History of EVP
Thomas Edison
Only Thomas Edison knew for certain whether he
believed in ghosts and the paranormal or not. But
he was quoted as saying he did believe that if our
personalities do transcend death and continue to
exist in another dimension or sphere of existence,
then it should be possible to construct an
instrument to record the voices of these
disincarnate people. Here is that quote by Mr.
Edison "I don't claim that our
personalities pass on to another existence or
sphere," he told Scientific American.
"I don't claim anything because I
don't know anything about the subject. For that
matter, no human being knows. But I do claim that
it is possible to construct an apparatus which will
be so delicate that if there are personalities in
another existence or sphere who wish to get in
touch with us in this existence or sphere, the
apparatus will at least give them a better
opportunity to express themselves than the tilting
tables and raps and ouija boards and mediums and
the other crude methods now purported to be the
only means of communication."This quote
was made in the October 1920 issue of Scientific
American™.
It is my opinion that our personalities do
transcend death, and continue to exist in another
realm of reality. And if it is true that our
personalities do continue to exist then I believe
EVP offers the most compelling evidence for this
existence.
Raudive voices
Konstantins Raudive (1909–1974) was a Latvian born
psychologist who was also an avid researcher of
parapsychology. And he also had a great belief in
life after death and the continuation of
consciousness. He investigated with Hans Bender the
subject of EVP, and published a book in 1971
entitled Breaakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in
Electronic Communication With the Dead. He also
worked with Friedrich Jürgenson in his attempts to
capture EVP. It is said that he taped approximately
100,000 audio tapes claimed to contain EVP
snippets. These were all claimed to be done under
strict laboratory conditions. Whether this is true
to standard scientific criteria I cannot say.
The ghost box or Frank's box
The ghost box was created by Frank Sumption,
supposedly with the help of the spirit world. The
device is basically a white-noise generator and AM
radio designed to scan frequencies and generate
snippets of sounds. The theory is that the spirits
can electronically manipulate this device and carry
on a two way conversation with the living.
Personally I am a believer in EVP and believe that
they may be an actual attempt by an entity to
communicate with the living. But I do have to say
that I am skeptical of the ghost box because it
does scan radio frequencies, and because of this, I
do believe it is entirely possible that stray radio
signals could contaminate the device and cause
misinterpretation's of these sounds and lead to
auditory pareidolia and misinterpretation's.
Sarah Estep
In 1982 The American Association of Electronic
Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) was founded by Sarah
Estep. The AA-EVP organization was founded to
standardize and educate EVP collection procedures
and also to increase public awareness of this
phenomena. Sarah Estep claimed to have captured
several hundred EVP messages from deceased
friends, relatives and other persons.
Sarah Estep's work has been continued and
expanded on by Tom and Lisa Butler of ATransC (Association of
trans communications), which is also committed to
the continuation of education and public
awareness and in my opinion is the premier
organization for information on this subject.
