Tom Butler

with Emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena

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.

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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

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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.

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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)

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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)
5. 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)
6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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)
9. 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

10. 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)
11. 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)
12. 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.
13. 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.”

14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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)
18. 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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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Your Immortal Self, Exploring the Mindful Way

Book’s dedicated web page

From the back cover

We Can Know the Nature of Reality

Our 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.

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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?

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References

2. Butler, Tom. “Trans-Survival Hypothesis.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/trans-survival-hypothesis/.
3. Parapsychological Association. org/home.aspx.
4. Butler, Tom and Lisa, Editors. “ATransC Online Journal.” Association TransCommunication. org/content-journal/.
5. Butler, Tom. “Cooperative Community.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/cooperative-community/.
6. Butler, Tom. “Personality-Centric Perspective.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/personality-centric-perspective/.
7. Senkowski, Ernst. “Instrumental TransCommunication.” World ITC. worlditc.org/c_07_senki_00_content.htm.
8. Butler, Tom. Your Immortal Self, Exploring the Mindful Way. AA-EVP Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-0-9727493-8-1.
9. Butler, Tom. “Becoming Lucid.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/becoming-lucid/.
10. Miller, Glenn M.D. “Voyager Syndrome.” Glenn Miller, Glenn M.D. com/voyager-syndrome.
11. Butler, Tom. “Implicit Cosmology.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/implicit-cosmology/.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. “Decision-making May Be Surprisingly Unconscious Activity.” Science Daily. sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145705.htm.
15. LaMorte, Wayne W. “The Social Cognitive Theory.” Behavioral Change Models. sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories5.html.
16. 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/.
17. 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.
18. Butler, Tom. “The Mindful Way.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/mindfulness/.
19. Butler, Tom. “EVP Online Phantom Voices.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/phantom-voices/.
20. Parrish, Shane et al. “The Distrust of Intellectual Authority.” Farnam Street. blog/2019/02/distrust-intellectual-authority/.
21. Parrish, Shane et al. “The Work Required to Have an Opinion.” Farnam Street. blog/2013/04/the-work-required-to-have-an-opinion/.
22. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Witness Panel.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/witness-panel/.
23. Butler, Tom. “Open Letter to Paranormalists: Limits of science, trust and responsibility.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/open-letter-to-paranormalists-science/.
24. Wagner, Stephen. “Edison and the Ghost Machine.” com Paranormal Phenomena. http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghostaudiovideo/a/edison-ghost-machine.htm.
25. Rogo, D Scott and Bayless, Raymond. Phone Calls From The Dead. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1979.
26. 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/.
27. Raudive, Konstantin. Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. New York: Taplinger, Colin Smythe, Ltd., 1971.
28. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “About the Directors.” Association TransCommunication. org/about-directors/.
29. “What is Anomalistic Psychology?” Goldsmiths, University of London. 2015. gold.ac.uk/apru/what/.
30. Simmonds-Moore, Christine. “What is Exceptional Psychology?” Journal of Parapsychology. 76 supplement, Pages 54-57, 2012.
31. Butler, Tom. “About Etheric Studies.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/about-etheric-studies/.
32. Sheldrake, Rupert PhD. “Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields.” Rupert Sheldrake. org/research/morphic-resonance/introduction
33. Butler, Tom. “Radio-Sweep: A Case Study.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/radiosweep-study1/.
34. Leary, Mark. “A Research Study into the Interpretation of EVP – Three parts.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/radiosweep-study2/.
35. Heinen, Cindy. “Information Gathering Using EVPmaker With Allophone: A Yearlong Trial.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/information-gathering-using-evpmaker/.
36. 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.
37. Butler, Tom. “Using Live Voice Input Files for EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/live-voice/.
38. Butler, Tom. “Perception of Visual ITC Images.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/visual-perception-study/.
39. Gullà, Daniele. “Computer–Based Analysis of Supposed Paranormal Voice: The Question of Anomalies Detected and Speaker Identification.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/gulla-voice-analysis/.
40. Butler, Tom. “How We Think.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/how-we-think/.
41. Butler, Tom. “Mind as Storyteller.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/mind-as-storyteller/.
42. Butler, Tom. “Glossary of Terms.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/glossary-of-terms/.
43. Butler, Lisa. “Recording Thoughts of the Living.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/recording-thoughts-of-living/.
44. Braude, Stephen E. “Survival or Super-psi?” Journal of Scientific Exploration. pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ba55/a4e7b8195a9e21c486620d33cf5a10de7306.pdf.
45. Talbot, Michael. The Holographic Universe. HarperPerennial, 1991.
46. Murrell, Beatrix. “The Cosmic Plenum: Bohm’s Gnosis: The Implicate Order.” Stoa del Sol. com/stoa_del_sol/plenum/plenum_3.html.
47. Copeland, Martha. “EVP Examples by Martha Copeland.” atransc.org/copeland-evp/.
48. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Being a Good Witness.” Etheric Studies. https://ethericstudies.org/being-a-good-witness/.
49. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Classifying Phenomena.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/classifying-phenomena/.
50. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Characteristic Test for EVP. Association TransCommunication. https://atransc.org/characteristic-test-for-evp/.
51. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: Sharing EVP.” Etheric Studies. http://ethericstudies.org/sharing-evp/.
52. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practice: The Scientific Method and ITC.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/scientific-method-itc/.
53. Butler, Tom (et al). “Best Practices: Control Recorder for EVP.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/control-recorder/.
54. Butler, Lisa. “Precursor Sounds in Physical Phenomena.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/precursor-sounds/.
55. MacRae, Alexander. The Mystery of the Voices. Self-published CD, Portree Skye, Scotland, 2000.
56. Copeland, Martha. I’m Still Here. AA-EVP Publishing, 2005. ISBN: 0-9727493-1-4.
57. MacRae, Alexander. “Report of an Anomalous Speech Products Experiment inside a Double Screened Room.” Southwest Ghost Hunter’s Association. sgha.net/library/MacRaeAnomalousSpeech.pdf.
58. Weisensale, Bill. “Eliminating Radio Frequency Contamination for EVP.” Association TransCommunication. Spirit Voices, Issue 3, 1981. org/eliminating-rf-contamination/.
59. Butler, Tom. “EVP Online Listening Trials.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evp-online-listening-trials/.
60. MacRae, Alexander. “A Report about Experimental Results.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/macrae-experimental-results/.
61. Presi, Paolo. “The Work at Il Laboratorio.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/presi-il-laboratorio/.
62. “Audacity Audio Management Program.” net/download/windows. audacity.sourceforge.net/.
63. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “Selecting an Audio Recorder.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/selecting-audio-recorder/.
64. Butler, Tom. “Classifying Phenomena.” Etheric Studies. https://ethericstudies.org/classifying-phenomena/.
65. 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/.
66. Butler, Tom. “The Formation of EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evp-formation/.
67. 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.
68. Butler, Tom. “The Energy Profile of Transform EVP.” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/transform-evp-study/.
69. Butler, Tom. “Notes on Survival.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/survival/.
70. Butler, Tom. “Perception.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/perception/.
71. 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.
72. Butler, Tom. “EVPmaker with Allophones: Where are We Now?” Association TransCommunication. atransc.org/evpmaker-study-where-are-we-now/.

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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.

You 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.