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Sidereal Time and Psychic Phenomena

From the article: Apparent Association Between Effect Size In Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments And Local Sidereal Time, by S. James P. Spottiswoode, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA 94301. Published in The…

The Monroe Way

Binaural synchronization induced meditative state Previously published in the Spring 2008 AA-EVP NewsJournal Robert Monroe had spontaneous out-of-body experiences, which are well-documented in his books, Journey out of Body (Doubleday,…

Using Live Voice Input Files for EVP

Previously published in the Spring 2012 ATransC NewsJournal Several members in the Idea Exchange have been using recordings of foreign language as background sound for EVP sessions. What we refer…

EVP Using VoIP and Telephones

margaret-telephone-evp

Originally published in the Fall 2012 ATransC NewsJournal Also see: Phone Line EVP and Recording EVP Using a Telephone Recording for EVP using the telephone system has always offered tantalizing…

Recording EVP Using a Telephone

debbie-telephone-evp

Debra Ann’s Telephone Recording EVP Using a Telephone Previously published in the Spring 2007 ATransC NewsJournal Also see: Phone Line EVP and EVP Using VoIP and Telephones Please note that…

Basic EVP Recording Technique

Also see: White Paper on  Transcommunication with emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena What is EVP? Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) are intelligible voices found in recording media that have no known…

Selecting an Audio Recorder

Audio recorders models on the market frequently change, and for this reason, we do not recommend particular recorder models. Instead, we will try to provide a list of recommended characteristics…

Simple Optical Microphone

by David Mierzwinski (c) All Rights Reserved Previously published in the Winter 2006 AA-EVP NewsJournal Also see: Experimental Recording Techniques Using a Phototransistor For nearly a year, I have been conducting various…

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ATransC White Paper on Transcommunication

montel_williams-waveform

with Emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena

EVP White Paper Button

updated September 2020

Abstract

This is a brief overview of what is currently known by the ATransC Directors about Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) with an emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). It is written by Tom Butler and published by AA-EVP Publishing. The ATransC website (atransc.org) also has a version of this paper.

Please feel free to share this under the Creative Commons 3.0 License.

This explanation is written in terms of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (1) It depends on current parapsychological research (psi, psi-field and survival) (2) and the accumulated evidence provided by the citizen scientists of the paranormalist community. (3)

Relevant theories and important characteristics of ITC are discussed. Transform EVP and visual ITC recording techniques are provided.

Do You Have Questions? Consider asking questions or commenting on the Idea Exchange at coop.ethericstudies.org/

The Idea Exchange has been converted to “Read Only” due to lack of participation.
Please contact us if you have questions.

Do You Want to Stay Up to Date? Consider adding your name to the Occasional Update Email List via the website or at eepurl.com/bkzPUr


Contents

Transcommunication White Paper

Contents
Introduction

Paranormalist Community
Terminology
Hyperlucidity
Anti-Expert
Hyperlucidity Complex

A Brief History of ITC
Theories Proposed to Explain Observed ITC Phenomena

Physical Universe Hypothesis
Psi Hypothesis (Super-psi, Physical Dualism)
Strict Dualism (Survival Hypothesis)
Implicit Cosmology

Witnessing ITC

Paranormal is and is not
Super-Psi Explanations
Evidence of Survival
Error on the Side of the Mundane

Types of EVP

Transform EVP
Sidebar – Background Sound
Random Selection
Environmental Control of Speech Synthesis

Why the ATransC has turned away from Radio-Sweep

Comparing radio-sweep with transform EVP
Radio-Sweep
Transform EVP
Radio-sweep Conclusion
Best Practices

Characteristics of EVP

Transform EVP
All forms of EVP

Recording for EVP

Types of Recording Sessions
EVP Recording Procedure
Classifying Examples
Keeping a Log
Analyzing the Recording for EVP
Sidebar: Realtime EVP
Storage and Sharing

Things to Remember
Recording Visual ITC

Video Loop ITC
Light Reflected from Moving Water Technique

Association TransCommunication (ATransC) Today
References
References
References


Introduction

This paper originated as a simple instruction about how to record for EVP. It has evolved over the years to become a comprehensive discussion about transcommunication. This evolution has been guided by realization that ITC are not just interesting phenomena. It amounts to a modern revelation about our spiritual nature and the nature of the greater reality we inhabit.

The purpose of this paper is to inform you about the phenomena, how you can work with them and to help you recognize important characteristics that shape how you experience them. The physical message is:

  • There is substantial evidence that our psi expression and sensing are natural abilities.
  • We cannot trust our senses alone but need to have candid feedback from unbiased witnesses.
  • Some reported phenomena may not be paranormal.
  • While some people are more able than others, collecting visual and audio forms of ITC is an easily replicated process.

The community message is:

  • What you do in the community affects others.
  • What others do affect you.
  • We have not made appreciable progress toward understanding these phenomena. The reason appears to be more about how the community functions than it is about difficulty of understanding things paranormal.

The spiritual message:

  • We are the conduit for the trans-etheric influence.
  • Our sense of truth colors how the phenomena we study are formed.
  • We can control the actual nature of these phenomena by working to gain lucidity.

Paranormalist Community

Those of us who have more than casual curiosity about paranormal phenomena are essentially in the same boat. By that, I mean we depend on one another to learn about them. If one of us appears to the general public as delusional, we all look delusional. If one person tries to pass off incomprehensibly garbled noise from a radio as EVP, our entire community is dismissed as ignorant. If one person claims some long-dead philosopher revealed a clearly nonsensical secret about reality, we all look like we are ready for Rev Jim Jones’ Kool aid.

Over the years as a private seeker and as co-director of an association serving the ITC community since 2000, I have found myself spending way too much time trying to set the record straight because of:

  • Would be scientists debunking or mischaracterizing ITC or attacking the integrity of practitioners.
  • Paranormalists who insist they are expert ITC practitioners who give the community a bad name by proposing unsubstantiated theories, even as they teach people new to the field false truths.
  • Practitioners who claim phenomena that is not in evidence.
  • Paranormalists who ignore, even publicly dismiss the guidance of more subject matter specialists in favor of their clearly limited knowledge of these phenomena without a single study to back them up.

The most important tool we have for personal progression is a cooperative community. (4) By that, I mean being an active participant in conversations about these phenomena helps both speakers and listeners better understand the sensibility of their idea of truth. It only works when people are candid, willing to speak up and are kind.

It is not kind to say we agree when we do not or to remain silent when we see something that needs to be discussed. The wayshower is not one person. It is the ideal of seeking mutual understanding that is based on empirical evidence and rational thought.

 

Terminology

Here are a few important terms for the study of ITC as they are used in this paper:

Discerning Intellect – Discerning intellect is our motive force for such ideals as compassion, love of knowledge, the desire to understand and the need to find meaning in life. It represents the aspect of our aware self that is more associated with our etheric nature than with our avatar entangled person.

Etheric – A term long used to represent the conceptual space of the greater reality. Think of the etheric as a medium of propagation for thought in the same sense that air is a medium of propagation for sound. Important characteristics of the etheric include:

Conceptual: A concept is a thought about a particular idea. For instance, love is a concept concerning personality’s attitude toward other personalities or their expressions. A physical Random Event Generator (REG) is a physical object or thing. In the etheric, it represents the concept of continuously different within the bounds of the REG design (which is another concept). So, for REGs, the primary concept is randomness.

This is important because, we as etheric personality entangled with a human avatar, think in terms of physical things. While we have learned to assign physicality to our thoughts about things, our etheric personality deals with everything from a conceptual perspective. For us to understand our etheric nature, we must learn to think conceptually, as well. (5)

Thoughtform: The etheric equivalent of physical objects are thoughtforms. Think of a thoughtform as a conceptual field (etheric field) that represents related concepts that are bound together by intention. They are often associated with a place. For instance, a church is just a building, but the intention of the church leaders and congregation to make it a religious place develops a clear image in each person’s mind that represents “their church.” The collective focus of church leader and congregation develop a thoughtform that can often be sensed by others. Haunted locations are probably sensed as haunted because of the combined expectations and beliefs of previous experiencers.

Distance: Change of focus of attention is equivalent to physical distance. In effect, there is no distance, so in effect, everywhere is here.

Force: The etheric equivalent of physical force is intention.

Potential: The etheric equivalent of difference in physical potential (electric or gravity) is degree of focused intention.

Psi – A term used in parapsychology to denote the influence of thought. It is important to remember that this is not the thought itself, but the influence of thought.

Psi Field – A nonphysical field proposed in parapsychology as the medium of propagation for psi. The Psi Field Hypothesis holds that it is nonlocal, meaning that an effect noted in one part of the field is experienced everywhere in the field. It is not physical in any sense currently understood because of its nonlocal characteristic, because we know of no way of shielding from it and because it propagates the effect of thought, which is also nonphysical.

In this paper, the Psi Field and the etheric are the same. I tend to use etheric for ITC and Psi Field for psychic-related subjects.

Psychic – The mental characteristic of being aware of information propagated in the Psi Field. Being psychic is sensing information represented by psi (the influence of thought). Being psychic is sometimes referred to as psi functioning.

Physicalism – Part of the physicalist point of view is the idea that mind is produced by biological brain and ceases to exist when the brain dies. The mainstream physicalist model is that all of reality began with the singularity known as the Big Bang. All that is, is physical or comes from the physical. The energy concept is important in Physicalism as the difference in potential.

Dualism – Here, mind is considered independent of biological brain. There are two important versions of Dualism that must be considered. In Physical Dualism, it is argued that mind originates from biological brain but continues to exist after biological death as residual energy.

The version of Dualism used in this paper is that mind existed before this lifetime and will continue to exist after biological death in a self-aware, sentient form. In this version, physical energy is not a factor (does not exist in the etheric). Instead, the energy concept is expressed as attention and intention.

We receive a lot of comments from readers indicating they think Dualism is not a true concept. Their argument is that we are all one while dualism implies that we are not. The context is important here. Most of the references cited for the “we are all one” version comes from Buddhist and Hindu teaching. It can be argued that is in a philosophical context.

As I understand it, the Katha Upanishad is a predecessor to both Buddhism and Hinduism. Line 1-III-3 of the Katha Upanishad states “Know the Self to be the master of the chariot, and the body to be the chariot. Know the intellect to be the charioteer, and the mind to be the reins.” It is that dual nature between who we are as a physical human (the chariot) and who ae are as a spiritual being (the chariot driver) that I refer to in dualism. Yeas, we are all one. But the subject is survival metaphysics and not philosophy.

Trans-etheric – In the context of paranormal phenomena, the trans- prefix is used to denote mental influence from the etheric (Psi Field) to the physical. In Dualism, a person is defined as an immortal personality entangled with a human avatar for this lifetime.

Everything physical is psychically sensed and the related information is assigned physicality. That is, we make the physical by thinking of information related to what we have been taught is physical, as being physical.

Transcommunication –A trans-etheric influence that is intended to be communication. Virtually all reported paranormal phenomena are thought to involve some form of trans-etheric influence. While a practitioner appears to provide the conduit for the physical formation, the actual cause of the influence might come from the practitioner’s mind, the mind of another physical person anywhere in the world (or universe) or from a discarnate personality.

It is important to remember that some of what is referred to as transcommunication might be echoes of the past. That is, the experiencer may sense a thoughtform and understand its contents as a message. In the problem of cultural contamination, the experiencer’s learned expectation of sensing dead people in a cemetery might produce phenomena that is as expected but without any factual existence.

Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) – a term used to indicate trans-etheric phenomena that is made physical via technology. ITC may be visual as in faces found in light reflecting from moving water or it may be audible as in Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). It is reasonable to argue that the ITC practitioner is a medium or psychic who (unaware) uses instruments as a means to make trans-etheric influences physical.

Ernst Senkowski (6) coined Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) to describe “… meaningful anomalies including extraordinary voices, computer text, recorded images and images found on video displays suggestive of a continuance of life after death.” Note that After Death Communication (ADC) and mediumship should be considered subsets of transcommunication but are not necessarily ITC. (Because of common use in this field, terms with a trans- prefix are often used without the hyphen.)

Spirit: Saying that someone is in spirit is the same as saying they are in the etheric. I would refer to a discarnate personality (sometimes called a ghost) as a personality or conscious self rather than a spirit. The formative personalities sometimes referred to as devas are also referred to as nature spirits.

Spiritual: It is argued in the Implicit Cosmology that we inherit an urge to gain understanding through experience. Responding to that urge inherited from our core personality is the central meaning of spiritual. Thus, while discerning intellect is a preferred term, I might say spiritual maturity, meaning the development of understanding about the nature of reality.

Spirituality: Think of spirituality as a continuum from blind obedience to the urges of our human instincts (self-serving) to realization that we are all connected as one interdependent community (altruism). Spirituality is the point of view associated with seeking to gain discerning intellect.

Hyperlucidity

In Your Immortal Self, (7) I define Hyperlucidity as a short-term change in behavior marked by the tendency to find phenomena everywhere despite considerable testimony to the contrary by peers. It comes from the idea that information comes to us by way of our mostly unconscious mind where it is filters to better agree with what we have been taught is true before being delivered to our conscious awareness. The effect is that the actual nature of incoming information is often corrupted so that we experience what we expect. See the Becoming Lucid Essay. (8) (9)

Here are a few of the way hyperlucid behavior can be recognized:

  • Lack of discernment – A common complaint from community observers is that paranormalists seem to lack discernment. A symptom of hyperlucidity is the unexamined acceptance of guidance offered by way of ITC communicators, psychics, channelers or mediums. For instance, a message from a long dead Indian may be meaningful, but we know it has been passed through the messenger’s worldview. Thus, we cannot know how much it comes from the messenger or from the supposed guiding personality.

One of the more difficult lessons to learn is that we are always responsible for what we think, say and do. Even if we are sure the message comes from a wise old dead teacher, it is our mostly unconscious mind that cloths that message in speech. The actual utterance comes from our mind and not the discarnate communicator who may have initiated the message.

From experience, it can be liberating to accept responsibility for our ideas. Admit that you are wise. Accept that you may be able to teach others. Yes, you may be guided by wise old dead teacher, but it is you who must have the courage to speak.

  • Cultural Contamination – As consciousness is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, (10) our mostly unconscious Attention Complex is the functional area of our mind in which we develop perception. Environmental psi signals such as those from our five physical senses and psi sensing of information from other personalities, are modified in our attention complex under the control of worldview. The result of that filtering is what is sent to our consciously awareness. (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16)

Worldview is a sort of database holding everything we think is true, our spiritual and human instincts and previously acquired understanding. That information is used by our mind to decide what to do with incoming information. The information may be rejected as being too far beyond what we think is true, modified to better agree with what we think is true or simply passed on as known truth.

In hyperlucidity, we color what we express to agree with cultural truths (what we have been taught). That is, we tend to modify our perception to agree with our expectations. This is especially a problem when we are trying to report information that we know nothing about such as information given to us by a communicating personality.

  • Belief rather than science or logic – Behavior based on faith rather than science or best practices. For very religious people, this tends to manifest as the fear of attracting demons or other negativity by recording ITC.
  • Hearing voices in noise is a natural effect caused by background noise in a slightly entranced mind. People commonly experience this during daytime naps. It is a sign of hyperlucidity if the experiencer attributes such sounds to paranormal causes such as spirits talking. This is a common problem with EVP practitioners.

Misleading Popular Wisdom – Reading the references listed for the Cultural Contamination item should help give you a sense of the relationship between information coming to your mind and how that information is modified before reaching your conscious awareness. This idea is more completely explored in the Becoming Lucid Essay. (8)

The unconscious-to-conscious flow of awareness is at the very foundation of how psychic and mediumistic abilities manifest. Since my first introduction in the 1950s to how psychic and mediumistic abilities were thought to work, I have been taught that clear communication will emerge from my unconscious mind if I learn to quiet my conscious mind and listen. In fact, that is not true. That clear channel must be developed by habitually intending to experience reality as it is rather than as we have been taught. That is why I talk so much about The Mindful Way(17)

We routinely encounter hyperlucidity amongst practitioners and witness, alike. I tested this idea with the EVP Online Phantom Voices Study. (18) In it, I asked online visitors to tell me what they heard in a sample with simple noise and one with noise modulated in a voice-like manner. I truthfully told them that neither sample had voice of any kind. Here are the results:

Of the 111 submissions, 15.3% (17 responses) reported hearing voices in the brown noise file and 27.8% (33 responses) reported hearing voices in the modulated file. That means that 39% (43 responses) reported voice in one or both of the files.

Participants were also asked if they had a history of hearing voices not heard by others. Thirty-six percent (40) of the respondents said that they did. Most indicated they were likely in a hypnagogic state of awareness.

Interestingly, many respondents reported hearing music or musical tones. While hearing music might be an associated characteristic of the phantom voices phenomenon, the question has not been addressed here.

Anti-Expert

After years of trying to learn how to teach people to be aware of, and compensate for, the problems of hyperlucidity, I am now thinking that the problem is not only the failure of some people to discern the actual nature of experiences. As I see it, the organized study of things paranormal has evolved out of religious belief that the actual nature of things paranormal is not knowable. From there, we have evolved to think that “my opinion about truth is as good as anyone’s.” The result is that our society has an ingrained distrust of experts.

The people at Farnam Street put it very well in “The Distrust of Intellectual Authority.” (19) From that article:

It’s intellectual hubris to think that with a few minutes of googling our opinions are on par with people who have spent their lives in a domain. And yet we’ve been taught that we are entitled to our own opinion and that it deserves equal weighting. Sure you hold your own opinion, but it doesn’t deserve equal weighting.

And

Laypeople would do well to remember that reasoned disagreement (20) is what moves us forward. Not every idea has to be complete and completely defensible right from the beginning. It is because we question and push ideas that we make the progress that we do. Experts would do well to remember that they may be masters of their fields, but they are servants to society. Mastery means nothing without trust and engagement.

Reasoned disagreement is an important term. One of the characteristics of hyperlucidity is the unshakable conviction that the person’s expertise is superior to the understanding of others. The antidote is not the imposition of rules or dogma. Instead, it is negotiated mutual understanding. For instance, I do not maintain that I am right. I only maintain that science and observed evidence seem to indicate the model I talk about as the better fit. Happiness would be to have others explain their ideas in similar terms of science and study so that we might evolve our thinking to be closer to truth. That is collaboration and not blind acceptance or rejection.

Hyperlucidity Complex

Considering the apparent inability of the paranormalist community to find a common point of view based on well-considered research, I now think the idea of hyperlucidity also applies to the individual’s understanding about the nature of truth.

Here are the characteristics of the complex of behaviors I refer to as Hyperlucidity Complex:

Unsubstantiated claims of expertise – Assumption of authority not supported by the record while rejecting best practices.

Questionable references – Appeal to authority that is no longer relevant. An example is citing long-dead psychologists as superior to the work of contemporary researchers.

Rationalization – Deciding something is irrelevant as a means of ignoring the implications if it is relevant. Dismissing the results of studies as mere philosophy rather than considering the implications of those studies.

Psychopathy – Unexamined perception leading to possible delusion. A frequent claim I encounter from website visitors is that they have collected more and better paranormal examples than anyone. The insistence that meaningful voices or images are present where virtually everyone else only experiences noise.

Ignorance – Assuming facts that are not supported by research, logic and careful observation. This comes in two forms. One is the “We will never know” assumption that paranormal phenomena are magic rather than natural. This argument is used to say, “my opinion is as good as anyone else’s.”

The other form of ignorance is the failure to examine what is known by those who are trained to know.

Belligerence – Hyperlucid people tend to aggressively defend their beliefs and examples of phenomena with clearly belief-based arguments. Lacking an informed understanding of the subject, the person is free to think truth is what they want. Doing so, it becomes necessary to push away contradicting opinions.

Self-serving – Belief in the ability to contribute to the community while refusing to cooperate with other opinion setters in the community. For some people, ego and desire for fame and related income appear to be involved in hyperlucidity. Many of those seem to be subject to this complex are trying to build their reputation or monetize their work. Some of this comes from academics who should know better.

An important result of this self-serving aspect of hyperlucidity is the emergence of islands of influence. For instance, a person might start a group with the intention of providing important services to the community, when in fact, the person is too often replicating existing services.

The appearance is that the person thinks his or her ability to serve is superior to others. In fact, rather than a collaborative effort to help the community, the person’s actions do harm to it by supporting often nonsensical ideas and in an effort to stand out. Even when supporting nonsensical, uncollaborated views, such self-serving efforts often drain the energy from existent, less exciting efforts to serve.

Silver Bullet Syndrome – The ability to produce paranormal phenomena is typically not a matter of simply deciding to do so. While everyone probably has psychic ability, only a few are able to confidently serve as a psychic or medium. Collecting EVP, especially, is more a matter of mindfulness than about the equipment or techniques used.

While it is reasonable for people to want to produce phenomena, it is too common for people to seek some kind of magical equipment for ITC or to “fake it until they make it” for psychic and mediumistic ability. This, without bothering to do the work of learning best practices, personal training and practicing with a witness panel. (21)

We see this as the tendency to think using a Ghost or Spirit Box will assure the person’s ability to record phenomena. A little bit of information without the attendant practice and feedback more often produces delusional pretenders than competent practitioners.

Consider these characteristics as a set of behaviors. They may be individually unimportant, but when some or many of them are expressed by a person in the context of paranormal phenomena and our community, they begin to have a degenerative effect that harms the individual’s ability to progress and degrades the ability of the community to serve its members.

To be clear, what each of us does privately is our business. But when what we do becomes public, it becomes the community’s business. I complain about how parapsychologists mistreat lay-paranormalists, (22) yet we do little to deserve better treatment.

Parapsychologists receive little funding for research. Much of the reason for that is how our community presents the phenomena they would study. The sillier each of us looks, the less respect our community receives. I have spent a good part of a lifetime trying to understand these phenomena. From that personal experience, I understand that we all depend on the community for that understanding and it is not going to happen in an atmosphere of collective hyperlucidity.


A Brief History of ITC

Thomas Edison – Speculation about EVP can be traced back to the 1920s. In a Scientific American interview, Thomas Edison was quizzed on his views regarding contacting the dead. Edison said that it might be “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, this 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.”

I have seen no reliable indication that Edison designed or tried to construct such a device. (23)

The following was on the National Park Service web page for Thomas Edison. (home.nps.gov/edis/faqs.htm) It has since been removed:

Did Edison make a machine that could talk to the dead?

This seems to be another tall tale that Edison pulled on a reporter. In 1920 Edison told the reporter, B.F. Forbes, that he was working on a machine that could make contact with the spirits of the dead. Newspapers all over the world picked up this story. After a few years, Edison admitted that he had made the whole thing up. Today at Edison National Historic Site, we take care of over five million pages of documents. None of them mention such an experiment.

Attila von Szalay and Raymond Bayless – In 1936, Attila von Szalay, A Californian, began capturing paranormal voices on phonograph records and then in the mid-1950s he was joined by Raymond Bayless. Together they acquired many evidential EVP on their new tape recorders and they published their findings in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. (24)

Friedrich Jürgenson – The person credited with bringing EVP to the public is Friedrich Jürgenson. After recording birdsong on his tape recorder, Jürgenson heard on playback what appeared to be a human voice. Subsequent recordings contained a message which seemed to be coming from his dead mother. (25)

Konstantin Raudive – Konstantin Raudive is credited for learning about EVP as a student of Jürgenson and introducing EVP to the English-speaking world with the Colin Smythe publication of the English-language Breakthrough. (26)

Colin Smyth – Colin Smyth is credited with coining the term, Electronic Voice Phenomena as a more inclusive alternative to “Raudive Voices,” as the voices recorded by Raudive were referred to at the time. (26)

Ernst Senkowski – Ernst Senkowski (6) coined Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) to describe “… meaningful anomalies including extraordinary voices, computer text, recorded images and images found on video displays suggestive of a continuance of life after death.” Note that After Death Communication (ADC) and mediumship should be considered subsets of transcommunication but are not necessarily ITC.

Sarah Estep – In 1982, Sarah Estep founded the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena. She continued to publish quarterly newsletters until 2000.

Tom and Lisa Butler – Tom and Lisa Butler assumed leadership in 2000. In 2010, the name of the organization was changed to Association TransCommunication (ATransC) to account for the international nature of membership and to acknowledge the need to study all forms of transcommunication. See About the Directors. (27)


Theories Proposed to Explain Observed ITC Phenomena

Existence of the visual form of ITC is not widely accepted amongst parapsychologists. However, the existence of the voice form of ITC, more commonly known as Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP, is gaining in acceptance.

Any reasonably capable person with a device capable of recording audio can expect to eventually record an understandable utterance that cannot be explained with known science. The same can be said for some forms of visual ITC. A workable protocol for recording both forms of ITC can be found under the Techniques Tab of ATransC.org.  A brief discussion of techniques is also provided in this paper under Recording for EVP and Recording Visual ITC, below.

If the existence of ITC phenomena is accepted, next comes the usual questions of who, how and why. This paper is based on the Dualist point of view. To help that make sense, it is helpful to understand the three dominant models used to explain the nature of reality.

Physical Universe Hypothesis

This is the mainstream science view and what is taught in school. It holds that:

  • All that exists is the physical universe.
  • The universe has evolved from a singularity into what it is today.
  • Life has evolved on earth from a primordial soup into what it is today.
  • Mind has evolved as a product of brain which is a product of evolution.
  • Memory is an artifact of mind.
  • When the brain dies, mind and memory cease to exist.
  • People have five senses: smell, sight, hearing touch and taste.

To simplify conversation, people who think the Physical Universe Hypothesis is correct can be described as Physicalists. Parapsychologists who lean toward the Physical Universe Hypothesis often work under the banner of Anomalistic Psychology, (28) which holds that reported paranormal experiences are actually ordinary-world experiences mistaken as paranormal.

I originally referred to supporters of the Physical Hypothesis as Normalists but have since found the terms Physicalist and Physicalism more useful.

Super-Psi Hypothesis

This is the parapsychological view in which psi functioning is seen as a normal ability. It holds that:

  • All that exists is the physical universe.
  • The universe may have evolved from a singularity into what it is today.
  • A subtle energy (psi) field permeates all of physical reality.
  • Life has evolved on earth from a primordial soup into what it is today.
  • Mind exists in the psi field and thought, memory and emotions are indefinitely retained in the psi field after death of the brain in a form that can be psychically or mediumistally sensed.
  • Biological brain is a transmitter/receiver for etheric mind.
  • Perception in mind begins as a psi sensing and expression in mind begins as a psychokinetic influence.
  • People have five senses that are informed by impressions from the psi field.

To simplify conversation, people who think the Psi Hypothesis is correct are described here as Physical Dualists. Parapsychologists who lean toward the Psi Hypothesis sometimes work under the banner of Exceptional Experiences Psychology, (29) which holds that reported paranormal experiences may be ordinary-world experiences mistaken as paranormal but may also be evidence of psi functioning.

Strict Dualism (Survival Hypothesis)

Strict Dualism holds that the core personality of who we are existed before this lifetime and will continue to exist after in a sentient, self-aware form. For reasons explained below, the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (1) used here is an elaboration on the Survival Hypothesis. It has evolved out of my work with Etheric Studies. (30) It holds that:

  • There is a greater reality (the etheric) of which the physical universe and Psi Field are aspects.
  • Mind with its thoughts, memories and emotions has evolved in the greater reality and continues to exist beyond death of the biological brain.
  • For a lifetime, mind and brain are entangled to produce a physical-etheric link.
  • During a lifetime, mind consists of consciousness (awareness) and personality (unconscious). Both are natural to the etheric (nonphysical).
  • All sensed information is conveyed to conscious awareness by way of the perceptual Loop which is moderated by Worldview. (10)

People who think the Survival Hypothesis is correct are described here as Strict Dualists. Some Physical Dualists accept that mind is different from body. The distinction is that Strict Dualists think mind preceded body and continues after the body in a self-aware sentient form. Physical Dualists think mind is a product of body, and sentience ceases when the body dies, and that apparent evidence of survival is actually only evidence of survived memory.

Implicit Cosmology

The book, Your Immortal Self, Exploring the mindful way, (7) includes my effort to compose a cosmology based on my understanding of emerging consciousness science, what we are learning from the study of ITC and my years of studying survival metaphysics.

life-field-complex
The book begins with the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse, (1) which is intended to more fully explain the generic “Oh yes, some people believe in survival” Hypothesis.

The Trans-Survival Hypothesis defines the scope of the survival metaphysics I work with. The Implicit Cosmology (10) is the so what of the Survival Hypothesis. Without a so what for an idea, all that remains is empty philosophy.

The Implicit Cosmology is a thought model designed help us visualize our spiritual nature, the nature of reality, our relationship with the greater reality and how we interface with the physical. It is that last part that most concerns ITC.

A series of Discourses are in the book, but also provided in less integrated form under the Concepts Tab of EthericSrtudies.org. They explain the major parts of the cosmology. The Life Field Complex with Avatar Diagram represents the Implicit Cosmology.

Immortal Self consists of three section: Theory, Community and Transcommunication. It also includes a Glossary of Terms and a useful Bibliography for further study.

Here are the important points from the cosmology that you may find helpful when studying ITC. I discuss many of them in more detail throughout this paper:

Remember that this is a fundamental, conceptual model.

The anatomy

  • Reality consists of life fields and their expressions. As shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, life fields consist of:
    • A core personality which binds the field as the primary I am this
    • Attention Complex which represents the mostly unconscious mind. Perception and expression are developed in this functional area. Worldview, which includes memory, instincts, beliefs and acquired understanding, moderates development of expression and the perception sent to conscious awareness.
    • Conscious aware self as the I think I am this
  • In the Implicit Cosmology, a person is defined as an immortal personality entangled with a human avatar during the human’s lifetime. As an etheric-centric being, the immortal personality is motivated by the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality through life experiences. As a physical-centric being, the avatar is motivated by a set of instincts which serve to assure continuation of the species.
  • The anatomy of our human host appears to be the same as ours except that it has a functional area, identified here as the Body Mind, that organizes the physical organism according to “Nature’s Habit.

I am using the Hypothesis of Causative Formation (Morphic Resonance) (31) to describe the biological organism’s formation.

  • While immortal personality and human avatar each have an Attention Complex, while we are entangled with our avatar, we share the complex. That means the human instincts of our avatar influence the development of our perception and expression. In effect, our behavior is dominated by our human’s instincts unless and until we learn to moderate them.

Implication of an etheric-physical entangled relationship

  • Healing intention (spiritual healing, non-contact intercessory prayer, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch) should be directed toward the avatar’s Body-Mind and not to the person. It is important to assume a personality-centric perspective when thinking of the spiritual aspect of a person (rapport, empathy) and a more body-centric perspective when thinking of the avatar’s wellbeing (healing, protection).
  • Psi functioning means the intentional expression of a visualized outcome. The expression appears to act on concepts and not directly on things. The idea is that the communicating personality in ITC is not acting on the noise. It is acting on the concept of the noise. It appears that the more constrained the concept, the more difficult it is to mentally cause a change.
  • Any form of phenomena that must be expressed by a person is apt to be contaminated by cultural expectations. Put another way, when a mental medium relays a message from long-dead Uncle John, the listener must expect that the medium has colored the message in some way. This does not mean Uncle John did not initiated the message. It just means that anything anyone says or does is colored by what they think is true.
  • Trans-etheric influences such as the formation of EVP or psychokinetic effects appear to require a person in the physical to act as a conduit for the influence. For instance, the intention to form an EVP in my audio recorder could be formed in my mind, the mind of someone who is aware that I am recording or possibly a discarnate personality.

The practitioner or interested observer—no matter where they are in the world—is required for the actual psychokinetic influence but the intention to communicate can come from anyone or from anywhere. We cannot shield from the influence of psi.

  • We hear or see what we expect and what we think is true. We experience environmental signals as being physical if we have been taught that they are physical.
  • Our personal reality is limited by what we think is true. It is a subset of actual reality. We learn truth in small increments. The implication is that we progress through practice while keeping an open mind. Since our mostly unconscious mind is inclined to decide … about everything … An important technique for learning to see the actual nature of things is to practice suspended judgment. In other words, do not decide, just think maybe as you wait for more information. Make that a way of life.

We share worldview with our avatar. That means our human’s instincts tend to dominate our behavior unless we learn to moderate them. One way to do so is to first, realize that we are not our body. Second, consciously examine the consequences and implications of our every thought and action. Then, intend to see reality as it is, rather than as we have been taught. That is the way toward greater lucidity.


Witnessing ITC

The two most common complaint I hear about claimed examples of paranormal phenomena are that the witness does not see or hear what is claimed and the witness does not agree that the examples are paranormal. Consider these points:

Witness does not share in the experience

  • Blind EVP online hearing studies have shown that transform EVP is more often correctly heard than opportunistic EVP examples. (18)
  • ATransC radio-sweep studies have shown that people virtually never correctly hear radio-sweep examples unless they are told what to hear. (32) (33)
  • Pre-recorded voice examples formed by random selection of stored data such as with EVPmaker, or by detected changes in environmental energy commonly used in Spirit Boxes (but not radio-sweep) and smart phone aps apparently do produce the occasional EVP, but the high frequency of false positives makes these techniques unreliable. (34) (35)
  • The use of pre-recorded live voice has shown to produce so many false positives that it may not be possible to recognize an actual EVP in the clutter. (36)
  • Visual forms of ITC are often difficult to correctly see. ATransC conducted an online “What do you see” study. (37) All examples were considered Class A but correct recognition ranged from 28% to 81%.
  • Staccato sound streams such as those produced with EVPmaker and radio-sweep, tends to befuddle witnesses’ senses making it difficult for them to correctly understand examples.
  • Faces found in such soft media as vaper or steam are amongst the most difficult to share with people who are not accustomed to visual ITC.

Witness does not agree the example is paranormal

  • Single syllable examples are easily discounted by witnesses as coincidental.
  • If a witness cannot independently determine what the utterance is thought to say, but must be coached, the resulting agreement is often simply a case of the witness being polite and not wishing to hurt the practitioner’s feeling.
  • It is common for someone to use foreign-language speech—French for instance—as the raw material for a recording session, and then to report that one of the words in the output recording is an EVP, only to have a French-speaking witness say the reported EVP is just another French word.
  • Witnesses tend to feel that they know what they heard. As we learned from the study conducted by Daniele
  • It is common for a practitioner to use technology for recording EVP without understanding how that technology produces artifacts, and then to claim that noise from a naturally occurring artifact is EVP.
  • Obscured features, such as examples produced with a sheer cloth over a person’s face are generally not well received as paranormal. The term “obscured” is more common from witnesses than “transfiguration.”

A note about witness’ ability to correctly hear EVP

Witnesses tend to feel that they know what they hear and will resist being told otherwise. As we learned from the study conducted by Italian researcher Daniele Gullà, (38) speech in transform EVP is often just a representation of the biologically spoken words. Many of the audio cures that help us understand a word are missing or oddly formed.

The witness’ prior experience with language may produce unexpected interpretation of sounds, as might differences in witness hearing frequency response.

When sharing examples, always be alert for the possible influence of differences in witness’ background.

Paranormal is and is not

If Dualism is correct and mind is etheric while our body is physical, our mind’s control over our body and interface with its biological senses are trans-etheric psi function. Those experiences we refer to as paranormal are also trans-etheric psi functioning. The difference between mundane personality-biological avatar interaction and paranormal phenomena is how we attribute those experiences. In fact, what we call paranormal might be better referred to as the extraordinary outward expression of psi function.

I am not suggesting that we change the name to extraordinary outward expression (EOE) of psi function; however, psi EOE does have a nice ring to it. Also, people complain that these phenomena are not paranormal at all, only normal in extraordinary ways. It is up to you.

Outward Expression – The first test of any paranormal experience is that it must be able to be witnessed by others, either directly such as correctly hearing EVP, or indirectly, by way of predictive evidence such as a mental medium’s correct description of a discarnate loved one or a remote viewer’s correct description of a distance factory.

Because of the way we process information, (39) It is very difficult for us to tell which of our thoughts are normal and which are paranormal. For instance, the naturally occurring tendency for us to experience the expected, and the way our unconscious mind tends to try to please our conscious desires, easily leads to perception that seems to be paranormal, but that is concocted by our mind. See the Mind as Storyteller Essay. (40)

Having confirmation from two or more witnesses is no guarantee the experience is paranormal, but it is at least a useful first filter. It is important that witnesses do not know what to expect when they are shown an example. It is also important that witnesses are not captive in a situation in which they unconsciously want to please the practitioner. (There is strong evidence that people are sometimes so eager to please that they will convince themselves of the truth of something that is not true.)

To make this point clear, if phenomena is not able to be witnessed by others, it should not be considered paranormal. If it cannot be witnessed, then it is not paranormal in the sense that the paranormal concept is intended.

Imagination of the Experiencer—This is an important possible explanation for any form of phenomena involving unexpected sounds, images or events. Modern technology is capable of producing a wide variety of unexpected results (mundane technology artifacts). A person can easily mistake an artifact as phenomenal unless the person is experienced in the use of that technology. For instance, when used in an automatic mode, and with a flash, modern cameras often keep the shutter open much longer than the user realizes. A characteristic of film and digital image detectors referred to as latency will cause a moving camera to image a bright light, such as a streetlight or the camera flash reflected from a bright object in the scene, much quicker than a poorly illuminated background. This can result in a ghostly streak of light in a photograph while the background scene seems to indicate that the camera never moved.

With increased availability of video camera apps in smart phones comes an increase in ghostly figures moving about the scene. Some may be etheric; we still do not know. However, probably most are a person or animal moving in the scene faster than the automatic features of the video tool can properly image. The result might be a dog with no legs or a shadowy figure that lurches across a poorly illuminated scene recorded with a security camera.

The point is that such photographic artifacts are mundane, yet they are often offered as evidence of ghosts. In the same way, sounds in an audio recording can be made by very mundane influences but sound paranormal. For instance, it is common for a person to take a breath of air just before speaking, and the sound of that breath can be mistaken as an EVP when a person is examining every little sound in the recording.

All aspects of etheric studies are plagued by what is generally termed the lack of critical thinking amongst people seeking to experience these phenomena. Recent study is indicating that the expectations of practitioners and witnesses can have an influence on how sound and light are experienced. In the Phantom Voices study, (18) nearly half of the participants reported hearing some form of voice in two audio files that were clearly marked as only containing noise and no voice.

A clever practitioner might describe simple noise as voice and provide an explanation as to how those voices are meaningful, and distressingly, witnesses will too often agree. This characteristic of EVP is still being studied, but what is clear is that all of us must be careful to manage expectations and cultural influences. The same can be said for visual phenomena.

EVP is objective evidence and that means that other people can hear the same thing without coaching. The inverse of this is also true. Concepts such as inattentional blindness or incredulity blindness (41) suggest that people who have a strong disbelief in things paranormal are less likely to be able to experience EVP.

Physical Dualism Explanations (Super-Psi)

As discussed earlier, Super-Psi is the Physical Dualist’s explanation for how ITC and mediumship might be possible. Its main feature is that it does not require the Strict Dualist assumption that sentient mind preceded biological brain.

Note that the basic principles that mind expresses as a psychokinetic influence, and senses as a psi function, are applicable to both Super-Psi and to Strict Dualism. The difference comes in the direction of influence and whether what is psychically sensed is always from still incarnate mind or if it might also come from discarnate mind.

It is argued in Super-Psi that the expressions of mind exist forever in the Psi Field and can be psychically accessed well after the thought was expressed. In that sense, a mental medium thought to be in contact with long dead Uncle John, might only be sensing the memory of him held by someone still in the physical or residual energy from his thoughts still retained in the Psi Field.

Conservation of energy is one of the physical principles thought to be responsible for this Psi Field retention of thought. In that, energy is said to exist forever but only change in nature as it radiates from its source. Anyone who has tried to pick up a weak radio signal will know that there are limits to how far the radio can be from the source.

The main point usually missed by Physical Dualists is that the information is not always like a memory. it is sometimes like a conversation between tow sentient personalities. The “Please don’t come” and “Doja, no!” EVP are two examples.

Thoughts of the Practitioner – Once the normal explanations have been eliminated, there remains the possibility that the voices are paranormal but that they are caused by a physical person. It is here that the argument changes from “Is EVP real” to “Who is talking?”

A number of experiments have been conducted that did indicate it is possible to record the thoughts of people known to be still in the physical. (42) Current thinking is that the conscious aspect of a person is what survives physical death, and when a still living person is in some way disassociated from the physical body, his or her conscious self is much the same as the etheric communicator. In other words, it is predicted that the thoughts of a living person should be able to be recorded in EVP.

While many of the observed characteristics of EVP could be explained as thoughts of the living, when the ATransC had an active recording group, a person recorded the voice of a person, say John, who was later shown to be the discarnate son of a person who had not yet joined the group. After John’s father joined the group, and during subsequent conversations, John’s father recognized his discarnate son’s voice, when someone shared an EVP, he indicated that John was saying the sort of things he would have said while in the flesh.

It is necessary in such instances to question if the EVP containing John’s voice was initiated by discarnate John who also somehow coaxed his father to join the recording group, knowing that his father would eventually hear him. Alternatively, John’s father may have initiated the EVP after he had at least unconsciously decided to join the group. The first possibility tends to support the Survival Hypothesis. The second tends to support the Super-Psi Hypothesis. (2) (43)

EVP are “Echoes of the Past” or Residual Energy – It is held in the Super-Psi Hypothesis (2) (43) that the mind is a product of the brain and the information being accessed as apparent etheric-to-physical influences including EVP, are either caused by the practitioner or some other physical agent.

Physicist David Bohm and neurophysiologist Karl Pribram proposed a field of energy that underlies all of reality and that accounts for realization of the Implicate Order. (44) (45) A variation of this field of energy referred to in parapsychology as the Psi Field, is thought to have three characteristics that might account for the observed Psi Field-to-physical phenomena:

  1. It is thought to behave according to quantum principles, especially that of entanglement which shows that, once objects have become associated at a quantum level, influencing one object will have a similar influence on the other even though it may be very far away.
  2. The Psi Field exhibits the character of nonlocality, meaning that information in it is equally available from any place in the field. This characteristic is required to explain such phenomena as a remote viewer accessing information that is miles away and a medium supposedly getting information from discarnate entities (the Super-Psi explanation is that the medium is finding the information in someone’s memory).
  3. The Psi Field retains the residual energy of consciousness, and therefore contains all that was ever known, thought and experienced. It is thought that this residual energy provides the information people psychically access. An alternative version of this is that if the information is in someone’s memory, then it is accessible to others, at least subconsciously. (18)

For the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, the greater reality is referred to as the etheric, and the Psi Field as an aspect of the etheric. In that way, the study of survival benefits from psi studies but does not otherwise accept the idea that survival is actually survived residual energy of consciousness.

It is also important to note that even though the Psi Field may exhibit quantum-like behavior, there is little to no support for the idea that it is a quantum effect. The arrow of creation seems to point from the etheric to the physical and quantum principles are physical.

Survival Explanation – You have probably noticed by now that that Survival Hypothesis is not a simple concept or decisively true or not. During the development of the Implicit Cosmology, (7) it became obvious to me that the science decisively shows that mind is not physical. While there remains a small possibility that mind is a product of brain, that argument is increasingly unsupportable.

If we think something is true, then it is necessary to consider the implications of that truth. The implication of the idea that mind is not a product of brain is that the real who we are is not our body. Our sentient self appears to exist in nonphysical space. All of mind’s information exchange is etheric (defined in parapsychology as psi functioning).

In a very real sense, and assuming mind is not brain, our relationship with our physical body is the relationship of our conscious self (an etheric life form) with our body (a biological product of this planet). While there may be alternative models, this Dualistic model is the one that seems to best explain the experience of being a person (etheric personality entangled with a human body for a lifetime).

One model that looks a lot like survival argues that mind is a product of brain which exists in the Psi Field but that originated when life formed on this planet as a product of biological brain. As the argument goes, each instance of life contributed to the mind field, thus evolving mind along with body. I tried to model this theory with currently understood science and reported experiences, but the resulting model fails to explain the sentient, individual nature of survived personality.

And so, survival means existence of conscious self, prior to a lifetime as a person, and continuing after this lifetime in a conscious, sentient form.

Evidence of Survival

Except when verifiable information that is not in someone’s memory is reported from an out-of-body and near-death experiences, those experiences are not paranormal in the sense discussed in this paper. This is not to say that they are not real, it is just that they are difficult to distinguish from normal human ability to imagine experiences. Reincarnation is a little more convincing, but the ability to witness evidence is still an important measure of paranormality.

A concept you need to become familiar with is the idea of cultural contamination. In that, a practitioner or an interested observer might color phenomenally produced information, such as via EVP or a mental mediumship messages, with information in worldview. (Anyone’s worldview)

Worldview is the standard with which perception if filtered. The mental processes supporting the development of perception will attempt to explain unfamiliar information with existing information currently in worldview. As such, a genuine message from a discarnate loved one of, say, “I am always with you,” might be expressed in an EVP or mediumistic message as “I am standing beside you.” In fact, the practitioner’s expectation that the loved one is near might produce the message, even if the discarnate loved one is not near.

Remember that near and far are not references to distance in the etheric. The terms are better understood as near (I am thinking of you) and far (my attention is not currently directed toward you).

Cultural contamination always colors instrumentally or personally delivered messages. There is no way to avoid that fact. A well-trained practitioner should know how to minimize the coloring, but the reality of it is that witness panels are our best defense against delusion. (21)

With that said, each form of paranormal phenomena inherits a degree of credibility from the other forms. A good example of this is when a mental medium announces the presence of Uncle John, and an EVP with Uncle John’s voice is recorded at the same time. The accumulation of evidence that EVP are initiated by discarnate personality gives you reason to accept at least some EVP as possible evidence of survival.

Because of cultural contamination, and the fact that information from a mind still entangled in a lifetime looks a lot like information from a discarnate mind, the Super-Psi Hypothesis can be at least partially used to explain transcommunication. To discount the Super-Psi Hypothesis, the task is to find an example containing information that was not known by any living person when it was formed. The one example we have access to is Martha Copeland’s “Doja, no!”

Martha’s daughter Cathy transitioned as a young woman and Martha assumed care for her dog named Doja. Martha had accidentally left Dojo loose in the house when she left to go shopping. It was her habit at the time to always leave her voice activated digital recorder turned on, and so, it was also left on in the house with the dog. No one was in the house except for the animals. Dojo tore up a potted plant and made a great mess. You can hear an EVP from Cathy as she scolded her dog saying, Doja, no!” (46)

Again, the idea that paranormal phenomena inherits credibility from more credible phenomena applies here. The best proof of the Super-Psi Hypothesis is EVP. The Best proof of Survival are some examples of EVP and research supporting psi functioning theory.

Error on the Side of the Mundane

Always, the first explanations that should be considered are those that suggest only normal phenomena. These include mundane artifacts mistaken as paranormal, fraud and illusion. Of course, if any of those explain the reported experience, then it is not considered transcommunication.

Assuming there are no known mundane explanations, the Super-Psi Hypothesis (2) (43) should be considered next. Super-Psi proposes that these phenomena are caused by information that has been somehow recorded into the Psi Field and are able to be detected by our senses and instruments. In other words, apparent survival phenomena might only be evidence of memories or echoes of the past.

The Survival Hypothesis (2) should be considered last. After considerable examination of the evidence, the ATransC officially accepts survival as a demonstrated fact. It has adopted a working version of the Survival Hypothesis referred to as the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (1) as the theory thought to best explain the evidence. The Implicit Cosmology Discourse (10) is the starting point for a thorough discussion of the subject.

Every instance of phenomena is reviewed by the ATransC directors in terms of “is it mundane, is it just super-psi or is it survival?” We are always mindful that some very well informed and intelligent people are watching our every move to find ways to show we are deluded. Such skepticism is not about science or facts so much as it is about beliefs. Our skeptics are believers in scientism. They are often irrational and will always seek to use our claims about the paranormal as proof that we need to be protected from ourselves.


Types of EVP

Electronic Voice Phenomena are formed in three primary ways, all of which are dependent on the availability of a relatively chaotic signal that has been shown in research to be able to be influenced with psychokinesis.

Transform EVP

Traditionally EVP formation has involved the transformation of available audio-frequency sound into voice. This transformation is thought to occur in the electronic equipment, specifically in an analog stage before the signal is digitized for storage.

The resulting signal is seen as a simulation of human voice which may closely mimic the physical voice of the person thought to be speaking. This includes nuances of voice indicating accent, age, sex and attitude. Analysis of the resulting voice often shows novel arrangement of formants (clusters of frequency grouped by octaves of the voice box frequency produced during passage through the mouth) and fragmented voice box frequencies (Formant 0). (48)

Prior to wide availability of personal computers, the static between radio stations was often used as background sound for transform EVP since radios were a readily available source of sound. Current Best Practices involve the use of noise, such as that produced by a fan. The use of any form of “live voice,” such as a possible voice from a radio broadcast, is strongly discouraged.

Sidebar – Background Sound

Experience is showing that a microphone is only important to introduce additional noise if the noise generated internally by the recorder is not useful for voice formation.

A very high-quality recorder produces little internal noise, but a low-quality recorder typically produces too much steady-state noise, which is not useful for EVP. The electronic state of well-designed circuitry is relatively determinant, as well. We think less determinant noise, meaning more chaotic, the better for transform ITC.

Current understanding is that noise in the voice range–400 to 4,000 Hz–with many perturbations, such as small noise spikes, is useful for voice formation. The noise is needed for voice, but the perturbations are apparently useful to initiate the voice formation process. The spikes increase uncertainty in the circuit.

One technique to produce this form of noise is to rapidly sweep a radio dial. The objective is to sweep the entire dial in under a second so that no whole words or even allophones can be detected. This is not radio-sweep as used in Ghost Box or Spirit Box-type devices. Those are typically designed to have a much longer sweep that may produce whole words in the output file, thus producing many false positives.

I only mention this technique for generating noise because I have seen it work with some manually-swept radios and because so many boxes are around. If they can be manually swept or set to auto-sweep faster than once per second, make a recording of the results, remove recognizable bits of voice and us that for background noise.

Sounds from a common fan, running water or passing cars have been shown to be chaotic enough to produce EVP.

Random Selection

This can also be described as opportunistic EVP because it is thought to require the availability of already formed voice fragments. It depends on a random process which is thought to be influenced by the communicating entity. In the application known as EVPmaker (no longer available from its developer), a file containing prerecorded voice is stored in a buffer with each buffer address containing a small segment of the original sound file. The communicating personality’s psi influence on the random process is expected to select the contents of the buffer addresses as needed to form the intended message. The resulting stream of randomly selected sound fragments becomes the output sound file.

In some techniques, a sound file containing speech fragments known as allophones are used. In this approach, if a word is present in the output, it must be formed by a chance arrangement of allophones or it must be the product of intended manipulation of the random process used to select buffer addresses. If the utterance is EVP or chance occurrence depends on whether it is meaningful for the circumstance.

Please note that the staccato output of EVPmaker and similar techniques tends to confuse the mind, making it difficult to make out possible paranormal messages. That is one of the reasons we discourage their use. (70)

Environmental Control of Speech Synthesis

Some applications employ environmental energy sensors to control the operation of a speech synthesis process or to select addresses in a database that contain pre-recorded words or voice fragment. It is believed that the communicating personality’s intention to communicate might cause meaningful perturbations in the environmental energy, thus selecting intended buffer addresses.


Why the ATransC has turned away from Radio-Sweep

There is much we do not know about EVP, but there are patterns in what we observe that may show us the operation of natural principles that we can learn to understand and use. The Characteristics listed below are an example.

Comparing radio-sweep with transform EVP

After funding research and conducting internal studies to establish the nature of the radio-sweep technique for EVP, the ATransC has taken the position that radio-sweep probably does not produce EVP.

Compare the following two examples. The radio-sweep example was extracted from an online talk show under the IRS Fair Use Policy. I have not named the show or the practitioner to avoid making this about people. The second is a transform EVP example recorded by Lisa Butler.

Part of a reported Radio-sweep session

EVP saying “Hidden Morphine”

Radio-Sweep

First, listen to the Radio-Sweep example. The soundtrack is made by modifying a radio to continuously sweep the dial. The sweep produces a stream of bits of sound that are being produced by local radio station at the time of the sweep. The sweep rate can be adjusted in some of the devices. The device in this example appears to be set at about three-seconds. The output depends entirely on the number of local stations and what they are broadcasting (music, speech) at the time.

The idea is that the communicating personality will arrange to have each radio station transmit the required sounds at the time each frequency is intercepted to form a message.

Here are some of the things to consider about radio sweep:

  • Opportunistic – Radio-sweep is an opportunistic form of EVP in that the supposed message is formed from already existing sounds such as radiobroadcast and bits of pre-recorded voice. The paranormality of opportunistic phenomena is not well supported by present research.
  • Single words – With radio-sweep, single syllable words are often credited as possible answers. It may not be an exaggeration to say that ten people might report hearing ten different messages in the same sample.
  • Violation of free will – It appears that it is necessary for the communicating personality to cause a radio station to have the required sound present in its broadcast signal to form the intended message. If so, this would be a violation of the radio station personnel’s self-determination.
  • Precedence in formation of phenomena – Trans-etheric influences (paranormal phenomena) tend to occur in similar ways. Transform phenomena such as most forms of visual ITC, precipitated art and apports appear to depend on the same principles. If radio-sweep does produce EVP, it must depend on an entirely different set of, as yet unrecognized, principles.
  • Inadvertent transform EVP – Transform EVP are occasionally formed in the noise produced by the sweep. Ironically, a sweep of less than a second can produce the kind of chaotic noise punctuated by frequent noise spikes that is useful for transform voice formation. The occasional production of transform EVP complicates analysis of the radio-sweep technique.

As a historical note, Frank Sumpton, who is credited with starting radio-sweep, once complained to me that (paraphrasing) “Radio sweep can’t be done with a one-second sweep.” As I understood his complaint, the radio-sweep technique will not work without the ambiguity of complete words in the sweep output.

  • Selective reporting – Common practice in radio-sweep is to ask a question and then sweep until a likely sound is detected, and then to come up with a creative story to explain how that sound is the answer. Compare this selective reporting of EVP to the best practice for transform EVP recommending the response come just before or within a few seconds after, but certainly before the next question.
  • Storytelling – Terms like silver bullet, magical thinking and storytelling are often applied to radio-sweep. Storytelling is the practice of seizing on a particular sound in the radio-sweep output and explaining why it is meaningful whether or not it is actually meaningful. Because people tend to hear what they are told they will hear, storytelling is a potent craft for those who would manipulate their audience.

Transform EVP

Now listen to the second EVP. You should be able to clearly hear “Hidden morphine.” On the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe is the Thunderbird Lodge built by George Whittell. We participated in a couple of media events there that included opportunities to record for EVP. In this example, you will hear the voice of a woman say, “Hidden morphine.” We later learned that Whittell was addicted to morphine and his lady friend was a nurse who gave him morphine shots.

Here are some of the things to consider about transform EVP:

  • Transform – The voice is recognizably human, yet it is entirely formed out of background noise. No pre-recorded speech, no radio broadcast.
  • Speaker characteristics – It is possible to tell if the speaker in the EVP is male or female, young or old. If a listener knew the person thought to be speaking, it would be possible to pick the voice out of a “voice” lineup.
  • Recognizing the speaker – Analysis of other examples have shown a high degree of agreement between the voice in an EVP and the recorded voice of the person though to be speaking before transition. (48)
  • Possible historical agreement – Having a person well-studied in local history, as we had during the Whittell Lodge walkabout, makes it possible to add another level of confidence that the EVP is real and conveys real information.
  • Research tool – Because transform EVP can be reproduced with same or similar characteristics, it is able to be used to study other forms of transcommunication. Radio-sweep cannot be used for research because it has so little confirmation with known characteristics of transcommunication. The usual lack of agreement about what is said for radio-sweep makes it difficult to measure frequency of EVP occurrence.

Radio-sweep Conclusion

It is our opinion that radio-sweep does not pass the listen test, it seems to violate self-determination and it does not conform to known ways these phenomena appear to be formed. While we do argue that it probably does not produce EVP, we are not saying it cannot. We are saying that people using it appear to be ignoring the science. Radio-sweep practitioners at least appear to be mistaken in what they consider ITC.

The solution is for radio-sweep supporters, and the makers who are making money off of it, to conduct well-considered studies that support their claims and make sure those are published for public consideration. Without such analytical results, it is irrational for us to ignore the evidence as it is available today.

In the meantime, we strongly suggest that anyone wanting to work with EVP should avoid radio-sweep and similar opportunistic techniques, including those using live voice. Collecting transform EVP may be a little more difficult, but it is doable, and the results are considerably more meaningful.

Best Practices

Studies about how audio and visual ITC appear to be formed, and how we experience them, have given us a sense of what phenomena are normal and what are paranormal. Best Practice have been composed to help practitioners and witnesses navigate the rather complex subject. These living documents include:

Being a Good Witness (47)
Classifying Phenomena (58)
Characteristic Test for EVP (49)
Sharing EVP (50)
The Scientific Method and ITC (51)
Using a Control Recorder for EVP (52)
Witness Panel (21)

The list of Characteristics from the Characteristic Test for EVP Best Practice is provided below.


Characteristics of EVP

The following list is extracted from “Section III: Transcommunication” of Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way, (7) with additions based on more current work. The characteristics will provide a sense of how EVP sounds and the nature of the phenomenal voices.

Transform EVP

The first group of characteristics is specifically for transform EVP, which are thought to be formed by the transformation of audio frequency energy into a simulated voice. (38)

  1. EVP are distinctive – EVP have a distinctive character of cadence, pitch, frequency, volume and use of background sound. For instance, EVP messages often have an unusual speed of enunciation; the words seem to be spoken slightly more quickly than normal human speech.

Use caution if you slow down or increase the speed of EVP. It is possible to change the meaning of an utterance with speed changes. Best practice is to not use more than a small percentage change.

  1. A need for background sound sources – Research has shown that the voice in EVP is formed out of ambient sound. (38) Because of this characteristic, it is standard practice to assure the availability of ambient sound for voice formation, even while isolating the recording device or process from uncontrolled ambient sounds, such as crowd noise, so as to avoid mistaking unnoticed normal voices as EVP.
  2. Frequency range – EVP are formed in available background sound. As such, if there is a high-frequency component in the background sound, say caused by whistling wind, it is possible that the EVP will be of similar frequency range. If there are both higher and lower frequency components in the background sound, it is possible to find EVP formed in both regions of the sound. Two different voices might overlap.
  3. Missing frequencies – Spectral analysis of EVP samples has shown that the fundamental frequencies of voice associated with the human voice box are sometimes missing. One researcher describes the typical transform EVP as a thickening of the background noise to form the voice. (38)
  4. Precursor sounds – Sounds are often heard in the recording prior to an occurrence of EVP. Although these vary in nature, they tend to be within tenths of a second of a phrase and are typically popping or clicking noises reminiscent of the squelch sound in Citizens Band radio.(53)
  5. EVP appear to be limited by available energy – Utterances tend to have about the same amount of audio power in their associated sound waveform from one EVP sample to another. That is, a short EVP will tend to be louder than a long EVP. A very long phrase might be composed of two or more average-length phrases separated by brief pauses. Also, an utterance may trail off at the end, as if the energy is being depleted before the message is finished. It is as if the communicator is attempting to manage available power as packets of energy. (56)

An interesting characteristic of some EVP is the presence of an utterance that is apparently louder than expected, given the available audio energy in the soundtrack. One speculation is that all or part of such examples may have been apported into the sound stream. This is currently poorly supported speculation. We continue to seek examples that will help us better understand this possible characteristic.

  1. EVP are complete words or phrases – Message are typically one to two seconds in duration and are not truncated at the beginning or end. If EVP were radio interference, they would often begin in the middle of a word. EVP messages are usually complete thoughts, as well. (54)

While a single syllable word such as “love” can be a complete thought, we have learned to be cautious about saying they are meaningful EVP. Unless there are additional reasons for thinking a single-syllable sound is a paranormal utterance, we recommend it be discarded.

A common problem with some recording techniques is that they do produce many single-syllable bits of sound. The rest of the problem is that practitioners tend to tell a story about the sound to make it seem meaningful. If the answer to a question is not known, a single-syllable sound that might be the answer should be discarded unless it can be verified via other means such as in a historical record.

  1. The voices in EVP are often recognizable – It is common for an EVP to contain the recognizable voice of the discarnate person thought to be speaking. It is also common for that entity to say something that is typical of what he or she would have said while in the physical. Personality clearly remains intact even though the person no longer has a physical body. (55)
  2. EVP are found wherever the practitioner listens – This suggests that the source of audio noise is not a factor for EVP, so long as the audio energy is suitable for voice formation. In practice, the majority of techniques for recording EVP involve sound conditioning, rather than unique forms of psi detection. For instance, upscaling infrasound so that it can be heard by human ears, or downscaling ultrasound, really constitute techniques of sound conditioning. The resulting EVP is not evidence that the utterance was formed beyond human hearing, but that it was formed when the audio frequency energy was made available to the recording process.

All forms of EVP

  1. EVP Are in a language the practitioner understands – As a rule, EVP will be spoken in a language understood by the practitioner or an interested observer. (54)
  2. EVP are not ambient sound or broadcast programming – Studies have been conducted to determine if EVP are stray radio signals, ambient but unnoticed voices or other sounds. EVP have been collected in an electrical, audio and radio frequency shielded room. (56) In one study, a radio and a recorder were placed in a padded metal chamber which was then buried under ground. The recorder did not record radio programming but did record EVP, which were transformed from the noise produced by the radio. (57)
  3. Party line – Some EVP sound as if they are comments intended for someone other than the practitioner. This is much like momentarily listening in on a party line telephone call.
  4. EVP are appropriate to the circumstances – There are numerous examples of EVP that are clearly direct responses to questions recorded just prior to the EVP phrase or to the circumstances. As an example, Lisa was asking a woman about the upstairs lighting and sound room for the Frank Sinatra Theater at the Cal-Neva Casino at Lake Tahoe, California. We had been told that the heavy door to the room often shut for no apparent reason, scaring the crews setting up the lights and sound system for a show. Lisa’s recorder was on while she thanked the manager for more information. On the recording, Lisa can be heard saying, “Thank you very much.” Underneath her voice, is a clearly heard paranormal voice saying, “Please don’t come.” However politely said, it seems obvious someone did not want to be disturbed.

    EVP Saying “Please don’t come” under Lisa saying “Thank you very much.”

  5. Presentiment responses – Answers to questions may be recorded prior to a question being asked, so that the answer, as an EVP, is on the soundtrack followed by the practitioner asking the question. More research is required before making informed speculation about this observed characteristic, but the indication is that the etheric communicator may be sensing what the practitioner is about to ask as a mind-to-mind exchange.
  6. The “newness” effect – The practitioner’s excitement in trying a new device or technique may be the cause of improved EVP collection. As the new approach becomes normal operating procedure, the improvements generally fade back to a more normal Quality and Quantity (QQ) of EVP collection. This suggests that it is important for the practitioner to maintain piqued interest during experiments. This is also one of the reasons it is speculated that the practitioner is an integral part of the recording circuit. The practitioner is apparently supplying the necessary psi influence as a conduit to enable a nonphysical-to-physical transfer of information.
  7. Effective devices unique to the practitioner – Exceptionally effective EVP and ITC collecting systems have been developed; however, these typically work well for the developer, but do not necessarily work as well for other practitioners. This paradox supports the belief that the practitioner is part of the recording circuit. It has also reinforced the concept that the communicating entity may be specific to the practitioner as a matter of rapport.
  8. EVP can be thoughts of living people – Two experiments appear to show that at least some EVP might be initiated by living people who were sleeping or distracted at the time. In these prearranged experiments between a practitioner and a sleeping person, questions were clearly answered by a communicating entity, and the answers were appropriate for the sleeping person. This fact of EVP suggests the possibility that EVP can become an important tool for consciousness research. For instance, is it possible that a patient in a coma might initiate an EVP? (42)
  9. Understanding EVP may be like learning a new language – As discussed in the EVP Online Listening trials report, people with little or no experience listening to EVP will typically correctly report words in Class A transform EVP on average of 20% to 25% of the time. In contrast, an experienced practitioner should correctly understand close to 100% of Class A utterances. (58) This number drops to 0% to 5% for studies of radio-sweep (Spirit Box, Frank Box, Ghost Box) and 0% if single-syllable utterances are omitted. (32) (33)

Please note that these characteristics have been identified as the result of the diligence of early researchers. While we have defined a few, the bulk of these characteristics were proposed by Alexander MacRae (59) and our Italian friends, Paolo Presi and Daniele Gullà. (60)

It is not possible to understate the importance of organized studies leading to actionable conclusions leading to greater understanding of frontier subjects. Today, the paranormalist community includes many qualified specialists and opinion setters. Unfortunately, few have the stuff it takes to be called a pioneer. It is up to the citizen to decide.


Recording for EVP

The following information is intended to provide a technique which is most likely to produce results. This is for transform EVP based on the material provided by ATransC in the Techniques Section of atransc.org. Please also consider the best practices which are drafted in Best Practices.

Types of Recording Sessions

Induced EVP in personal space – Especially if you are new to EVP recording, it is a good idea to find a quiet location in the home in which you can conduct uninterrupted recording sessions. It is important to at least know what causes sounds around you. If someone is talking in the hall during a session, comment on it in the recording so that you will know not to think the voices are EVP.

Be mindful about the session. Mentally say something like this to yourself before a session: “I am going to conduct a session later today.” And then “I am about to conduct a session” as you begin, and finally, “I have finished my recording session” The idea is to set your attention on the intention to communicate. At least in the beginning. Having something of a routine and a special place to record makes it easier to set focused expectation.

In effect, routine use of a personal space helps to build something like a thoughtform that is, in your mind, a communication station or contact field. In actuality, you are the station. In practice, you should be able to make wherever you are a personal space for the purpose of recording EVP.

Induced Field recording – For haunt investigators, most EVP recording sessions will be in uncontrolled situations. It is a good idea to use a second recorder as a control and always verbally comment on the recording about background sounds that might later be mistaken as paranormal. It is a good practice to verbally say where you are during the recording. That will help you reconstruct the situation later. The “Betty’s in there” example below shows how Lisa is in the habit of announce on the recording where she is and what she is doing.

Having a second person use a video camera as the control recorder is an excellent practice because video cameras usually have higher quality sound circuits. We have reports of very few EVP recorded in higher-quality equipment. Also, transform EVP is not known to be recorded in more than one device at the same time. If you record a possible EVP in more than one recorder at the same time, it is a good idea to discard the recording.

Spontaneous EVP – Not all EVP are recorded during a deliberate session. We do receive the occasional report of paranormal voices people have discovered while making notes for other purposes, say for school. Telephone answering machines have produced some pretty interesting EVP, as well.

EVP Recording Procedure

Recording equipment – Any device capable of recording voice frequency sound is required. A computer is recommended for analysis of recordings. If a computer is used for analysis, a way to transfer audio from the recording device to the computer is necessary. The computer should be equipped with an audio management program, such as the open source, Audacity. (61) There are instructions for transferring audio into a computer at atransc.org in the Techniques Section.

Digital voice recorders are recommended for transform EVP. Less expensive models produce more internal noise which can be useful for voice formation. High-quality units will probably require added background noise. A computer can also be used but will probably require added noise. (62)

Background sound source – As noted in the Background Sound sidebar, sounds in the environment are apparently used to help form the words. Most recording situations have some background sounds, but it may be necessary to add noise with something like a fan or running water.

Some people use live voice as background sound such as foreign language radio, crowd babble or audio tapes. But we discourage the use of radio static or human speech (live voice) of any form. Be inventive. In controlled conditions, it is also possible to use high-quality recorders, because you can supply sound. (Always consider how sounds in the environment might sound like EVP in a recording.)

Preparation – Some practitioners begin with meditation and a short prayer to ask for only those intending the highest good and to invite friends on the other side to participate. This is not a religious function. The conscious expression of intent helps to set your expectations and sets bounds for your communicators. Even if you do not accept the hypothesis that EVP are initiated by discarnate beings, whoever or whatever is initiating the messages, setting intention helps the process. It is best to only record when your energy is the high.

Recording – Begin by stating your intention for communication and then say that you are turning on the recorder. The communicators will often come through as soon as the recorder is turned on and those beginning messages may be the loudest, so it is a good idea to turn on the recorder and wait a few seconds before speaking.

Some people also provide feedback before the session so that the communicators will know what worked in the last experiment.

It is not necessary to record in the dark.

Vocalize your comments during an EVP session. Questions should be recorded, and a period of time between each comment should be left for the communicators to respond–about ten seconds. At the end, ask if they have something to say and leave time for them to respond.

Playback – In transform EVP, the voice is usually not heard until playback. See Sidebar: Realtime EVP below.

Practitioners report that the voices tend to become stronger and clearer as they and the entities gain in experience, but at first the voices may speak in whispers. Voices may not be recorded in every session and it may take several sessions to discover the first voice. Hearing the voices is a learned ability. It might take thirty minutes to examine a three or four-minute recording. Experienced practitioners learn to use the waveform as a clue as to where an utterance might be. The “Betty’s in there” waveform shown below will give you an idea of what to look for.

(cc)aaevp2006-audacity_noise_levels_web
Figure illustrating a soundtrack with the utterance, “Betty’s in there.” A workable level for background sound used in voice formation is shown. The increase in amplitude of the voice is believed to be due to the accumulation of energy prior to formation of the utterance. This is transform EVP.

Think of EVP as a form of communication. The attitude held by experienced practitioners is that the communicators will leave their message wherever they think someone will listen. It is a good practice to expect to find the voices where normal human voice would be found. It is not a good practice to amplify a nearly flat-line waveform to see if speech is present because enough amplification to make it clearly audible may well amplify radio-frequency contamination.

Classifying Examples

Most EVP are difficult to understand. Using a classification system helps you have a sense of the quality of your examples and helps to set the expectations of your listeners. The classical system is the Class A, B and C ranking; however, the ATransC is testing a slightly expanded system (63) intended to also include visual forms of ITC. It is explained in the article: “Classifying Phenomena” at ethericstudies.org. It has been posted there so that you will have the opportunity to tell us if you like it and/or how you would like to see it changed.

In the modified system:

Type 1: Transformed physical media; not always present
Type 2: Always present; often as a persistent artifact

The Classes are as before, but described in more generic terms:

Class A: Evident without explanation
Class B: May require directions
Class C: May be vaguely experienced; mostly obscured by noise

Class B or C voices may have one or two clearly understood words. Loud does not equal Class A. Transform EVP are considered Type 1, Class A, B or C.

Keeping a Log

Keeping a recording log is helpful for tracking your progress. If you do keep a written log, it is a good practice to record the date, time and circumstances of the recording. If there are multiple recordings in the recorder, then it is always important to speak your location and to note ambient voices, and such, at the beginning of each recording.

When you find an EVP that is clear enough to keep, note the date and time and seconds into the recording in your log. Also, note the words thought to be spoken and if you were doing something the entity commented on. Be sure to label and save the audio file so that the EVP can be found at a later time.

Keeping a well-organized storage system and notes will be helpful to you when you have many recordings or want to revisit an old one and need to know when and where it was recorded. However, experience has shown that keeping everything is just unreasonable. Unless the message has special significance, we recommend that you discard all but the clearest examples. Depend on the help of friends acting as your witness panel. If they do not hear what you hear, discard the recording. It is just too easy to fool yourself.

Analyzing the Recording for EVP

Always use headphones when listening to the recording in a computer. The earmuff style that completely covers the ear is best, but also good are the soft rubber ear buds that are inserted into the channel of the ear.

Assuming a digital recorder is used, the voice is digitized right after it is limited to the required signal strength coming from the input amplifier. If it is necessary to record the sound file into the computer via an audio cable, the signal is turned back into analog, and then digitized again by the computer. There is little or no evidence that an EVP will be changed while in a digital format, but it is possible for change or even introduction of new utterances while in the analog phase during transfer. USB transfers should be all digital which is not expected to allow changes.

It is possible to reasonably reproduce the average human voice with a sample rate of 8,000 KHz, so it is recommended that the audio file be saved into the computer at 11025 KHz sample rate, 16-bit word file. Mono or stereo is a personal choice. Once the audio file is in the computer, it should be saved as a wav file for storage and editing.

Current best practice for sharing an EVP example on the Internet is to convert the file to mono, mp3 format, but using editing tools on mp3 is discouraged if it is for research. A 200 Kb audio file can be reduced to around 15 Kb when converted from a wav file to an mp3 file. This makes it easy for sharing files via the Internet.

It is also best practice to provide a raw clip of the EVP, along with a bit of your voice for reference, if possible, followed by a short silence and then the whole clip again with any editing you may have done. Explain what you have done so that your listener will know what to expect.

Finally, ten decibels or so of amplification, perhaps a little noise reduction and high-end filtering is about all that should be done to a soundtrack to make the utterance more easily understood. It is possible to change the meaning of an EVP with very much processing. The general rule is to discard the EVP if it cannot be understood with only slight enhancement. Certainly, discard nonsensical utterances!

A listening technique is to select a few syllables of a possible utterance and then play it over and over to allow your mind to look for familiar sounds. People are trained to recognize common arrangements of sound as words, but EVP are often formed from odd arrangements of sound, depending on what is supplied, and the usual cues are often missing. A very loud, well-spoken phrase could still be difficult to make out for a person not accustomed to hearing EVP.

A good practice is to make sure the sound you think is an EVP contains an answer to a question, or perhaps a comment about an event. Because we mentally formulate what we are going to say before speaking, it is reasonable for an answer to your question to come just before you ask or shortly after. It is discouraged to relate questions and answers that are separated by more than a second or so, and certainly if they are separated by another question.

In opportunistic EVP techniques, it is not good practice to let the recording run and then select likely sounds for which you give meaning with a likely story. While this should be obvious, it is a common practice. An even greater sin is to remove intervening time so as to make unrelated utterances seem to have come together.

The objective is to give your listener a sense of perspective so as to develop a mental image of the EVP in relationship to a physical person’s voice and how soon before or after the EVP came in relationship to the question. Always try to show the witness what you have done to make the voice clear. In every case, try to use a witness panel. (21)

Sidebar: Realtime EVP

The objective for most EVP practitioners is to achieve real-time, two-way communication with a loved one on the other side. If you pursue that line of investigation, it is important to remember that EVP are thought to be formed in a single analog stage of the electronic equipment. This may be in the output stage of an audio player used to supply background sound (if one is used) or in the input stage of the recorder used to collect the EVP.

(It is possible the transform might occur in the air, but that would look more like direct voice, to which current theories do not necessarily apply.)

If you are listing to the output of a recorder while it is recording, be mindful as to where there are additional analog stages. For instance, is the EVP formed in the amplifier for the speaker you listen to and not fed into the analog-to-digital converter for storage?

We would love to hear from you if you learn anything about this process.

Storage and Sharing

Be sure to set up a method of saving your recordings in your computer that will allow you to easily locate examples. A good practice is to save the raw recording session in a dated folder and then also save clips containing the EVP in the same folder. Field recordings are saved under the name of the location and the date. It is helpful to keep a separate folder for your Class A examples for easy retrieval for demonstration to friends.

Unless you are conducting EVP sessions for research, consider it a kindness to only send the portion of the sound file containing the EVP and perhaps a bit of physical person’s voice. We too often receive examples that are embedded somewhere in a ten or fifteen-minute-long file. It is just too demanding for your witnesses to search for the intended utterance in a long file.

Perhaps the meanest thing a practitioner can do to witnesses is to share an example in a video file. It is difficult to find the intended example in a video file. It is difficult to repeat the example for better hearing. Video files are too time consuming to work with. My personal policy when receiving a long file is simply not to try.

As a final note on this, after recording for ten or fifteen years, we finally learned that it is senseless to keep all of our recordings and logs. It is a good practice to cull the best from the files as you go and discard all but the most meaningful. EVP are actually common amongst practitioners, and there is little special about Class C and B examples.


Things to Remember

Looking back at commonly asked questions, here are a few things to remember about recording for EVP:

Hyperlucidity – As discussed the Hyperlucidity Section of this paper, the degree of clarity between conscious self and mostly unconscious mind is referred to as lucidity. Thinking there is a clear connection, when in fact, there is hardly any at all is referred to as hyperlucidity. This seems to most often occur when a person works alone or does not accept input from others. It is usually seen as a complex of behavior including delusion, argumentative interaction with those who do not support the delusion and rejection of the opinion of subject-matter specialists.

Who Can Hear the Voices – A series of online listening studies showed that the average ATransC website visitor participating in the study could correctly identify only 25% of the words in the Class A EVP examples. (58) Most experienced practitioners have learned not to expect a person who is unaccustomed to hearing EVP to correctly understand examples. This is especially true if the person is skeptical to begin with. The message to all of us is that, even though the example may be very clear and obvious to us, it is unrealistic to attempt to show an example to the police or a grieving person if there is not an opportunity to prepare the listener.

Before attempting to share an example with untrained witnesses, we recommend that the example be passed by a witness panel without prompting. Only if the majority of a panel is able to hear what is believed to be in the example, is the example ready for untrained ears.

Only if an example passes a witness panel should new listeners be told what to expect before hearing the recording. It is well-established that people tend to hear what they are told to expect. (33)

Safety – A common concern is whether or not it is possible to attract a discarnate entity (ghost) while recording for EVP and later to be bothered by it. In fact, we have no verified record of anyone being harmed by their communicators. Any harm that has been reported has been due to the practitioner’s overreaction to imagined danger.

There is a potential problem for people who are fearful of the unknown, as their imagination can create circumstances which might be dangerous for them. If you are very fearful of the unknown, if you are inclined to do what you imagine you have been instructed to do or if you have a history of mental illness, it is advisable that you avoid working with any form of transcommunication.


Recording Visual ITC

Visual ITC is the term used to identify anomalous faces, scenes and other recognizable features found in visible noise. Based on known physical principles, the features should not exist, yet they are objectively experienced by the average witness. Visual ITC appears to be governed by the same principles governing the formation of transform EVP. The optimum medium for their formation appears to be optical, chaotic noise of medium intensity. Very bright or very dark noise tends to obscure the feature.

Just as with EVP, the faces of visual ITC are sometimes recognizable as loved ones. They sometimes even appear on request, making visual ITC a form of induced trans-etheric communication. Each form of ITC inherits a degree of credibility from other forms, even as more is learned by studying all forms. And so, visual ITC is considered another possible proof of survival.

Visual ITC is not the same as spirit photography in which an apparition is found in a photograph, even though it had not been known to be present when the picture was taken. Precipitation art is also a different form of phenomena, even though some of the chaotic characteristics of visual ITC are sometime found in the precipitated feature.

The physical process known as stochastic resonance (64) is a means by which a small signal is amplified when combined with a chaotic signal in a nonlinear electrical circuit. As with transform EVP, this process is hypothesized as the mechanism by which a weak psi influence is able to impress the communicating personality’s intended order on the chaotic signal, thereby producing audible or visual ITC features.

Video Loop ITC

In the video loop technique, a video camera is connected to the Aux n of a television set. The camera is pointed at the screen so that it is able to record the camera output as it is displayed on the screen.

caaevp2004_video_setup

The circuit shown in the Video Loop ITC Diagram is typical for producing chaotic optical noise suitable for visual ITC. We (the Butlers) have been using a Cannon 8mm ES2000 analog camcorder placed about three feet from a Sony KV20TS32, 20-inch Trinitron color TV. The camera is used in Portrait Mode and is focused just beyond the screen surface.

In our sessions, the camera lens is usually zoomed so that only about 75% of the screen is visible to the camera. We usually have the camera at about a 45-degree angle from the screen and pointed just to the side of the center where the rolling image seems to begin.

It is routine for us to try different angles, and camera distances from the screen in an effort to find the best configuration. Interestingly, some days, we are hardly able to develop the desired rolling scene. We have made no effort to track environmental conditions except that we noted a difference, apparently due to location in the house. We were able to develop a good rolling scene in the corner bedroom, but the best production of the phenomenal features was in the middle bedroom.

The only difference between the two adjacent rooms is that, in the corner room, the equipment was about fifteen feet closer to an outside wall supporting the power distribution box.

butler_photoshop_screen_print

Chaotic Visual Noise in Video Frame: This is a video frame taken from a video-loop ITC session. Contrast in a region of the frame has been changed to make the feature more visible. The same region has been copied to a second file and contrast has been further enhanced. The feature appears to be a woman or girl wearing a bonnet and looking to your right shoulder.

The Chaotic Noise Example screen print here will give you an idea of what has been an optimum display to produce the features. Also see the example on You Tube at youtu.be/P2xXCAWRs4k.

Clarity is a Function of Equipment – Each configuration of equipment used in video loop ITC will produce a different visual effect. There are probably even differences amongst units of the same brand. The rolling effect on the screen is a cycle that is about a second in duration. An average of thirty frames per second of full video quality only produces five or six frames per cycle that contain noise suitable for phenomena. The rest are either too dark or too light.

A session is usually about fifteen seconds in duration, so that there may be ninety or so frames that may contain features. To save time, we only save the ones that appear interesting as we step, frame-by-frame through the saved video file. A typical fifteen-second session will produce thirty or so frames interesting enough to carefully examine.

If we have the equipment set right, and if a number of as yet undetermined environmental factors are okay, we may save ten or so useful features from the session. There have been many sessions in which we have saved none. Also, the texture of the noise may be more or less grainy, depending on where we had the focus plane.

Higher resolution camera and video display tends to produce better formed features.

Software for Frame Analysis – Finding suitable video capture and frame examining software has been a challenge. The Adobe Premiere 10 we used was not expensive and came bundled with Photoshop Elements 10. Currently, we are trying CyberLink Power Director with some success.

For our record keeping, grabbed frames are numbered with the date something like 1-2-14-2017, 2-2-14-2017, 3-2-14-2017. When we examine the frames to look for paranormal features, we often rotate the frame in 90-degree increments. It is surprising to us how an upside-down face might not be evident but then jump out at us when we rotate it right-side up. If we see an individual feature we want to keep, we select and copy it to a new file and label it with the same date while adding a letter: 3-2-14-2017a. This reads “grabbed frame 3 of the February 14, 2017 session, feature a.

The idea is to be able to associate a feature with the video frame from which it was captured.

Analog Versus Digital – In EVP, it is pretty clear that the voice is formed in the electronics, probably in a single transistor junction. Stochastic amplification requires an analog, nonlinear process such as in the active region of semiconductor devices (not in the saturated state of digital circuits).

It has been a while since we tried, but thus far, we have not developed a useful video loop using our digital camera looped with a digital computer display. However, see Simone Santos’ visual ITC work for a possible all digital success story. See tciseattle.com/

This is an important issue because analog video equipment is becoming difficult to find. Our expectation is that new technology and techniques will eventually move us into better contact.

Some of the earliest efforts to produce visual ITC phenomena used discrete video equipment so that recorder, camera and signal synchronizer were individual devices connected with cables. Virtually all the contemporary efforts to replicate the old experiments have been with integrated systems in which those functional areas are in one device. This difference might represent a fatal shortcoming of replication with modern equipment.

A second problem with replicating the old analog experiments is that much of the old technology used germanium transistors. There remains some question if germanium is more helpful for trans-etheric influences of technology than silicon. The newer equipment available to researchers is mostly based on silicon components.

Light Reflected from Moving Water Technique

cbutler2004_bottle_drawing

Our first introduction to the moving water technique came from Arthur Soesman. In this technique, the bottle is partially filled with liquid and then agitated while a picture is taken of the surface of the water.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Saucepan for Water ITC: Glass saucepan in a black pot with about three inches of water. Black pot is just for contrast. Any overhead light source will do to reflect from water. Take pictures of water as it is disturbed with a finger or spoon. The objective is for the moving water to produce many areas of medium intensity reflected light.

Short of simply taking a picture of medium-intensity texture and brightness surfaces, probably the simplest method to produce ITC features is photographing light reflected from moving water. All you need is a camera and a container for water as shown here. Any camera will do but if you use a video camera, you will need a computer program for examining the individual frames. Otherwise, handling of the individual pictures is the same as for video loop ITC.

May 2011 Water Images 047 composite

King: Except for the face, the left picture is typical for light reflected from moving water. The violet comes from the glass saucepan. The paranormal face at the right of the left frame has been enlarged in the right picture. Water was agitated with a moving finger.

Things to Consider – Again, the requirement for visual ITC appears to be medium-intensity, chaotic optical noise. A computer monitor or television screen is self-luminous, but moving water, smoke, even breath in cold air requires some form of illumination. The camera must see light reflected from the chaotically moving surface.

Caution should be taken about what is paranormal and what is strange. For instance, mirrored pictures often have symmetry of dots and shapes, sometimes giving the appearance of alien faces. There is little reason to think these are paranormal. Part of the objective of working with these phenomena is to show the evidence of survival. It is important that that evidence is what we claim it to be.

If you enhance a feature more than with a little contrast to make it more easily seen, it is important to show the original alongside the enhanced version. It is important that people are able to understand the limits of your evidence.

Also keep in mind the limits of your equipment. We use relatively old technology equipment. Each stage degrades the resolution so that, when a feature is finally displayed in a photograph, the graininess of the feature often obscures what the communicating entity probably intended us to see. That loss of resolution is one of the reasons a good camera and linear noise generation such as moving water, can produce clearer features than a video loop.

Much of this section has been extracted from Your Immortal Self. I recommend that you consider taking the time to read and understand that book.


Association TransCommunication (ATransC) Today

(Formally the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena or AA-EVP)

The Association TransCommunication is a 501 (c)(3) USA nonprofit organization. It is chartered as a publicly supported educational and research organization. The primary means of public education is the atransc.org website, now containing over 400 pages of articles, research and study reports, personal stories, examples, theory and references.

The ATransC still has members, just not member dues. The ATransC has changed from support with member dues to support from earnings from AA-EVP Publishing and affiliate programs when website visitors use the eBay and Amazon links to make purchases. All of the funds, including proceeds from the Butler’s book, There is No Death and There are No Dead, are applied to operations, outreach and research. None of the volunteers, including the directors, receive compensation.

One form of ATransC membership is to be on the Occasional Update Email List. This is a very occasional newsletter used to help keep you informed about what we think is important to this work. You can register to receive these updates with the button on the right column.

Today, the ATransC is amongst the very few organizations in the English-speaking world that provides information about the Trans-Survival Hypothesis from the perspective of current understanding about transcommunication. If you think this study is important, then please consider subscribing to the Occasional Update email.

A person can become knowledgeable about these phenomena and learn to work with ITC by taking the time to study the contents of this website, but it is important to work with others who can act as “objective advisors.”

A recent addition to the website is all of the newsletter published by Sarah Estep and the Butlers, as well as Spirit Voices published by Bill Weisensale. They are in PDF format and are accessible from the top menu.

Implicit Cosmology: Tom Butler has translated lessons learned by way of ATransC members and emerging understanding of survival into a model of reality intended to help further research in this field. Please take time to review the work at ethericstudies.org. Also consider supporting the Association through the purchase of the book: Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way by Tom Butler.

You are part of this community

The ATransC depends on public support to continue. Your donations will help assure that the research continues, but your participation is even more needed. This is a time in which all things paranormal are contracting while the skeptical community is thriving. By every measure, the paranormal community, including parapsychology and the study of ITC is fading away. If you think this work is important, then it is important that you become active and help reverse the tide.


Your Immortal Self, Exploring the Mindful Way

Book’s dedicated web page

From the back cover

We Can Know the Nature of Reality

Your_Immortal_Self_coverOur understanding of the nature of reality is undergoing an important shift from mostly supposition and belief to actionable facts based on important developments in parapsychology and transcommunication. This means the emergence of new tools which are helping us better understand our nature and the nature of the world we live in.

To be sure, this shift involves theory and research, but it ultimately comes down to who we are and what we can become. The best way to describe this future paradigm is in terms of mindfulness and the middle way of mindful living. This is not the mindfulness of living in the moment based on the belief that you are your body. It is the mindfulness of experiencing life from the perspective of your immortal self.

This book is written to show you the evidence of survival and the implications of that evidence as an important model for future research. While your personal progression depends a lot on understanding the evidence, the community sharing your journey is equally important. To help you learn where to look for help, a comprehensive survey of our paranormalist community is included.

Mindfulness can lead to important growth in your ability to work with nature, to sense the subtle fields influencing your life and more confidently commune with your loved ones on the other side. But it is important to understand how this paradigm shift is changing our understanding of the phenomena of transcommunication and interconnectedness in our community. The last part of this book includes a comprehensive discussion of the phenomena, including EVP-ITC, healing intention and mediumship transcommunication phenomena.


Exploring the Mindful Way

Companion to Your Immortal Self

Book’s dedicated web page

From the back cover

Immortal Self-Centric Mindfulness

The most important understanding seekers of discerning intellect must come to is the difference between lucidity and hyperlucidity. Lucidity is the degree to which we are able to clearly sense information from our mostly unconscious mind. Hyperlucidity is a term used in the Implicit Cosmology for a complex of behaviors motivated by the belief we are lucid when we are actually only sensing what we have been taught to expect.

The second most important understanding is that lucidity is the seeker’s objective, but that it is achieved in small steps. The only real conscious influence we have on our mostly unconscious mind is the expression of intention. This means that we must learn to consciously examine what we think is true. Mind changes only slowly, and so, the seeker’s objective is to habitually express the intention to align perception with the actual nature of reality.

In the first book, Your Immortal Self, the process of consciously seeking greater lucidity is referred to as the Mindful Way. Many people practice mindfulness simply to improve personal wellbeing. A few step onto the Mindful Way to seek greater understanding of their immortal nature and the nature of the reality they inhabit. Even fewer remain as wayshowers for those who seek greater lucidity.

The fact of our immortality is explained in Your Immortal Self. This book, Exploring the Mindful Way, includes twenty-one essays explaining some of the more important concepts encountered on the Mindful Way. While you will benefit from first reading Your Immortal Self, there are sufficient explanations in this book to make it a stand-alone text.

Will you be a wayshower?


References

  1. Butler, Tom. “Trans-Survival Hypothesis.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/trans-survival-hypothesis/.
  2. Parapsychological Association. org/home.aspx.
  3. Butler, Tom and Lisa, Editors. “ATransC Online Journal.” Association TransCommunication. org/content-journal/.
  4. Butler, Tom. “Cooperative Community.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/cooperative-community/.
  5. Butler, Tom. “Personality-Centric Perspective.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/personality-centric-perspective/.
  6. Senkowski, Ernst. “Instrumental TransCommunication.” World ITC. worlditc.org/c_07_senki_00_content.htm.
  7. Butler, Tom. Your Immortal Self, Exploring the Mindful Way. AA-EVP Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-0-9727493-8-1.
  8. Butler, Tom. “Becoming Lucid.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/becoming-lucid/.
  9. Miller, Glenn M.D. “Voyager Syndrome.” Glenn Miller, Glenn M.D. com/voyager-syndrome.
  10. Butler, Tom. “Implicit Cosmology.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/implicit-cosmology/.
  11. Littin, Shelley. “UA Study: Your Brain Sees Things You Don’t.” University of Arizona. uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-study-your-brain-sees-things-you-don-t.
  12. Bargh, John A. “Our Unconscious Mind.” PScience Associates. pscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/UNCONSCIOUS-unconscious-mind-shapes-our-day-to-day-interactions-Bargh-SciAm-2013.pdf.
  13. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. “Decision-making May Be Surprisingly Unconscious Activity.” Science Daily. sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145705.htm.
  14. LaMorte, Wayne W. “The Social Cognitive Theory.” Behavioral Change Models. sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories5.html.
  15. Merrill, David W. and Reid, Roger H. “David Merrill & Roger Reid: Social Styles.” Management Pocketbooks. pocketbook.co.uk/blog/2017/04/18/david-merrill-roger-reid-social-styles/.
  16. Ropeik, David. “The Greatest Threat of All: Human Instincts Overwhelm Reason.” Psychology Today. psychologytoday.com/blog/how-risky-is-it-really/201501/the-greatest-threat-all-human-instincts-overwhelm-reason.
  17. Butler, Tom. “The Mindful Way.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/mindfulness/.
  18. Butler, Tom. “EVP Online Phantom Voices.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/phantom-voices/.
  19. Parrish, Shane et al. “The Distrust of Intellectual Authority.” Farnam Street. blog/2019/02/distrust-intellectual-authority/.
  20. Parrish, Shane et al. “The Work Required to Have an Opinion.” Farnam Street. blog/2013/04/the-work-required-to-have-an-opinion/.
  21. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Witness Panel.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/witness-panel/.
  22. Butler, Tom. “Open Letter to Paranormalists: Limits of science, trust and responsibility.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/open-letter-to-paranormalists-science/.
  23. Wagner, Stephen. “Edison and the Ghost Machine.” com Paranormal Phenomena. http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghostaudiovideo/a/edison-ghost-machine.htm.
  24. Rogo, D Scott and Bayless, Raymond. Phone Calls From The Dead. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1979.
  25. Jürgenson, Friedrich. Voice Transmissions with the Deceased (German to English Translation, T. Wingert & G. Wynne, 2001). Friedrich Jürgenson Foundation, Sweden. https://atransc.org/books-itc/.
  26. Raudive, Konstantin. Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. New York: Taplinger, Colin Smythe, Ltd., 1971.
  27. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “About the Directors.” Association TransCommunication. org/about-directors/.
  28. “What is Anomalistic Psychology?” Goldsmiths, University of London. 2015. gold.ac.uk/apru/what/.
  29. Simmonds-Moore, Christine. “What is Exceptional Psychology?” Journal of Parapsychology. 76 supplement, Pages 54-57, 2012.
  30. Butler, Tom. “About Etheric Studies.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/about-etheric-studies/.
  31. Sheldrake, Rupert PhD. “Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields.” Rupert Sheldrake. org/research/morphic-resonance/introduction
  32. Butler, Tom. “Radio-Sweep: A Case Study.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/radiosweep-study1/.
  33. Leary, Mark. “A Research Study into the Interpretation of EVP – Three parts.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/radiosweep-study2/.
  34. Heinen, Cindy. “Information Gathering Using EVPmaker With Allophone: A Yearlong Trial.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/information-gathering-using-evpmaker/.
  35. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “The Paranormal Puck.” Association TransCommunication. Fall 2008. org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/27-3-AA-EVP-Fall-2008-NewsJournal.pdf.
  36. Butler, Tom. “Using Live Voice Input Files for EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/live-voice/.
  37. Butler, Tom. “Perception of Visual ITC Images.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/visual-perception-study/.
  38. Gullà, Daniele. “Computer–Based Analysis of Supposed Paranormal Voice: The Question of Anomalies Detected and Speaker Identification.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/gulla-voice-analysis/.
  39. Butler, Tom. “How We Think.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/how-we-think/.
  40. Butler, Tom. “Mind as Storyteller.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/mind-as-storyteller/.
  41. Butler, Tom. “Glossary of Terms.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/glossary-of-terms/.
  42. Butler, Lisa. “Recording Thoughts of the Living.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/recording-thoughts-of-living/.
  43. Braude, Stephen E. “Survival or Super-psi?” Journal of Scientific Exploration. pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ba55/a4e7b8195a9e21c486620d33cf5a10de7306.pdf.
  44. Talbot, Michael. The Holographic Universe. HarperPerennial, 1991.
  45. Murrell, Beatrix. “The Cosmic Plenum: Bohm’s Gnosis: The Implicate Order.” Stoa del Sol. com/stoa_del_sol/plenum/plenum_3.html.
  46. Copeland, Martha. “EVP Examples by Martha Copeland.” atransc.org/copeland-evp/.
  47. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Being a Good Witness.” Etheric Studies. https://ethericstudies.org/being-a-good-witness/.
  48. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Classifying Phenomena.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/classifying-phenomena/.
  49. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Characteristic Test for EVP. Association TransCommunication. https://atransc.org/characteristic-test-for-evp/.
  50. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Sharing EVP.” Etheric Studies. http://ethericstudies.org/sharing-evp/.
  51. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: The Scientific Method and ITC.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/scientific-method-itc/.
  52. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Control Recorder for EVP.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/control-recorder/.
  53. Butler, Lisa. “Precursor Sounds in Physical Phenomena.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/precursor-sounds/.
  54. MacRae, Alexander. The Mystery of the Voices. Self-published CD, Portree Skye, Scotland, 2000.
  55. Copeland, Martha. I’m Still Here. AA-EVP Publishing, 2005. ISBN: 0-9727493-1-4.
  56. MacRae, Alexander. “Report of an Anomalous Speech Products Experiment inside a Double Screened Room.” Southwest Ghost Hunter’s Association. sgha.net/library/MacRaeAnomalousSpeech.pdf.
  57. Weisensale, Bill. “Eliminating Radio Frequency Contamination for EVP.” Association TransCommunication. Spirit Voices, Issue 3, 1981. org/eliminating-rf-contamination/.
  58. Butler, Tom. “EVP Online Listening Trials.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evp-online-listening-trials/.
  59. MacRae, Alexander. “A Report about Experimental Results.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/macrae-experimental-results/.
  60. Presi, Paolo. “The Work at Il Laboratorio.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/presi-il-laboratorio/.
  61. “Audacity Audio Management Program.” net/download/windows. audacity.sourceforge.net/.
  62. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “Selecting an Audio Recorder.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/selecting-audio-recorder/.
  63. Butler, Tom. “Classifying Phenomena.” Etheric Studies. https://ethericstudies.org/classifying-phenomena/.
  64. Abbott, Mark D. McDonnell and Derek. “What Is Stochastic Resonance? Definitions, Misconceptions, Debates, and Its Relevance to Biology.” NCBI, PMC, US National Library of Medicine. May 29, 2009. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2660436/.
  65. Butler, Tom. “The Formation of EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evp-formation/.
  66. Butler, Tom and Butler, Lisa. There is No Death and There are No Dead. Reno, NV. AA-EVP Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 0-9727493-0-6.
  67. Butler, Tom. “The Energy Profile of Transform EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/transform-evp-study/.
  68. Butler, Tom. “Notes on Survival.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/survival/.
  69. Butler, Tom. “Perception.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/perception/.
  70. Lange, R. and Houran, J. “The role of fear in delusions of the paranormal.” Pub Med – US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10086472.
  71. Butler, Tom. “EVPmaker with Allophones: Where are We Now?” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evpmaker-study-where-are-we-now/.

A Note about Wikipedia

The Wikipedia entries for frontier subjects such as EVP change as passing editors contribute corrections and different points of view. Since the skeptical editors have driven off most of the people who are knowledgeable about frontier subjects, paranormal articles frequently have many errors and are written with terminology designed to cast doubt on the subject, rather than to simply inform. Versions of articles with these errors have been copied onto other websites, which perpetuates the spreading of misinformation.

It is now official policy in Wikipedia to not allow what are referred to as fringe references, such as the peer-reviewed Journals published by the Parapsychological Association, Society for Psychical Research and Society for Scientific Exploration. All are considered pseudoscience and it is not even okay to propose considering them. Tom Butler was banned from editing the Rupert Sheldrake biography article based on the pseudoscience arbitration case which found in favor of the skeptical position.

Concerns with Wikipedia

Concerns with Wikipedia was written to explain why this it is important to everyone involved with frontier subjects to work for balance in Wikipedia articles. It offers suggestions for moderating Wikipedia’s negative influence.

March 2014 Update: Since Wikipedia has taken such a hard-line stance against all things paranormal as a matter of policy, the only rational response is to seek alternative means of explaining the reality of these phenomena. Please consider becoming an editor with Citizendium, an alternative wiki that has a policy of at least considering subject-matter expertise and is will allow well-considered references from the paranormal journals.

(cc)2006aaevp-concerns_with_wikipediaYou are encouraged to put this logo on your website. The more links from other websites to Concerns with Wikipedia, the better chance there is that the public education article will be read.

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Experimentation with Inverted Channel Nullification

by Zoë J. Robinson
Originally posted in the Summer 2007 issue of the ATransC NewsJournal

When I agreed to write this report back in January, I was hopeful of being able to include a success story or two regarding EVP. As it turns out, I seem to have followed in the footsteps of so many investigators who have sought to find evidence of EVP but have gone away empty-handed. Nevertheless, I believe the ideas behind Inverted Channel Nullification (or ICN for short) are still worthy of experimentation and it is on this basis that I have written this report.

What is Inverted Channel Nullification?

Put simply, ICN is a method of recording the same sound twice and using one recording to filter noise from the other. A mono microphone is used to input a signal to a stereo sound card in a computer and the two channels on the sound card each produce a copy of the recording. In theory, these copies will be identical, although with the majority of sound cards there will be a minor variance due to slight differences in the components used to build the sound card itself.

These variants are minor, and in the experiments I made, they only show up if you amplify the signal so much you’ve distorted the original recording enough to make it unusable. In essence, the recordings are identical for the purposes of all but the most stringent of investigators.

Why is this useful?

When two recordings are made of exactly the same sounds they should, in theory, contain the exact same data. It should, therefore, be possible to invert one of these recordings, making it the exact opposite sound wave to what it was originally, and then superimpose this first recording over the second recording. If the two sound waves are identical, and they should be, the result will be a perfectly flat sound wave because all data in the recording will disappear.

In EVP investigation, it is sometimes the case that two or more people can record at the same time in the same room and receive different results. Of course, these recordings won’t be made under the exact same circumstances as not only will the positions of the recording devices be different but the input and recording mechanisms used will be different, even if the same model of device is used; as all devices are different.

With ICN the possible variables are reduced significantly: for both recordings, the input device and its location are identical and the recording process is identical also. The only variable is in the components inside the sound card but, as described earlier, these may be as close to identical as possible. In effect, you’re using the same device to make two separate recordings.

This means you should have two copies of the same thing but, as we’ve already mentioned, in EVP recording the same thing twice doesn’t always give you the same results. An EVP can appear on one recording and not the other and with ICN this is no different—the two channels of the sound card are acting as two separate recorders, after all. So there’s an advantage to the ICN process already: you’re doubling your recording sessions with minimal effort.

This isn’t the only potential advantage, however. With two copies of the same recording, you can use one to filter the background noise from the other. EVP investigation is notorious for noisy recordings and with this method you can rid yourself of that, leaving only sounds that appear on one recording but not the other. Of course, you’re still left with the task of listening to the original recordings in case there’s something important that appears on both, since if that’s the case, ICN will remove it!

How to perform Inverted Channel Nullification

To perform ICN yourself, all you will need is a computer with a stereo sound card and a microphone input jack, a standard mono microphone and audio manipulation software to perform the inversion and channel mixing.

Illustration 1: A simple recording showing two identical copies of the same input.

Once you have your equipment set up, make a sample recording in stereo, when your computer is “listening” to the microphone, and you’ll get a recording that shows two copies of the same recording, one on each channel. If your recording is short enough or you’ve zoomed in far enough, it should be relatively easy to spot any areas where one channel’s recording differs from the other, but if they seem to be exactly the same, that’s fine too—any differences will be clear after the next part is done.

Illustration 2: A sample sound wave following ICN processing. The original sound is shown in the top channel while the result of ICN is in the bottom channel.

Select one of your channels and use your software to “invert” the waveform. How to do this will depend on the software you’re using but the effect should be achievable in most, if not all, editing software. [Invert is in the Effects Menu of Audacity.] It is worth noting that the waveform will not look or sound any different after the inversion but the next part won’t work unless the sample is inverted.

Once you have one channel inverted you can proceed in one of two ways. Either the two channels can be averaged together or the contents of the inverted channel can be copied on top of the contents of the other channel. The first process will produce one mono file while the second process will produce a stereo file where one channel is a copy of the original and the other is the resultant ICN sound wave. Which you choose to use is personal preference.

Advantages for EVP study

The ICN process has the potential to allow for quick and simple removal of all background noise from recordings. The benefit for EVP study is a clear: recording where an EVP is present on one channel but not another; the EVP is quickly cleaned up and therefore made easier to understand.

Since a recording of all the original sound wave, besides the EVP, is being used as a filter, the effect of processing on the EVP itself is negligible. In the example created for Illustration 3, I was unable to discern any audible difference in the “EVP” created for the example and the original recording used to create it. By inverting one channel of the recording used to create the “EVP” and copying the result of the ICN filter on top of it, the result was a flat sound wave with no apparent difference in quality.

In summary, I believe the technique as presented here is a simple and effective tool for the study of EVP. Given the demonstrable advantages of filtering over other methods and the relative ease of including this technique into any computer-based EVP study, I believe the technique would benefit many people in their work.

Illustration 3a: A second voice recording has been added to one channel of our sample recording, to create an example of EVP. This illustration shows the original “EVP” recording.

 

Illustration 3b: Shows how the recording has been cleaned using ICN, to leave only the “EVP” on the top channel.

The only downside to the ICN technique is that, if an EVP is present on both channels, the ICN technique will filter it out but this flaw is countered by continuing to listen to sound files in the manner to which we have all become accustomed, then filter as necessary in a more conventional way. ICN is, therefore, an addition to the other tools at our disposal, not a replacement for them.

Editor’s Note: We think this technique has great possibilities, but there is one concern. The words of EVP are formed of the very noise being removed. It does appear that the power of the signal and time relationships are rearranged to form the words. Also, there may be a small “seed” signal that is not part of the ambient sound, so we think this technique may diminish the volume of an EVP, but the words should survive.

We have published this article because we feel that “field tests” of this technique would help us learn if it is a viable technique. Assuming the technique does help, we are also looking for setup instructions for using it in Audacity and Audition, so please let us know your results if you try ICN.

By the way, you can also record into a stereo audio recorder and then transfer the file into a computer for ICN analysis.

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Simple Optical Microphone

by David Mierzwinski (c) All Rights Reserved
Previously published in the Winter 2006 AA-EVP NewsJournal
Also see: Experimental Recording Techniques Using a Phototransistor

For nearly a year, I have been conducting various experiments in an attempt to enhance the chances of clear EVP captures. These experiments have led me down many different paths including the use of electromagnetic fields, Tesla coils, audio resonance in musical instruments, 13 tones, etc. In my most recent experiments, I have begun exploring the properties of light. This has been exciting and has produced some encouraging results. I would like to share a simple project some of you may wish to replicate and experiment with. Even if you do not succeed in getting EVP captures with this device it is still a very interesting “science project” and will provide yourself and others with entertainment and wonder.

About This Project

This project explores the unusual properties of light given off by a basic oil lamp. I discovered in my experiments, testing various light sources, that the flame of an oil lamp, when detected by a photodiode and amplified to a high degree, is capable of acting as a carrier to transmit sound. This “sound” is rather noisy by nature, and from what I have observed, can be used, along with our voices, by Spirits. In fact, to optimize this system, it is best to use your own voice to set up the link for maximum clarity and strength. This seems to be the optimum settings for Spirit voices as well.

Required Parts

The Burr-Brown division of Texas Instruments (www.burr-brown.com) makes the best combination of photodiode and amplifier I have found. This part is the “eye” or receiving end of the optical signal from the oil lamp. This part is all self-contained requiring only a few external connections and a nine-volt battery which will power the device chip for a year or more. I was able to find this part on eBay, or you can check with a distributor in your area (not Radio Shack). I bought my oil lamp from K-Mart. It is the large size lamp with a wide flat wick (important). The cost was around $7. The other parts and cables can be obtained from your local Radio Shack store.

Parts List

  • Oil lamp with wide flat wick and clear glass chimney
  • High quality digital recorder or use computer to record (Olympus VPN-240 PC used in my experiments)
  • Burr-Brown OPT101 single photodiode transimpedance amplifier chip
  • Nine volt battery to power chip/amp
  • Cables or project board and socket to mount OPT101
  • Radio Shack Mini Amplifier 277-1008C (used for set-up only)
  • Clear Voice Denoiser Software (for post processing filtering)
    [Editor: Audacity should provide the necessary noise reduction as well.]
Oil lamp light source, optical detector/amp mounted on “breadboard” material. Audio recorder connected at “microphone in” with cable equipped with two “alligator clips.” The small white box is the Radio Shack mini amp.

 

op_amp_pin_configuration
The component pin diagram for Burr-Brown OPT101 optical detector/amp. The end of the chip with a notch has pins 1 and 8.

Construction

Now, this is the part that requires patience; how you decide to construct will depend on your ability. I preferred to use a simple perforated project board and soldered with point-to-point technique. How you make the connections to the chip is really up to you. Keep lead lengths as short as you can so you do not pick up stray signals. I think Radio Shack sells wire-wrap and a hand tool for those who do not wish to solder. A socket for the chip is a good idea.

Use the component pin above as a guide to make your connections. This diagram shows the chip pin numbers looking from the top (window side), keep this in mind when connecting from the bottom or a socket. Make the following connections:

  • Tie together or jumper pins 8 and 3, we will then call this (common).
  • Connect your nine volt battery (Radio Shack sells a pre-made battery connector) Plus or red connects to pin 1; black or minus goes to common.
  • The only other connection goes to your recorder. I used a pre-made cable from Radio Shack that came with 1/8 mono phone plug on one end and a red and a black alligator clamp on the other end.
  • Connect as follows, microphone positive or “high” to pin 5, microphone minus or “low” to common.

Whew, that’s the hard part, are you still reading this?

Setup and Test

This chip receiver you just constructed is very, very sensitive to light and modulations of light. You can experiment with it in many different ways. Keep in mind it will pick up your ordinary room lights and you will hear the loud 60 Hz component of the light. It will pick up light from your computer screen and also light from an infrared remote or computer link. For the oil lamp microphone to work properly you must be mindful of these stray sources of light and work in an area where the only source of light will be the oil lamp itself. Also make sure windows are closed and there are no drafts in the room to cause undue vibration to the flame in the lamp.

Setup is easier with the use of the Radio Shack mini amplifier. The amplifier is not too sensitive to low frequencies so it has properties of a good filter built right in. Place your receiver (optical chip) at about the same level as the oil lamp flame so the light from the lamp falls on the chip window. Keep the lamp about two feet away from the chip.

Connect your output cable to the jack marked “Input” on the mini amp. Turn up the gain about halfway on the amp. You will notice if you turn up the flame on the lamp too high you will hear noise and flutter in the mini amp. Speak with a loud voice near the lamp. Adjust the lamp flame for the loudest clearest sound of your voice or an assistant’s voice. You may need to hold the amp near your ear to hear this signal. Find the “sweet spot” by adjusting the distance of the chip to flame and the flame size for best clarity.

Recording and Processing

Once you have optimized your setup for best clarity you can try some recordings. Simply plug into your recorder mic input and record. You can try silence or speaking in a loud voice or even playing music. You may notice you will have some of the same challenges as our Spirit friends in having the proper energy to be clearly heard. Speaking in a slow halting cadence seems to work well. Do not be surprised if your words are changed when using this device to record your voice. I suggest a script or another recorder used for control. Due to the noisy nature of this process, I recommend post processing of the recording. I found Clear Voice Denoiser used with custom settings to be sufficient. Basically, the low frequency component introduced by the flame needs to be suppressed so the voices can be more clearly heard. If you get to the point of recording, I will be happy to furnish you with the required custom settings that have worked the best for me.

Have Fun!

I hope this very simple technique works as well for you as I have observed. Do not be disturbed if your voice winds up sounding like a Spirit voice, it is the nature of this technology. Have fun speaking through the aether and hopefully you will have a breakthrough contact.

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ITC experiments using Light Reflected from Water

©Margaret Downey – All Rights Reserved

As Margaret Downey explains her experimental set-up, “I have a Canon PowerShot A75 Digital camera. It allows me to do thirty seconds of video at a time. I leave it on the highest resolution (640 x 480 pixels). For effects, I use the function button to set the camera to shoot in sepia (a brownish tone), tungsten (which makes it blue), and black and white. I also do a session using just normal settings.

“The experiments are done on my stove and the setup is very basic. The light in the stove hood is used as the light source. Then depending on my whim, I will use a black pot filled about half way with water or a translucent, amber colored Vision CorningWare pot half filled with water which I set either directly on the stove top or I suspend in the empty black pot. (editor: Margaret has joked that her Vision CorningWare pot really should be called Visionware!)

“I hold the video camera in my right hand and wiggle my left fingers in the water while I record the ripples. I get better results if I use my fingers rather than using a spoon or other object to stir the water. I first look through the viewfinder screen, to make sure I’m holding the camera at an angle where it catches the light reflection in the water. This position is not quite directly over it, but from above and at a slight angle. At the same time, I respectfully request for any people or animals in spirit who would like to show themselves, to please do so.

c2006margaret_downey-grandfather_composit_web“Once in awhile, I’ll place a crystal or a crystal ball in the water. And sometimes I ask my hubby to shine red and blue lights in the water.

“After filming, I remove the compact memory card from the camera and place it into my computer. The file is transferred into a software program on my Mac called iMovie, which allows me to look at the video one frame at a time. When I see something in a frame, I’m able to save that single frame as a jpg file. And from that jpg, I crop out the image(s) I wish to keep. I keep both the unedited full frame along with my edited/cropped version. Once in awhile, I keep the entire video, but most of the time I dump it in order to help save hard drive space.”

c2006margaret_downey-a_man_webIn one experiment, Margaret asked for her grandparents and received this ITC picture of a bearded man she feels is her Great Great Grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Main Sr. He was a physician and Baptist minister who crossed in 1913. Today, he and his grandson, Lewis (Margaret’s grandfather who crossed in 1993), help her in making connections to other people.

Steve is a friend of Margaret’s friend, Linda, who likes to “pop in” to Margaret’s EVP sessions to call Linda’s name. Linda had asked her to call on him and this is the image that showed up. Linda said that there is enough of a resemblance that she feels he was doing what he could to show himself to her.

c2006margaret_downey-indian_face_webMargaret also has captured a picture of a face that she feels is her Indian guide, Walking Sun, who she had asked to come through during an experiment. Margaret had a reading from a Shaman who told her, “Margaret’s heart hears the drum beat of Mother Earth and her spirit finds the stairway to Father Sky.” She told Margaret that if she asked for her guide, Walking Sun, he would come. Margaret says, “One of the Shaman’s comments in my reading was that people with “dove medicine” can see between the worlds and the veil between earth and the spirit world is thin for them. She talked about being clairaudient and hearing spirit/sensing vibrations. It was so fun to be able to tell her after the reading about EVP/ITC!”

Margaret feels that she has gotten some excellent readings from people on the Internet and through eBay.


ITC Face Closely Matches Original

Update from the Spring 2007 NewsJournal

francksi2-1-from-daniele-gullaIn the last NewsJournal, we reported about how Margaret Downey conducts visual ITC experiments using moving water for optical energy. The article can be read in the Techniques section of ATransC.org

Daniele Gullà, with the Italian ITC lab, Il Laboratorio (defunct), read the article and decided to see if his forensic-quality face recognition software would help compare Margaret’s ITC image with a photograph of her great great grandfather while he was in the physical.

Gullà wrote: “I have processed the human face as a 3D model and rotated it to superimpose over the ITC face. I have compared the repere [reference] points (only 5: eyes, lips, nasal and subnasal) in the human face and ITC face. The final result is that the difference in the two images is inferior to [less than] 5%. They are very similar!”

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Selecting an Audio Recorder

Audio recorders models on the market frequently change, and for this reason, we do not recommend particular recorder models. Instead, we will try to provide a list of recommended characteristics and note specific model problems as we learn about them.

In general, an audio recorder that is effective for EVP will have the following characteristics:

Sidebar

Background Sound

The current working hypothesis is that the voice in EVP is formed by transforming available audio-frequency sound energy. Thus it is referred to as “transform EVP.” EVP are thought to be formed in the input, analog stage of the recorder, but otherwise, the recorder is just to make a record of the EVP and the practitioner’s voice.

Experience is showing that a microphone is only important to introduce additional noise if the noise generated internally by the recorder is not useful for voice formation.

A very high-quality recorder produces very little internal noise but a low-quality recorder typically produces too much steady-state noise, which is not useful for EVP.

Current understanding is that noise in the voice range–400 to 4,000 Hz–with many perturbations, such as small noise spikes, is useful for voice formation. The noise is needed for voice, but the perturbations are apparently useful to initiate the voice formation process.

The Panasonic RR-DR60 produces this kind of noise internally, but it is possible to produce it externally. One technique is to rapidly sweep a radio dial. This is not radio-sweep as used in ghost or spirit boxes. That technique sweeps the dial in two to four seconds and may produce whole words in the output file. The ATransC does not consider the result of radio-sweep to be EVP. The objective is to sweep the entire dial in under a second so that no whole words or even allophones can be detected. The objective is the resulting noise and not the “whole” sounds.

Voice Operated Recording Mode: This is essential if you plan on making many recordings, say at a haunted site, and do not have a lot of time to review sound files. Voice Operated Recording (VOR) can save considerable time for review. The added noise caused by the VOR switching on and off may also help in voice formation. Interestingly, the communicating entity is apparently able to trigger VOR when it is ready to speak. A good recorder should give you the option of using VOR or not.

Be sure to check the voice-activated recording mode for possible clipping of the first part of words.

Low and High Recording Quality Settings: Experience has shown that digital voice recorders work best for EVP, as compared to cassette and disk recorders. Digital voice recorders, operating at relatively low sample rates, produce more EVP than at higher sample rates. The point of this is that low quality or long recording options usually have lower sample rates, therefore more internal noise and therefore more EVP.

Human voice is between 200 and 4,000 Hz. A sample rate of 8,000 Hz is sufficient to reproduce that range.

Adjustable Microphone Sensitivity: Field recording often involves recording in places with many people talking or a lot of traffic noise. It can be very difficult to avoid these external noises and they may be too much for EVP recording. Decreasing the sensitivity of the microphone may help. At the same time, there are occasions in which the recorder is not producing sufficient sound for voice formation, and the room is too quiet. Increasing the sensitivity of the microphone may help.

It is possible to create a “sea in a shell” effect by putting the recorder or microphone in a container, such as a coffee cup. Others sometimes rub the microphone against cloth. Be creative, but avoid unconsciously making sounds that seem like voice.)

A “Hold” or “Lock” Feature: Using this feature will save you many accidental recordings that can use up your batteries.

Interface to a Computer: Newer audio recorders provide a USB port for transferring audio files to a computer; however, if the recorder does not provide a way to save the audio files, then use a cable between the earphone jack and the Mic In of the computer, and an audio management program to record audio files into the computer.

Quality Enhancement Features: Some recorders have settings that allow you to “enhance” the recordings to optimize voice quality. The features use special algorithms that enhance some frequencies and suppress others. It may be wise to make sure that, if your recorder has such a feature, it also has a way to turn it off.

The idea is to avoid unknown influences. There is much known about standard recording processes, but little is known about some of the enhancement techniques. For instance, do they substitute pre-recorded phrases to save storage space?

These are the main considerations when purchasing an audio recorder for EVP. The Association no longer recommends the use of a cassette recorder, although experimenters have used them for years before computers became available. If you just want to see if you can record an EVP, and only have a cassette recorder available, then us it. It will work. When using a digital recorder, remember that you will need to use your digital recorder with a computer for file storage and analysis.

Anything that can record voice will work. You can use a cell phone, the soundtrack for your video recorder or your mp3 player/recorder. Just remember that the rule of thumb is: The higher the quality of audio recorder, the more you will need to supply background sound.


Panasonic RR-DR60 Reset Instructions

Provided by James Jones

I received a DD DR60 in the mail today and when putting batteries in the unit it would not record because it showed that the recorder was “full” even though there wasn’t one file being saved. I found out that the unit just needed to be reset because if it is without batteries for a long time it can get confused the next time you put batteries in. Apparently there is some kind of flash memory in there that doesn’t depend on battery power and once you put some new ones in if things don’t match up properly, it gets confused.

I was able to reset the unit by taking out one battery, then holding the “mode” button and the push button “Play” wheel down while inserting the battery. This reset the unit and now it works.

I found this procedure on the paperwork included with the unit.

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Basic EVP Recording Technique

Also see: White Paper on  Transcommunication with emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena

What is EVP?

Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) are intelligible voices found in recording media that have no known physical explanation. Many of the voices are thought to originate from deceased people. This is the primary reason that people first began experimenting with EVP.

Characteristics of the Voices

The recorded voices may be very quiet and may be difficult to hear and understand. Most EVP experimenters say that they have developed an “ear” for the sounds after learning to distinguish them from background noise. In transform EVP, the voices can often be recognized as male or female, young or old. Messages are seldom longer than two to four words. The words may be spoken very quickly, and there is often a distinctive cadence to the voices. Analysis shows that they are simulations of voice made from whatever sound is supplied, and are often missing voice box frequencies and have oddly arranged formants.

Types of Recording

In controlled conditions recording, it is possible to control ambient noise and supply special forms of background noise. Biofield energy is thought to accumulate in a “special” recording area, which is thought to help make contact. In field recording, it is difficult to control environmental conditions or supply background sound, but in known “haunted” locations, the energy helpful for contact may already be present.

EVP formed in an audio recorder by transforming available background sound is referred to as “transform EVP.” In this, it is sometimes possible to recognize the voice of the speaker. EVP formed by sweeping a radio dial, or with a computer program such as EVPmaker, are referred to as “opportunistic EVP” because sounds for voice formation must be made available on an “as needed” basis. Radio-sweep also known as “ghost boxes” or “spirit boxes,”), and in some applications, EVPmaker, depend on the use of “live” voice. ATransC will not use live voice examples for research because of the problem of undetected false positives. EVPmaker using synthesized voice is preferred for opportunistic EVP.

Environmentally stimulated speech synthesis is a relatively new and promising technique, but it should be noted that all speech synthesis approaches currently being tried do not support speaker recognition.


Recording Procedure

Recording Equipment

Digital voice recorders are recommended for transform EVP. Less expensive models produce more internal noise which is useful for voice formation. High-quality units will probably require added background noise. A computer can also be used, but will probably require added noise.

Scheduling

Entities will speak at any time of day or night. In the beginning, however, it is advisable to record at a regular time and place. By doing this, the entities learn when there will be an opportunity for contact and expectation of the upcoming session helps focus attention on the process. Try to find a place that will be quiet and free of interruptions. Background sounds are okay, but it is important to be aware of these so that they can be distinguished from the EVP.

Background Sound Source

Research has shown that for transform EVP, the entities use sounds in the environment to help form the words. Most recording situations have some background sounds, but it may be necessary to add noise with something like a fan or running water. Some people use foreign language radio, crowd babble or audio tapes; however, as more has been learned about EVP, the recommended practice has been to avoid the use of radio static or live voice of any form.

Preparation

Begin with meditation and a short prayer to ask for only those intending the highest good and an invitation to friends on the other side to participate. It is best to record when personal energy is the highest.

Recording

Vocalize your comments during an EVP session. The entities will often come through as soon as the recorder is turned on. These beginning messages may be the loudest, so it is a good idea to turn on the recorder and wait a few seconds before speaking. Questions should be recorded, and a period of time between each comment should be left for the entities to respond–about ten seconds. At the end, ask if the entity has something to say.

It may help to make an “appointment” with the intended entity the day before, during prayer or meditation. Some also provide feedback before the session so that the entities will know what worked in the last experiment. It is not necessary to record in the dark. People often try different devices and energy sources to help the entities communicate. Leaving written questions in the EVP experiment area the day before has worked for some.

Keep recording short. Recordings should be closely examined, at least until it is understood where to find the voices. A best practice for field recording is to use two recorders. As a rule, EVP will only occur on one recorder or sound track, making it possible to avoid mistaking local sounds for EVP (false positives).

Playback

In transform EVP, the voice is usually not heard until playback. Experimenters report that the voices tend to become stronger and clearer as the entities gain in experience, but at first, the voices may speak in whispers. Voices may not be recorded in every session and it may take several sessions to discover the first voice. Hearing the voices is a learned ability. It might take thirty minutes to examine a three or four-minute recording.

Classes of Voices

The following system of classification is based on a proposed Best Practice at atransc.org/classifying-phenomena/. You are invited to participate in developing the practice. Please use the Contact tool to let us know you are interested.

A distinction is made between phenomena which are always present and phenomena which are transient features. A face seen in the decomposition pattern of a leaf is more or less always there, as opposed to a face found in moving water or video-loop noise. As a general rule, “always there” phenomena appear to be formed by opportunistically adapting naturally occurring processes to express the message, assuming one is intended. If perceived as phenomena, “always there” features would be considered Type 2.

Features found in ever-changing noise are thought to be formed by transforming that noise into the voice or face. While the resulting features are fleeting unless caught in media (photograph or audio recording), they tend to be better formed and more easily identified as anomalous. So for both audible and visible phenomena:

Type 1: Transformed physical media; not always present
Type 2: Always present; often as a persistent artifact

Both Type 1 and Type 2 examples are divided into three classes:

Class A: Evident without explanation
Class B: May require directions
Class C: Maybe vaguely experienced; mostly obscured by noise

Keeping a Log

Maintaining a record of recording results is very helpful. Include the date, time, seconds into the recording, the message itself and the question asked. Be sure to label and save the audio file so that they can be found at a later time. Experimenters report that they feel weather may affect results, but this has not been well studied.

Digital Voice Recorders

Digital voice recorders are recommended for EVP experiments. Today, all sound-tracks—digital or analog—should be listened to in a computer and with a headset. Unlike tape recorders, the built-in microphone is usually satisfactory for EVP. Consider the selection guide for audio recorders here. Audacity is an effective audio management program that can be downloaded at no cost.

Computer Recording

A computer instead of a digital recorder can be used for recording EVP. It should have an audio input jack, speakers, headphone jack and sound player application such as Audacity. Most experimenters use the computer to analyze and store examples. If the recorder does not have a USB interface, it is possible to play the recording into the computer while recording with a recorder program. The Earphone jack of the recorder can be connected to the Microphone or Line 1 jack via a cable. The sound source should be set to the correct jack via the pull-down menu in Audacity. Recording with a sample rate of 11025, mono and 16-bit resolution is sufficient for EVP. Files should be edited as *.wav format but shared as *.mp3.

Analyzing the Recording for EVP

Always use headphones when listening to the recording on a computer. The earmuff style that completely covers the ear is best, but also good are the soft rubber earbuds that are inserted in the channel of the ear.

Be sure to set up a method of saving your recordings in your computer that will allow you to easily locate examples. A good practice is to save the raw recording session in a dated folder and then also save clips containing the EVP in the same folder. Field recordings are saved under the name of the location and the date. It is helpful to keep a separate folder for your Class A examples for easy retrieval for demonstration to friends. ATransC follows the labeling practice of (c)lisa_butler2008-what_evp_says.mp3. The (c) symbol indicates the intention to protect rights to the example. If you are making the example available under the Creative Commons license, then use (cc) instead of (c). Using first and last name helps sort many examples in the folder for easy retrieval. The underline and dash symbol with no use of capitals helps assure that computer systems and the Internet accepts the name. A 200 kb audio file can be reduced to around 15 Kb when converted from a *.wav file to an *.mp3 file. This makes it easy for sharing files via the Internet.

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Recording EVP Using a Telephone

debbie-telephone-evp

Debra Ann’s Telephone Recording EVP Using a Telephone
Previously published in the Spring 2007 ATransC NewsJournal
Also see: Phone Line EVP and EVP Using VoIP and Telephones

Please note that Debbie has made her transition to the other side

Debbie Caruso has been learning to use a telephone and computer for recording EVP. The results have been very promising. She has always been one of our braver members who is willing to try new ideas and record for others. Recording for others is a challenge because it takes quite a lot of time and most people need to learn how to hear examples that are not always Class A.

The elements of Debbie’s setup are shown in this diagram. Of course, a computer is used, and a recording program such as Audacity or Audition. She is using HyperTerminal to control the modem for phone connections. It comes with Microsoft Windows:

debbie-telephone-evp
EVP recording arrangement used by Debbie Caruso

Legacy: Start > Programs > Accessories > Communications

In Windows 10: Type “Hyper-V in the “Ask Me Anything” window and check mark “Hyper-V” in the “Turn Windows Features on or off” widow.

She uses a telephone set connected to a second telephone wall jack, but she could use a headset equipped with individual jacks that connect to the Headphone Out and Microphone In jacks of the computer.

If modem and control software are not available, Radio Shack sells a “Recorder Control” for $27 that Debbie has used with success. See model number is 43-228. This unit connects to the telephone jack and plugs into the computer’s Line In or Microphone In jack.

Debbie arranges with a person or persons with whom she will record to call her, and with the computer connected to the line, she is able to speak with the callers and record the conversation. Once the connection is established, the recording session is conducted as if she is in the same room with the other person and using a standard audio recorder. It is also possible to have a second telephone receiver off hook and near a fan or some other sound source.

A telephone line is designed to provide enough feedback from the microphone to the speaker to give the sense of a “live” circuit. This is a byproduct of the conversion from two-wire between the home and the central office and four-wire between central offices. It is known that a little feedback in the EVP circuit sometimes helps for EVP.

Sonia Rinaldi uses a similar setup for recording and has been very successful in making contact with loved ones for families. However, there is little public information about her methods, so Debbie is taking the old “trial and error” approach. It seems to be working, though. Martha Copeland wrote, “Debbie has been experimenting on her own, and I happen to be one of her guinea pigs! On our first experiment we picked up my daughter, Cathy’s voice saying, “Keep trying.”

Participants in group sessions call into (now out of service) ConFreeCall.com, an online conference service. The group first discusses what they want to ask, and then Debbie begins the recording process. Four or five questions are asked during a one-minute, forty-second recording session. Some of the participants record at the same time. While everyone is still on the line, Debbie plays back her recording so that all can hear what may have been recorded. Others who have recorded also review their recordings during the call so that the results can be shared before the session is ended.

As Debbie explained, “The conference calls are a great way for a lot of people to record together. When recording for the Big Circle (BC), we all call in at 8 PM, ask “Who’s here from the BC?” and then wait approximately one-minute, forty-seconds in silence. We play it back, see if anyone answered and that helps us decide our next question.

“Other than the BC, there are no set schedules. People will want to record and we’ll just meet in the Conference Room at a time convenient for all. It’s just an easy way to record with a lot of people. What I would like to concentrate on now is people meeting to record for one specific person. I would love for many family members to be in the room to contact one special person.”

Because of the possibility of overwhelming Debbie with requests, please contact her via a personal message in the Idea Exchange. She wants to help as many people as she can but please understand that she may not have time to meet all requests. We encourage others to try the computer/telephone technique. Also, the conference room approach to group recording offers some interesting possibilities. Let us know if any of you have successes to report.

Examples of Debbie’s work may be listened to here

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EVP Using VoIP and Telephones

margaret-telephone-evp

Originally published in the Fall 2012 ATransC NewsJournal
Also see: Phone Line EVP and Recording EVP Using a Telephone

Recording for EVP using the telephone system has always offered tantalizing possibilities. In recent years, cell phones and answering machines have produced good but usually spontaneous EVP. Now, we see more people using the Internet for planned EVP sessions.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the technology that makes it possible for a person to use a computer to call another computer via the Internet or even call a landline telephone via the Internet. The most commonly used service has been Skype.com, but others are coming along, including Google Voice (google.com/voice).

This article describes some of the more successful techniques being reported to us by members and associates.

Sonia Rinaldi

EVP recording arrangement used by Sonia Rinaldi

Brazilian researcher, Sonia Rinaldi, is a veteran transcommunication researcher. With members of the organization she coordinates, IPATI (translation from Portuguese: Institute for Advanced Research in Instrumental Transcommunication), she has been diligently seeking ways to improve both visual and audible communication across the veil. We have included a number of articles on her work over the years which may be accessed in the Idea Exchange archive.

The Idea Exchange has been converted to “Read Only” due to lack of participation.
Please contact us if you have questions.

IPATI has been a leader in developing new techniques for EVP using the telephone system and Skype. A major part of Sonia’s work involves reunions and she has produced some very convincing results using these techniques. We asked Sonia to elaborate on her current setup. Here is her answer with the help of Sonia’s translator, Cristina:

Description of Technique

This is the configuration of equipment used by Sonia Rinaldi for her recent work with reunions.
In the laboratory: a speakerphone is placed beside a laptop configured to record via a microphone.

The client, who is anywhere in the world, calls that phone via a computer using Skype (voice only). The telephone is answered by the practitioner (Sonia in her reports) who initiates the recording session in the computer, sets the telephone to speakerphone mode and leaves the room.

The practitioner then goes to a second room in the same building and picks up an extension phone located near a television. As a sound source, the television is tuned to an English or German-language news channel (any language other than the practitioner’s native language).
Via the telephone, the client speaks to his or her loved one on the other side while the practitioner listens to make sure that the client asks questions while leaving a thirty-second pause for the etheric communicator’s response.

In this technique, the voice from the television, as the background sound, appears to be transformed to produce answers from the loved one. While the background sound is in one language, the resulting utterance is in Portuguese.

Preparation

The client is instructed to prepare questions before calling Sonia’s lab in Brazil via Skype. From client Christina, “Before calling Sonia’s lab in Brazil, I prepared questions to maximize the communication with my son Stefano. I also decided at the last minute to call from my bedroom, the quietest place in the house.”

After the call is connected: “All of a sudden Stefano validates his presence by saying that I was in my room, something I had not mentioned because it was a last-minute decision. I could clearly hear my parents and husband as well, which gives me the hope that I will rejoin my loved ones sometime in the future.

“Another communication that amazed me was his suggestion that I contact a friend and girlfriend of his: Lina.

“I contacted Lina the next day and she told me that it was an amazing ‘coincidence’ that I called. She had been thinking of Stefano and had decided to call me the same day to take me out for lunch. We had lunch together and she surprised me with a gift: a heart-shaped silver locket and chain bearing the words on both side: ‘Stefano, ever loved, never forgotten.’”

Debbie Caruso

debbie-telephone-evp
EVP recording arrangement used by Debbie Caruso

As reported in the Spring 2007 ATransC NewsJournal, “Recording EVP Using a Telephone,” before her transition, Debbie Caruso had been using a landline telephone and computer for recording EVP. The elements of her setup are shown in the following diagram. A recording program such as Audacity or Audition was used in the computer. (Use Phone and Modem in the Control Panel to control the modem in Windows 7.) A telephone was connected to a second telephone wall jack, but she sometimes used a headset that connects to the computer.

An example of what Debbie was recording is in the article, “Jenny and Brandon – The Newlyweds

Margaret Downey

margaret-telephone-evp
EVP recording arrangement used by Margaret Downey

Margaret Downey uses an Apple computer and iPhone to conduct VoIP sessions. With two Skype accounts, she calls one with the phone and the other with her computer. Both are in the same room but about eight feet apart. A sound source plays into the room near the cell phone.

During the call, Margaret’s voice from the cell phone plays out of the computer speakers. A feedback loop is formed because the phone picks up Margaret’s voice, the background sounds and the output of the speaker. So, if the phone is too close to the computer speakers, there will be a loud “feedback” noise. Part of the task is to find the best location for everything so that there is a little feedback, but not enough to cause the loud noise.

When the call is answered with her computer, Margaret starts an app named Call Record (ecamm.com). (A similar Windows app is PrettyMay Call Recorder: prettymay.net.)

An interesting observation about Margaret’s setup is that the call recorder displays both sides of the conversation so that the caller’s voice is strong on the receive side but also slightly delayed. The send side also has the caller’s voice but much weaker.

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Using Live Voice Input Files for EVP

Previously published in the Spring 2012 ATransC NewsJournal

Several members in the Idea Exchange have been using recordings of foreign language as background sound for EVP sessions. What we refer to as “live voice” is not understandable to our English-trained ears so there seemed to be little danger of mistaking the input speech for EVP. Well, … that is the theory.

We used the same foreign-language input file for the Big Circle recording sessions over six months. This gave us ample opportunity to test the technique. What we found has been a real eye-opener. Both of us recorded and nearly every utterance one of us identified as an EVP could be found on the other person’s recording and the original sound file.

Each session, we played the foreign-language sound with a Sony ICD-B26 and recorded with a pair of Panasonic RR-DR60s placed about two feet away from the Sony. The only other sound in the meditation room we used is the normal, ambient sounds one would expect from a closed room with no forced air movement. Lisa typically turns off the Sony while we ask a question and then turns it back on while we seek a reply. DR60s are always in VOX mode.

The input file includes both male and female voice, making it easy for us to locate segments to compare. Because we did identify a few utterances in the input file that sounded a lot like English, we began comparing the two output sound files to see if any suspected EVP were in both. As it turned out, the majority were.

The current best practice for field recording is to use two recorders and discard anything found in both recording processes. (See: Using a Control Recorder for EVP) This is a good practice because it is well established that EVP occurs in one analog segment so that two recorders will not “normally” record the same EVP.

EVP does occur as a transformation of the foreign language into English words, but based on our study, naturally occurring sounds in the foreign language are too often mistaken as English. This is enough of a problem to warrant recommending that, when using live voice, two recorders should be used and both output files examined to assure suspected EVP are only in one of the files.

This recommendation applies to all forms of live voice including recording with EVPmaker, radio-sweep, and of course, foreign language speech. The opportunistic presence of English sounding words does not automatically mean transcommunication. This is especially true of short utterances, for instance, “yes” and “help.”

The best practice for using a control recorder will be updated in the Collective forum and a new one for live voice will be started. These practices are considered “living documents,” and will evolve as we learn. You are invited to help us develop these and similar articles. Your viewpoint is important and may help many others as a practice.

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Video-Loop, Visual ITC Recording Technique

Also see Butler ITC Gallery 2Butler ITC Gallery 2,  Butler ITC Gallery 3,
and Perception of Visual ITC Images

A Brief Discussion of the Pictures

 

The ITC images described by Lisa in Butler ITC Gallery 1 provides an interesting study in ITC photography. The initial video was taken with a Cannon 8mm ES2000 analog camcorder set about three feet from a Sony KV20TS32, 20-inch Trinitron color TV. The camera was focused just beyond the screen surface and the composite video out of the camera was connected to the video input of the TV so that the camera was “seeing” its output in a video loop. The camera was zoomed so that about five inches of the screen was revealed to the camera.

An example of the video loop is shown above. It is a highly compressed file and the phenomenal features normally seen in the higher resolution NTSC format are not as clear. Even so, move the track market to 01, 06 and 08 seconds and look for phenomenal features. An analog camera and monitor has been most effective for us. We adjust the camera for a balance between very sharp-pixilated display and a too-soft display. Experiment to find that balance. Look for the features in the medium bright areas.

The resulting video clip was loaded into a computer and Pinnacle Systems Studio DC10 Plus was used for review. The video was examined frame by frame and interesting frames were captured as individual pictures. Figure 1 is an example of these “grabbed” video frames. Because we were focused on an area of the screen that had a lot of optical texture, the resulting frames tended to be dark. The screen was also flashing from light to dark. While this seems to have given us ITC, it has also frustrated our attempts to display the images with our method of printing this newsletter.

We sent two of the more interesting frames to member, Erland Babcock, who edited them to produce Figure 2. Erland uses editing software that came with his Toshiba PDR-M70 digital camera and it is more effective than any of the editors we use. Lisa had seen other possibilities in Figure 1, but I was focused on what looks like a full-bust image of a man in the middle of the frame. If you look at the upper left quadrant of Figure 1, you can see that I have highlighted what looks like a hat. Figure 2 is that region enlarged and enhanced. With this image, and other renditions not shown, you can see a man wearing a hat. It looks like he has a full beard. There is evidence of blue sky above him and shrubbery at his right. His shoulders may also be visible.

It is important to note that the resolution of the original frame should not support the fine shading of the shape of the hat. In other words, I believe that the ITC image has higher resolution than the original frame. Also, if this were an illusion, we would expect to more often see other familiar objects. Erland has pointed out to us that he has captured pastoral scenes and what looks like aerial views of land and water. But we are mostly collecting faces, which raises the question again, why faces, why whole faces and who are they?

We have included an image showing a full head of a person in Figure 3. The original frame was almost completely black, so what is shown here is an enhancement. It is hard to tell, but the person looks a lot like an extraterrestrial standing in front of a round window.

   techniques_itc1_2  techniques_itc1_5
Figure 1

A full video frame

Figure 2

This picture was cropped from the frame in Figure 1 from the area marked with a white box. The intensity and contrast has been changed in a photo editor to make the feature more visible. No color has been added.

Figure 3

A feature that has been cropped from a different video frame that was almost black before the intensity was changed in a photo editor.

 

 butler_faces_1  
Figure 4

Typical texture in video frame when the camera is three to five inches from the television screen. Notice that you can see the texture of the pixels. All of the examples in Butler Gallery 1 and 2 in the Examples pages were collected with the camera very close to the screen. You will notice that the pixels tend to dominate the features. (Please note that the framer has been rotated 90 degrees.

Figure 5

Typical texture in video frame when the camera about three feet from the television screen. Notice that you do not see the texture of the pixels. All of the examples in Butler Gallery 3 in the Examples pages were collected with the camera three feet from the screen. You will notice that the features tend to be softer in texture.

Steps in Recording Video-Loop ITC

We use what is known as the Schreiber method for Video ITC. The technique of connecting the output of a video camera to the input of a television set, and then taping the video noise that can be seen on the television screen, was apparently first developed for Schreiber by Martin Wenzel.caaevp2004_video_setup

 

  1. Preparing the Video Loop: Position the camera about three feet in front of the television screen. Connect the Video-Out of the Camera to Video-In of the television and select Video-In on the television set. Aim the camera at the television set and slowly adjust the focus, and zoom until the dark to light flashing is visible on the television screen, with cloudy or foggy texture in various colors during the bright flashes. The focus should be six to twelve inches past the surface of the screen when the equipment is ready to record. The most important objective is to see swirling clouds.
  2. Preparing Yourself: Follow the same preparatory process you use for EVP sessions. Remember that there are nonphysical entities who are present and able to “witness” your activity. Consider using the same music each time as a “signature” or “signpost,” indicating that preparation for a session is underway. Also consider conducting a short meditation or prayer.

After meditation, we change from music to the background sound that we use for EVP. The background sound of white noise is used because we always listen to the video sound track. Also, an IC recorder is usually recording during the sessions. This, of course, is optional. Speaking out loud, we talk to our team about the last session and discuss the various successes or failures of that experiment. Asking for their assistance in bringing the images through, we announce that we are going to begin the experiment. This is all done just as if they were standing in the room with us. Each session brings different discussions and questions. Ask for information on how to improve the experiments, and for specific people to show themselves in the video.

The experimenter is part of the circuit and we feel that meditation and/or prayer helps bring the experimenter into a more balanced state. This helps to focus the experimenter’s intention and better helps those on the other side create a link to the experimenter.

  1. Conducting the Experiment: Speaking out loud, tell the entities that you are about to begin recording. State what you wish to see in your video frames, and perhaps, offer feedback about the previous experiment. Turn on the equipment and wait a few seconds for the feedback loop to stabilize. Record for about thirty seconds. You may record longer, but remember that the camera will record around twenty-nine frames a second, and that thirty seconds represents a large number of frames. Turn off the video camera and verbally thank the entities for their help.
  2. Analysis of Video: Transfer the video onto a computer. You can alternatively include the computer in the recording circuit during the experiment and record the video with the computer rather than with the camera. Once in the computer, examine each frame of the video and “grab” frames that have optical texture, such as blotches of color. Examine each grabbed frame in a photo editor as if it were a photograph. Use magnification, intensity changes and rotations while looking for features.

We highly recommend that you read the section about Video ITC in the book, There is no Death and There are No Dead.

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The Monroe Way

Binaural synchronization induced meditative state
Previously published in the Spring 2008 AA-EVP NewsJournal

Robert Monroe had spontaneous out-of-body experiences, which are well-documented in his books, Journey out of Body (Doubleday, ISBN: 0385008619, 1973) and Far Journeys (Doubleday, ISBN: 0385231822, 1985). An engineer, Monroe owned a radio production company, and so it seems natural that he would turn to audio technology in his efforts to understand his experiences. Before his transition, he “discovered” Hemi-Sync® and the Frequency-following Response.

Robert had a penchant for acronyms and frequently described the etheric worlds in which he traveled in terms that were catchy but often used to represent unfamiliar meaning. For instance, he used the term, “Locale,” to describe a region of reality and while we are still more or less associated with the physical in Locale I, we see in the transition to Locale 2 that we leave things physical behind.

Robert Monroe is on the other side now, but his legacy is maintained as the Monroe Institute. The Institute provides on-campus classes and well-designed home-study packages. In general, students listen to a series of audio programs in which they are verbally, and with subtle audio signals, guided to deeper and deeper levels of awareness. These programs are intended to be used as a training tool to help the mind “recognize” these levels, and thereby, more quickly return to their associated states of mind.

We have attended three, one-week classes and have even met Robert. His daughter, Laurie Monroe, spoke at the 2006 AA-EVP conference. Our experience with the Monroe training programs is that they are a powerful tool for self-development and are potentially important for people wishing to develop their mediumship abilities.

The Monroe experiment mentioned in the Viewpoint will test this belief with a series of EVP recording sessions with and without a special set of frequencies.

The Technology

Robert Monroe discovered that the two hemispheres of the brain will synchronize with the beat-frequency between two audio signals. Using representative numbers, a 1000 Hz tone in one side of a stereo headset and a 1010 Hz tone in the other will result in a response to the 10 Hz difference between the two tones. This is “Hemi-Sync.®” Further, if the difference between the tones is reduced, say to 5 Hz, then the brain will follow. This is the “Frequency-following Response.”

The levels of awareness in electroencephalograph biofeedback training for meditation are described as:

Beta (13-40 Hz): Awake and alert
Alpha (7-12 Hz): Deeply relaxed; meditative
Theta (4 -7 Hz): Between deep meditation and sleep.
Delta (0-4 Hz): Sleep

Biofeedback is used to teach a person to recognize a deep meditative state, and in the future, to quickly “go there” without feedback aids. In the Monroe system, binaural-beats (Hemi-Sync®) are used to teach the person the same response. In fact, you just relax and listen to the program as the hardly heard frequencies slowly move you into deeper and deeper levels of awareness. Even if you are disturbed, say by a passing car, the frequencies will quickly “pull” you back.

Robert referred to the first level, FocusTM10, as the state of awareness in which the body is asleep and the mind is awake. Focus 10 is the beginning place for most of the programs. We believe it is correct to say that, in terms of biofeedback, this would be roughly equivalent to the “Alpha Level.”

The Institute has scanned the brains of people reported by others to be very successful trance-channels and did find a discernable difference from people who did not trance. A set of frequencies were developed from these EEG maps and were used to develop binaural-beats for audio programs designed to help the listener sense the presence of other intelligences. These are referred to as “Inner Self-Helper” or ISH frequencies and brain mapping of “ordinary” people, while they were under the influence of the frequencies, showed that they were measurably effective in inducing trance-like conditions.

The Cosmology

There are many cosmologies describing how reality is arranged, and if you need a reference point, then it may work to say that Focus 1 is our waking state—body and mind awake, so that would be the physical. As the focus of attention is changed further and further away from the physical, there is a transition point at Focus 21. So Focus 1 through 21 is Locale 1. Focus 22 through 27 is Local 2, and beyond that would be Locale 3. In the more commonly held cosmology, Locale 2 would probably be thought of as the Astral Plane (level of existence), but one should not be too determined to relate the Monroe way with others. The Monroe way is based on direct experience that can be generally replicated in controlled conditions, so it is best to look for perceptual similarities amongst the cosmologies.

Here then, are the more important focus levels as described in the Monroe literature:

Focus 10: The first stage in separation of mind-consciousness from physical reality. “Mind awake/body asleep” is a deeply relaxed state in which awareness of physical sensory input is reduced, yet the mind is alert and attentive to experience. This gives birth to awareness that you exist with or without the physical body.

Focus 12: A state of expanded awareness in which you can become more conscious of inner resources and guidance; a powerful and empowering state which readily lends itself to many diverse applications.

Focus 15: A state of “no time” in which you explore beyond the constraints of time and place. Opportunities are abundant for establishing communication with larger aspects of self.

Focus 18: Self-love, self-trust, and non-judgmental acceptance

Focus 21: Like deep (delta) sleep, but with a significant difference. You are fully “awake” and conscious, directing the action, as you explore more deeply your personal self and the far reaches of other realities.

Focus 22: Where humans still in the physical can have partial consciousness, remembered as dreams, deliriums, and patterns induced through chemicals

Focus 23: Inhabited by humans who have recently exited physical existence and have not adapted to such change

Focus 24, 25 and 26: The Belief System territories where those who have exited the physical are residing in a particular belief system

Focus 27: The Reception Center, Way Station, or Park, designed to ease the trauma and shock of the transition out of physical reality.

Some levels are more “interesting” to one or another of us. Tom really likes working at Focus 15. Also, how the levels are visualized is very personal. He gets a lot of insights from people in spirit coming to talk to him in Focus 15 (no time) but others have described it as nothingness. Some people say that in Focus 15, they have learned to imagine themselves moving from a center, along spokes of a wheel to the circumference where they are able to go forward or back in time. Lisa likes to use Focus 15 to visualize what she would like to manifest and feels that Focus 27, The Reception Center, is the easiest focus level to use to meet with loved ones and friends now on the other side.

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Experimental Recording Techniques Using a Phototransistor

cd_mierzwinski2007-recording-candlelight

Previously published in the Spring 2007 AA-EVP NewsJournal
©David Mierzwinski – All Rights Reserved
Also see: A Simple Optical Microphone

This article presents an experimental approach for making EVP recordings. Its purpose is instructional and to help promote an understanding of vibrational energy and how we may better perceive it.

I’m going to share with you a few simple techniques for recording lightwave vibrational energy. This is energy which is beyond what we may see and hear every day. A good example is a common household light bulb. You see the light and can feel the heat produced by it; however, you cannot hear that the bulb is being modulated by the 60 Hz line current. You may be surprised at the amount of “sound” that is silent to us, some man made and some perhaps not.

cd_mierzwinski2007-photodiode_recorderThe technique involves use of a single, widely available electronic component called a phototransistor. This is not the same as a diode which was used by early EVP researchers. The phototransistor I recommend is available at any Radio Shack store or available from them online. The part number is 276-145. My tests have shown that the device is responsive to infrared, visible and ultraviolet light. All of these frequencies of light mentioned are well above radio broadcast, cell and microwave transmission frequencies.

You can make a simple plug-in phototransistor adapter for your digital recorder. All popular digital recorders I am aware of use internal electret microphones. With these recorders you can use the external microphone jack. The recorder will provide the small voltage the phototransistor requires to operate at the external microphone jack. The 1/8” phone plug common to most recorders is Radio Shack part number 274-286.

cd_mierzwinski2007-photophoneSolder the phototransistor to the phone plug as follows: The phototransistor has a flat edge on its case, this is the collector mark. The remaining lead is called the emitter; Connect (solder) the collector to the short pin of the phone plug; and, the emitter connects to the long pin of the phone plug. The photo shows the completed assembly ready for use.

Plug the completed adapter assembly into the external microphone jack of your portable digital recorder and start exploring. Try recording various light or even heat sources; you can unplug the adapter at any time and make a verbal notation of the source. Plug it back in and continue. You will hear different sounds when you record various sources like candles, light bulbs, computer monitor screens, TV sets, remote controls or a fireplace.

cd_mierzwinski2007_testing_photophoneFor example, a quartz-tube space heater at full power (glowing) will produce a very pure thermal white noise. Place the recorder in your car and drive around. You may be surprised at what you can hear in the filtered sunshine as the levels of light change as you drive. If you have a crystal or mineral collection you may try recording reflections or direct light shined through a crystal (sunshine, LED flashlight or a laser pointer works well).

Would you like to hear your own voice through the vibration of light? Here is a simple device you can make for a number of interesting experiments. It is based on A.G. Bell’s Photophone invented around 1880. For my model, I used some reflective, shiny, very thin, gift wrapping plastic (like a Mylar or Saran plastic). I taped this film very tightly (like a drum) over the front of an old eight-inch diameter audio loudspeaker.

cd_mierzwinski2007-recording-candlelightHold the completed Photophone so sunlight reflected from the surface of the shiny, flexible mirror shines on the phototransistor. Now speak closely and loudly to the surface of the Photophone. On playback you should hear your own voice. The quality will depend on how well your voice vibrates the surface of the Photophone. For more controlled experiments, you can connect the loudspeaker to a stereo or amplifier and play different sounds through it to vibrate the film. Just place the speaker so that sunlight reflects from the surface to the phototransistor. Try using music, Spiricom tones, babble or even white noise, as an example.

Another technique is to provide external vibration to a light source and record the result. Pictured is a small tea candle placed in the well of an ultrasonic cleaner. The candle is in a small amount of water, lit and the cleaner turned on in a darkened room. The recorder is held clear of the cleaner and pointed at the candle which flickers at a very high rate in this atmosphere.

cd_mierzwinski2007-photodiode_cable-oldYou may wish to build a phototransistor cable that can be used with your home computer sound card for recording. The Radio Shack part number of the cable to use is 42-2434. The six-foot cable has a molded 1/8” plug on one end and tinned leads on the other end, ready to connect the phototransistor. The connections are as follows: inner conductor of cable connects to phototransistor collector (flat edge), outer (shield) connects to emitter.

An interesting experiment that has yielded good results has been the optical microphone. The optical microphone is a commonly available oil lamp. The only oil lamp style that has worked so far has been a lamp with a three-fourths inch wide wick. The wick that comes with cd_mierzwinski2007-oil_lampthese lamps is cotton and works well. I have begun tests with other wick materials as of this writing. I attach the phototransistor and cable assembly to the lamp with a thick rubber band. A reflector is required to be placed behind the phototransistor. A white 3 x 5-file card is excellent for this purpose. This simple reflector greatly increases the gain of the microphone. If your sound card allows audio monitoring, you can experiment with the flame level for best reproduction of your voice. A high flame level can overload the phototransistor. Start with a low flame and ratchet it up slowly. Speak into the chimney of the lamp or across its top if you are sensitive to the exhaust fumes. Use an ultra-pure liquid paraffin lamp fuel for lowest odor.

Have fun exploring the under-researched areas of light energy vibrations with these unique recording techniques.

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Sidereal Time and Psychic Phenomena

From the article:

Apparent Association Between Effect Size In Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments And Local Sidereal Time, by S. James P. Spottiswoode, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA 94301. Published in The Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol, 11, No. 2, 1997 (jsasoc.com/docs/JSE-LST.pdf)

Abstract

Nothing is known about the physical mechanism of anomalous cognition (AC), or ESP. A first step towards generating focused hypotheses would be the discovery of a physical parameter which clearly modulated AC performance. In this paper, an association between the local sidereal time (LST) at which a trial occurs and the resulting effect size is described. In an existing database of 1,468 free response trials, the effect size increased 340% for trials within 1 hour of 13.5 h LST (p = 0.001). A independent database of 1,015 similar trials was subsequently obtained in which trials within 1 hour of 13.5 h LST showed an effect size increase of 450% (p = 0.05) providing confirmation of the effect. Possible artifacts due to the non-uniform distribution of trials in clock time and variations of effect size with experiment are discussed and rejected as explanations. Assuming that some unknown systematic bias is not present in the data, it appears that AC performance is strongly dependent upon the LST at which the trial occurs. This is evidence of a causal connection between performance and the orientation of the receiver (i.e., a term for subject or participant), the earth and the fixed stars.

This article described what may be an important discovery about nonphysical phenomena, especially as it relates to transcommunication. In the study, Spottiswoode examined the rather large collection of psychic ability experiments he had conducted over the years to see if they pointed to a relationship between sidereal time and the psychic proficiency of his subjects.  There was a direct relationship!  He then asked colleagues to conduct a new set of experiments to confirm his conclusions.  The results, and therefore the phenomena, were verified.

Sidereal time is star time and a sidereal day is approximately 3 minutes, 56 seconds shorter than a solar day.  Thus, Local Sidereal Time (LST) moves backward in solar time about four minutes a day, two hours a month and one day a year. Anywhere you are on the planet, at the same LST you will see the same stars overhead as anyone anywhere else will at that time.

The essence of the article we are referring to is that scientists have found a direct correlation between the sidereal time of day and success in psychic ability experiments.  The graph shown on this page is from Spottiswoode’s article and depicts “Effect Size” on the vertical axis and “Local Sidereal Time” on the horizontal axis.  “Effect Size” is the amount of deviation more or less than the expected normal for chance.  The horizontal line between 0.1 and 0.2 represents the average of the graph curve.  The line at 0.0 represents what would be expected with guessing.  We have added a vertical, dotted line at 13.5 hours and near 19.0 hours.

To quote the report, “Evidence has been given to support a relationship between the local sidereal time at which an anomalous cognition experiment occurs and the resulting effect size.  The primary association is an approximately four-fold enhancement in AC effect size at 13.5 h LST.  [Anomalous Cognition (AC)” seems to be a new term for Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)—Editor]  This association was found in one large data set and confirmed in another, each set comprising AC experiments with a range of free response protocols, from different laboratories and investigators.  It is likely that the increase of effect size for AC trials occurring at 13.5 h LST is real, replicable across different laboratories and occurs in the diverse protocols of the ganzfeld and remote viewing experiments.”

Psi functioning seems to be a real human ability, but while it is often reported anecdotally, there has been considerable difficulty proving under controlled conditions. It may be that this difficulty has been due to the fact that researchers have been conducting experiments at different sidereal times of day.  Almost a six-fold difference in performance of a psychic between 13.5 h and 18.9 h LST is substantial.  And remember, 13.5 hours LST changes in solar time each day.

The evidence suggests that there is something near or beyond the edge of the Solar System that is influencing our psychic ability.  Of course, experiments will need to be conducted to see if this influence affects EVP collection in the same way as psychic ability.  But, we have good reason to believe that there is a mediumistic relationship in EVP between the experimenter and the communicating entity.  And of course, mediumship is psychic ability turned toward spirit communications.

Besides explaining why psychic phenomena is so hard to prove, the reason the discovery of this relationship may be important to the study of transcommunication is that it points to an external influence on psychic ability.  It should be just a matter of time before someone figures out what that influence is and what in the human brain it is influencing.  Once that has been accomplished, it should be possible to enhance psychic ability with technology.

Source, Apparent Association between Effect Size in Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments and Local Sidereal Time, by S. James P. Spottiswoode, published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. II, No. 2, 1997.  You can find it at jsasoc.com.

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Using a Phone Line for EVP Collection

telcosim

Also see: Recording EVP Using a Telephone and EVP Using VoIP and Telephones

The above device permits the connection of a household phone (and phone line) to a tape recorder or computer soundcard for EVP voice recording purposes.

The device input taps directly onto the (undisturbed) phone connection wiring, with the output having a microphone (or sound card) audio plug via shielded cable.

When used in this way, the telephones are used as a modified form of tape recorder microphone for receiving EVP voices as per the standard microphone method. The procedure that has been mentioned previously in the AA-EVP newsletter may be useful – that is, letting the phone go “dead” after picking up the handset – then recording. A faint background sound source may be useful with this microphone method – perhaps a local radio tuned to static / low level voice babble.

If there are two phones on the same line, both may be used simultaneously (see later comments).

When used, the phone network supplies power to energize the telephones when the handset is lifted, and the device then channels the audio to the recorder or sound card.

Older models of telephone may work better with this method, one reason being due to them having the older carbon microphone, rather than the more modern electric version.

Circuit Details

The two 100N caps connected to the line are to isolate the phone line DC from the transformer, preventing any call set-up requests to the phone exchange when the device is connected (phone exchange will not sense this device). Device connects to red and green wires (in USA) of phone termination. Do not remove any existing wires at termination.

The transformer provides balanced input to unbalanced output, so the microphone plug can be grounded via the recorder without upsetting phone line balance.

The 100K / 4K7 resistors drop the line audio level so to be compatible with normal microphone input sensitivities.

The two cross connected diodes ensure that any ringing voltages do not damage the tape recorder (if the phone rings while this device is connected the tape recorder will not be damaged).

Construction

A metal enclosure would be preferable to avoid hum pick-up.

Shielded cable should be used between microphone plug and the box and its components. The metal case (if used) should be connected to the cable shield ground.


Simulated Local Telephone Network

(not connected to phone company)

telcosimA couple of stand-alone telephones can be energized locally to form a simulated network (see above diagram) for experimentation. The output shown, connects to the phone interface.

A 30V (approximately) supply is used to energize the phone, and this voltage is fed to the phone via two sets of relay coils and resistors. The coils ensure that derived audio is not attenuated by the power supply, and the resistors set the standing current flowing through the phones. This current should be set to 30mA per phone. If preferable, the power supply voltage can be altered instead, to achieve the 30mA.

The use of two telephones may provide advantage over a single unit for the purposes of EVP reception, as there is a circulating interaction of simultaneous audio currents between the two units, which may aid reception.

The two 2uF capacitors may not be needed if the above device only connects to the interface unit – as the interface already has DC input blocking.