EVP is a recognized source of proof that spirits walk among us. But what is it? In the simplest way I can say EVP is the dead talking to us. Scientifically, EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomenon has been picking up speed as a solid source for spirit confirmation over the years. How it works no one can say for sure so it cannot be duplicated repeatedly but these phenomenon keep happening time and again.
The intrepid ghost hunter enters a supposedly haunted site with their trusted digital recorder or cassette recorder and records their entire session. Not once throughout the whole hunt did they hear anything out of the ordinary but usually they do not expect to. It is when they get back to their homes and listen to the tapes when the real fun begins. On these tapes are voices, noises, and things unheard throughout their session. Sometimes there is no question what you hear, others you can strain your senses but still come up with nothing. The pitfall here is that not always can the sound be understood so we place the easiest translation on it. Interpretation is an issue but what is not an issue is that the sound was not there on site but is recorded from some source.
I heard a story once where a TV station sent a reporter to a supposed haunted site near Halloween to get a story on what had happened there previously. Now a museum the curator went from room to room explaining the story of the house and the haunting all the while the cameraman following them. Upon entering the billiard room they stopped for a bit and spoke of the history. It was not until the tape made it to the editing room did the real story begin. Over the voices of the reporter and the curator was the sound of clacking, which they started to think were billiard balls. Since it was Halloween and they wanted a good story they sent to tape to be studied by and expert on sound. What he came up with was that they were billiard balls but they sounded nothing like the sounds he created in his sound lab with actual billiard balls. He hit upon an idea that maybe since the billiard balls of today were made from a composite material maybe these balls on the tape were from when balls were made of ivory. Now outlawed these balls are no longer used. He was able to get a set somehow and recorded the sound. To his amazement the sounds matched up to what was on the tape and since those types of balls had not been used for 100 years there was no explanation of how the sound ended up on tape.
This by far is one of the best cases of EVP I have heard. In fact on a previous ghost hunt I have picked up EVP. I know while I was there the voice was not heard but on the tape it is clear. Is this proof that ghosts exist? Will anyone believe it without a doubt? It is, in the end, the search for that which we do not comprehend or fully understand and our own personal vindication, which counts. Take electricity for example. Back before there was even and understanding of electricity or the properties inherent in it the idea would have been laughed at. And I believe was laughed at. Yet now electricity runs our lives, our homes and lives exist around something that we cannot see. We cannot see its physical form but if we stick our hand in a light socket we will get shocked. It exists; we accept that it is there, yet ghosts and EVP are laughed at still. The truth is that the science of ghost hunting still does not possess the tool necessary to tangibly measure or detect a ghost. Until such time we have to rely on EVP to possibly get us those truths. Then and only then will it all make sense.
I have attached to this page an actual EVP from a ghost hunt that I performed at Guernsey Hollow Cemetery a few years back. A little back-story to the situation may show you what EVP can and usually does. Before we went on the ghost hunt my partner at the time, Jim, and I had decided that a little known story about a possible “burial” ground beyond the wrought iron fence would be explored a little more. Questions were being asked about if a spirit was there, and if so could they show a sign, we even asked where that spirit was if in fact it was around. During mid conversation recorded on tape something happened and a voice appears on the tape. What it actually is I am not sure but the tape was fresh from the wrapper and was not tampered with. My only guess was that something was trying to tell us to go on a little further for what we were seeking. However, I will let you decide. Listen and tell me is the voice from this world? Or from beyond the grave? Or is it nothing?
EVPs