Other Side. This is an important form of grief
management.
Some of the communicators may be nature spirits that
have never “lived” in the physical. You could call
these “Angels” or “guides” if you wish, but we have
come to realize that none of the communicators fit
the description of “demons.” On the other hand,
people generally maintain their personalities when
they cross over. If they were jerks here, they are
probably going to be jerks there. The communicators
in EVP are just people being themselves.
Finally, we try to explain to people that EVP is
potentially a very important tool for studying the
relationship of the physical to etheric border of
reality. There simply are no other tools that are as
reliable or readily available to researchers. When
AA-EVP members conduct an EVP recording session,
they are also conducting an experiment that, added
to all of the other experiments, help us understand
the nature of reality. Many AA-EVP members do not
tell their coworkers, friends and neighbors that
they work with EVP. The idea of talking to "dead
people" and getting answers in recorders is simply
too far past the "boggle point" for some, and in
some communities, it is best to stay quiet about it.
You will have to make such judgments yourself, for
your own circumstances.
Someone ‘cleaned up’ an EVP and
it doesn't sound the same as the original; isn’t this a
problem?
The problem is that these voices are not formed the
same way your voice is formed. Your voice begins
with the organic vibration of your vocal cord. The
resulting sound is then channeled through your
mouth, and on the way, frequency components are
formed, enhanced or suppressed by the changing shape
of your mouth and then spewed out into the world as
a word. Voice researchers call the vocal cord
frequency "Formant 0," and the subsequent harmonics
, "Formant 1," "2" and so on.
A spoken word is recognized because we have learned
since childhood to look for particular relationships
of formants to detect the word. Training is a
cultural thing, and some do not do as well detecting
the same word when it is spoken by someone from a
different culture because the formants are arranged
in slightly different ways.
In EVP, research has shown that the voice is formed
of a fortuitous collection of available sounds and
that there is seldom a Formant 0. In effect, the
words are being pronounced by someone from an
unfamiliar culture. This is true even if it is a
loved one because that person is obliged to use
whatever sounds are available. That is why we talk
about people needing to train themselves to hear the
words in EVP, and why a perfectly clear Class A to
you might sound like loud noise to someone else.
However, once you tell the listener what to look
for, that noise will often become obviously the
words you said they were. Then later, you or that
other listener listen to the EVP again and do not
hear the same utterance. It has not changed, but
your reference has.
Now, if the words in EVP are being formed of
available frequencies, then a word might have been
formed with a few relatively low frequency bits of
sound and a few relatively high bits, compared to
how you would form the word with your mouth. When a
word spoken by you is "cleaned up", its meaning
remains unchanged because the frequencies are all
grouped as harmonics of F 0. However, when the same
word spoken in EVP is cleaned up, it is possible to
remove the relatively low frequency components,
while the remaining high frequency components are
not sufficient by themselves to form the word. We
always caution against too much processing of the
EVP for this reason. A second problem you might run
into is how different sound reproduction systems
(i.e. different computers) will affect the
reproduction of a word in EVP.
I am
hearing music in the noise
coming from my box fan. How is this possible?
We cannot give you a definitive reason why you hear
the music, only a hypothesis. The sound of a fan is
often used by EVP experimenters to record the
phenomenal utterances. We think the sound, as
physical energy, is transfigured into voice in
electronic equipment in much the same way that
ectoplasm, which seems to be a "near-physical" form
of energy, is transfigured in a Spiritualist séance
to form faces over the medium. We also think similar
principles are involved.
As people strain to hear EVP, they often report that
their clairvoyant senses are sharpened and that they
begin to hear voices--even music--in the sounds in
their environment. This ability tends to fade when
the person stops trying so hard to hear EVP.
We believe that the sounds are always there, and
that when we begin to pay more attention to our
world, we more often notice them. Thus, it is an
ability that you can develop, should you wish.
What is the
difference in having
a haunted house and just having entities?
Fair question. You may as well assume that you have
etheric entities in your home at all times. One
AA-EVP member asked, during a recording session in
her home, how many people were in the room with her.
The EVP she found on that recording answered,
"Twenty-three."
As a rule, a haunted location is so because:
-
The geological conditions support etheric to
physical communication, and so the entities do
cause physical effects that people can sense--a
"haunting." This one is pretty speculative.
-
There is sufficient energy, of the kind
required for etheric to physical influences,
accumulated in the location to permit a
haunting. This may be because of longtime human
occupancy, an expression of extreme emotion
(fear, love, hate) and/or because of meditation.
-
There is an earthbound entity that is in
some way "attached" to that location.
-
There is a physical person living in the
location who is able to bring the necessary
energy for a haunting. We would describe this
ability as mediumship, even though the person
may be unaware of this ability.
There can be other reasons, but these are the most
common.
As you can see from the above reasons, we are pretty
sure that there is a requirement for a specific form
of energy to enable a haunting. That is why we
recommend that a person dedicate a location in the
home for EVP. We feel that the energy associated
with communication will accumulate to facilitate
phenomena. If you have no reason to think that you
have accumulated such energy, if you do not have a
history of being a strong medium and if your home is
relatively new with no tragic history, then there is
probably not sufficient energy for haunting
activity. Also, it is likely that you have
unconsciously withheld permission for them to bother
you.
With all of that said, you should look for influence
in your life from the entities around you. Usually,
it is more subtle than anything you would think of
as a haunting. We feel pretty sure that all of us
have what amounts to a team of friends on the Other
Side that, in effect, helps us gain the experiences
we set out to have when we entered this lifetime.
With all of that said, a haunting in your home is
usually a cooperative effort between you and the
entity. In some way, you have probably invited
communication.
In our mind, there is a definite distinction. We
should conclude with a reminder that, even in a
haunted location, the entity you may experience is
not necessarily earthbound or stuck in that
location. It could be a loved one who is taking
advantage of the situation to say hello. At the same
time, the entity haunting your home, if any, may
also be a loved one trying to say hello. Treat them
with respect.
An Alternative View:
Commentary
from a skeptic
By James E. Alcock, PhD - Concluding comment from
article, Electronic Voice Phenomena: Voices of
the Dead?, at
www.csicop.org/specialarticles/evp.html
“What the Raudive voices teach us is that
intelligent people – for Raudive was no doubt an
intelligent man - can come to believe fervently in
phenomena which in all likelihood do not exist.
There is a lesson in this for all of us, for we just
as surely may be mistaken in some of our own deeply
held convictions. This is why we must rely on
science as the avenue to truth rather than personal
experience or other people’s anecdotal reports.
Science, with its reliance on data and its
insistence on looking for sources of error and for
alternative explanations, provides the best method
that humans have produced for protecting against
error and self-delusion. Electronic Voice Phenomena
are the products of hope and expectation; the claims
wither away under the light of scientific scrutiny.”
A different perspective:
What Dr. Alcock’s comments teach us is that
intelligent people – for Alcock is no doubt an
intelligent man - can come to believe fervently in
explanations that, in all likelihood, are not
supported by the evidence. There is a lesson in this
for all of us, for we just as surely may be mistaken
in some of our own deeply held convictions. This is
why we must rely on science as the avenue to truth
rather than personal experience or other people’s
anecdotal reports. Science, with its reliance on
data and its insistence on looking for sources of
error and for alternative explanations, provides the
best method that humans have produced for protecting
against error and self-delusion. Electronic Voice
Phenomena are the products of forces that are not
currently explained using known physical principles,
and are therefore discounted by scientists, even
though they may not have the necessary training to
make such judgments. Nevertheless, their claims that
EVP are the product of hope and expectation wither
away under the light of scientific scrutiny.
See also Victor Zammit's
comments about Alcock's article at
http://www.victorzammit.com/articles/evpattack.html
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