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Excerpts from There is No Death and There are No Dead

Dr. Konstantin Raudive, a psychologist, philosopher and Latvian then living in Sweden, read one of the Friedrich Jürgenson books. Raudive was intrigued with the voice phenomena, but skeptical, and asked if he could join Jürgenson for a recording session. After working with Jürgenson, he became convinced that the voices were real. Jürgenson taught Raudive how to record and from 1965 on, he devoted his time to the voice recordings. Both Raudive and Jürgenson were multilingual and the voices they recorded were a mixture of languages. These voices were unlike any normal voice broadcast. The speech was almost double the usual speed and the sound was pulsed in rhythms like poetry or chanting.²⁽²²⁶⁾

Many engineers, scientists and experts worked with Raudive over the years conducting voice experiments. Physicist, Professor Alexander Schneider, was one of them. In 1969, Raudive and Professor Schneider were jointly given the first prize awarded by the Swiss Association for Parapsychology for their work on direct voice messages on tape recordings.

Although not the first person to record EVP, Raudive is given a good deal of credit for being the first to bring Electronic Voice Phenomena to the attention of a larger audience. His book, The Inaudible Made Audible, was translated into English in 1971 and published by Colin Smythe, Ltd. under the title Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead.¹ In the preface to Breakthrough, Smythe wrote that, before publishing the book, he wanted to be sure that the voice phenomenon was real. He did some test recordings and thought that he heard a voice, but he could not understand it. He asked Peter Bander, the editor of Breakthrough, to listen to the tape. After listening, Bander heard a woman’s voice say in German, “Why don’t you open the door?” Bander recognized it as his mother’s voice. Bander and his mother had done all of their correspondence by tape and her voice was unmistakable. The message also made sense, because during the previous week, Bander had insisted on keeping the door of his office closed and his colleagues had teased him for his seclusion. Bander knew that Smythe could not understand German and so asked others to write down phonetically what they heard. They all heard the same thing.

The voices became known as “Raudive Voices” after Breakthrough was published. However, Colin Smythe and Peter Bander became more aware of Friedrich Jürgenson’s role and continued activity in voice phenomena research. It was obvious to them that a less personal and more accurate name needed to be coined for the phenomena. Peter Bander used the term, “Electronic Voice Phenomena,” in the introduction to his book, Carry on Talking. Smythe said that their policy to use the term, “Electronic Voice Phenomenon,” in an official sense was first carried out in a determined fashion in an article written by Malcolm Hughes in The Spiritualist Gazette, in April of 1973.

In 1971, controlled EVP experiments were conducted with Raudive by the chief engineers of Pye Records, Ltd.^{3 (59-63)} Precautions were taken to prevent freak pick-ups of any kind. Controls within the experiment also excluded random high or low frequencies being received. Raudive was not allowed to touch the equipment and was al-lowed only to speak into a microphone. No one present heard anything but Raudive speaking while the recording was being made. However, when the recording was played back, over two hundred voices were found on the eighteen minutes of tape. Many of these messages were personal and very evidential to those who were there. In his book, Carry on Talking, published in 1972, Peter Bander said that there was so much excitement from those who were there that the experiments continued into the early hours of the morning. Carry on Talking was published in the United States as Voices From the Tapes: Recordings from the Other World.³

In 1972, Belling and Lee, Ltd., at Enfield, England, conducted experiments with Raudive and the recording of the paranormal voices in their Radio Frequency Screened Laboratory.^3(65-67) Peter Hale supervised the experiments. Peter, a physicist and electronics engineer, was considered the leading expert on electronic-suppression in Great Britain. The Belling and Lee lab was used to test the most sophisticated electronic equipment for British defense and was expressly designed to screen out electromagnetic transmissions. Before the experiment, Hale had expressed his opinion that Raudive’s voices originated from normal radio signals. The lab’s own recording equipment was used for the test and paranormal voices, that should not have been there, were recorded on factory fresh tape. Peter Hale said after the experiment, “I cannot explain what happened in normal physical terms.”

From the section on Maggy Harsch-Fischbach and Jules Harsch: The Director of Timestream was a scientist named Swejen Salter.^4(10-14) She told the couple that she was a scientist who had lived in a parallel world and had never lived a life on earth. Salter made frequent telephone contacts to the Harsch-Fischbachs. As time passed many eminent ITC researchers from earth joined the group after their death, including Konstantin Raudive, Friedrich Jürgenson and Klaus Schreiber.

From Important Instances of Cross-Correspondence: On April 28, 1992, a French television crew visited Dr. Ernst Senkowski.^5(V11N3) The crew conducted an interview and then tried to record EVP voices without convincing results. Right before they were to leave, the phone rang and it was the deceased pioneer EVP re-searcher, Friedrich Jürgenson, on the line. Permission was granted to record the conversation in which Jürgenson first spoke in French and thanked the television crew. The conversation then continued in German and said that information would also come via the colleagues Homes and Harsch-Fischbach. Ernst wrote, “No outsider knew that the French television crew was here, or planned to be here as the date had been changed shortly before.”

The next day Ernst Senkowski spoke with Maggy Harsch-Fischbach on the telephone and she told him that she had had a seven-minute telephone call from Jürgenson before he had placed the call to Senkowski. Jürgenson told Maggy that they planned to send a picture through to the television set of the German researcher, Adolf Homes.

Over a month later, Homes’ daughter received a phone call from Raudive, which she recorded.^6(2/92) Raudive said that a picture of Jürgenson would come through Homes’ television the following day. Homes set up his video camera in front of the television the next day, with the television tuned to a blank channel. He turned the camera on and saw a face flash on the screen. At almost the same time a message from Jürgenson was placed on the computer of Maggy and Jules Harsch-Fischbach.^{5 (V11N3)} The picture received on the Harsch couple’s computer showed Swejen Salter, one of the main communicators for the group on the other side called Timestream, as she transmitted the picture of Jürgenson to the television set of Adolf Homes. The picture received on Homes’ television was only of the face of Jürgenson and it was the exact same picture that can be seen on the transmitting monitor in the middle of the picture sent to the Harsch-Fischbachs.

References

1. Raudive, Konstantin—Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead, New York: Taplinger, 1971. First published by Colin Smythe, Ltd. and still available at colin-smythe.com.
2. Ostrander, Sheila and Lynn Schroeder— Handbook of Psychic Discoveries, Berkeley Publishing Corp., New York, NY, 1975.
3. Bander, Peter—Voices From the Tapes: Recordings from the Other World, Drake Publishers Inc., New York, 1973. Initial German Language title: Carry on Talking.
4. Macy, Mark and Dr. Pat Kubis—Conversations Beyond the Light, Griffin Publishing, Irvine, CA, in conjunction with Continuing Life Research, Boulder, CO, 1995.
5. ATransC NewsJournal—Association TransCommunication, 1982-2003. atransc.org. Please note that the name of the AA-EVP newsletter was changed to the ATransC NewsJournal in 2003, atransc.org.
6. Info News—English edition of Cercle D’etudes sur la Transcommunicaton, Luxembourg, (Luxembourg Study Circle in Transcommunication,) Translation: Hans Heckman, US Publishing: Continuing Life Research, PO Box 11036, Boulder, CO, 80301. (No longer published.)

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Konstantin Raudive Reported Part of “Spirit Team” Working on Transcommunication

From In Pursuit of Physical Mediumship by Robin Foy, page 84*

Although we were still getting the independent voices following this Flint sitting, they did tend for a limited period to be short and concise—just the odd word or name. We obviously needed the further breakthrough and incentive of achieving sustained independent voice contact of the type we had witnessed at Leslie’s home in Bayswater.

Early in December 1977, through John’s trance,- Dr Dunn had more to say on the subject of the Brotherhood:

You may recall that I mentioned the Brotherhood. Well, at the same time, when I did so, I had the distinct impression that you were thinking of some esoteric figures, dressed in raiment rather like the Ku Klux Klan of America, or some phantom figures in flowing white robes.

I can assure you that this Brotherhood is nothing like that. In fact, the Brotherhood of which I speak is composed of people—scientists mostly—who were involved in this Spiritualism before their passing over to the spirit world, and they are currently working on a revival of “real” Spiritualism if you like.

Sir William Crookes is a member, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, too. There’s W T Stead, there’s Miles and Gurney. Lots of people like that, and this is the Brotherhood. They are trying to bring back physical phenomena again, and they are also in contact with Konstantin Raudive.

In fact, these are the two things which they are currently working on. They are interested in Raudive— we call it “Raudive,” in regard of this being an accepted term for it on this side, and they are very concerned that you recognize how important it is for this group to progress, now that you have drawn these people to you.

This brotherhood is not, as I have said, some esoteric clan, but these are very determined and anxious people—anxious in the sense that they are so incensed with the mediocrity that in many cases pass for mediumship these days—and they wish to bring something of repute back to the movement in which they were involved, because as you know, their names have been somewhat tarnished in the past, and indeed, presently too.

I was urged by Dr Dunn to continue my experiments with the EVP in addition to my circle work, and was told that I would be assisted by my spirit friend Elmer Browne and indeed, Konstantin Raudive himself, in this work.

Foy, Robin, In Pursuit of Physical Mediumship, Janus Publishing Company, London, England, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-85756-662-8

College Research paper by Thomas Wingert

The Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) is generally defined as the manifestation of sensible remarks of seeming paranormal origin on sound recording media, such as reel-to-reel tapes, audio cassettes, video tapes and recently computers. The voices, also known as “tape voices,” are often reasonable messages replying to corresponding questions, and in many cases, the contents of the messages and the characteristics of the speaker suggest that the recordings are transmissions by the deceased. The origins of these mysterious voices, their purpose and how it is possible are a hypothesis, and have been unexplained since their discovery four decades ago. Since extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, scientists only give credence to a theory if it can be proven by replication during a controlled experiment. If replication is not possible, then the subject remains a hypothesis. However, the existence of recorded paranormal voices on cassette tapes is undeniable and cannot be disputed by any logical argument.

In the spring of 1959, in Moelnbo, Sweden, the opera singer and painter Friedrich Jüergenson made what could be considered the most important discovery in the history of human kind. His book, Voice Transmissions With The Deceased, details his accidental discovery during the recording of birdsongs. During replay he realized that voices were addressing him by name. After thinking his tape recorder was defective, he soon realized that an invisible intelligence was trying to establish contact with him, and the originators later identified themselves as the deceased (Jüergenson, 1964).

Jürgenson pursued this phenomenon over many years and collected thousands of these voices until he was sure of its authenticity. He presented his conclusions to the public in 1963, which unleashed a diverse reaction. Scientists and audio experts examined the voices and performed their own recordings with their sealed tapes. Some of them were also addressed by name and received brief messages in regard to some personal matters, which only they understood. The absence of fraud was acknowledged by all involved. The Swedish media followed with many reports about the voices because his discovery seemed to offer proof for the existence of an afterlife. This revelation attracted many respected scientists such as Dr. Konstantin Raudive from Latvia, for his experiments yielded similar results. He published his book Breakthrough in 1971. Jürgenson’s publication also captured the attention of Professor Hans Bender from the Institute of Parapsychology in Freiburg, Germany, who traveled to Sweden confirming the authenticity of this phenomenon.

Many people were encouraged by Jürgenson’s book to conduct their own experiments, and to pass their experience on to others, which resulted in several EVP associations, and a wealth of information available to the public. A German EVP association, the VTF, was founded in 1976, in Wiesbaden, Germany, implementing the idea of “gathering experimenters under one roof” (VTF World Wide Web). The association provides quarterly newsletters, conducts scheduled weekend seminars at several locations in Germany and a major annual conference in the city of Fulda. The knowledge of this phenomenon has reached the United States and other English speaking countries in the 1980’s, since then, many people are pursuing EVP enthusiastically. For example, the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon, AAEVP, founded by Sarah Estep in 1982, is one of many American associations offering a wealth of information, including an e-mail list for members who share experience or discuss topics associated with this phenomenon. She published her book, Voices of Eternity, in 1988.

Recordings are conducted mostly by the use of a cassette recorder with a build-in microphone or preferably a separate microphone that is placed away from the recorder so it doesn’t record the vibrations of the motor, which is annoying when listening during maximum-volume replay. Evidence suggests that providing an energy source, i.e. “background noise,” aids the spirits in their attempt to communicate. A radio has been used as a background noise since EVP’s discovery; preferably it should be tuned to foreign news broadcast, which helps the experimenter hear messages received in English. However, objectivity is required, since English is a global language and may actually be part of the broadcast. In addition, the possibility of receiving a radio frequency from a radio station, passing airplane, police squad car, or taxi must be considered.

Many experimenters agree that a brand new cassette tape should be used to eliminate possible contamination of a previous recording, which is placed in the recorder, and the counter is set to “000”. Users are instructed to press “record” and start by stating their name, date and time, allowing each recording session to be identified later, followed by a greeting to the spirits, which is considered common courtesy. It is common practice to speak uninhibitedly with five to ten second pauses between statements or questions to allow for answers or comments. The pause is beneficial to the listener because it is difficult to hear the faint voices when they overlap one’s own voice. The duration of a recording session should be five to ten minutes, because the listening requires much time. A recording is ended by respectfully thanking the guests for attending and/or commenting. Finally, one should stop the recording, rewind and then listen.

It is generally emphasized that patience and perseverance are prerequisites for listening to the tape voices. This challenge can be most frustrating to an inexperienced person, who may be expecting results only a long distance telephone company can provide. Such demands are unreasonable, considering the subject; it seems a miracle to have any contact at all. Headphones that seal around the ear help to isolate distracting outside noises during listening, which requires practice and total concentration, since most voices are quiet and as if from a great distance. The focus necessary for listening can be compared to a football player who can tune out a stadium of 80,000 screaming spectators in order to hear the coach’s call out a play.

Some voices or messages are spoken rapidly or slow, whispered, sung, and very noticeably grammatically incorrect. The general hypothesis is that it is their way of proving the authenticity of the transmission, which could average approximately two seconds in duration. Since manifestations vary in quality, many have acknowledged a basic A, B, C classification. The definition of a class “A” voice is universally accepted and undisputed, because it must be understood by anyone with normal hearing and without being told or prompted what it says. They are rare, but a thrill when received. Class “B” voices are more common and usually audible to experienced persons who have learned the skill of listening or others after being told what to listen for. A class “C” voice is simply unintelligible, but may have paranormal characteristics, such as the rapid muffled double thump preceding a transmission, as if breaking through some barrier, or a mechanical sound that may be compared to an on/off switching. However, any sincere experimenter would apply objectivity and disregard it, since guessing is unaccepted. It is common for experimenters to mark their tapes and keep journals for reference.

Confirming an EVP manifestation is possible by using two identical tape recorders, one for recording and the other for playing the background source, such as a tape from a foreign audio book. For example, if a paranormal recording seems audible on the recorded tape, then one should listen to the background tape at the same spot on the tape counter, and see if there is a difference. It is this method that so far provides the best proof that a manifestation has occurred, and confirms the existence of EVP.

Yet the phenomenon is not officially recognized by most of the scientific community, because it seems that the laws of physics don’t quite apply to EVP, which may be impossible for a scientist to accept. Scientists are certainly able to control chemical reactions or experiments in physics, biology, and so on, but can they control human beings who have made the transition into the afterlife? It appears that the deceased are truly in control of any contact and only they decide if they want to talk or not.

Fortunately, this does not discourage some scientists in researching this phenomenon, for only scientific proof can be publicly accepted. Professor Imants Barušs from the Department of Psychology, Kings College, University of Western Ontario, published an article with the Journal of Scientific exploration, in which he details an experiment that resulted in the failure to replicate the electronic voice phenomenon. According to his article, he only found limited information on its history in parapsychology periodicals, various trade publications and newsletters in addition to an obvious absence of documentation about EVP in any mainstream English scientific journals (p355). Though his account of the experiment reflected a sincere attempt to replicate this EVP phenomenon; the experiment was flawed since it was based on very limited information that resulted in the implementation of basic mistakes in his procedures.

[Editor: See Failure to Replicate ITC for a discussion of Barušs report.]

For example, he did not conduct the experiment. Instead, two hired persons performed it that had no prior knowledge about the EVP phenomenon, consequently lacking basic awareness and listening skills so emphasized by many experimenters. Considering the experience of many involved with EVP, the duration of his recording sessions were excessive, leaving less valuable time for listening and unfortunately a waste of hard earned funding. One of his staff actually described hearing her name “Gail” called, and a female voice saying “Tell Peter”. She said that it sounded like a woman she knew that had recently died and whose husbands name is Peter; yet it was disregarded since Professor Barušs felt that it wasn’t strong enough (p363). Surprisingly, he mentions that no attempt was made to search the Internet [my emphasis] or to research foreign publications. His report consequently placed EVP in an unfavorable position. Perhaps if Professor Barušs read Jürgenson’s book, it would have provided him with much more insight to the matter and better fundamental information that could have influenced the outcome of his scientific experiment in favor of the phenomenon.

It is generally understood that even good research and preparation are not a guarantee for a successful recording. It may take several attempts, sometimes months, before a transmission has been recorded. This is puzzling, because evidence suggests that the deceased have amazing capabilities, including the ability to see us, answer a question before it is asked, manifest a recording in reverse or at different speeds, and they are multilingual. So why are many attempts unsuccessful? Why don’t they simply tell us how to improve the connection, such as constructing some ingenious electronic apparatus? No one knows. Perhaps their knowledge is limited and they don’t know, or they do, but prefer silence for a justifiable reason. One hypothesis may be answered by asking a question, “What would the global impact be if there were scientific proof of an existing afterlife?”

It seems reasonable to assume that the effects would be extremely diverse and not necessary positive. However, it is the class “A” voices that offer the best argument of the phenomenon’s authenticity, leaving no other logical choice but to recognize EVP as an unexplainable fact, and not a belief. The awareness seems to be steadily increasing on a global scale, for searching the World Wide Web with the keyword “electronic voice phenomenon” on AOL in June of 2002 resulted in 72900 hits. Apparently there is only one way to convince oneself of its existence, which is to do a recording by oneself, alone and with all possible interferences removed. If we as human beings understand this phenomenon or not, or accept its existence or not, it doesn’t matter, because all things considered, it seems EVP is here to stay.

Bibliography

1. Association TransCommunication (Formally AA-EVP). ATransC.org
2. Baruss, I. (2001). “Failure to Replicate EVP Phenomenon.” Journal of Scientific Exploration: Volume 15:3, Pp 355-367.
3. Bender, H. (1966) Parapsychologie: Entwicklung, Ergebnisse, Probleme. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
4. Bender, H. (1972). The Phenomena of Friedrich Juergenson: Journal of Paraphysics. 6,65-75. UK: Chatbum, vtf.de
5. Bender, H. (1973). Verborgene Wirklichkeit: Parapsychologie und Grenzengebiete der
   Psychologie. Olten, Freiburg i. Br.: Walter Verlag.
6. Estep, Sarah Wilson (1988). Voices of Eternity. New York: Faucett Gold Medal.  (Out of Print use eBook)
7. Juergenson, F. (2001). Voice Transmissions with The Deceased. (T. Wingert & G. Wynne, Trans.) Friedrich Juergenson Foundation, Sweden (Original work published 1964)
8. Raudive, K. (1971). Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with The Dead. (N. Fowler, Trans.). Gerrards Cross, UK: Colin Smythe. (Original work published 1968)
9. Schaefer, H. (1978). Stimmen aus einer anderen Welt: Chronik und Technik der Freiburg i. Br.: Bauer Verlag.
10. VTF (Verein fuer Tonbandstimmen Forschung). Homepage, vtf.de

Report on the 2006 AA-EVP Conference

(The name of the association has since been changed from AA-EVP to  Association TransCommunication)

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The conference was a complete success by all accounts. All of the speakers we present and prepared, the attendees were attentive and the media was out in force. By one account, the conference was the “International ITC event of the year.”

The Presentations

The Thursday Evening session was led by Tom and Lisa Butler. “EVP 101” is the title of the workshop Tom and Lisa teach. Portions of that were presented by them Thursday night. Should they decide to teach an Instructor Certification Course, EVP 101 would be in the core suite of lessons.

The presentation included a discussion about the characteristics of EVP presented by Lisa Butler, followed by a discussion about the basic “how to” for recording EVP. Experience has shown that individuals develop a personal, often unique way to record for EVP, but that it is best for people new to the field to first learn a way that is most likely to produce EVP. The instructions on the website provide the essence of those procedures. See Basic EVP Recording Techniques

Friday morning opening comments for the conference were especially important to Tom, because he managed to surprise Lisa with a new HP Palm Pilot, which would replace her often folded yellow paper “Personal Data Assistant.” Tom pointed out in the presentation that the conference would not have taken place were it not for Lisa’s initiative and hard work. Debbie Caruso was a fellow conspirator in helping Tom surprise Lisa.

Sarah Estep presented a brief introduction about her experience with EVP and then some of her best EVP examples were played, ending with a one minute EVP containing music thought to have been originated by Ludwig Beethoven.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Sarah was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

You can hear the Beethoven EVP here

 

 

 

Sonia Rinaldi described her work with EVP/ITC, in which she uses a computer and a video camera operating in a mirrored mode. We were all fascinated by the faces she is finding in the optical noise, as they are unlike any we are seeing from other researchers. This new site ipati.org

Laurie Monroe brought the attendees up to date about how The Monroe

Institute is learning to apply Hemi-Sync technology to improve human potential. One slide, in particular, seems to tell The Monroe Institute story: “The Monroe Institute proposes to introduce, at all levels of human endeavor, an ability of mental and spiritual functioning that will constructively change humankind’s direction and destiny.” monroeinstitute.com

 

We regret to inform you that
Laurie made her transition in 2006.

Paolo Presi presented the work of Il Laboratorio. To our knowledge, this is the only organization in the world that is organized and dedicated to the study of trans-etheric phenomena with the use of clinical/forensic quality tools. His detailed presentation illustrated how the voices of EVP might sound like the voice of the person while still in the physical, but that the formation of the voice is sometimes impossible to produce with a human voice apparatus. On a similar note, he also described how face recognition software is able to help certify that the face found in transcommunication is the same as the face of the person while in the physical. See The Work at Il Laboratorio for the transcript of Presi’s Il Laboratorio presentation.

Paolo Presi later translated the documentary video of Marcello Bacci, the man who continues to conduct two-way, real-time communication with people on the other side with a short wave radio. Bacci even brings family members into his home to speak with their discarnate loved ones. See The Instrumental Transcommunication Work Of Marcello Bacci for the transcript of Presi’s Bacci presentation

Mark Macy gave an overview of some of the astounding communications that occurred in Europe during the late part of last decade. This included reports of telephone conversations he has had with Konstantin Raudive after Raudive’s transition. Mark uses a device known as a “Luminator” to take ITC pictures. The device is believed to modify the subtle energy environment near it, and was initially used as an aid for medical diagnoses. Mark has found that he will sometimes find “extras” in Polaroid picture taken of peoples standing in the field. worlditc.org

Dr. Allan Botkin’s Induced After Death Communication (IADC) presentation produced a number of points that have to be further investigated. For instance, he told the attendees that he saw evidence that too much grief could block an IADC. He also said that it seemed very much like an assistant had shared an IADC with the patient. His IADC success rate had been less for patients who knew about the process beforehand, and that he sometimes needed to “sneak up on them” to make the induction. His success rate also seemed to be much greater if he doodled while with the patient. Gary Schwartz told us that many mediums doodled, which suggests an entirely new direction for research. induced-adc.com

Lisa Butler presented a number of success stories that are considered to be important role models for others to follow.

Tom Butler followed with the observation that it is time to standardize the way phenomena are

described, and suggested “Unique Event” for experiences with none other to compare, “Indeterminate Event” for “true” phenomena that cannot be distinguished from the mundane and “Established Event” for phenomena such as EVP. He also gave an overview of the forms of visual phenomena being reported to the AA-EVP. He finished with a description of the 4Cell EVP Demonstration, explaining how effective a protocol is for EVP research.

 

Long-time EVP researcher Alexander MacRae

gave the audience an overview of how he became an EVP researcher and how he has evolved his research tools. It was easy to see why his work is so often quoted by us.

Diana and Alan Bennett were instrumental in the successes of the Scole Project and have now turned their attention to visual forms of spirit communication with very impressive results, which they shared with attendees. We will try to include an article featuring the Bennett’s work in the next NewsJournal. Their technique is easily replicable in a mechanical sense, but Diana and Alan reminded the attendees how important it is for the person to make contact with the entities via meditation and respect.

Martha Copeland presented for the Big Circle and played many EVP examples. She invited Vicki Talbott and Debra Caruso to join her at the podium to describe their success with EVP. The fact that three mothers were able to tell the attendees about continuing their relationships with children now on the other side provides an important role model for all of us. About their talk, William Deluca wrote, “It gave me reassurance that what we are doing is for real and comforts us when we really need it.”

We regret to inform you that Debbie has made her transition.

 

The final presentation was made by Dr. Gary Schwartz who described his early work with survival researcher, Susy Smith, and the events that led to the development of his current research protocols. Gary’s study of

mediumship is producing an important, evidence-based map of what might be thought of as “organic” spirit communication, as opposed to the technology-augmented spirit communication practiced in EVP and ITC. His work has produced some of the most substantial evidence of postmortem survival of the personality available today.

Those of you who have followed Gary’s work will recognize that the 4Cell EVP Demonstration protocol has been inspired by the protocols he has developed in an effort to answer the critic’s questions. veritas.arizona.edu

We should note that the media was well represented at the conference by four documentary crews

 

Unless otherwise noted, photographs were taken by Jim Stonier

Author, Larry Dean has been working on a book on Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC).  Larry says that he was interested in spiritual pursuits at a very young age when others were out playing sports.  Later in his life he devoted most of his time to doing presentations and teaching classes on the development of psychic abilities and healing.  Although Larry is naturally clairaudient and clairvoyant, it was only after he stopped teaching these classes that he took time to develop his own trance work.

Larry is a deep trance channel.  His ITC partner, Patricia Begley facilitates and records the sessions.  It is generally only through her doing this, and the recordings she makes, that Larry knows what has taken place while he has been in trance.  Many years ago the two were told by their main guide, Choi, that their spirit team was working with them to establish Video ITC contacts.

Larry and Patricia worked together on sitting for physical phenomena for many years.  They were excited and encouraged by the ITC results of the Harsch-Fischbach, and were even able to sit in on some of the Scole Experimental Group sessions.  They continued to sit with a group and did experience limited physical phenomena, but did not achieve successful television or Video ITC contacts.  Larry talks about the years that they sat around looking at dots on television screens and featureless video experiments.

 

Larry made contact with the two of us over a year ago regarding the ITC book he is working on.  We spoke with Larry numerous times on the phone and found a common bond and interest in his enthusiasm for ITC.  Since we had also begun work on a book on EVP and ITC in late 2002, we were able to send Larry the two chapters on Video ITC that describe how to conduct an experiment and some of the theories that attempt to explain Video ITC.  We wanted to get his opinion about the usefulness of the chapters and to see if he could replicate what we were finding in our experiments.  Within weeks we received an excited phone call from Larry.  Larry and Patricia had followed the instructions and had received images on their very first experiment.  One of those pictures was that of a close friend who is now on the other side.

Larry has the wonderful benefit of being able to use his trance work to receive advice and direction on future experiments.  He was told to ask for particular people to appear in their experiments.  Larry and Patricia have only been working with video ITC for a few short months, but following that advice, they have received many images of people whom they have asked to appear in their video frames.  For instance, they have collected images of Patricia’s father and mother and also the image of Patricia’s Aunt Ethel, which is shown here.  (The first frame is a black and white photograph of Ethel.  The second frame is the ITC feature as it came to us.  The third frame is a black and white enhancement of the ITC, which was necessary to permit it to be printed in the ATransC NewsJournal.)

by Tom and Lisa Butler, 2001

Introduction

Many of you have heard of the American Association – Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP).  It is an Association founded by Sarah Estep in 1982 in the USA as her way of helping people learn about and experiment with EVP.  Sarah asked us to assume leadership of the AA-EVP in May of 2000, almost exactly eighteen years after the Association was founded.

The AA-EVP publishes a quarterly newsletter designed to keep members up to date on what other members are learning about and receiving through EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and ITC (Instrumental TransCommunication).  The newsletter provides news about EVP/ITC activities from around the world.  The Association now has a web site at aaevp.com to help the public learn about EVP/ITC and an email distribution service, in which members can exchange emails as a group.  The web site has sample EVP voices that can be listened to as well as transimages and Spirit Photographs that researchers have gotten.

The Association reports on people who hear from and capture images of those on the other side through all kinds of electronic devices.  Long gone are the days that messages and pictures were received only on simple tape records or cameras.  Today reports are received from people who get EVP by recording directly onto their computers.  Messages are received on answering machines, digital note takers and all manner of recording devices.  People also still report the phenomena of receiving a phone call from someone who has died.

Many people are still capturing spirit photographs with their cameras, but now more and more people are using their video cameras to receive what is called “transimages.”  The digital camera was bound to not be far behind and we have now seen transimages captured in this way.  Erland Babcock of the USA has made the change from experimenting with video ITC to working with a digital camera.  The interesting thing about his digital camera work is that, unlike the use of a feedback circuit in video ITC, Erland depends on background colors, textures and intensities to provide the needed optical energy.

One thing that is for certain is that those in other dimensions want to communicate with us and are using all manner of technology to do this.  As we make technological advances, they are quick to use them to communicate with us.

Many people use EVP/ITC to reach and communicate with loved ones that have passed into the next plane of existence and there are many interesting and wonderful stories that are shared.  One member received an EVP message from her dead husband, but she did not believe it.  He told her to take her camera, turn on the TV and take a picture.  She did and could make out that it was indeed her husband.  Another member consistently hears from two sisters who have gone to the other side.  They tell of how wonderful it is to be free of their physical bodies that were old and filled with disease.  They speak of being in a beautiful place.  Still others have reported receiving messages from those whom they did not know on earth but who tell them that they were related in a past life.  Researchers have even described both messages and transimages that come from those who claim to be what we would call extraterrestrial.

One of the interesting speculations AA-EVP members have discussed recently is that some EVP messages may actually be coming from the thoughts of living people.  Members have reported recording messages that seem to come from a person that is still on earth.  We recently ran a sleep experiment in which we tried to reach Sarah Estep while she was sleeping and she did the same with us.  Messages were recorded that indicated that we were both receiving messages from the other experimenter while they slept.

Several experimenters receive loud EVP messages without using any background noise.  However, most EVP experimenters provide background noise while recording.  Simple noise generators, such as a fan in the room or a radio turned off station, are commonly used. Special noise generators are also used, such as the germanium device that is often referred to as the Scole Device.  It is thought that the entities modulate this energy into intelligible phrases.  Adding noise seems to increase the volume at which the EVP are received.  Sometimes, even the words spoken by the experimenter are changed to form EVP messages.

Central to EVP research findings is energy—both physical and etheric.  For instance, in a séance, the energy brought to the room by the participant’s sense of community and great expectations can be compared to the energy of the sound noise just discussed.  The entities seem to use all kinds of energy to communicate.  This may be communication through a medium as a spirit greeting or through devices as are used in EVP experiments.  This idea also suggests that direct voice in a séance may be facilitated with the addition of sound energy in the room.  It would be interesting to see if this is true.

There is some evidence that the experimenter is part of the recording circuit.  That is to say that the experimenter’s mediumship or psychic ability may have an influence on the quantity and quality of EVP messages and transimages.  There is disagreement about this as some successful experimenters do not believe that they have mediumistic abilities.  Also, members with a science background would like this concept to be better researched before such statements are made.

Experimenters have reported that they have better contact for a while when they try a new recording technique.  It appears that the experimenter’s enthusiasm is shared by the entities.  However, once the newness of the approach wears off, the quality of contact often returns to “average.”  From this, researchers are beginning to conclude that it is important for them to experiment when they are “fresh” and interested, rather than when they feel they have to record to maintain a schedule.

AA-EVP members have varied interests.  There are many that are active in recording EVP and ITC.  Others belong to the Association because they are interested in keeping up with EVP/ITC and want to support the effort to improve the understanding of this phenomenon.  There are also members who are actively involved in EVP/ITC research.

Alexander MacRae of Scotland has focused on the acoustical properties of EVP with a device that has given him good results. Alec is well aware of the need for good science in EVP and continues to devote much of his time to research, education and documentation.

Mark Macy of the USA is a long-time contributor to EVP and ITC.  His authoritative work is published around the world.  Mark is currently experimenting with a Luminator (Bioluminator developed by Patrick Richards).  As Mark has told us, “For ITC, I like the fact that the Luminator seems to melt away some of the subtle barriers between our physical world and the spiritual worlds that are superimposed over our reality.”  Photographs taken of people setting in the Luminator field seems to show the presence of nonphysical entities.

Tina Laurent is an active researcher in the UK.  She has been involved in this research for 20 years and personally knew many of the people who originally made the phenomena of EVP known to the public.  She regularly lectures on the subject and many of you have probably read her article on EVP that was published in The Spiritual Scientist.

Anabela Cardoso is receiving excellent communication from those on the other side who say that they are part of the group, Timestream.  She publishes the excellent ITC Journal that documents her contacts and includes articles from renowned researchers and specialist in ITC.

Jacques and Monique Blanc-Garin provide an excellent French journal called Le Messager.  They were recently given an award for the work, conferences that they do in the ITC field.

Finally, Dale Palmer of the USA, along with his family, has formed the Noetics Institute. [Editor: The the Noetics Institute is no longer in existence] Through the Noetics Institute, and working with Brazilian ITC researchers, Dale has funded the establishment of a web site designed to permit the public to log on and conduct EVP/ITC experiments.  This is no small undertaking.  It has been necessary to purchase considerable computer capacity and to develop new software.  The site is currently in the early stages of testing, but it should be on line soon.  Keep an eye on the AA-EVP web site for the announcement and the new web address.

The list of active EVP/ITC researchers is long.  As the veterans retire from research, new people are becoming interested enough to step forward and continue the work.  The AA-EVP has been working with groups around the world in an effort to find ways to further research in EVP/ITC.  We see our leadership with the AA-EVP as an extraordinary opportunity to bring together these discoveries and make them accessible to whomsoever may be interested.  In this way, we hope to promote further research.  We consider the work done at Scole very important to this effort.  As we see it, all forms of transreality communication hold the potential to improve Humankind’s understanding of the nature of our reality and the knowledge that death is simply a continuation of our present life.

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This article was initially published in The Spiritual Scientist, A magazine of the Spiritual Science Foundation (more commonly known as the Scole Group).  The Scole Group has established a substantial presence in the world as a confederation of small development groups who follow the Scole method for mediumship and group development.  If you are interested in starting a home circle for séances and mediumship development for spirit communications, please take a look at the Scole Group website.

The Butlers had just assumed leadership of the AA-EVP when they wrote this article. Much has been learned since.

Originally published in the Winter 2004 ATransC NewsJournal

The Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary defines coincidence as, “1. (esoteric) (Carl Jung) two events occurring simultaneously, having no known cause-and-effect connection and unrelated in nature but showing a meaningful response, indicating some kind of intelligence link.”

If you have read our book, There is No Death and there are No Dead, you know that we attended a transfiguration séance at the Golden Gate Spiritualist Church in San Francisco last May. The church is an amazing place full of historical items. Some of these items are spirit paintings painted by a spirit artist during sittings given by the Reverend Florence Becker. During these one to two hour sessions, a blank canvas was set out for the spirit artist to work with. The people attending the séance sat in total darkness, continuously singing until a loud clap was heard. The clap signaled that the painting was complete. When the lights were turned on, the canvas was seen to hold a portrait or scene with still wet paint. The spirit painting was then covered with a black cloth and placed away from light for over a year. It was known that, without this period of darkness, the precipitated painting would fade away.

Most of the spirit paintings were presented to Reverend Becker’s students or church members and were returned to the church upon the recipient’s eventual transition to spirit. The total number of such paintings is unknown but twenty-five have been returned. The earliest known spirit painting was completed in 1911.

In October 2003 we gave a workshop at the National Spiritualist Association of Churches annual Conference in San Francisco, California. While there, a woman approached us with two photographs. One was of a spirit painting that was precipitated at a Reverend Becker séance. It was a painting of a vase of roses. While at the Golden Gate Church, we remember seeing several of the wonderful spirit paintings, but not the painting of roses. The other photograph was of another painting of roses that the woman had found in a restaurant in the California Gold Country. The two were somewhat alike, as you can see by the photographs, and she thought we might be interested in the “coincidence.”

In early November of 2003 we conducted an investigation in the Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe, Nevada with Janice Oberding (www.hauntednevada.com). It was a large place and it required hours of work to analyze the audio and video we collected during the investigation. (Hear the “Hidden Morphine” example below) Janice writes books about haunted places and was talking to us about a haunted antique store she had discovered, even as we were working on the Thunderbird material. As she was speaking about this new location, I could only think about all the work that we had stacked up and that I was not going to let her get us interested in another investigation. We simply had more to do than we could handle! So I listened, but assured myself that we were not going to get involved!

A few days later an email came from Janice informing us of the address for the haunted antique store on her website and asking us to let her know what we thought. The first thing that I saw on the recommended page was a painting of roses with a title, “Haunted Painting.” To say my mouth dropped open is an understatement. We immediately tore through the house to find the photographs that had been given to us at the convention in San Francisco. Holding the picture of the spirit painting beside the picture of the “haunted painting,” we could see that the similarities were unmistakable. The form and location of each rose and leaf is the same. There is an additional bunch of roses on the table in the antiques store version. This is exactly the location of the spirit artist signature in the original. There is also a difference in the color of the roses. The spirit painting roses are toward the red shade. The roses in the painting in the antique store are pink.

Janice later explained that the rose painting had been the property of the owner’s mother. She loved the painting and even painted a room of the house to match the pink of the roses. When her mother transitioned, the daughter turned the home into an antique store. The rose painting was among the antiques for sale.

As the story was told to us, she had agreed to sell it to a man who helped in the store and was a boarder in an upstairs room. That very night the painting fell off the wall damaging an electrical outlet and nearly starting a fire. A few weeks later the man mentioned that they had not set a price for the painting and its sale was once again discussed. The painting again fell off the wall that evening, even though it was hung with an eight penny nail. After this the proprietor told the man that she felt the painting did not want to be sold.

The next day we were all in the car, making the drive to the antique store. The first thing that we asked after meeting the owner was if she knew anything about Spiritualism. She answered, “Have you ever heard of the Reverend Florence Becker?” We learned from the ensuing conversation that her mother had lived near San Francisco and attended Reverend Becker’s sittings in the late 1950s. The daughter felt that the painting was from the late 1800s but the painting is not signed or dated. The Becker painting is dated 1916 and signed by the spirit artist, Rapierre.

While we were there, we recorded for EVP around the painting. We feel that we possibly heard from the woman’s mother, who via EVP, reassured the daughter that she was pleased with what she had done to the home through renovations. We then asked if the painting would like to be in a Spiritualist household and received a “Yes” and another EVP saying, “We are not happy here.” We asked if the painting would like to be returned to the Golden Gate Church and also got an affirmative answer.

The owner will not sell the painting and is actually afraid that some terrible thing will befall her or the store if the painting were to be removed even for a few minutes. We did not share the EVP that we received regarding the painting. This would not be ethical considering her feelings about the painting. We have no idea who was speaking to us through EVP, and as we all know, this could have easily been a trickster. So, we really do not know the meaning of this series of events. The relationship and similarity of the painting is obvious. We feel that the haunted painting is most likely a copy of the original, which was a gift from the spirit artist to Reverend Becker for her work and dedication. The rose painting hung over the fireplace at Reverend Becker’s house during the late 1950s. A photograph could have been taken of it and a copy made. Still this was a most interesting experience and we wonder if the story is not yet over.