Journal

Part I

Published in the Winter 2013 ATransC NewsJournal
Read Part 2 and Part 3

Introduction

Anyone who has listened to even a few EVP recordings knows how difficult they are to interpret. Listeners often disagree, sometimes strongly, regarding what a particular EVP seems to say, which raises questions about the validity of each person’s interpretation. Yet, the usefulness of EVP depends on the degree to which investigators can trust one another’s interpretations of the EVP that they record. Although a great deal has been written about the possible mechanisms that produce EVP and the types of equipment that are most effective in recording them, EVP enthusiasts have devoted far less attention to problems associated with interpreting the sounds that are recorded.

After observing repeated disagreements among investigators (and rarely feeling that the interpretations of EVP on paranormal television shows match what I hear), I undertook a study to examine how serious the problem really is. The study that I conducted had two main goals: to document the degree to which investigators agree or disagree on their interpretations of EVP and to create a means of identifying which interpretation of a particular EVP is most likely to be “correct.”

The Study

To obtain a set of EVP for analysis, I contacted a number of paranormal investigators who had conducted systematic investigations at the Ferry Plantation House in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I received over 250 EVP, from which I chose 94 that were among the clearest in terms of having obvious vocal characteristics. These recordings came from eleven investigators who recorded them across seven different investigations. In general, investigators seemed to submit what they viewed as particularly good EVP, all of them recorded without a background noise source.

I then recruited 24 individuals (10 men, 14 women) with paranormal investigation experience to listen to and interpret the 94 audio clips. The raters ranged in age from 29 to 62, with an average age of 46. All but two of them currently belonged to active paranormal investigation groups.

The raters were sent a CD with the audio clips, along with a form for interpreting the EVP and a background information questionnaire. Raters listened to each EVP as many times as needed, wrote down each word that they heard (putting an asterisk for any words they could not understand), indicated any emotion that they detected in the voice, and rated their confidence that their interpretation of the EVP was correct. The background questionnaire asked about raters’ age and sex, their interests and beliefs in the paranormal, and included a brief measure of basic personality dimensions (such as extraversion, emotional stability and agreeableness).

Determining Agreement

Although we can never know for sure what an EVP “really” says, my analysis of raters’ interpretations was based on the assumption that a particular interpretation of an EVP that is made independently by several people is more likely to be “correct” than an interpretation that is made by only a few individuals. For example, if seven out of ten people who listen to an EVP hear exactly the same words, two other individuals hear a different set of words and the remaining person hears something else entirely, the interpretation on which the seven people agreed would be more likely to reflect the actual sounds than the other individuals’ idiosyncratic interpretations.

Thus, to begin, I determined a “consensus interpretation” for each EVP by counting the number of times that raters reported hearing various words. For example, whatever first word was heard by the most raters became the first word of the consensus interpretation. Whatever second word was heard by most raters was the second word of the consensus interpretation, and so on. In this way, I came up with the most common (or consensus) interpretation for each EVP.

With the consensus interpretation in hand, I then calculated the percentage of raters who agreed with the consensus interpretation. This number could range from 0% (no two raters reported hearing the same thing) to 100% (all raters agreed with the consensus interpretation) and is an index of the degree to which raters independently agreed in their interpretations of each EVP.

Of the 94 EVP, the one with the highest agreement (“What’s going on?”) was listed by 83% of the raters. That is, 83% of the raters listed the consensus interpretation for this EVP. However, the overall agreement for the entire set of EVP was much lower. Across all 94 EVP, average agreement with the consensus interpretation was only 21%. In other words, only about 1 out of 5 raters gave an interpretation that agreed with the most common (and, presumably most “accurate”) interpretation.

When analyzed at the level of particular words rather than the entire EVP, average agreement was 35%. Raters agreed with the most common interpretation of each specific word on about 1 out of every 3 words on average.

Some of the EVP not only had 0% agreement, but the various interpretations sometimes differed wildly. For example, one EVP that had no agreement on any words across raters was interpreted as saying, among other things: “Deep inside there’s a pickup;” “Keep those hidden Mr. Gel;” “He comes out here;” “Go outside and just lean on it;” “Get it tight, got to stretch it;” “Don’t try to persuade them;” “Get us out Mr. Kant;” and “I need the guns out if this is what you’ll do.” These various interpretations do not even contain similar phonemes.

Incidentally, the percentage of agreement with the consensual interpretation can be used as a way of assessing the clarity of an EVP. Historically, investigators have classified EVP as Class A, B, or C depending on how easily listeners can hear a message. But calculating the percentage of people who independently agree with the most common interpretation is a more precise and unambiguous indicator of the quality and clarity of an EVP than classifying it into one of three categories. Every EVP would have a score from 0 (no consensus; this EVP cannot be interpreted) to 100 (complete consensus; this EVP is so clear that everyone hears exactly the same thing).

Emotional Content

Raters indicated whether they detected any emotion in the voice. The majority of the EVP (63.5%) had no discernible emotional tone. However, raters indicated that some EVP expressed sadness (9.7%), anger or irritability (8.2%), urgency (7.7%), or happiness (6.3%).

Setting aside the fact that most of the EVP had no emotional tone, when an emotion was detected, on average only 12.7% of the raters agreed that a particular emotion, such as anger or sadness, was present. Thus, raters showed even less agreement in detecting emotion than in interpreting the content of the EVP.

Interestingly, raters’ tendency to hear emotions in the EVP was related to their own personalities. For example, raters who scored higher on the measure of extraversion reported “happiness” in the voices more frequently, raters who scored higher on the measure of agreeableness reported hearing both more “happiness” and more “anger,” and those who scored higher on emotional stability heard more “happiness” expressed. Raters’ interpretations of emotional tone sometimes reflected their own personalities as much as the actual features of the EVP.

Rater Confidence

For each EVP, raters indicated how confident they were that their interpretation was correct on a 4-point scale (where 1 = not at all, 2 = a little, 3 = moderately, and 4 = very confident). Across all EVP, raters’ confidence averaged between “a little” and “moderately” confident (average confidence was 2.5 on the 4-point scale). To see if raters who were more confident of their interpretations were more likely to hear what other raters heard (the consensus interpretation), I correlated raters’ confidence judgments with the number of their interpretations that agreed with the group’s consensus interpretation. The correlation was rather weak, indicating that being confident that one’s interpretation is correct does not usually reflect that other people will hear the same thing.

Differences Among Raters

I calculated an index of personal agreement that tells us how good each rater was at hearing the most common interpretation. Individual raters agreed with the group consensus between 17% and 35% of the time, with an average of 22%. That is, the “best” rater agreed with the group consensus interpretations on 35% of the EVP, and the “worst” rater agreed on 17% of the EVP. When analyzed at the level of the word rather than the entire EVP, the percent of raters who agreed with the group consensus varied from 31% to 51%, with an average of 38% of the words. So, if we play the average EVP to a large group of people, the average person will agree with the consensus interpretation of the entire EVP 22% of the time but agree with 38% of the words.

I analyzed whether any of the characteristics of the raters mattered in their agreement with the consensus interpretation. Although we might expect that experience with EVP might be related to interpretation ability, the degree to which raters agreed with the consensus interpretation was not related to the number of EVP that they had personally recorded, their years of involvement in paranormal investigations, the number or content of paranormal television shows they watched, basic personality dimensions, their age, or the nature of their beliefs in the paranormal. The only variable that was significantly related to agreement with the consensus interpretation was gender. Women’s interpretations agreed with the consensus interpretation 4% more often than men’s interpretations (24% vs. 20%). I’m not sure what to make of this finding.

Most raters’ interpretations were meaningful phrases, but some gave phonetic interpretations even if they did not make semantic sense. For example, on one EVP for which there was no consensus, some raters gave meaningful interpretations (such as “Hey we sung in the chorus” or “That is so great, Cory”), whereas other raters wrote down what they heard even though it didn’t make sense (such as “Hack me some green course” and “Hey peace and grin Coreys”). Investigators should consider whether imposing meaning on an EVP may lead them to “hear” words that help the phrase make sense but that might be incorrect.

The raters also differed in their willingness to leave blanks. Raters were told to use an asterisk when they couldn’t interpret a particular word. Some raters used asterisks regularly, but others did not use them at all. Given that we can assume that no rater was perfectly confident of every word, those who interpreted words they didn’t understand probably made more misleading interpretations than those who admitted that they didn’t understand certain words.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The results of this study suggest that investigators should be less confidence in their interpretations of EVP than they typically are. On average, the most common interpretation of each EVP was shared by only 22% of other people. And, of course, all interpretations other than the most common, consensual one had even less agreement. In fact, most of the raters’ interpretations were not given by any other listener! Furthermore, raters were not particularly good at judging the correctness of their interpretations. Thus, having the sense that “I’m sure this is what it says” does not indicate that other people will agree with one’s interpretation (or that it is actually correct).

These results lead me to offer four recommendations for the responsible interpretation of EVP:

1. In light of the fact that any particular investigator’s interpretation of an EVP is not likely to be shared by other people and that people’s interpretations are biased by what they expect to hear, investigators should never interpret an EVP for other people without playing it for them several times and soliciting their independent interpretations.
2. If the interpretation of a specific EVP is particularly important (such as when it is being interpreted for grieving family members), investigators should use a scaled-down version of the procedure used in this study. Have at least 10 people independently listen to the EVP and determine the consensus interpretation, if any. Then report an interpretation of the EVP to others only if a majority of listeners agrees on that interpretation. In some cases, it may be helpful to report more than one potential interpretation, along with the percentage of people who agreed with each one. Providing listeners with such data is a more honest and responsible way to share EVP than to offer a particular interpretation that might, in fact, be idiosyncratic.
3. Investigators should be willing to refrain from interpreting ambiguous EVP. Providing a questionable interpretation as if it is certain is misleading, if not sometimes dishonest. Just because an EVP cannot be interpreted does not mean it is not a useful piece of evidence, so investigators should not interpret EVP that are unclear.
4. Paranormal investigation groups and EVP practitioners should have formal guidelines for the interpretation of EVP that minimize the likelihood that they will offer interpretations of EVP—whether to other group members, clients, or outsiders—that are expressed with greater confidence than the objective evidence warrants. Investigators should exercise greater care in sharing their interpretations of EVP, and procedures should be in place to ensure that clients, other investigators and the public are not inadvertently misled regarding interpretations of an EVP.

Read Part 2

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With a Ph. D. in social psychology, Dr. Leary is a research psychologist who studies topics related to self-awareness, motivation, and emotion. He has conducted research on topics such as reactions to social rejection, the effects of excessive self-attention, people’s concerns with their social images, and the relationship between personality and behavior. He is on the editorial boards of several scientific journals in social psychology and recently released a psychology course on DVD entitled “Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior.”

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Editor’s Note

For an additional study of how people hear EVP, please refer to the article EVP Online Listening Trials in the ATransC online Journal.

“Radio-sweep” is a generic name for EVP thought to be formed using sound produced by sweeping a radio dial. In principle, it produces a form of EVP referred to as “opportunistic EVP.” Please review Locating EVP Formation and Detecting False Positives and Radio-Sweep: A Case Study. Also see the article on page 9: “A Two-Year Investigation of the Allegedly Anomalous Electronic Voices or EVP.”

by Tom Butler
Previously published in the Fall 2012 ATransC NewsJournal

Abstract

A frequent source of consternation for people who are asked to listen to EVP examples is their failure to hear what is reported. It is expected there will be some disagreement between listeners and practitioners. That is the nature of EVP (see Online Listening Study). However, a problem develops when listeners report hearing only noise, and doing so with example after example from the same practitioner when the practitioner insists there are paranormal voices in the examples. The question necessarily must turn to why the practitioner is hearing what others do not.

For this study, sound file containing only noise were presented to ATransC.org online listeners who were told there was only noise and were then asked to report what they heard. The study confirmed the prevalence of people who report hearing “phantom voices.” the study includes a discussion as to why this may be.

Introduction

The evidence is very clear that there are examples of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) that contain clearly understood messages. EVP are empirically demonstrated phenomena. Yet, a commonly heard complaint is that websites concerned with the paranormal often have examples of EVP that sound like simple noise.

 

 

Website visitors have used the contact tool to announce that they are receiving astoundingly long and important EVP, which on close examination, have proven to only contain noise. Yet, others have provided excellent, clearly heard examples. So what is the difference? What leads one person to hear messages where there is only noise while others do not?

 

The prevalence of this “phantom voices” phenomenon is increasingly evident as more people become involved in EVP. The resulting confusion is seen as an obstacle to useful collaboration amongst practitioners and certainly must warn off potential researchers.

Listening Test

To develop more understanding of the problem of phantom voices, the ATransC conducted an online listening study using two sound files. One contained simple brown noise (emphasis on voice-frequencies) and the other contained broad-spectrum noise modulated with audio pulses that simulate the cadence of speech. It was clearly stated that neither example contained voice. Possible explanations about what might cause a person to hear phantom voices were included above the hearing test and what was in the files was clearly stated.

Results

Of the 111 submissions, 15.3% (17) reported hearing voices in the brown noise file and 27.8% (33) reported hearing voices in the modulated file. That means that 39% (43) 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.

Analysis

This was an informal study in the sense that there were no controls. Although respondents were asked how the samples were listened to, it is mostly unknown if the samples were heard under optimum conditions. It is also reasonable to ask if respondents would be candid about hearing voices they were told were not present. There is probably a natural selection of respondents which biases the results away from “hearing voices” reports. The website receives nearly a thousand visitors a day and receiving only 111 responses to the study over more than a year suggests that many who might have read the discussion prior to listening to the sound files, and subsequently heard voices, chose not to respond. For the purpose of future study, it is hypothesized that at least 43% might hear voices in sound files which are not present.

Theory

The phantom voices phenomenon appears to have a number of possible causes ranging from mental illness to the natural human tendency to make sense of ambiguous stimuli. Mental illness does not appear to be a factor for EVP; however, in the most extreme examples, there does appear to be a complex of common behaviors which may imply a situational fixation on hearing voices. This is addressed below in “Listener Fatigue.”

Hypnagogia

There are a number of mental characteristics described in the psychological literature that touch on this experience, but hypnagogia seems to be a key concept. It is defined as: Inducing sleep; soporific [sleepiness]; drowsiness preceding sleep; relating to the images or hallucinations sometimes experienced in this state. According to Gurstelle and de Oliveira,¹ “…daytime parahypnagogia (DPH) is more likely to occur when one is tired, bored, suffering from attention fatigue, and/or engaged in a passive activity….”

The mind will naturally seek order in chaotic stimuli (see “Perceptual Order” below). The order is apparently based on what is in the person’s memory, so the almost-heard sounds have a familiar feel for the experiencer. A common report received by the ATransC is hearing voices or music for which the source cannot be found or recorded. In most reports, the sounds are described as a distant conversation or the sound of a radio program that can “almost” be made out, but no specific words or songs can be identified. As it happens, the phantom voices are often associated with a person who is distracted by activities that permit the person’s mind to wander. They may also be experienced at the beginning and end of sleep time.

Experiencers often resist mundane explanations, and insist they are experiencing something paranormal.

Audio Illusion

There are also a number of types of auditory illusions that have been identified. A good article about these is “Audio illusions that will fool your ear (and brain)” by Rich Pell.² One such illusion is described as “The phantom words illusion,” which is simply the same two words being repeated over and over but time displaced between the left and right channel. This demonstrates how easy it is to hear words and phrases that are not there, and even hear them change, as the brain attempts to make sense of the aural ambiguity. This is a pretty interesting effect!

Passive Concentration

Perhaps a better term for hypnagogia would be “passive concentration” because the person has focused attention, but not with concentrated awareness. This distraction from the inner chatter of the brain leaves the mind open for unnoticed inputs.

In principle, the hypnagogic state of mind is ideal for our etheric communicators to commune with our otherwise too busy mind. Passive concentration is a spontaneous version of mindful meditation which is a deliberately cultivated technique for communing with one’s inner senses and is an important technique for mediumship. The important point is that we must recognize the part these natural tendencies play in our perception of phenomena.

Apophenia and Pareidolia

Apophenia is a term used in psychology for the mind’s natural tendency to identify patterns where none exist. Pareidolia is a subset of apophenia which applies to finding meaning in sound or images that does not exist. Skeptics love to use these terms to explain away reports of paranormal experiences. When applied to all reports with no examination of the evidence, these terms are, in effect, psychobabble used to explain why people reporting paranormal experiences are imagining things. The term, “apophenia” does not apply to simple cases of misidentification such as a balloon being identified as a UFO or a fellow investigator’s reflection being mistaken as a ghost in a mirror. It applies to the result of the mind’s need to find order in chaos. When presented with information the mind is unable to identify or make sense of, its natural reaction is to offer up the next best fit. If the person is intent on finding voices in noise, the mind will probably offer a likely word or two.

Some reports of the paranormal may be instances of apophenia. The study of things paranormal often involves poorly formed images and hard to understand sound files which must be carefully studied. A person who is unfamiliar with the concept of mediumship, and who does not know it is possible to sense subtle energy, may be inclined to express a natural fear of the dark as a “sense of a nearby evil entity.” Such responses to unfamiliar experiences are not evidence of a psychological flaw, but are natural human attempts to relate to circumstances. The “antidote” is education.

Perceptual Order

In Gestalt psychology, the whole is seen as being different than the sum of its parts. In this, the observer might find understanding where there is little or no substantiating information. The Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization³ also provide possible explanations for the natural human tendency to find order in chaos. They include:

The Law of Similarity: Similar stimuli or elements that are close together tend to be grouped.

The Law of Closure: Stimuli tend to be grouped into complete figures.

The Law of Good Continuation: Stimuli tend to be grouped so as to minimize change or discontinuity.

The Law of Symmetry: Regions bound by symmetrical borders tend to be perceived as coherent figures.

The Law of Simplicity: Ambiguous stimuli tend to be resolved in favor of the simplest.

Clairaudience

Clairvoyance or “clear seeing” has become a catchall term for the ability to sense information in subtle energy. This may be in the form of voices, images, smells or a general “knowing.” It is possible that a person might hear voices in a soundtrack containing only noise, via clairaudience, if none are physically present. However, in the study of EVP, the voices are either physically there or they are not. If they are there, then others should be able to experience them. They are objective, meaning they have physical form. Understanding this point is central to the study of how transcommunication is experienced.

Listener Fatigue

EVP practitioners spend a lot of time listening to often noisy audio recordings. The expected EVP are usually mostly hidden by the noise and one must listen very carefully to distinguish them. Once isolated, the paranormal utterances are usually Class C, meaning they are not very easily understood. This makes it necessary for the practitioner to concentrate and listen to the sound segment many times. This situation is a formula for noise to be mistaken as anticipated EVP.

Discussion

The first documentation of EVP was in 1959 and the phenomenon remains poorly understood today. Fundamentally, the examples are just sound tracks usually containing a lot of noise and a few, often poorly formed words.

With proper training, usually gained by trial and error, with feedback from friends or people on the ATransC Idea Exchange, the practitioner learns to recognize the difference between actual voices transformed out of background noise and imagined messages. However, in cases in which this learning has not occurred, practitioners have been known to find meaning which does not exist in the noise. For all of the reasons one might propose to explain this, the most available means of avoiding problems with phantom voices is education.

This study should provide a sense of how common it is for individuals to mistake mundane information as something paranormal. The phantom voices effect is not unique to EVP, but can be seen in virtually all forms of transcommunication including visual ITC and mediumship. While this report addresses what has been called here, “phantom voices,” the larger phenomenon might be referred to as a form of hyperlucidity as the experiencer’s mind goes to extremes in an attempt to assign meaning.

References

1. Gurstelle EB, de Oliveira JL., Daytime parahypnagogia: a state of consciousness that occurs when we almost fall asleep, William Paterson University, Wayne, nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14962619, Reviewed 5-3-2012
2. Pell, Rich, Audio illusions that will fool your ear (and brain), com/electronics-blogs/audio-designline-blog/4033473/Audio-illusions-that-will-fool-your-ear-and-brain-, Reviewed 5-3-2012
3. Saw, Jim, “Design Notes: Art 104 Sesign and Composition,” Palomar College,  palomar.edu/design/gestalt.html, Reviewed 1-9-2015

Introduction

What I am going to tell you happened in Brittany on the 9^th of July 2004, when we were on holiday. It was after dinner and I had just put a piece of aluminum foil on a plate of cheese to cover it. I know … It’s very prosaic and my mind was far from any experiment but this is what happened.

As I was sitting at the table chatting with my mother and my husband—I still can’t believe it—I looked at the recently covered cheese plate and my daughter’s face was printed on that foil just in front of us. I then started to take photos of this very amazing event which seemed truly incredible to me. While I was taking the photographs with my Minolta Dimage XT, my mother became nervous and thought it was silly that I photographed a plate and asked me why I was doing it. I got up and went near her to show her my small camera screen without telling her anything. She immediately recognized the face of her granddaughter and asked me where I had got it. I told her it was on the aluminium paper; she then got up and came to where I was, sat on my chair and without me telling her the place she immediately spotted this little face. Then the same thing happened with my husband. And my husband—who is not a good observer—exclaimed: “It’s incredible; I can see Bénédicte’s face!” and he burst into tears.

I took the photos because I was afraid to see the image disappear. But the truth is that the little face remained on the same spot of the aluminium foil until the 14th of July and in the meantime I took photos with another camera, a Nikon F-401. The Nikon was less convenient to photograph the little face because it does not zoom and I wanted to show the photos to other people….

On the 14^th of July we had to return because our holidays were over and I had to hand back the plate which was not mine, it belonged to the house we were renting and so I unwrapped the aluminum foil. To this day I regret not having brought that plate with me for I think I could still have my daughter’s face imprinted on the aluminum foil! It was really silly of me not having brought the plate home. Many people, friends who saw the photos later on, had the same opinion: they could see Bénédicte’s face on them.

Marie-Hélène Bienaimé, France

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Physiognomic Analysis Performed on an
Image Obtained through I. P. V. S.*

by Daniele Gullà”Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernetics Research

* I.P.V.S. : Acronym devised by IL Laboratorio which stands for “Interazione Psi-Visiva di tipo Strumentale” (Psi-Visual Interaction of Instrumental type, more commonly known as ITC image).

The Case Under Investigation

The investigation consists of attempts to explore the authenticity of an alleged ITC image unexpectedly obtained when a plate covered with aluminum foil was photographed. In the photograph, the creases in the foil were apparently seen to have spontaneously taken on the visual configuration of the face of a deceased girl. The girl’s identity was immediately claimed to be recognized by her mother (who took the photograph) and by other relatives present at the time.

Description of the Case

The anomalous photograph that is at the center of the case initially came to the attention of Dr. Anabela Cardoso, who then arranged for it to be sent to me for analysis. It was shown to Dr. Cardoso by the lady responsible for taking it and whom Dr. Cardoso and I met while attending the International Conference of Infinitude held in Paris in 2007. Having inspected the photograph, Dr. Cardoso considered it of sufficient interest to be sent to me, together with photographs taken during the lifetime of the deceased daughter whose image it appeared to be. These photographs would enable me to carry out a possible verification of any similarities in physiognomic characteristics between the alleged ITC image on the tinfoil and the images of the girl shown in the photographs taken during her lifetime.

Technical Steps in Making the Anthropometric Comparison

The ITC image and one of the lifetime pictures of Bénédicte were normalized in terms of pixels and contrast, and subsequently, metric and morphologic measurements were taken of the two images. The two images were then superimposed one on the other so that the appropriate mark points (‘repère’ points) coincided. Morphologic Test of Pattern Recognition with Neural Networks: The test of morphologic compatibility was performed with the Neural Networks program utilized by the American intelligence services (FBI) known as the Universal Image Recognition program. This morphologic test takes into consideration the whole of the cranial structure of the human head, elaborating the contours of the “structural cage” and does not focus on the distances of single repère points. Instead it analyzes in a more general way the shape of the various parts of the cranium. The test was performed using the ONE_TO_MANY mode that compares the ITC image with 3,000 other images contained in the database of the Universal Image Recognition program. This database is composed of masculine and feminine somatic types of faces, all of European origin and aged between 10 and 70 years.

The final data is the result of a miscellaneous comparison of 3,000 x 3,000 or more precisely 9,000,000 comparative tests. In the final result visible on the screen in Figure 7, seven similar images were found but only one reaches the maximum score which surpasses the threshold of FAR (False Acceptance) and FRR (False Recognition Rate), which the program sets respectively at percentage values 0, 1% and 0, 03%. This image was one of Bénédicte’s lifetime photographs. That image reached the highest score and it was therefore identified as the face most similar to the ITC image with a rate of 98.97%.

 

Figure 2. Detail of the supposed ITC face enlarged and rotated through approximately 30 degrees	Figure 3. Four images of Bénédicte, the deceased French girl visually recognized by her mother as the subject of the ITC image in the aluminum foil, taken during her lifetime	Figure 4. This image shows the result of the superimposition of the lifetime image of Bénédicte’s face with the presumed ITC face. The similarity of the somatic traits is clearly noticeable.

It is possible to read on the central report of the computer screen printout in Figure 7 that besides the choice of the anomalous ITC image proper (which was also added to the database of the program), which is identical to the image for which a comparison was required because it is the same image, and therefore attained the highest score of 192000000 (file denominated “Photo David et Bénédicte1r.jpg”), the second most similar image with a score of 59136000 is Bénédicte’s lifetime photograph (file denominated “Photo David et Bénédicte-2.jpg”) shown on the right side of the computer print-out. This image, which gave a percentage similarity rating of 98.7% was therefore identified as the face most similar to the ITC image (The Italian Courts of Justice accept a reading of 95% when establishing cases of human identity).

Figure 5. The same operation was then carried out using another image of Bénédicte superimposed on the ITC picture with alignment of the repère points with morphing technique. The similarity of the faces and the apparent coincidence of the points are again noticeable.	Figure 6. In this analysis the distance relationships between the repère points of the two images were measured. Although the relationships are noticeably constant, with values in the region of number 1, there are percentage value changes that indicate the presence of some spatial deformations in the tinfoil of the ITC image that prevent definitive conclusions, from the metric point of view, as to whether or not the two images share the same identity.	Figure 7. Morphologic comparison between the ITC image and 3,000 faces performed with neural networks. Bénédicte’s lifetime image was recognized as the most similar to the anomalous image with a percentage of 98.97%.

Conclusions

The technological applications used in the comparative analysis have revealed several points of similarity. The morphologic comparison done with Neural Networks on a sampling of 3,000 faces shows that a high percentage of compatibility between the ITC image and the photograph taken during the young girl’s life exists. However, it should be borne in mind that

the alleged ITC image taken by the mother under the circumstances and with the exposure value (i.e. the time the shutter remained open during the shutter click) concerned, produced a particular effect of light/shadow on the reflective surface (i.e. the aluminum foil) that does not allow us to highlight identification marks capable of allowing an evaluation sufficiently sensitive to yield total compatibility with an image taken during the subject’s lifetime. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that my analysis is limited to measurements made on optical information whose authenticity and origin cannot be accurately determined.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve an accurate comparison of the metric relationship between the points because, although a very marked similarity was found, the image containing the “extra” presents spatial deformations which are obviously due to the particular conditions of the creased aluminum foil on which the image was imprinted. Consequently, it was not possible to obtain precise anthropometric data from the image. Proper measurements could only be taken from Bénédicte’s lifetime pictures. The missing instrumental confirmation of the metric methodology does not, however, diminish the probability of a definite identification, even though we have to deal with comparisons between two images that differ from each other as to the material on which they are imposed. It would have been different if we had analyzed two homogeneous photographs and had found instrumental discrepancies with one of the two methods used.

Nevertheless, the morphologic analysis (which is more representative by virtue of its analysis of the images through the simulation of human vision) and the probabilistic comparison between the ITC image and the population of 3,000 faces in the database render the hypothesis of compatibility of the two faces valid.

Translated from the Italian original by Dr. Anabela Cardoso and originally published in No. 31 of the ITC Journal which is published 3 times a year. For subscription information, see itcjournal.org

Bibliography

[1] Bertillon A., Identification anthropometrique: instruction signaletiques, Melun, Imprimerie Administrative, 1893.

[2] Goldstein A., Harmon L.D., Lesk A.B., Identification of Human faces, Proceeding of the IEEE, Vol, 59, No.5, MAY 1971.

[3] Duda R., Hart P., Stork G., Pattern classification, Wiley, New York, 2000.

[4] Watanabe S., Pattern recognition:human and mechanical, Wiley, New York, 1985.

[5] Falco G., Identità: metodo scientifico di segnalamento e identificazione, II Edizione, Roma, 1923.

[6] Martin R., Saller K., Lehrbuch der Anthropologie in systematicher Darstellung, Dd. I-II. Fischer, Stuttgard, 1956-59.

[7] Reverte-Coma G.M., Antropologia forense, Ministero de Justitia, Madrid, 1991.

[8] Schiwidwtzky I., Knussmann R., Morphognose und Typognose, in Martin R. Antropologie, Fischer, Stuttgard, 1988.

[9] Iscan M.Y., Loth S.R., Photo image identification, in Siegel J.A., Soukko J.P., Knupfer G.C., (Eds), Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences, Academic Press, pagg 795-805, New York, 2000.

[10] Olivieri L., Antropologia e Antropometria, C.E.V. Idelson, Napoli, 1963.

[11] Farkas L. G., Anthropometry of the head and face, Second Edition, Raven Press, 2000.

[12] Parisi, R., Nozioni di antropometria, EDAS, Messina, 1979.

[13] Balossino N., Siracusa S., Parametri discriminatori nel riconoscimento di volti, Polizia Moderna, n.1, 1998.

[14] Chellapa R., Wilson C.L., Sirohey S., Human and machine recognition of faces: a survey, Proceedings of the IEEE, 83(5):705-735, may 1995.

[15] Brunelli R., Poggio T., Face recognition:features versus Templates, IEEE Transaction on Pattern analysis and machine intelligence,vol. 15, no. 10, october 1993.

[16] Wu C., Huang J., Human face profile recognition by computer, Pattern recognition, Vol 23 No.3/4 pp.255-259, 1990.

[17] Wong K.H., Hudson H.M., Law and Tsang P.W.M., A system for recognising human faces, Dept. of Computer Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dept. of Elect. Eng. City Poly. of U. K., Technical Report, 1991.

[18] I. Craw, P. Cameron. Face recognition by computer. Pagg 498-508. D.Hogg and R. Boyle editors, Proceedings British Machine Vision Conference, Springer Verlag, 1992.

[19] M.S. Kamel, H.C. Shen, A.K.C. Wong, T.M. Hong, R.I. Campenu, Face recognition using perspective invariant features, Pattern Recognition Letters, 877-884, 1994.

[20] P. Rajesh, N. Rao, H. Ballard, Natural basis functions and topographic memory for face recognition, Proceedings of the International Conference of Artificial Intelligence, 10-17, 1995.

[21] D. Gullà, “Two Cases of an Anthropometric Identification in Two Supposed Anomalous Photographs”, Proceedings of Congress the Association “Casa dell’ Albero”, October 2001, Carpi (MO)

[22] D. Gullà, “Forensic Analyses in Parapsichology“, Proceedings of XVI National Congress of “Il Movimento della Speranza”, January 2002, Roma.

[23] D. Gullà, “Images and Voice Anomalous; Case of Pattern Recognition,”  session   of University of Imola (BO), Gen. 2004

Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group
©Dave Schumacher, Cindy Heinen – All Rights Reserved

Director’s Brief:

Research compilations for ambient magnetic conditions and psi functioning provided by S. James P. Spottiswoode (2) suggest a negative correlation: “Retrospective analyses of putative spontaneous psi, or anomalous cognition (AC), events have shown a tendency for these to be reported on days of relatively low geomagnetic disturbance.” jsasoc.com/library.html

Haunting events and EVP are believed to be a psi function, but nevertheless, there has been no research reported that supports the view that EVP is influenced by the magnetic environment The following research report details an effort to determine if there is a detectable correlation.

Introduction

Those who believe EVP to be real think that the voices of the dead are being recorded while those who do not believe in the paranormal nature of these phenomena claim that they are nothing more than stray radio waves or auditory pareidolia or apophenia. It is a proven fact that the human mind can create meaning out of insignificant sound and random noise. Those who support the paranormal nature of this phenomena claim that the voices are interactive and can be identified as someone who has died. The question then, is how do the deceased manifest their voices on the recording equipment?

Some EVP researchers, ghost hunters and paranormal investigators believe that entities use physical sound energy and re-modulate it to form words. In addition, there is anecdotal evidence that:

1. More messages are recorded at night or during stormy weather than during the day or when the weather is clear,
2. There is a relationship between EVP and electrical or moisture conditions of the atmosphere,
3. Other types of energy, such as light and magnetism, can influence EVP recordings (1).

The ghost hunting community overall believes that times of increased solar activity are ideal for ghost hunting. It is thought that, with enough energy in the air from charged ions and an energized electromagnetic field, manifestations, including EVP, are more plentiful and clear (9, 10). This belief is due to investigator’s personal experiences and the extrapolation and interpretation of the published scientific literature.

There are published studies in peer reviewed academic journals and books that describe a correlation between paranormal activity and geomagnetic fields (3, 8). Some studies have shown there is an increase in poltergeist (Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis or RSPK) events when there is an increase in the geomagnetic field (3, 6), while others found a correlation between an increase in the geomagnetic field and an increase in haunt phenomena, postmortem apparitions, and sensed presences (5, 8). The interpretation of these correlations is open to debate. Some think that the increase in geomagnetic activity either triggers and/or fuels the activity (especially in the RSPK studies) while others feel that the changes in geomagnetic fields and complex electromagnetic fields can induce hallucinations.

There is little or no formal analysis that increased geomagnetic activity leads to an increase in the frequency and clarity of EVP. This study is an attempt to determine if there is a correlation between geomagnetic activity and the quantity of EVP.

Methods

EVP: EVP from 2001 to 2005 were obtained from the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group case files, the South Jersey Ghost Research Group and the personal files of Cindy Heinen. The number of EVP recorded on each day were tabulated in an Excel spreadsheet. Both days with EVP recorded and days where recording for EVP was attempted but there were no EVP recorded were included.

Geomagnetic Activity

Magnetic field variation can come from currents caused by solar radiation changes. Solarwinds can interact with the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere and ionosphere can cause magnetic field changes by themselves. Magnetic activity indices provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are used to describe the variation in the geomagnetic field (13).

The a-index is a 3-hourly “equivalent amplitude” index of the local geomagnetic activity; “a” is related to the 3-hourly K-index.

The A-index is the daily index of geomagnetic activity derived as the average of the eight 3-hourly a-indices.

The Ap-index is an average planetary A-index based on data from a set of specific stations (11). The estimated planetary A-index from NOAA (12) was used for this study.

A-index values (24-hrs) of the following determine the geomagnetic conditions:

0 to 7                “Quiet” geomagnetic conditions
8 to 15              “Unsettled” geomagnetic conditions
16 to 24            “Active” geomagnetic conditions
25 to 35            “Minor storm”
36+                   “Major storm”

Statistical Analysis

To determine if there was a correlation between the number of EVP recorded and the estimated Ap-index, the number of EVP vs. the estimated Ap-index was plotted and a nonparametric correlation Spearman r analysis was performed using GraphPad InStat version 3.05 for Windows 95/NT, GraphPad Software, San Diego California USA, www.graphpad.com

To determine if there was a difference in the mean estimated Ap-index for when EVP were recorded vs. when no EVP were recorded, a nonparametric Mann-Whitney t-test was performed using GraphPad InStat.

Finally, to determine if a certain level of enhanced geomagnetic activity leads to more EVP, the mean number of EVP was compared for the following:

Ap-index of 0 to 7 “Quiet” vs. 8 to 15 “Unsettled”
Ap-index of 0 to 7 “Quiet” vs. 16 to 24 “Active”
Ap-index of 0 to 7 “Quiet” vs. 25 to 35 “Minor Storm”
Ap-index of 0 to 7 “Quiet” vs. 36+ “Major Storm”

The analysis for each was done with a nonparametric Mann-Whitney t-test using GraphPad InStat.

Results

Two hundred and ten data points were collected and spanned the time period of January 6^th, 2001 to August 27^th, 2005. There were 101 days with EVP and 109 days without EVP. The number of data points for each estimated Ap-index range/geomagnetic condition were: 0 to 7/“Quiet” = 61; 8 to 15/”Unsettled” = 82; 16 to 24/”Active” = 39; 25 to 35/”Minor Storm” = 18; 36+/”Major Storm” = 10.

0 to 7/“Quiet” = 61
8 to 15/”Unsettled” = 82
16 to 24/”Active” = 39
25 to 35/”Minor Storm” = 18
36+/”Major Storm” = 10.

Figure 1 shows the number of EVP plotted against the estimated Ap-index. Spearman r = 0.02882 (95% CI –0.110 to 0.1675; P=0.6779; not significant). r = 0.02882, 95% CI –0.110 to 0.1675; P=0.6779; not significant

Comparison	P-value	Significance
Estimated Ap-index when no EVPs were recorded vs. estimated Ap-index when EVPs were recorded	0.4477	Not significant
Mean number of EVPs for “Quiet” vs “Unsettled”	0.5571	Not significant
Mean number of EVPs for “Quiet” vs “Active”	0.9546	Not significant
Mean number of EVPs for “Quiet” vs “Minor Storm”	0.7120	Not significant
Mean number of EVPs for “Quiet” vs “Major Storm”	0.4319	Not significant

Table 1 shows the results of the statistical analysis for the various comparisons.

Discussion

There is a general belief among the hauntings investigation community that an increase in the geomagnetic field enables paranormal manifestations to be more plentiful and clear. It has been speculated that this extends to EVP as well (9, 10). These beliefs are based on investigator’s personal experiences and conclusions they draw from reading the published scientific literature. There is little if any formal analysis indicating that increases in geomagnetic activity leads to an increase in the number of EVP. This study explored the possibility that increases in the geomagnetic field (as measured with the estimated Ap-index) would lead to an increase in the quantity of EVP.

There was no significant correlation found between the estimated Ap-index and the number of EVP. In addition, there was no significant difference in the mean number of EVP recorded during “Quiet” geomagnetic conditions vs. the mean number of EVP recorded during “Unsettled”, “Active”, “Minor Storm”, or “Major Storm” geomagnetic conditions.

This study has several limitations:

First, the EVP data was collected from three different sources. Since identifying an EVP is highly subjective, different people may classify different things as EVP.

Second, the number of EVP data points became very small when analyzing the different geomagnetic conditions. For example, there were only ten data points in the 36+/”Major Storm” geomagnetic condition. This can limit the statistical power to determine a significant difference.

Third, this study does not address the issue of whether or not EVP have more clarity with elevated geomagnetic conditions. EVP classifications are extremely subjective and were not available in the data sets used in this analysis. This issue needs to be studied in a similar manner.

Fourth, this is only one study based on three data sets from three different sources. It should be repeated with more data sets. It would also be interesting to look at other parameters besides the estimated Ap-index. Formal analysis of various atmospheric conditions would also be interesting.

Conclusion

Despite the limitations, this study has shown that there doesn’t appear to be any correlation between geomagnetic conditions and the number of EVP recorded. However, more studies will need to be done looking at various other factors to see if any other environmental conditions can affect the quantity and quality of EVP.

References

1. Butler, T. “ATransC White Paper on Transcommunication.” Association TransCommunication. Revised 9-2020. atransc.org/itc-white-paper/
2. Spottiswoode, S. James P. “Apparent Association Between Effect Size in Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments and Local Sidereal Time.” The Journal of Scientific Exploration. Society for Scientific Exploration. 1997. jsasoc.com/docs/JSE-LST.pdf
3. Roll, W.G. and Gearhart, L. (1974). Geomagnetic perturbations and RSPK. In W.G. Roll, R.L. Morris and J. Morris (Eds.), Research in parapsychology, 1973 (pp.44-46). Metuchen, NJ : Scarecrow.
4. Gearhart, L. and Persinger, M.A. (1986). Geophysical variables and behavior: XXXIII. Onsets of historical and contemporary poltergeists episodes occurred with sudden increases in geomagnetic activity. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 62, pp.463-466.
5. Persinger, M.A. and Koren, S.A. (2001). Predicting the characteristics of haunt phenomena from geomagnetic factors and brain sensitivity: Evidence from field and experimental studies. In J. Houran and R. Lange (Eds.), Hauntings and poltergeists: Multidisciplinary perspectives, (pp.179-194). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc.
6. Roll, W.G. and Persinger, M.A. (2001). Investigations of poltergeists and haunts: A review and interpretation. In J. Houran and R. Lange (Eds.), Hauntings and poltergeists: Multidisciplinary perspectives, (pp.123-163). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc.
7. Persinger, M.A. and Richards, P.M. (1995). Vestibular experiences of humans during brief periods of partial sensory deprivation are enhanced when daily geomagnetic activity exceeds 15-20nT. Neuroscience Letters, 194, pp.69-72.
8. Persinger, M.A. (1988). Increased geomagnetic activity and the occurrence of bereavement hallucinations: Evidence for melatonin-mediated microseizuring in the temporal lobe? Neuroscience Letters, 88, pp.271-274.
9. Chaney, S. (2006). I’ll give you the sun and moon… TAPS Paramagazine, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp.13-14.
10. Farrell, M. (2005). The astronomy of ghost hunting. Ghost! Issue 2, pp.70.
11. NOAA Glossary: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/info/glossary.html
12. NOAA: http://ftp2.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/solar_indices.html
13. NOAA Geomagnetic Kp and Ap Indices: noaa.gov/stp/GEOMAG/kp_ap.html

(Based on a Summer 2005 AA-EVP NewsJournal article) Updated May 2015

Abstract

Can discarnate personality communicate with people in different parts of the world by hearing (sensing) a question from one person, ascertain the correct answer and deliver that answer to someone else in a different part of the world? A series of EVP sessions based on a specific protocol were conducted by four person teams. Coordination was via email and discussion board, and team members were in different parts of the USA. A person functioning as Requester thought of a question and told the question but not the answer to a person functioning as the Sender. The Sender communed in some way with his or her etheric communicators, asking them to tell the Receiver the correct answer via an EVP message. Once notified that a question had been sent, but not the question or answer. The Receiver conducted an EVP session to ask for the answer. A fourth person acting as the Scribe evaluated the resulting recordings for possible EVP and made first determination of what was said, if anything. The study indicated that it is possible to use EVP to gather information, but that there are limits to the kind of information that may be accessed.

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Directors of the ATransC (formally the AA-EVP) had been looking for an effective has been in finding a way to make the recording of the phenomenal voices more reliable. There has also been a problem with practitioner ability, which varies considerably amongst people willing to participate in such studies.

One initiative to increase our understanding that has proven to be very effective is the 4Cell EVP Demonstration, which was conducted by association members and tracked in the Idea Exchange. The 4Cell project is designed to function as a test bed in which new ideas can be tried and the limits of EVP can be explored. As the 4Cell demonstration matured with more cells and more experiments on record, we anticipated being able to provide solid support for the existence of EVP, and the fact that EVP may be evidence of personal survival. Further, we expect this proof to be in a form that the scientific community will be able to accept, and therefore, feel obliged to repeat the experiments.

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

The 4Cell EVP Demonstration protocol is explained here. As always, we are available to assist researchers in setting up Cells to meet their research goals.

It is possible to apply this protocol to mediumship studies as well.

Protocol

Each cell consists of four people:

1. A Requester who thinks of a request to be given to cooperating etheric communicators. A request may be a question, such as, “Who was my favorite teacher,” or a request for action, such as, “Please tell the Receiver what I am wearing now.” The request should be of interest to the Requester. The request can be directed at a research question, such as, “What happens after the moment of physical death?” The Requester tells the Sender the request but not the expected response.
2. A Sender who is given the request and then conveys it to his or her etheric communicators, asking that they send the requested information to the Receiver. This may be accomplished in any way the Sender feels will work. Part of the objective here is to allow the participant to invent a way that “seems” right. Since so much of this is intuitive, personal initiative may be more effective than constraining rules. If there is doubt as to how to proceed, we advise that the Sender meditates or contemplates on the question. The idea is to send the message psychically, but to also send it verbally and maybe even in writing. All are effective techniques for EVP, as all helps focus attention. The Sender then notifies the Receiver that a request has been sent.
3. A Receiver who conducts an EVP session (or contemplates/meditates for mental mediumship), asking to receive the response to the request. There may be many receiving sessions and they may be designed to suit the Receiver. To maintain focus, the Receiver should be the only one conducting a receiving session for any particular cycle. If the Receiver thinks EVP are in the resulting recording, the sound files are sent to the Scribe. (Mediumistic messages should be prescreened by the Receiver for a sense of meaningfulness.)
4. A Scribe who accepts what was received, if anything, from the Receiver and makes a first determination as to what is said. The Scribe then asks the Requester for the request and privately posts the request and possible responses to the other three members of the Cell. The results of collaboration amongst Cell members is documented in a standardized report. For ATransC sponsored Cells, the report is posted on the Idea Exchange for peer review.
5. Other board participants are then asked to consider the offered response by functioning as a listening panel. The Cell’s determination of what is said remains as The Report, but comments from others are retained as a record of possible alternative considerations (peer review).

Cell members have been asked to rotate positions, but we have found that it is more important that the cell has some degree of recording success so we are now asking that each Cell has at least one experienced experimenter with some level of confidence that at least some messages will be recorded. The Cells were also asked to record on a regular, weekly basis but now we see that there are too many normal living interruptions. It is better that the group tries to record when possible, perhaps on a monthly schedule.

It is important that some recording schedule is maintained, otherwise, the normally geographically distributed group of people tends to lose focus resulting in eventual abandonment of the study.

Once an effective Receiver has been found and the Cell has had some initial success, rotating members into the Receiver position will help develop more overall ability of the group.

Considerations

In the event that one of the four members is temporarily not able to participate, the functions of Receiver and Scribe can be combined. But separation between the Requester and the Sender is required to address the possibility that the Requester is asking something that is emotionally biased. This also separates the expected response from the send/receive process. The reason the Scribe is asked to independently decide whether or not the request has been correctly responded to is to see if he or she is able to arrive at that conclusion without the influence of group-think unconsciously guided by the Requester.

The protocol does not require a specific type of question or technique for obtaining the answer. The reason for this is that the group dynamics are as much part of the research question as are the resulting answer. One of the predictions from this protocol is that a cooperating group will have better results than one that experiences internal conflict. The concept is that the rapport of mutual cooperation builds the kind of contact field thought to be necessary for trans-etheric influences.

The flexibility of the protocol is in the fact that the Receiver can use EVP, automatic writing, mental mediumship, any form of transcommunication.  If EVP is not used, then the Listening Panel can be referred to as something like a Witness Panel.

Evaluating Results

Since Cell members are usually scattered around the country, it is unrealistic to attempt physically supervising the experimental cycles: so many experiments by many different Cells over many months should provide sufficient information to assess the validity of the concept, even though individual results should be judged on a case by case basis.

Responses are seldom going to be decisively correct and many requests will require a subjective response. For instance, A possible answer to “Please recite Mary Had a Little Lamb” might be a verbatim recital, but more likely would be more arcane such as Lamb chops, Happy Mary, or baby sheep. As such, the determination as to whether or not the answer is correct must be made on a scale of reasonableness and the unlikeliest of the results. This is why the first decision is independently made by one person and that decision is preserved in the record.

After the Scribe sends the first determination to the other Cell members, the group collaborates to accept, modify or completely change that first determination. The results of this process are also reported.

Finally, the use of an independent Witness or Listening Panel of less invested people helps to avoid group-think. This final review of what the Receiver reported is most effective if one of the Witness Panel acts as a Judge to sort out potentially divergent opinions.

The three versions of the transcommunication: Initial determination by the Scribe; Cell member’s group determination; and, the version selected by the Judge are retained in the report record. Confidence in the usefulness of the answer is based on this report.

Results

At first, the effectiveness of the protocol was unknown; however, early Cell reports made it clear that the communicating entities were happy to participate and that they could do all that we asked.

4Cell 1 – Voices: Andrea Carr, Siobhan McBride, Karen Mossey and Sue Mousseau (James Jones replaced Sue in experiment four and then the group dissolved):

• Experiment 1 question: “Does it take more of your energy to manifest a Class A EVP, and if so, please indicate your answer as ‘More energy’ or ‘No difference.’” Class B answer: “No difference.”
• Experiment 2 question: “From what level in the Afterlife are you communicating with us?” Class B answer: “Level six.”
• Experiment 3 question: “What can we, as receivers on the physical level, do to help facilitate communication from you, the transmitters in the spiritual?” Class B+ answer: “Just open up the portal.”
• Experiment 4 question: “What is the purpose of our communication with the other side? What is it we’re supposed to be doing in order to help them?” There was no appropriate response recorded.
• Experiment 5 question: “Can anyone (any dead former human being) on the other side be involved in EVP messaging to us?” Class C answer: Four distinct utterances in same file, the second being “Perhaps.”
• Experiment 6 question: “Is there a reason that some spirits do not come through for us? Why would that be?” Class B answer: “Stop moving” and “That’s right.” Class B- answer: “Yes … people.”

4Cell 2 –Infinite: Mary Jo Gran, Rheta Conley, Shelly Morrison and Vicki Talbott:

• Experiment 1 question: “Can you tell me the name of Jim Robinson’s make believe sister?” Correct answer: “Sissy Sally.” Class B answer: “Sally’s the name.” (Other appropriate answers were also recorded.)
• Experiment 2 question: “Who is the artist and what is the name of the painting hanging at the end of the entrance hallway in Vicki and Pete’s home?” Correct Answer: “Marc Chagall” and “The Lovers.” Class B answer: “Who painted it? … Chagall did.”
• Experiment 3 question: “What Did Keith’s Grandpa Hallmark give him, and also, it has been lost. Can they tell us where it is?” Correct Answer: “Cue stick.” Class C answer: “A cue” and “Christy know right where it is.
• Experiment 4 question: “What are the names of Jim’s Montessori School teachers?” Correct Answer: “Vivian” and “Rosmund.” Class B answer: “Vivian.” Class C answer in same file: “Rosmund.”
• Experiment 5 question: “What is the most common sign that those in Spirit do to let us know you are near us or that you have been around?” Class C answer: Not clear.
• Experiment 6 question: “What was the name of the tavern where I (Vicki) met my husband?” Correct answer: “The Waterfront.” Class B answer: “Has a view of the bay.” (below)

Cell Name: CellOctetic

Demo 3 Question: “What were some of your misconceptions about death and/or life on the other side?”

Answer: Vicki told us that, “Braden (her son) wanted us to know that the answer ‘Regrets’ was a very difficult one for him to give.” The order of the EVP that was most important to the study  was: Class C “It’s just hard to answer this,” Followed directly by Class A “Regrets.” (below)

Vicki explained: “I think that he and his friends on the other side did not want to hurt their moms or frighten others—they discussed whether Braden could even say it. He knew I could handle it, but others might not be able to. The EVP came as you see it above. As I said, Braden wants us to know that this is an important part of our passing; our life review.”

Comment: Near Death Experience researchers appear to be in agreement that we do experience a life review, and that it is from the perspective of those with whom we have interacted during the lifetime. This review can be expected to be emotionally painful, but it is probably the foundation on which we build new spiritual understanding. The 4Cell results are amongst the very few we have seen indicating all is not heaven when we make our transition.

4Cell 2 –Infinite: Shell Morrison: “Review our lives”  (below)

Shell was functioning as the Sender during a 4Cell EVP Demonstration experiment, but when the Receiver did not record an EVP that was appropriate to the question, “What happens when we die?” she asked Sell to record for answers. Shell recorded this response, which is an astoundingly clear Class A.

Summary

Of the first eighteen experiments, eleven or 61% were seen as successful. The etheric communicators have had a very large number of possible answers from which to choose. For instance, in Cell Infinity’s experiment 4, asking for Jim’s Montessori School Teachers, the expected answer was given as “Vivian” and “Rosmund.” How many first names are there in the western culture? There must be thousands. The odds of a person guessing the correct name must be about the same as winning the California Lottery. What are the odds of selecting the right name twice in the same EVP?

Guessing eleven appropriate answers out of eighteen attempts must be similar in difficulty to winning the California Lottery eleven out of eighteen tries. The results of the experiments would be astounding just because of how much the answers have exceeded what would be expected for guessing. Since we know that the communicators are intelligent, aware people, the gratifying part is not beating the odds, but how cooperative they have been.

We wish to thank all of the Cell members for their participation in the experiment. We especially thank Shelly Morrison and Vicki Talbott for moderating the Idea Exchange forum and for helping everyone get through the complicated protocol. And yes, a hearty thanks to their etheric partners who have been so willing to help us learn.

The most common explanation for the source of the voices in EVP that is offered by people who have not studied the evidence is that they are caused by the audio recorder picking up stray radio or television signals. In fact, a number of well-designed experiments have been conducted over the years by very qualified people, to prove that such stray radio frequency signals are not the cause. Reports of two such experiments are provided below.

There is also an experiment shown below that was suggested by one such scientist as a prerequisite to his accepting that EVP are not stray electromagnetic (EM) signals. We believe that nested metal containers, such as the variety found in hobby stores, separated one from another by foam rubber or Styrofoam, would satisfy the requirement while helping to rule out stray sounds.

From the AA-EVP Archive

Here is longtime researcher Bill Weisensale’s response to concerns expressed by Dr Karlis Osis, with the American Society for Psychical Research, about eliminating mundane causes for EVP. From Bill Weisensale’s article in the May 1981 Spirit Voices:

In early 1975 … the controversy was still raging as to whether EVP voices arrived via acoustical or electromagnetic means. (It is generally accepted now that neither is the case.) At the time this was most perplexing. It seemed reasonable to believe that if EVP arrived by electromagnetic signal, a radio receiver would be required in all cases, and yet some methods did not involve any form of radio receiver. Conversely, if they were of an acoustic nature, then all methods would, of necessity, require the use of a microphone, and yet there were some methods that do not involve a microphone.

I reasoned either the voices had to be both acoustic and electromagnetic, depending upon the method of recording, which seemed very unlikely, or they had to arrive by some other kind of energy, which was of neither electromagnetic nor acoustic in nature. (We have come to call this PK energy, for lack of a better explanation.) In order to find out which was the case, I used a (steel) 50-gallon drum with a removable lid …

I brought the drum into the house, laid it on its side on a wooden pallet, and blocked the sides to prevent it from rolling. Next, very small holes were drilled in the drum and lid. A piece of heavy wire, with a solder terminal, was then bolted to the drum and run out through a window where another solder terminal and bolt were used to attach the wire to a steel stake driven into the ground. A second wire and solder terminal were attached to the lid and soldered to the first wire. All connections, drum to wire, lid to wire, wire to wire, and stake to wire, were checked with an ohmmeter to ensure there was no resistance and everything was properly grounded. Before doing the experiments, water was poured around the steel stake to ensure proper grounding.

In the initial experiment, which was to check the efficiency of the shield, a battery-powered radio receiver was tuned to a strong station, the volume set rather high, and placed inside the drum. A battery-powered tape recorder was then connected via patch cord to the radio, also placed inside the drum and the lid bolted into place for several minutes.

Upon removing the recorder and reviewing the tape, it was found that the station was quite clear with the lid off, but when the lid was bolted into place, the station totally disappeared and its presence could no longer be discerned even with the closest listening. We then adjusted the radio to between station static, listening carefully to be sure there were no distant stations present, placed the radio in the drum with the recorder and made several recordings with the lid bolted in place each time.

We found the voices appeared inside of the shield just as they did with no shielding. Also, since the radio and recorder were connected via patch cord and there was, therefore, no microphone involved, this experiment eliminated (to at least my own satisfaction) both the acoustic and the electromagnetic hypotheses.

[Editor: The May 1981 Spirit Voices and other newsletters are being added to the AA-EVP online document archive as time allows. We are currently up to Spring 1987 with the AA-EVP newsletters. Remember that access to the Archive is a benefit of membership. We highly recommend that you take advantage of this growing library of historical EVP and ITC documents.]

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A Suggested Experiment

Initially published in the Fall 2004 AA-EVP NewsJournal

Parapsychologist, Professor Charles Tart, was interviewed by The Psychic Times (apparently defunct), a new British publication that is already proving itself antagonistic to EVP. In the article, Tart was quoted to argue that EVP is stray radio, and that we who study in this field have not demonstrated the necessary research discipline to produce the kind of credible evidence that he can take to other scientists.

The diagram is of a shielded recording compartment, EVP from which would answer Tart’s objections. It provides more shielding than a metal can or microwave, but it is not as readily available. We would like to talk to someone who might be able to make one, or who might have one. If possible, we would like to send one to a number of different experimenters in serial fashion, so that many examples can be collected in the compartment. Please let us know if you can help.

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MacRae has a Second Article in the JSPR

Initially published in the Winter 2006 AA-EVP NewsJournal
©Alexander MacRae – All Rights Reserved

The October 2005 issue of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research included a second article by Alexander MacRae. In this one, Alec details the EVP experiments he conducted in the Institute of Noetic Sciences screen room. Remember that the JSPR is a refereed, peer-review journal and that the article necessarily meets the SPR’s high standard for thoroughness and documentation. Here is the abstract:

Report of an Electronic Voice Phenomenon Experiment
inside a Double-Screened Room

By Alexander MacRae

Abstract

An Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) experiment is described which took place in a laboratory screened against e.m. radiation and also acoustically isolated. The subsequent treatment of the results through sound-processing is outlined, and the final analysis of the results through the use of a unique multiple-choice system is described. Comparative spectrograms of one EVP utterance and the same thing spoken in normal speech are provided to assess the physical basis of the results. The conclusion is drawn that voices of no natural origin were received in the screened laboratory.

Originally published in the ITC Journal No. 24, December 2005. Also published in the January 2007 AA-EVP NewsJournal.          ©Anabela Cardoso – All Rights Reserved

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Introduction

In the year 1974, Hans Otto König, now 66, a professional electroacoustics technician living in Mönchengladbach, by chance found himself listening to a discussion broadcast by ZdF (the second German TV Channel) in which Friedrich Jürgenson from Sweden, the pioneer of EVP, tried in vain to convince the well-known German parapsychologist Prof. Hans Bender and other critical scientists and journalists of the reality of extraordinary voices captured on his audio-tapes and apparently originating from the deceased.

König’s interest was aroused, and he resolved to start his own experiments in an attempt to demonstrate that the anomalous voices came from the unconscious of the experimenter rather than from the deceased. Instead, he received the singing voice of his late mother who addressed him and his father by name and asked whether or not they could hear her. During the following weeks, König was forced to the conclusion that the voices did indeed come from the so-called dead. He started his EVP experimentation using as background support noise a radio station transmitting in a foreign language, and although he obtained his positive results almost immediately, initially they were of very poor quality, consisting mostly of whispers and sighs rather than vocalizations.

Subsequently he changed his background noise from foreign language broadcasts to ultra-sounds, since this is an area of acoustics which he understands, and has used his professional expertise and psychic faculties to improve the quantity and quality of the contacts with the beyond—now known as Instrumental TransCommunication or ITC—by inventing and continuously modifying electronic devices specially developed for the purpose. Initially, he applied combined frequency-modulated mechanical ultrasonics transmitted and received by transducers in his laboratory. He then found that electromagnetic oscillations in the frequency range around 50 kHz produced the same results. Later he added a multifrequency infrared transmitter-receiver system, which demodulates infrared and modulates it again to a UHF vibration-oscillation from 10 m down to a 1 m wavelength, with a frequency of 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Currently he is working with a complex device based on quartz-crystals irradiated with ultraviolet light which he calls HRS (Hyper-Raum-System or Hyperspace System).

König tells us that he builds his various IC devices according to his own thoughts and the information he receives in dreams from the communicators. He further tells us that he goes into deep meditation for thirty minutes every day and while doing so can “see” (as a kind of psychic perception) his communicators as diffuse physical shapes, and that he has also been successful in photographing them using the Klaus Schreiber closed loop method. His explanation for the success of his experimentation is the key word “resonance,” which he says includes electromagnetic resonance.

The voices that now come through his loudspeaker are of a different, often excellent, quality, and he is sometimes able to dialogue with them. The contents of communications and the nature of the communicators themselves vary dependent upon the context. Deceased humans may answer the requests of their bereaved relatives and friends for comfort, while at other times, technical advice is given to König, and nameless cosmic entities, apparently outside our space-time, provide philosophical observations. The outcome of an experiment is never predictable, and may produce no results at all depending on mental-spiritual and other (unknown) conditions. König feels that audio results seem to improve in the presence of a harmonious audience, and the same is true for his work on transimages, which in one instance have already been obtained accompanied by the voice of the deceased person, whose identity was later discovered “by chance.”

The Two Experiments

The two experiments that are the subject of this Report were held respectively on September 10th and 11th, 2005, in two afternoon sessions held in a room at the Hotel Kaiserhof, in the German town of Wesel. Dr. Anabela Cardoso attended, accompanied in the unavoidable absence of Professor David Fontana by Mr. Carlos Fernández, the Technical Editor of the ITC Journal and an electronics technician with long experience of ITC data. Also accompanying Dr. Cardoso was Professor Ernst Senkowski, one of the foremost experts on ITC, who has known König well for many years, and who was responsible for helping to arrange Dr. Cardoso’s visit. The others present included visitors from Finland and some sixty of the regular observers of König’s previous experiments, together with a few individuals who were attending for the first time. König completely eschews publicity and avoids working with journalists and the media because of the negative experiences he has had with such groups in the past. All the communications were in German, which is the native language of König and of Professor Senkowski and in which Dr. Cardoso has some facility.

First Experiment, September 10th 2005.

König opened proceedings with an introductory talk that included recordings of voices received during earlier experiments. After a short meditation he then activated one of the older systems developed by him many years ago, which has misleadingly been called a “generator” but which in fact should be considered as a device open to the influx of information from hidden ranges of consciousness. This infrared/ultrasound device operates in a frequency range from 30 kHz to 70 kHz. The device, which looks like a rectangular metallic box, was built by König himself and the frequencies are mixed in its interior while an aerial placed on top of the generator transmits the signal to a receiver in the same band. An amplifier is connected to a mixing table and to the loudspeakers. König’s microphone and recording apparatus are also connected to the mixing table. When the voices started, silence was suddenly transformed into a beat, and the voices seemed to speak much above the beat. The communications that resulted lasted some two minutes and consisted of a nearly continuous dialogue between König and several voices.

The communications began with the habitual opening words. “Contact field closed” (i.e. closed to intruding entities), and finished with, “Contact end.” In all, there were fifteen exchanges. In Exchange Number 2, the “answer” did not directly refer to the question asked by König. In Number 5, the voice asked for a technical modification of the equipment being used. In Numbers 9 and 14 respectively, two names of earlier acquaintances of König, “Hubert” and “Helmut,” were given, the latter communicator spontaneously referring to König’s sick wife, Margaret.

Most of the voices were clear and could be heard above the permanent noise level from the equipment. In consequence the comprehensibility level was around eighty-five to ninety per cent for all those present during live listening, and one hundred per cent on replay. The voices were of excellent quality, but somehow did not possess the same degree of what Dr. Cardoso describes as the “inner clarity of an angelical prototype” that in her view was overpowering in the voices that came through during the experiment of the following day. Professor Senkowski expressed himself unable to always decide whether a voice sounded more male or more female.

An interesting observation concerns the varying speed of the utterances. For example, Exchange Number 12 was spoken very quickly, and here and in other cases, one had the impression that when the contact is nearing its end because of shortness of “energy,” the speech is accelerated. Another observation concerns the time lapse between the questions of the experimenter and the responses from the communicators. These lapses were generally in the range of a few seconds, but in Number 12, the voice broke in before König had completed his question, so that the two voices momentarily overlapped.

To some extent, the speech of the communicators possessed its own character and style, both of which are difficult to describe. Often the speech sounded not “normal” or not “human-like.” Grammar was not always correct. The contents sometimes were metaphorical and not easily interpreted, especially when the speaker seemed to be a “remote,” non-human being. An example is Number 2, when subsequent to König asking who and where the “speaker” is, the answer, “Ultraschall ist das Bild” is given, (translated as, “Ultrasonics is the image”). This answer could be understood as meaning that the voice, as mediated by the electromagnetic oscillations in the range of 30 to 70 kHz, is an “image” of the speaker, who remains unnamed. Alternatively the speaker may be identifying his (mental) “position,” as in or near the equipment being used. But these alternatives must remain more or less speculative.

Second Experiment, September 11th 2005

This experiment was carried out with the HRS system that consists of a large quartz-crystal and ten smaller ones, all of them irradiated by ultraviolet light of different wavelengths. As in the first experiment, we started with a short meditation, after which the device was switched on. After some fifteen minutes, the first voice came through, and a dialogue developed with nineteen exchanges taking place lasting seven minutes and fifty-three seconds.

The background noise, according to König, actually produced from the “other side,” was quite different from that heard from the so-called generator in Experiment One. It consisted of a nearly periodic bird-like high-pitched twittering or chirping, mixed with slow roaring like a storm and waves on a seashore. Most voices were absolutely clear and immediately understood, provided they were not too fast. König spoke his questions in a meditative state, speaking slowly, and the voices answered in their chosen manner.

Most responses were given immediately, although a few were delayed up to twelve seconds. Most of the voices seemed to come from one single entity, who sounded to be female, and they possessed a special modulation, similar to singing. Most of them sounded rather “neutral” or “detached” with the possible exception of Exchange Number 10, where the voice seemed to express some underlying contempt for the stupidity of Christian beliefs, describing them as “unreasonable superstition.” In Number 8 were the words, “I stem from the realm of stars,” delivered in an elevated poetic style. The German words used by the entity, “lch stamme,” can be translated simply as, “I come,” or more tellingly as, “I am descended.”

The dialogue seemed to be presided over by a highly intelligent source that treated adult humans like children, with some compassion or even regret. For example Number 15, when we were told that, “But it is probably too difficult for you to comprehend this.” (“This” being their magnificent, super-terrestrial world). However, one should take into consideration the difficulties pertaining to the adaptation process of the different structures of human and the entities’ consciousness in contact through these communications. In the rather long pause between Number 18 and the end of the contact, dull beats similar to drumming appeared as additional signals, although their meaning remained unclear. The live comprehensibility level was around one hundred per cent for all those present.

 

Diagram of the devices used by Hans Otto König on September 11 Previously published in the ITC Journal No. 24, December 2005
1. 10 UV LEDs UV-C – 100-280 Nanometer 2. 10 Small Quartz Crystals 3. 10 Phototransistors 4. Stochastic Generator 5. FM Output From Stochastic Generator 5A Oscillogram – Line 5 5B Frequency – Spectrum 48 – 68 KHz Line 5	6. FM Demodulator 7. Preamplifier 8. 4 UV LEDs Special Frequencies 9. Big Quartz Crystal 10. Demodulator 11. Low Frequency Amplifier 12. Audio Signal to Mixer

 Related Matters

The transcripts of the communications received during the above mentioned experiments and the respective translations provide by Dr. Ernst Senkowski are available below

During the two days spent in Wesel, Dr. Cardoso had the opportunity to exchange views with Hans-Otto König on a number of issues—namely on the content of the communications she receives from the group of communicators calling themselves Rio do Tempo (Timestream) and recorded by Dr. Cardoso, and of the communications received by Hans-Otto König. Among the many interesting similarities there is, for instance, the fact that König’s communicators very rarely speak in the singular and almost always in the plural, referring to themselves as “We,” just as do the communicators from Rio do Tempo.

They also speak of “meditating (in their world),” as do the voices from Rio do Tempo. Furthermore, König’s and Rio do Tempo communicators tell us that, in the third level of the next world, deceased animals and deceased humans are together again, and that at this level, communication with animals and plants is also possible. Another aspect of the similarities regards the interchange of energies between the communicators and the experimenters. Hans Otto König said on September 10, 2005, prior to the experiment of that day, that the entities who speak with him “can as well charge, or even overcharge, him before a contact, and at other times he feels devoid of energy after a contact.”

From her side on September 2, 2005, Dr. Cardoso wrote in her contacts log the following: “… when I am in the studio I seem to lose track of time. I wouldn’t know if I have been in for fifteen minutes or for over one hour. Also, those days when I feel particularly energetic, and upon request of the communicators, stay inside for a period of time, I feel emptied out and tired when I go out of the studio. On the other hand, the days when I feel very tired and go into the studio, upon going out I feel recovered and the tiredness has disappeared. It is as if there is an interchange of energies with the communicators.” As with the communicators from Rio do Tempo, who refer to themselves as speaking from a “station,” König’s communicators say the group who organizes their contacts is known as “ZentraIe.”

Conclusion

Our conclusion is that we witnessed two fascinating experiments that are the outcome of thirty years of engaged and devoted work by Hans-Otto König, who works without support and who has often been fiercely attacked by what Professor Senkowski calls envious or even ill-intentioned people. Hopefully, at some point in the future, Hans Otto König will be considered one of the most prominent pioneers of ITC, and his wish to prove the reality of life after death will perhaps be fulfilled by a less materialistic science. Meanwhile, we remain thankful for the opportunity to observe the work of this man, and wish him the continuation of success in the laborious developmental path that he has chosen to follow.

Editorial Note

As emphasized in earlier issues of the Journal this research work has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. Oliver Knowles, a great supporter and benefactor of psychical investigation…

 Abstract

A common explanation for Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is that the reported utterances are mundane sounds mistaken as voice forming words. This report describes three online listening trials that were conducted to determine whether or not website visitors can correctly identify words that are thought to be EVP by listening to unmarked sound files.

A second consideration is that it is a popular wisdom amongst EVP practitioners that one must learn to correctly understand EVP. A variety of approaches were tried to test this theory, including polling experienced listeners, using questions in an attempt to assess interest and predisposition to believe in EVP and asking participants to indicate experience in hearing examples. Analysis of the trials is included, along with an assessment of the reliability of the results.

When the total number of words correctly recognized for the three trials is compared to the possible number, the overall percent Recognized words (%Rw) is 25.2%, indicating that at least some EVP do constitute recognizable words.

Introduction

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is defined as voices found in recording media, for the presence of which, there is no apparent physical explanation. Lacking a physical cause for the utterances, the working hypothesis most popularly proposed to explain them is the Survival Hypothesis.¹ Specifically, that a person is a nonphysical Self (sometimes referred to as the personality, point of view or consciousness) in a symbiotic relationship with a physical body, and at the moment of death of the physical body, the Self is free to “return” to its more natural nonphysical environment. The hypothesis further holds that there is a nonphysical aspect of reality in which the survived Self exists, and from which it is able to communicate “back into” the physical via the mediumship of a still physical person, either technology augmented or via the human channel.

Alternative explanations for EVP which depend on physical principles include naturally occurring sounds mistaken as voice, real but mundane voices in the environment (voice contamination), radio frequency contamination, technology artifacts and sound file processing errors (processing artifacts). Super-PSI explanations that do not depend on the Survival Hypothesis include “echoes of the past” from residual mental energy that is stored in an as yet undefined quantum field and the recording of thoughts of the living. An emerging theory is that the practitioner and/or an interested observer creates an expected reality (experimental result), which is then mistaken as a trans-etheric influence.

Analysis of these theories is beyond the scope of this paper but they are briefly addressed in the Association TransCommunication (ATransC) article, ITC White Paper.² This paper is written with the assumption that EVP exist but how or why they exist is not addressed, nor is the question of their paranormality other than in the context of what is known about their nature.

Statement of Question 1: That EVP are ordinary sounds mistaken as voice is described as “pareidolia,” which is defined as “the erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random.”3 There can be little doubt that people do sometimes inappropriately assign meaning, but by definition, EVP is not pareidolia; however, for this statement to be true, then words reported in EVP must be distinguishable as words. Further, there should be some measure of agreement amongst listeners as to what is said.

Question 1: Can words in EVP be correctly identified by a website visitor without guidance.

Answer Format: A consistent measure of correctly identified words (Recognized words = Rw) greater than zero would indicate that at least some parts of the example EVP are real words.

Statement of Question 2: EVP are not formed with a biological system, but are formed in novel ways that produce sounds that represent words; they are simulated words. The words are often so arranged that they are not recognized as language without prior training. The assumption of these trials is that website visitors are “average” people ranging in experience listening to EVP from novice to expert. If the result of Question one is affirmative, then there should be a measurable difference in %Rw between novice listeners and experienced listeners.

Question 2: Is there an increase of %Rw with increased experience hearing EVP examples?

Answer Format: People who are experienced in listening to EVP should produce measurably higher %Rw.

Factors Influencing How EVP is Understood

The words of EVP should not be thought of as being formed by a biological system. Analysis has shown that they are simulations of words, and because of an often imperfect simulation, they are not understood in the same way as the same words spoken by a physical person. Because of this, some experienced practitioners have speculated that correctly hearing EVP is a learned ability.

Unusual Arrangement of Formants

It is fairly standard practice to classify EVP examples according to how easily they are correctly understood. A Class A voice can be heard and understood over a speaker by most people. A Class B voice can be heard over a speaker, but not everyone will agree as to what is said. A Class C voice is difficult to understand under any condition. An utterance may have one or two clearly understood words. Loud does not equal Class A. The majority of examples are Class C, and probably only one in several hundred are Class A.

The problem with this classification system is the assumption that all listeners have the same ability to understand the words in EVP. However, experience indicates that hearing the utterances is something of a learned ability and understanding them is not unlike learning a new language. That is, the words in EVP are formed in novel ways that often confound an untrained listener. This observation lacks the support of clinical studies, but there are a number of studies and learned opinions which may provide reference for further study.

Novel Voice Formation

Analysis of the voices by the Italian research group, Il Laboratorio⁴, indicates that the fundamental voice frequency is often distorted or missing in the utterances, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2 includes illustrations created by forensic-quality software used by Daniele Gullà at Il Laboratorio. The software creates illustrations showing probable shape of a mouth when speaking particular sounds. The software will sometimes fail to properly determine the shape of the mouth necessary to form some of the sounds in EVP.

An important characteristic of EVP is that they are energy limited; they are typically only a few words and appear as packets of audio energy with about the same average power in the waveform. This is a generalization, but examples are often encountered in which short utterances (one or two words) are relatively loud while longer ones (four or five) tend to be a little quieter or loud with a trailing-off or garbled enunciation at the end. Extraordinarily long utterances tend to be delivered as concatenated packets of words with evident pauses between packets, as if energy is being gathered between efforts. In some cases, different speakers will finish a concatenated utterance, or several speakers might speak in unison, as if sharing energy to “get through.”

Figure 3 provides an example of an EVP which is delivered in two packets with an evident pause between packets. At left is the waveform view of the same example shown at the right as a spectral view. The first packet (region 1 in the spectral view) is most easily understood, while the second (region 2) seems to be better enunciated, but is not as easily understood. The second may be a different person attempting to assist the speaker, or alternatively, the single speaker may have achieved more control over the “circuit.”

Region 3 (right end) is a physical person speaking. The EVP would be characterized overall as a Class C. but Region 1 would be considered a Class B. If you look at the spectral view of the same sound file, you will see that area 3 shows definite formant formation while area 1 does not and area 2 is partially defined. The formant levels are indicated by the white hash marks on the right side of the frame. Area 1 is thought to say, “I’m fine” while area 2 is thought to say “love you mom.” I can make out the “I’m fine” quite well, but not the area 2 and certainly not the woman’s quiet voice, even though you see the voice is well defined.

Parenthetically, another point illustrated in Figure 3 is that, when there are clearly defined formants in an EVP, it is possible to put the signal through a low pass filter and take out some of the formants. Doing so usually does not hurt physical speech, but it can change how an EVP is understood. Also, as is noted above, noise reduction tools (not filters) use a sample of the waveform to build a profile, which is then used to selectively remove those frequencies by amplitude. If the utterance is formed from the noise, then in some cases, the utterance is removed or is altered to be interpreted as having a different meaning. So yes, it is possible to cause processing artifacts with inappropriate processing of the sound file, although such processing does not produce an utterance unless it is someone trying to find voice in a near-zero-level, flat-line waveform. In that case, it is possible to make radio-frequency contamination audible.

Hearing with Templates

Alexander MacRae has proposed a possible explanation for why some people have difficulty hearing and understanding EVP.⁸ In part, he explains that:

• My article on hearing with templates makes the point that what we hear is not necessarily the same as what we are listening to. And then the point is made that templates are used in all recognition processes, whether recognizing phonemes (elements of words), patterns of phonemes which are words or patterns of words which are phrases. What you actually “hear” is the template. You can also hear all the other noises that are part of what you are listening to, but what you actually “hear” is the template that best fits the sound pattern.
• If you listen to a sequence of phonemes that you have never heard before, for instance, “Gelarumipalat,” which is not a word in the languages that you understand, which does not have Latin, Greek or Germanic roots, what you will hear is a sequence of phonemes, pure and simple. If you listen to a recognized sequence of phonemes such as “angry,” you hear a word. And if you listen to a sequence of known words in a recognized sequence such as, “I am so angry!” what you “hear” is a meaning.
• What you listen to and what you hear can be different things. There has to be a distinction, therefore, between EVP that is so good it is close to normal speech in good listening conditions which I call A-type EVP, and EVP that is not that good which I will call that B-type EVP. They are both EVP but they have different behavioral characteristics.
• With B-type EVP:
  • Different people may hear different things;
  • What is heard using headphones may be different from what is heard using a speaker;
  • What is heard when one is told what it is, may be different from what one heard before being told what it is; and,
  • What one hears at one time may be different from what one hears at another time.”
• The point is that the EVP researchers are identifying important reasons why EVP are not heard as normal speech. Novel voice formation and missing timing cues that confound the mind are just two of the reasons an average person might think that an example of EVP is just noise, or at best, gibberish. If known problems of missing context, noise contamination and utterances that are spoken too softly or too fast are considered, then there begins to be a case for treating hearing and understanding EVP as a learned ability, not very different than learning a new language.

Listener Expectation

As it applies to psi phenomena, the experimenter effect refers to the influence a “believer” has on the outcome of a process. The hypothesis is that, if the experimenter expects a positive result, it is possible that he or she might psychically facilitate that result. The reverse is true of those who are not “believers.” If there is a psi aspect of EVP, then this same hypothesis should be considered.

The experimenter effect suggests that the person participating in the listening trials might be an unreliable listener because of a predisposition to believe or not believe.

• Agnosia: Loss of the ability to interpret sensory stimuli, such as sounds or images. (American Heritage Dictionary). Agnosia was once considered a rare condition, but since the work with inattention blindness, it has become clear that it is much more common than previously thought. An audio form of agnosia is also recognized, and what might be referred to as incredulity blindness should be considered in the analysis of listener ability to hear EVP. That is:
• Incredulity blindness: A category of inattentional agnosia or inattentional  blindness, in which an audio or visual example of a phenomenon is not experienced because it is so foreign to a person’s worldview. There are at least two forms of the experimenter effect. One is the difference in experimental results collected by “believers” and “skeptics.” The second is due to the difference in results reported between a “believer” and a “skeptics.”

Effective Listening Technique

Website visitors volunteer to participate in the listening trials, but do not necessarily agree to follow the recommended procedure for listening to an example. As suggested in the introduction to the examples “…an excellent technique for examining a possible utterance is to select the suspected wave form and listen to it many times. If words are present to be understood, the listener’s mind will sometimes, eventually recognize them.” They are also asked to use headphones, rather than listening via speakers.

This technique is used with an audio management program such as Audition, or the open source, Audacity. Most people experienced with EVP use a similar program, and as is shown in Figure 3, variations in the waveform are suggestive of utterances, so it is easy to select one pulse of the waveform and listen to it many times using the “Loop” feature. Once a word “emerges” into my awareness, it is easy to hear it later when listening to the entire file. In effect, the person learns how to understand words as formed by that communicator.

Experimental Protocol

As of July, 2007, the Association TransCommunication (formally AA-EVP) website received an average of fifteen hundred unique visitors a day, making it an ideal platform for conducting online EVP listening experiments. Also, the site ranks high in search engines, assuring that both people seriously interested in EVP and the idly curious will find the page hosting the experiment.

The basic protocol utilizes a web page inviting website visitors to listen to audio files labeled with just the word, “Example” and a number. Visitors were asked to type what they heard in an unlabeled text field. This information was sent to an email address and also to a database on the website server.

A conscious effort was made to allow very little tolerance for what was considered a correct interpretation of the examples, and other than as noted below “almost right” words were generally not accepted as correct. The number of words contained in the examples ranged from one to seven words and each word was counted as a possible hit or miss. Allowance was given for the way words are commonly heard or reported. For instance, “Shut up” was counted as one word, because that is the way it is commonly heard, “spirit” and “spirits” were equally accepted, but “I’m” was not accepted when it was supposed to be “We’re.”

The resulting database was manually tallied based on the number of words correctly reported for each example by each participant. Data is not available for how likely any one word in the English language is to be guessed in any single attempt. However, it is predictable that some words are more likely to be guessed than are others, especially if the participant has previously listening to EVP examples on the Internet. For instance, words like “the” and “is” are commonly found in phrases, as are “I,” “I’m” and “we.” Names are often in EVP examples, and some names are more common than others. For these reasons, no effort was made to evaluate the responses based on deviation from chance guessing of words. Instead, a straightforward count was made to establish average percentage of correctly reported words, compared to the total number in the example multiplied by the number of entries.

Normalizing Quality of Examples

Some examples are simply harder to understand, and so, a means of predicting how hard an example is to understand would be helpful for the analysis of the results. In an attempt to establish this measure, participants were asked questions designed to determine their experience in hearing EVP or inclination to believe in their validity as natural phenomena. The intention was to find a way to say that this participant has, say a skill level of five on a scale of one (beginner) to ten (expert), and the %Rw for the person was n%. Then to compare all entries for that example versus average skill level to establish a quality index for the example. Overall, this was not successful, although the data is provided and comments have been made for each trial.

Trial 1

Five examples thought to be Class A were used. In an effort to avoid recognition by participants, they were selected because they were not widely used. Participants were asked to select from the following options:

Please select one or more the following descriptions that best describes you:

• I have studied EVP and believe they are caused by discarnate people.
• I have studied EVP and believe that there is a physical explanation for them.
• I consider myself a skeptical person when it comes to the paranormal.
• I have been academically trained in the sciences.
• I am academically trained but not in the sciences.

There was a problem in determining the number of correctly identified words as compared to the participant’s background because participants were able to select more than one response. While the raw data contains this information, it was generalized as:

• I have studied EVP and believe they are caused by discarnate people.
• I consider myself a skeptical person when it comes to the paranormal.
• I consider myself a skeptical person when it comes to the paranormal and I am an academically trained scientist
• I have been academically trained in the sciences.
• I am academically trained but not in the sciences.
• No background marked.

The responses were stored on the internet and also delivered via email to my computer. (The raw data is available for analysis on request.) In the first experiment, a response came as (actual-typical):

Example 1: shut up vicki good job vicki
Example 2: we can’t go in the
Example 3: the voice is mine
Example 4: hi ,mom
Example 5: big speech from the mommy
Studied evp and believes evp:
Studied evp and believes physical:
Skeptical: Skeptical
Scientist: Trained Scientist
Layperson:
Remote Name: nn.nnn.nn.nn
Remote User:
Date: 08 February, 2007
Time: 11:59 AM

After one hundred “qualified” responses, the experiment was stopped because of the time required for processing the results and because there was an almost exponential increase in attempts to sabotage the experiment with misleading responses. Judging by the “Remote Name” (IP address), after indicating they were skeptical, some were coming back a second time, saying they had studied EVP and believed it to be phenomenal and then typing random characters in the response field. All duplicated responses were discarded.

“Qualified” respondent actually wrote a response for at least one example, and the response was something other than random characters. Blank entries for individual examples were counted as a “miss” as long as there was some form of response for at least one example; however, entries with no attempted word identification for all five examples were discarded.

The five examples included nineteen words. Example 1 sounds as if it was “Shutup Viki” repeated twice, rather than the actual “Shutup Vicki, just shutup Vicki.” Many gave the correct first half and the assumption was made that the second half was mistaken as a repeat. (Repeating the example in the same recording is a common practice.) As previously noted, “shut up” was counted as one word because that is pretty much the way it is heard. Thus, a “shutup Viki” response was counted as four words because we feel the participant assumed a repeat. Other decisions made for judging correct word identification included:

“Were” is okay for “Where’s”
“Sticky,” “Dickey” or “Becky” was not counted for “Viki” but “kiki” was
“Than” is accepted as “thanks” but “Think” was not accepted
“Hay” was accepted for “Hi”
“Mommy” was not accepted for “money”
“Bob” was not accepted for “mom”

Trial 1 Results

There were ninety-six “qualified” responses resulting in a possible 1,824 words. There were 612 correctly recognized words (Rw) or ”’overall %Rw = 33.6%”’. Based on how participants answered the profile questions:

• I have studied EVP and believe they are caused by discarnate people.
  %Rw = 40.9% (35.4% of participants (34 people))

• I consider myself a skeptical person when it comes to the paranormal.
  %Rw = 28.0% (32.3% of participants (31 people))

• I consider myself a skeptical person when it comes to the paranormal and I am an academically trained scientist.
  %Rw = 20.0% (5.2% of participants (5 people))

• I have been academically trained in the sciences.
  %Rw = 27.4% (5.2% of participants (5 people))

• I am academically trained but not in the sciences.
  %Rw = 28.3% (13.5% of the participants (13 people))

• No background marked.
  %Rw = 38.2% (8.3% of the participants (8 people))

“Shutup Vicki just shutup Vicki” recorded by Viki Talbott (5 words).
Possible 480 words (96 x 5) with 247 words correctly identified or %w = 51.5%.

“We keep looking for peace” recorded by Lisa Butler (5 words).
Possible 480 words  (96 x 5) with 69 words correctly identified or ”’%Rw = 14.4%”’.

“Where’s mom” recorded by Martha Copeland (2 words).
Possible 192 (96 x 2) words with 85 words correctly identified or ”’%Rw = 44.3%”’.

“Hi mom” recorded by Teri Dabber (2 words).
Possible 192 words (96 x 2) with 84 words correctly identified or ”’%Rw = 43.8%”’.

“Thanks, thanks for the money” recorded by Vicki Talbott (5 words).
Possible 480 words(96 x 5) with 127 words correctly identified or ”’%Rw = 26.5%”’.

---

Trial 2

A second listening trial was conducted in an effort to better establish an average for %Rw and to determine whether or not it was possible to relate ability to hear to background. Five examples thought to be Class A were used, along with one example spoken by a physical person. Once again, they were selected because they were not widely used, in an effort to avoid recognition by participants.

Background information: The background information participants were asked to provide was different from Trial 1 in an effort to find a more useful way to profile the participants. They were asked:

Identifying the mundane utterance: Near the end of the trial, participants were told that one example was mundane and participants were ask to use a provided check-boxes to indicate which one they thought was mundane.

Testing for response fatigue: The number of correctly recognized words (Rw) for example six was unexpectedly low so examples one and six were reversed during the trial to see if the Rw world changed. Such a change in Rw would seem to indicate that participants were experiencing “fatigue” in trying to listen to so many examples.

The EVP, “It’s Jamie” had a %Rw of 56.6% when it was Example 1 and a %Rw of 62.3% when it was Example 6. The differential is 5.7% with a gain for being the last example.

The EVP, “I survived” had a %Rw of 22.5% when it was Example 1 and a %Rw of 27.4% when it was Example 6. The differential is 4.9% with a gain for being the last example

Response format: As in Trial 1, the responses were stored on the internet and also delivered via email to my computer. (The raw data is available for analysis on request.) A response came as:

Normal Speech: Yes 4
Example 1: jeremy
Example 2: im flying
Example 3: we come to get roxanne
Example 4: this feels weird
Example 5: you’re crazy
Example 6: im in your barn
Education:
Subject of education:
Background in evp: Have studied a little
Opinion about evp: May provide proof of survival after physical death
Spam control: 2
B1: Submit
Remote Name: nn.nn.nnn.nn
Remote User:
Date: 07 July, 2007
Time: 05:52 PM

The same rules were applied to grading correctly reported words in Trail 2 as was used in Trial 1. For instance:

• Any word that began with a “J” and ended with a “m” and a “ie” ending, such as “y” or “e.”
• Not accepted: Words like “Jane” and “Jenny.”
• “I’m” was not accepted for “I”
• “Survive” was accepted for “survived”

Trial 2 Results

The mundane example “Will you tell me the grump’s name?” was not counted in the tally. The maximum number of responses for the remaining five was 217, but as few as 184 were counted in one example because some participants made no entry. Overall, there was a possibility of 2,844 recognized words. 855 words were recognized for an average of 30.1% (Overall %Rw = 31.0)

“It’s Jamie” recorded by Ginny Sawyer (2 words).
Possible 434 words (217 x 2). 249 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 57.4%

“It’s Frank” recorded by Karen Mossey (2 words).
Possible 426 words (213 x 2). 207 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 48.6%

“Will you tell me the grump’s name?” recorded by Martha Copeland (7 words). This is a mundane voice spoken by Martha Copeland.
     Possible 1365 words (195 x 7). 449 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 32.9%

“We’re still in spirit” recorded by Vicki Talbott (4 words).
Possible 832 words (208 x 4). 191 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 22.9%

“Tell her it’s Satan” recorded by Martha Copeland (4 words).
Possible 736 words (184 x 4). 102 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 13.9%

“I survived” recorded by Martha Copeland (2 words).
Possible 416 words (208 x 2). 106 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 25.5%

---

Trial 3

Trial 3 was an attempt to determine whether or not it was reasonable to ask participants to estimate their previous experience in listening to EVP examples. Participants were also asked to identify any organization with which they were affiliated. This question was intended to permit identification of a control group, such as a teacher’s students or members of the ATransC. All examples were recorded using an audio recorder as transform EVP (transformation of available noise into words), except for one recorded using the radio-sweep method as an opportunistic EVP (just in time sounds selected to form words). See Locating EVP formation and detecting false positives. (Radio-sweep is accomplished with a modified radio popularly known as “ghost boxes” or “spirit boxes.”)

Response format: As in the other trials, the responses were stored on the internet and also delivered via email to my computer. (The raw data is available for analysis on request.) A response came as:

Example 1:  NO ONES HELD ME
Example 2:  ROB IS PEEKING CAN HE HELP THAT
Example 3:  THIS IS SOOO DIFFICULT
Example 4:  HEAVENS THE BEST
Example 5:  YOU SHOULD MOTHER _ _ _ _ A
Example 6:  HELLO
Posit science results:  7.25B
Organization:  AAEVP
Experience:  8
Spam control:  2
B1:  Submit
Remote Name:
Remote User:  xx.xxx.x.xxx
Date:  02 February, 2008
Time:  08:08 PM

IP addresses were examined and multiple entries from the same IP were deleted, except in the instances in which the reported words were identical. In identical, duplicated entries, only one was counted; the assumption being that the duplicate was accidental.

The same rules were applied to grading correctly reported words as was used in the other trials, so that:

• Death was accepted for dead
• Catherine was accepted for Cathy but not captain
• McTaulk not accepted for talking
• Shaw, Sha, Shraw, Shah and Saul were accepted for Shawn but not Sean, Sal or Saw
• Talk was accepted for Talking
• Help was accepted for helping
• Death was accepted for dead
• Merrill was accepted for Marilyn
• Words like Kevin not accepted for Cathy
• Help me was not accepted for Helping but was given one word for help
• Weak was accepted for Week but not speak

Trial 3 Results

results of your test below, but this is optional.197 entries were accepted for a possible 4,334 words to be recognized. 804 words were correctly recognized for an average of 18.6% (Overall %Rw = 18.6%).

1. “Joeys helping” Recorded by Margaret Downey. 2 words, had a possible 394 possible (2 X 197), 121 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 30.7%
        42 responses were “Someone help me” or close variation of this.

2. “Not this week. We can help” recorded by Margaret Downey. 7 words (Radio Sweep) had a possible 1,379 possible (6 X 197), 34 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 2.5%
        “Have to speak” or “Do I have to speak,” was a common response. There were 100 “speak” responses, and if “speak” had been accepted for “week,” %Rw would be %Rw = 9.7%

3. “This is Shawn talking” recorded by Margaret Downey. 4 words, had a possible 788 possible (4 X 197), 343 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 43.5%
        7 responses were “This is so difficult” and 6 were “This is from the top.” “This is” accounted for most of the hits for this example.

4. “Cathy, you’re dead” recorded by Margaret Downey. 3 words, had a possible 591 possible (3 X 197), 216 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 36.6%
        60 responses begin with “Kevin.”

5. “You should never step out” recorded by Lisa Butler. 5 words, had a possible 985 possible (5 X 197), 83 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 8.4%
        40 responses began with “This is” and 20 began with “we should,” “said” or “shall.”

6. “Marilyn” recorded by Lisa Butler. 1 word, had a possible 197 possible (1 X 197), 7 words were correctly identified or %Rw = 3.6%
        6 responses were “Hell,” 56 were “Hello,” 20 were “Help” and 16 “Sarah.”

Experience Hearing EVP vs. %Rw

This plot shows the distribution of (self-reported) experience and %Rw. Each the number in each point represents the number of entries represented. The average experience level is about 3.6 with an average %Rw = 20.3% The two numbers for experience level 10 is without and with (second number) the single result of fifteen correctly recognized words. (The total numbers reported here deviates from the overall average because some people failed to indicate estimated experience.)

The graph does not include entries that did not offer an experience level.

If understanding EVP is a learned ability, then an improvement in %Rw should be seen with more experience. But as can be seen in the table below, the %Rw is almost flat. one possible explanation for the lack of improvement may be the human nature tendency to overestimate personal ability. It is difficult to know how much experience one has, or how “good” one has become in listening to EVP when interested people are so few and far in-between.  For this question to be properly asked and answered, it appears that a standardized hearing and experience tests would need to be administered before the actual listening trials are conducted.

Posit Science Results

As a way to evaluate how well participants hear voice in noisy environments, we asked participants to take the Posit Science Speech in noise” hearing test (No longer available) You will be asked for the results of your test below, but this is optional.

Nineteen people reported a Posit Science result. -15 is the best possible result. The average was -6.8 with an average %Rw = 19.4%. Overall, participants had a %Rw = 19.4%, indicating that hearing ability alone is not a major factor in the ability to understand EVP.

Discussion

Question 1 was to test the pareidolia hypothesis, and if %Rw was greater than zero, to establish parameters for how EVP are heard. Whether or not EVP are mundane sounds mistaken as voice should be able to be determined by whether or not sound files thought to be EVP can be heard to say what EVP experiments think they say. With an average percent recognized words or %Rw = 36% for Trial 1, %Rw = 30% for Trial 2 and %Rw = 18.6% for Trial 3. Based on total number of words recognized for all three trials, the overall average of %Rw = 25.2%, it seems clear that at least the examples used in this exercise are composed of sometimes intelligible words, and therefore, are not figments of an experimenter’s imagination.

Stats

3 trials
17 examples (One mundane voice and one radio sweep, the rest are transform EVP made with a plain old recorder.)
510 participants
9,002 possible words
2,7271 words correctly recognized.
25.2% Overall %Rw

Question 2 addressed the idea that EVP are formed in novel ways that produce sounds that represent words, and that the words are often so arranged that they are not recognized as language without prior training.

• In Trial 1, people who indicated that they have studied EVP scored a %Rw of 40.9% (34 people), as compared to 28.4% for the other participants combined (62 people). This is a difference of 12.5%
• In Trail 2, people who have recorded EVP had a %Rw of 33.0% (14 people) while the people indicating having no experience with EVP scored 21.9% (79 people) for a difference of 11.1%.
• In Trial 3, %Rw based tallied by self-reported experience levels was nearly flat from no experience to considerable experience.

The results of Trial 1 and 2 seem to indicate that learning does improve performance, which seems to support the hypothesis that one reason people new to EVP often report hearing EVP as just noise is that they have not learned to hear the utterances. However, participants were asked in Trial 3 to estimate their experience in hearing EVP, and for the most part, reported experience versus %Rw did not support the self-hypothesis that learning is required.

Cooperation of the Participants

During the first trial, the editors of Wikipedia active in the EVP article at the time were told that there was a trial under way. Directly after that, responses began to be received that were first marked as being from a skeptical person and then the same IP came back one or more times marked as being from a “believer.” The responses also changed from an apparent honest effort to hear the words to mere random typing or obviously wrong responses. This escalated so that it was necessary to discontinue the trial when the majority of responses were of this nature. Wikipedia is controlled by editors who are ideologically in line with and strong defenders of mainstream science.

Single responses cannot be excluded just because it seems that there was no honest effort to hear the words; however, when there is more than one entry for a single IP, all entries associated with that IP were discounted, even when their %Rw was high. A negative of this policy is that some IP addresses are associated with publicly accessed computers, such as in libraries and schools.

The one exception to discounting responses with duplicated IPs is when the response itself is both consecutive and identical, in which case it was assumed that a mechanical error occurred and the first response was retained while the second was discounted.

A second form of vandalism comes in the form of unreasonable interpretations of an example. In the waveform shown here, changes in amplitude corresponds with the utterance–first part anomalous and the last part mundane. An interpretation of what is said should have some correspondence with the number of amplitude pulses, especially as seen in the spectral view at the right. In other words, if the listener makes an effort to hear what is said, what is typed in the response field should at least approximate the number of sound pulses, even if the typed words are not correct. There were many responses containing far too many syllables to be seriously related to the example. Yet, it is necessary to count such responses because there is no overriding reason to assume vandalism. This does, however, reduce the usefulness of the overall trial.

Wrong Words Reported

An intriguing result of these trials is that the wrong word is sometimes more often reported than the right word. This was tracked in the third trial, and for instance, the last example is Marilyn, but it was identified as “hello” in 56 of the 197 responses. in Cathy, your dead, ‘Cathy” was understood as “Kevin” 60 times. If “Kevin” had been the correct response, the %Rw would have been better than 45% as opposed to the reported 36%.

In some cases, expectations of the listener might make a response more likely. For instance, in the Marilyn, “Sarah” was reported 16 times. Sarah Estep is the founder of the AA-EVP and has recently made her transition. “Help” was reported 20 times, and is another often reported EVP.

A phrase beginning with a “Ca” sound and one beginning with a “Ke” sound is close enough that people might hear one as the other. Participants are asked to use a headset and listen to the example several times, but in fact, one listening via computer speakers is probably best that can be expected. Audio performance varies amongst computers, as does environments, and it should be expected that listening errors will have a negative influence on %Rw.

Improving the Protocol

Normalizing the example: The best practice for grading how easily an EVP example will be understood is the Class A (easily heard), B (poorly heard, but hearable) and C (usually only heard by the practitioner) classification system. This is generally established by the practitioner and is only rarely determined by a listening panel. If the hypothesis that learning is required to understand EVP is correct, then the practitioner is not reliable as a standard for classification, nor is a listening panel.

The clarity of EVP examples varies considerably, and the ones used in these three trials are no exception. They were selected because they are considered Class A, but I have nearly twenty years of experience hearing EVP, and if there is a learning curve, I am at it top and clearly am not a reliable standard. On the other hand, I have also played examples for many people, and have a sense of what the average person can understand.

Another factor in determining the quality of an example is that, if listeners are routinely told what the example is thought to say, they will be more likely to hear the example as a Class A. This is true even when the example might actually be a poor Class B. This is related to the listener’s expectation. For instance, if the example is recorded in a cemetery, the listener is more apt to assume an utterance is dreadful if the person assumes “dead” people are stuck there.

Normalizing listener experience: How well qualified the listener is to correctly hear an utterance is a second issue for hearing trials. As is seen here, self-estimation of ability may not be reliable. Online trials depend on keeping the interest of the participant, and based on the results, the best circumstance might be academic. An instructor can request that students take the necessary screening tests, and then using an affiliation question in the online trials form to identify the control group. Ideally, participants would be given a hearing test using the computer with speakers or headphone that would be used for the trial. In addition, a set of questions could be developed to determine the participant’s experience hearing EVP based on a psychology-style aptitude test.

An Ideal Protocol

• EVP examples would be taken from a pool of previously screened examples. This screening would be accomplished by using this same protocol to establish a control listening panel, and based on the control group’s performance with examples, a set of examples that have been given a grade. Thus an example would have a factor based on control group score.
• Website visitors participating in a trial would include a listening test and a survey designed to provide a factor representing experience. Thus the participant would have a hearing score and a score for experience.
• Participants would then listen to a set of unmarked examples and type what they hear in an unmarked text field.
• Listening results would be graded based on hearing ability, experience and the quality factor of examples.

Conclusions

With the degree of normalization described above, it should be possible to use the online listening trial protocol to explore subjects such as how experience and/or personality traits influence ability to understand EVP. There is evidence of a cultural influence on how trans-etheric influences are experienced, and the online listening protocol may provide an important means of controlling the examination of these ideas.

EVP is just an objective form of trans-etheric influence, but it is also easily induced. Any time the conceptual world of the etheric is examined by people and their attendant observer influence, variables become involved that cannot be easily controlled. That is one of the reasons deviations from chance has become the primary approach for psi functioning studies. With the on-demand objective results of EVP research, such variables can potentially be controlled, and meaningful results can be expected.

References

1. Butler, Tom, Survival Hypothesis Explained, ATransC, ethericstudies.org/trans-survival-hypothesis/
2. Butler, Tom, EITC White paper, atransc.org/itc-white-paper/
3. Word Spy: pareidolia.
4. Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernetics Research, Bologna, Italy (Il Laboratorio)
5. Gullà, Daniele, Computer–Based Analysis of Supposed Paranormal Voice: The Question of Anomalies Detected and Speaker Identification, Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernetics Research, Bologna, Italy, ATransC web site atransc.org/gulla-voice-analysis/
6. Butler. Tom, Characteristic Test for EVP, Best Practices Development.
7. “Formants,” Handbook For Acoustic Ecology, Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999.
8. MacRae, Alexander, “Hearing with Templates,” Winter 2007 AA-EVP NewsJournal, atransc.org/theory/macrae-hearing_with_templates.htm
9. Caroline Watt, Peter Ramakers, Journal of Parapsychology, The, Spring, 2003.
10. Daniel J. Simons, Scholarpedia, 2007.
11. Audition, Adobe Systems, Inc.
12. Audacity, audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows.

As presented by Paolo Presi at the 2006 AA-EVP conference

Introducing Il Laboratorio

It is a great pleasure and honor for me to attend this very important International Conference and I wish to thank Lisa and Tom Butler for their kind invitation to participate. I will begin by explaining the targets, methods and research activities carried out at Il Laboratorio – Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernetic Research, the purpose of which is to study phenomena that, for a long time, we all wrongly judged as “paranormal.” [Il laboratorio is no longer operational.]

To begin, I would like to draw your attention to the name of our organization so that you understand the leading criteria of our scientific activities. The first word, “Il Laboratorio” (The Laboratory), is self-explanatory and refers to a place provided with equipment for scientific research. The word, “Interdisciplinary,” indicates that our research is performed using methods belonging to different sciences and/or disciplines linked together in a methodological and conceptual way. To follow an interdisciplinary approach in the investigations has today become a necessity of contemporary scientific thought, particularly when the research is designed to understand certain phenomena emerging from the human mind.

The Il Laboratorio team intends also to investigate unusual occurrences; usually referred to as events that go beyond psi-cognitive and psychokinetic phenomena, in areas that traditional parapsychology did not intend to investigate. Our area of interest also includes study of so-called “borderline phenomena,” such as Out-of-Body-Experiences (OBE) and Near Death Experiences (NDE), as well as phenomena that depend upon altered or modified states of consciousness like sensitiveness and mediumship.

Our research is also concerned with investigation of the subjects involved in psychic phenomena from the neuro-psycho-physiological point of view, in order to bring to light possible interconnections between the subject and the final link in the phenomenological chain, like physical psychic effects. This includes the so-called bioresonance phenomena that are concerned with the interactive interface that man has with his immediate and more remote physical surroundings, as well as with his social psychological background.

The word Research refers to the studies designed and systematically implemented in order to increase our understanding and knowledge of unusual occurrences through the use of scientific methodology wherever applicable and feasible.

The final word in the name of our organization, Bio-psycho-cybernetic, indicates that our investigations are not limited to explaining psi phenomena by criteria and laws based only on physical paradigms, but by considering each occurrence belonging to a complex system whose properties can be understood by studying the whole system from different perspectives.

I wish to stress that the philosophy guiding the researchers of Il Laboratorio deals with events as they occur, whether as they appear in the physical world, or as evidence of inner or psychic experience. This neologism was suggested by the founders of Il Laboratorio and adopted with the goal of supporting a gradual revision of the terminology of parapsychological research in order to distance our discipline from the ghetto of the pseudo-sciences. Our activities are therefore both practical (in the field) and theoretical. They deal with the reliability of documented reports, the verification of reported occurrences, and the scientific and technological circumstances (including controls) within which findings are gathered.

Within the context of present scientific knowledge, utilizing where possible and feasible the most updated technologies, our researchers conduct their research.

Before introducing to you the Department directly involved in Instrumental Transcommunication, I would like to give you some information about the other Departments that work together collaboratively.

The Research and Theoretics Departments report directly to the General Director while the Voice, Image and Psychophysiological Departments report to the Research Department.

Dr. Enrico Marabini heads Il Laboratorio as General Director. He also manages ad interim the Theoretics Department. This branch of Il Laboratorio handles the epistemological issues that arise from our research activities. This is a very important Department since its task is to confirm the correctness of methodology, and the procedures and interpretations attributed to results arising from the experimental activities of the research teams.

The Research Department, managed by Dr. Michele Dinicastro, coordinates all the research activities performed by the Departments.

Dr. Giorgio Gagliardi manages the Psychophysiological Department. He is entrusted with the investigations into the personality and physiology of the subjects involved in paranormal phenomena. This is a very complex topic and, at the same time, one that is of great importance in the context of both psychological and physiological interactions between the human personality and the phenomena under investigation.

The topic of Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) is dealt with by the Voice Department, managed by myself, and the Image Department managed by engineer Daniele Gullà.

The Voice and Image Departments conduct their research activities thanks to the competence and collaboration of colleague Daniele Gullà, a skilled electronics engineer, who is an expert in electro-acoustical analysis of voices, as well as image recognition and processing. His extensive experience in these fields has allowed him to accomplish qualified legal advices for Italian Courts of Justice.

I am pleased to provide detailed information about our research including some practical and significant examples.

There are many ways to study the paranormal or unusual events relating to the survival of consciousness after death. Many operators who try to “receive” messages from the beyond are motivated mainly by emotional issues, such as the loss of a loved one, where the contents are surely more important than anything else. Other researchers, like myself, are conscious of the great importance of the topic and are studying the process by investigating the many different expressions of the phenomena. By doing so, those researchers attempt to characterize all the elements that contribute to increasing the meaning and validity of the results of experimentation. That is why I consider it mandatory that the phenomena witnessed be thoroughly investigated and that the investigations be carried out using methods and technical tools that are recognized as being suitable for scientific research.

It should be the task of the serious researcher to uncover all events that can be considered anomalous because they do not fit the established laws of physics. Only in this way will we awaken the scientific establishment to the importance of this kind of research, and only at that time will a revision of the paradigms, now considered unchangeable by science, take place.

In line with Thomas Kuhn’s thought¹, we recognize that this may be a very slow process, but the only one capable of leading human society to the conscious maturity that will result from scientific understanding of new discoveries. To that purpose, together with my collaborators at Il Laboratorio, we dedicate our efforts in this way. We use the most up-to-date professional software and hardware to document all the peculiarities and anomalies that are found in the electroacoustical structure of authentic paranormal voices obtained under controlled conditions.

In this presentation I am pleased to share with you some examples of the preliminary findings in this matter.

Investigating Paranormal Voices Using Computer-Based Analysis

On 17 September 1952, Italian Fathers Agostino Gemelli and Pellegrino Ernetti reported a case of alleged anomalous communication received through a magnetic wire-recorder. The reported phenomenon attracted little attention until 1959 when Friedrich Jürgenson, a Sweden artist and documentary filmmaker, obtained the same kind of phenomenon. Intrigued by these claims, Latvian psychologist Konstantin Raudive commenced his own experimentation that confirmed Jürgenson’s results (1971).

Much research has been conducted in several different countries in order to help us understand the mechanisms governing the phenomenon. In Italy, we have an ongoing research program, named Sfinge Project, which is supported by a grant generously donated by the Swedish Helene Reeder Memorial Fund. Before dealing with the preliminary results obtained in the Sfinge Project, it is useful to provide some information about the signal acquisition and processing quality required to perform reliable analyses. See: Instrumental Analysis of EVP Collected via a Sound-Psi Interaction

To obtain voices of sufficient quality to permit analysis, the original recording signal must provide for a reasonably good Signal/Noise ratio (S/N). If the voice signal is at the same level as the background noise or lower, the chance of successful analysis will be extremely low. To obtain a good sound quality the original recording signal needs a relatively high signal/noise ratio, like that obtained through a digital recording rather than an analog recording through an audio cassette recorder.

Digital recording is obtained by recording directly onto a computer or digital audio recorder (solid state or digital tape recorder). The key difference between digital and analog systems consists in their acoustic dynamic ranges: those from digital recording systems are greater than 90 dB while those from audio cassette recorder (analog) are usually not more than 60 dB. That is why it is important to record Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) with a recording system that ensures that the acoustic loss of information is reduced to a minimum.

Unfortunately, we often have to work with very weak or noisy signals due to imperfect recordings. Too often poor quality microphones or audio cassette tape recorders are used and this results in a high distortion effect and makes analysis and decoding unreliable. It is worth repeating that the accuracy of analyses of the signal depends on the acoustic quality of the recording acquired.

In the Sfinge project, we used a personal computer, acting as a recorder of input signals coming from a high quality, condenser-type microphone and processed by a professional microphone preamplifier, with digital output, and a multiband signal processor. This project provides practical experimentation, under controlled conditions, involving four of the most skilled ITC operators in Italy, each working in independent experimental sessions.

We started the project with the first operator by experimenting with the typical microphone recording method, using a cassette tape recorder with built-in microphone.

The first experiment was conducted with a female operator, Mrs. Lida Russo from Livorno, Italy. She used her audiocassette recorder, which was really quite modest. Unfortunately, in the experimental sessions performed, she recorded only some voices of poor acoustic quality.

Exactly the opposite happened to our research team using a professional recording system, operated by Daniele Gullà, which served a cross-referential function. The introduction of professional recording tools to record the whole experiment brought us some unexpected and astonishing results. See: Computer–Based Analysis of Supposed Paranormal Voice

Another important check was carried out using a professional phonometer in order to survey the existing background noise during the experiment. Generally speaking, the main objection currently raised by the critics concerns the ambiguous sonority that mainly characterizes EVP material. In their opinion an ambiguous acoustic event, properly fragmented and cadenced, might be decoded as a linguistic message. They argue that when a high fidelity recording system is used, the alleged paranormal voices reveal themselves to be a simple noise, not voices. Our experimentation demonstrated exactly the opposite. The digital recording revealed the presence of voices not audible on the audio cassette recorded by the operator.

In my opinion, the primary cause can be found somewhere between the recording devices used, the existing psychological and/or psychical condition of the ITC operator, and the whole “Minds System”² constituted by the people attending the experiment. In fact, the operator under observation was expecting good voices to be recorded by the experimenters from Il Laboratorio. Consequently, Mrs. Russo’s main expectation was the successful recording of voices on the sophisticated recording devices. These were arranged in the room by the researchers. Several times, Mrs. Russo asked Daniele Gullà if voices had been recorded on his devices; she was not worried at all whether voices could be recorded on her own tape recorder.

The great influence exerted on the device by Mrs. Russo (the ITC operator) was experienced again when our psychologist, Dr. Giorgio Gagliardi, and his assistant were ready to perform a psychophysiological examination of her. This examination requires the use of a polygraph connected to a personal computer, which records the neurovegetative and electrodermic changes occurring during the psychological test.

Before leaving his home Dr. Gagliardi checked that both devices were functioning correctly. No problems were found, everything was working properly. Once the electrodes were positioned on Mrs. Russo’s head and everything was ready for the test, the personal computer gave an error message. Several times the computer was checked and restarted but the error didn’t disappear. The most significant occurrence happened when Dr. Gagliardi returned to his home: inexplicably both the devices were found to be operating correctly, without any error!

Lastly, all of the approximately fifty photos taken with a digital camera, many of which show Mrs. Russo ready for the experiment with the electrodes positioned on her head, were inexplicably and definitively lost. It is my opinion that the stressful psychological condition of Mrs. Russo’s mind, probably due to her anxiety about the results of test, set off such occurrences.

In the following, the results of the analyses done on two very short tonal sentences are reported. The tonal sentences are saying: “ami Enzo?” (“do you love Enzo?”) and “oh mamma” (“oh mom”). It must be said that Enzo, the unknown speaker, is the name of the deceased son of Mrs. Russo.

The whole sentence \AMI\ENZO\ is uttered with a light temporal dilatation, with an evident pause between the two words. The voice is a loud, clearly audible voice, well cadenced, which was not heard by either the experimenters or the operator during the experiment. In the first sentence (duration 2.278 sec.) only the first part \AMI\E was analyzed because the word \ENZO\ was partially overlapped by the voices of people attending the experiment.

The analyses revealed several anomalies as follows:

• Modulations of signals changing mainly in amplitude instead of in frequency.
• Formants visibility limited to F1 and F2 only.
• Vibrations of vocal cords detectable in short intervals only.
• Abnormal fluctuations of voice frequency ranges.
• Poor melodic and harmonic contents.
• Vowels expanded in time.
• Abnormal excitation of cochlear liquid (simulated via software).
• The voice reverberation differs from the one existing in the room.
• Aleatory values of vowels in I.P.A. table.
• High content of noise and significant aperiodicity of signals.
• Impossibility for the software to structure a model of Vocal Tract due to the low influence of overglottal organs (resonators)
• Jitter values indicate the presence of possible dysphonias.

The electroacoustic measures reveal the presence of significant structural anomalies deviating from normal human speech parameters even if the sentence is uttered with a loud, clearly audible voice, apparently quite similar to the human voice. The second sentence \OH\MAMMA\ (duration 1.897 sec.) is uttered twice; the first utterance is made with a loud, clearly audible voice, while the second utterance is an acoustically very low, whispered voice, saying the same words.

A sound, similar to the one produced by pushing a call-bell (such as used on a reception desk of a hotel to call the personnel), precedes the first utterance. Nobody heard such a ring during the experiment. In the first and in the last vowel \A\ the software functions (L.P.C. and Autocorrelation) clearly reveal the activation of overglottal resonators but the vibrations of vocal cords are not distinctly noticeable.

The analyses performed on the second sentence exhibit the same anomalies as in the first sentence and in addition:

• Abnormal trend of the fundamental frequency F0.
• Impossibility for the software to represent the sound using the cochlear model (software simulation).
• The voice seems to be partially structured both by voiced sounds and whispered sounds with only some structural components pertaining to human speech.
• Formants are fragmented and apparently generated by a thickening of existing background noise.

The electroacoustic measures carried out on the second sentence confirm the presence of important anomalies in the voice structure. The presence of the fundamental frequency without the consequent vibration of vocal cords is inexplicable. It must be said that, in normal human speech, only the vibration of vocal cords generates the fundamental frequency.

The energy and the high a-periodicity of signals pertinent to vowels are absolutely unusual and detectable only in the zones affected by consonants. This unusual occurrence found in the paranormal voices is very important since it supports my personal hypothesis about the paranormal process of the generation of formants: it seems to come from an inexplicable process of local thickening of the existing background noise.

In particular, it was noted that such formants, mainly modulated in amplitude, are structured in the typical frequency bands pertaining to the vowel sounds. As a consequence – and this is a very important point – such formants, so structured, maintain unaltered the semantic content of the words in the listening phase. In addition, it was found that if some slight deviation or partial lack of signal occurs, causing the software to register an incorrect vowel sound classification, the information already existing in the listener’s brain (at the conscious or subconscious level) is able, during the listening phase, to make a suitable integration of missing parts in the input signals.

In order to exclude eventual deviations interpreted as anomalies due to the software used (Speech Filing System v. 4.6)®, a second professional software (Praat v. 4.3.37)® was used in accordance with a specific requirement in our Operating Procedure. The analyses performed using the second software confirmed the anomalies detected by the first software.

Another very interesting case of paranormal telephone voice that we have analyzed is the case involving Edna. In this regard, Il Laboratorio was asked to analyze a telephone voice sample, sent via email by Sonia Rinaldi, a well-known Brazilian operator who is also a presenter in this Conference. The sample is from an experiment carried out by recording a normal phone call, initiated by Cleusa, on Rinaldi’s personal computer. Cleusa was the adoptive mother of Edna, a young girl who died at the age of sixteen when run over by a car. The phone call lasted fifteen minutes during which Edna spoke seventy-eight times.

The experiment was made in a very original manner. During the conversation between the two ladies, three CDs, containing the utterances of phonemes pertaining to foreign languages (other than Portuguese), were simultaneously played. Using such a tone mixture as background sound-source meant that it was impossible to structure meaningful sentences in the Portuguese language that would be coherent with the topic of dialogue.

The sentence submitted for analysis was found to be half modulated over the sound-source and the other half perfectly clear of such sounds. The latter was recorded when the CD player was switched off. From the voice data provided, the second half of the sentence was analyzed, where the voice resulted without any background sound-source.

I must point out that the sample analyzed was sent to Il Laboratorio via e-mail and therefore subject to all the limitations of that means of communication. The analyses performed on Edna’s voice revealed the presence of the following structural anomalies:

• Severe fragmentation of fundamental frequency F0 and its too much low fluctuation in frequency (found to be less than 15 Hz, while in normal human speech it ranges from 30 to 60 Hz).
• Severe fragmentation of vocal cord vibrations, detectable in the positions of existing fragments of fundamental frequency.
• Unusual increase in sound intensity in the high frequency bands ranging between 2000 and 3000 Hz. In normal speech, when the frequency range increases, the intensity of sound usually decreases. In our case exactly the opposite was found. It seemed to be a voice uttered affecting the soft palate area (glottal voice), or produced by a vocal apparatus of reduced dimensions.
• Abnormal formant trends with a partial fusion of second formant F2 and third formant F3.
• Abnormal formant bandwidths.
• Abnormal increase of sound intensities in the third formant F3 and in the fourth formant F4.
• The high values of Jitter and Shimmer indicate the presence of dysphonias due to possible phonatory pathologies. In particular the impulsive changes in voice frequency (Jitter) represent an indirect evidence of instability of the vocal system.
• Abnormal speech fluency characterized by lack of voice breaks. In normal speech, the voice breaks are caused by the occlusions produced by certain consonants, or due to the aspiration/expiration of air to/from the lungs. In human speech, several voice breaks can occur depending on the length of the words.
• Abnormal fluctuations of voice frequency ranges.
• Poor melodic and harmonic contents.

Following the detection of such anomalies and in order to investigate further, Edna’s alleged paranormal voice was compared to her lifetime voice. The comparative analyses were carried out using a software named “FBI Image Searching”®, currently employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States. This software has real-time image recognition capability. It can be used for any kind of images and produces extremely accurate results. This software is able to process millions of images. The computer processing involves artificial intelligence to learn directly the content of an image, or several images, and to retrieve all similar images based upon their content.

The “FBI Image Searching” software provides a tool for image matching through “One-to-One” and “One-to-Many” functions. In the investigation of the Edna communication, both functions were used for comparing the acoustic maps (images) of her voice. The “One-to-One” function provides the identification by matching a single image against another single image. The “One-to-Many” function provides the identification by matching of a single image against a database of images with no declared identity required. The single image under investigation is generally the newly obtained sample and the database contains all previously filed images.

Scores are generated for each comparison, and an algorithm is used to determine the matching record. Generally, the highest score exceeding the threshold results in identification. In our case the images processed were the acoustic maps relevant to Edna’s voice while alive and her alleged paranormal voice. By introducing an accuracy acceptance limit greater than 95%, the “One-to-One” comparative analysis recognized the acoustic map of Edna’s voice while alive in the acoustic map of her alleged paranormal voice.

In order to add weight to our research, the voice of the living Edna was added to the 908 voices existing in the database, where 229 voices belong to Portuguese and Brazilian speakers (Edna was Brazilian). With the same acceptance limit, the “One-to-Many” function provided a comparison between Edna’s alleged paranormal voice (its acoustic map) and the 909 acoustic maps of other voices contained in the database. The matching process took 7 hours to do 48,600 calculations, with the processor (CPU) working at 100% of capacity (Processor type AMD K7 operating at 3 GHz with RAM of 1 GHz). When the computer processing was completed, the “One-to-Many” function had identified the acoustic map of Edna’s alleged paranormal voice in the acoustic map of Edna’s voice while she was alive.

This was the only acoustic map that exceeded 99% similarity through the computer matching process against 909 acoustic maps.

Investigating Paranormal Images by Using Biometric Techniques

Biometrics is a scientific technique for measuring, in a direct or indirect way, the morphologic and anthropometric features of a person for identification purposes. Identification is understood to be the procedure whereby it is possible to recognize a person based on a sufficient number of references, such as the shape and sizes of the face features as they compare to the underlying cranial structure.

In legal matters, biometrical tests are often used to recognize an individual who has committed a crime or an absconder who is trying to conceal his or her identity. Biometrical testing is also used in other cases where a need exists to identify an individual. Consequently, the most frequent users of such methods are police departments, forensic medicine departments, and particularly intelligence services.

It is important to note that identification systems are not yet perfected. Depending upon the quality of the images used as a reference, the existing error rate can still be very high. For this reason, many of the technologies used today for forensic tests are not always able to offer fully reliable results concerning the identification of an individual; basically, they only establish compatibility indexes through similarity of statistical ratings.

In the past decade, major progress has occurred in face recognition systems. Many software packages have been designed with the ability to achieve recognition rates of more than ninety percent. The introduction of more sophisticated and accurate information technologies and the increased capability of computers have allowed the design of new recognition systems that utilize sophisticated and innovative algorithms in their processing systems, like Neural Networks, Wavelets and Computer Graphics.

One of the well-known methods used at Il Laboratorio is the so-called “Anthropometric Face Recognition.” The features taken into account relate basically to the distances between certain points of reference, or landmarks, also known as “Repère points”, situated in the cranio-facial structure. They relate also to the morphological somatic features of the shape of the face or parts of it. When manual or semiautomatic procedures are used, at least a dozen points are measured. Certain techniques require up to eighty points with calculations in three-dimensions (3D).

The accuracy of the measurements of dimensions on the image considered as reference and the corresponding dimensions on the image under analysis is extremely important. The smaller the variances the more evidential and convincing the resulting analysis will be.

Comparisons made at different times on the same face are unlikely to yield the same result with one hundred percent accuracy. This results from the inevitability of error in measurement, even if extremely slight. Though the measurements will always be similar, it is impossible to obtain an absolute measurement. This error relates mainly to the quality of the images that are compared.

In the investigation of paranormal images, due to their poor quality, it is essential that the software used should reduce the possibility of errors during the measurements. Today many improvements have been made in the field of face recognition so that the margin of error is significantly reduced. For the case reported in the following example, the most recent generation of face recognition software was used.

“FaceIt” is a software package used by forensic detectives in many countries as well as in many airports for the purpose of anti-terrorism prevention. It employs a complex method involving mathematic calculations on multidimensional matrixes, as well as making use of algorithms, such as Neural Networks, that operate in a similar manner to the natural neural network in the human brain.

A conventional software program may supply a completely wrong response even if only a single “bit” in the input information is wrong. On the other hand, an application based on neural networks attempts to correct the error by using previously stored information. This is very helpful with paranormal face recognition, since there always is a variable amount of background noise that makes the image unidentifiable. If the noise doesn’t completely cover the features of the image, a neural network is usually capable of producing a response by using the part of the information that is not polluted or distorted. This allows recognition of noisy or partially concealed face images. The reduction of the error rate to 0.03% increases significantly the reliability of the identification performed.

It is interesting to note that this software, while exploring a human face, picks up and learns a lot of information necessary for its identification. That computerized process is performed in the same manner that a human being scans a face for recognition.

Without going into detail, the system works in the following way:

1. The extraction algorithm for the biometric data generates an image representing a bas-relief reconstruction of the face’s main features.
2. The Eigenfaces algorithm, certified by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), processes the input data and the existing data in the database by generating an image constituted by a dispersion of points that allows a quick search for similar faces. The resulting images are displayed; they appear as though superimposed from various images contained in the database.
3. The comparative analysis between a new sample image and the images contained in the database is carried out by generating an image of contours and automatically performing measurements between approximately 80 contour nodal points. These measurements are then compared to the corresponding measurements taken on the images contained in the database (a total current number of 7,230 faces).
4. The software is also provided with an option called Reconstruct Face, which makes it possible to reconstruct original images in 3D starting from the processed data, by means of the Eigenfaces algorithm.
5. The cross-correlation function aims at identifying the images contained in the database that are closest to the sample image. The faces displaying the highest degree of similarity, ranging from 1 to 80, are graphically presented.

The system has both a great strength and a great weakness. The strength is that recognition accuracy reaches 98%, with an ability to even recognize people in disguise (wearing a false beard, moustache, dark glasses, hats or hoods). The weakness is that, since the system is based on probabilities, it always identifies a match, by displaying the three most likely faces contained in the database. However, based on research performed in the United States on a database containing five thousand faces, the false recognition error proved to be lower than 5%, and was therefore considered as acceptable.

The Castagnini Case

In 1992, Massimo Castagnini died in a car accident. One year later, on the anniversary of his death, his friends, who used to play with him in a band, decided to honor his memory by organizing a concert party. On that occasion Massimo’s friends dedicated to him a song titled “Beyond the limit” and one of them took about seventy pictures, but several times the camera jammed inexplicably.

When the rolls were processed, among all the pictures there was one that contained inexplicable gaudy colors and luminous streaks that drew his mother’s attention. In the picture she and a few friends were greatly surprised to find, in the middle, a blurred and semitransparent image bearing human features in which was immediately recognized Massimo’s likeness holding in his hand something that seemed to be a microphone.

In 1999 Daniele Gullà carried out spectro-chromatographic and densitometric measurements on the picture, which ruled out any accidental or intentional counterfeiting of any nature. Then an anthropometric investigation was also performed by analyzing the face displayed in that picture and comparing it to Massimo’s image while alive. The measurements taken, based on the distance rates for the two faces compared on twelve anthropometric points, together with circumstantial evidence suggested that the paranormal face might belong to Massimo.

Two years later Daniele Gullà had acquired much more advanced technology, which is also used by the police in the United States, and obtained confirmation that the two images belong to the same person. For the Castagnini case, Daniele Gullà employed the Face Recognition and FaceIt software packages.

The alleged paranormal image was compared with an image dataset made up by 2,048 faces, including the one of Massimo Castagnini, which had been added to the database.

The choice made by the Eigenfaces function identified the file named “casta01A”, which is a picture of the living Massimo’s face, as the most similar to the paranormal image, with a degree of similarity of about 97.5 %. The result is remarkable in that the alleged anomalous image is lower in quality than an ordinary image; therefore, the number of required biometrical features is lower than the number one would hope for.

In summer 2004, after the acquisition of new software, it was possible for Daniele Gullà to repeat the identification test on Massimo’s paranormal face using the FBI Image Searching® software. That software, already used in Edna’s case, has a capability of reaching an accuracy rate above 99% based upon a database of 40,000 images. The recognition of Massimo Castagnini’s face was successfully accomplished with an identification rate of 99% after more than 1,900,000 cross-tests performed using the One-to-Many function.

Today, thanks to new software, we are able to reconstruct faces starting from the elements contained in the paranormal images and/or make comparisons by laying a reconstructed face on its alleged paranormal image.

How to conclude and explain the results?

The results of the analyses performed to date must be considered as an explorative sample of almost recurrent anomalies detectable in the electroacoustical structure of paranormal voices and of the possibilities of investigating paranormal images. Since the anomalies discovered seem to be of a similar type, it could be stated in a provisional way, that the paranormal voices are characterized by some substantial differences when compared to human voices. From my point of view such differences mainly refer to the process by which they are structured.

The subjective auditory and instrumental tests prove that the acoustic quality of the paranormal voices is the main variable in this phenomenon. In more than three decades covered by my personal survey, the variability was mainly found in the microphone voices where the range of audibility goes from whispered voices to extremely comprehensible voiced sounds. In the telephone voices, like Edna’s voice, the quality changes as well.

In many cases, those voices seem to have originated in the same manner as microphone voices, that is, by modulating the background noise or other sound material available at the moment. In other cases, such as those reported by D. Scott Rogo, the quality of the telephone voices seems to be almost the same as a normal telephone voice. This variability in the microphone and telephone voices was found in the Direct Radio Voices as well. For example, the Direct Radio Voices obtained by Friedrich Jürgenson and many other operators differ substantially, from the acoustical point of view, from those received by Marcello Bacci. Why?

In addition, sometimes the EVP operator’s own voice was recorded on the tape. Both Carlo Trajna, an engineer and well-known Italian researcher, and myself experienced this occurrence. In other instances, direct voices (not radio voices) were heard over the external speaker of the tape recorder while listening to a tape that contained pre-recorded normal acoustic material. A subsequent check revealed that such voices were not recorded on the tape.

In my opinion, the process by which paranormal voices are received may depend upon the degree of sensitiveness or mediumship existing in the operator. Basically, the presence in the operator of a deeply internalized conceptual model, together with expectations consistent with such a model, may be able to activate or create a hidden psychic channel for receiving voices in such a way. This occurrence happens, for example, when an EVP operator believes that the voices may be received through a radio in the same way as normal radio transmissions.

But how can the above mentioned psychic sensitivity or mediumship be rationally conceptualized? To begin, I believe that it is an attribute that everybody possesses to greater or lesser extent; also, it seems that the attribute of mediumship can be developed when a motivated operator devotes himself to experimenting on a regular basis. Secondly, this attribute seems to be supported by the deep inner conviction about the possibility of real communication with other planes of consciousness.

As early as 1985, I defined this particular psychological condition as “Inner Attentive Disposition.” Consciousness contemplates no more profound or perplexing question than this: what is the role of consciousness in the establishment of reality?

In the paradigm of our western culture, the human mind is limited to being a passive processor of sensorial experiences. Conversely, based upon the mystical traditions of oriental cultures, all experience in the physical world is presumed to be created by consciousness such that all tangible reality stems from illusion.

The empirical evidence of paranormal voices and images teaches us that the physical and psychological relationships between consciousness and the physical world entail subtle effects and processes that often appear to violate the most fundamental and consolidated scientific paradigms of space, time and causality. To this purpose I mention the conclusion of the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr about the enigma of modern quantum physics that I consider from many perspectives to be quite relevant to our research: “We are both onlookers and actors in the great drama of existence³

The recent experimental data acquired using state-of-the-art recording and data processing equipment, together with appropriate research protocols and updated interpretation techniques, led us toward a bio-psycho-cybernetical interpretation of the phenomenon. In other words, the final effects entail complex interactions within what I like to define as a Minds System, the definition of which provides for the possible existence of and the effective participation between one or more interfaced minds (incarnate and discarnate) that are able to communicate with each other thanks to the effective and functional psychic model acting in the operators’ minds.

These psychic models are able to produce effects on the physical plane through a kind of action, defined in the parapsychological literature as Psychokinetic effect or PK effect. In this regard I agree completely with the great English parapsychologist John Beloff⁴ when he said that psychokinesis couldn’t be a force, or energy, or a physical process. He believed that PK was an unexpected action resulting from a direct interconnection between our mind and the Universe with all that it contains.

John Beloff argued that the unexpected action could not result from a super-energy located in the human mind or body, but that it could be something that happens under certain circumstances. In other words, it could be an idea or a mental intention that is able to automatically force a physical system to express that idea or that intention. The occurrence should in itself be a conclusive event and self-explanatory without the need for any other process acting as the bridge to make the final results understandable.

It is evident that different operators obtain paranormal voices that have different acoustic characteristics even if they are experimenting using the same method and device. From my point of view, this could be the result of a different psychic model operating in the mind of each operator, at the conscious or unconscious level. It is probable that different psychic situations produce different physical effects depending upon the psychic model and how it is conceived and internalized by the operator.

I would like to conclude this presentation with a purely speculative reflection based upon from my personal experiences in searching for the dynamics that govern the psychic processes and what I imagine might exist behind what we observe and measure in our investigations.

I believe that in the immediate post-mortem state the surviving nucleus of consciousness does not suddenly become, as many people incorrectly assume, omniscient (i.e., knowing everything about the past, present and future).

I believe that after death, human consciousness continues to act, for a certain period of time, based upon the individual’s knowledge of the psychic models acquired while living.

The new state of existence could imply a more effective level of consciousness, like a more enlarged perception of reality. This situation may differ from individual to individual, depending upon the individual’s adaptation to his or her new state of consciousness. The dynamics for creating new psychic models involves both the consciousness of the living and discarnate.

In ITC, there is often mention of technical means or problems and other references typical of humans living on Earth. This situation suggests the persistence, in the surviving consciousness, of psychic models that were acquired while living in the physical world. This is, I believe, the reason that the vast majority of authentic transcommunication come from personalities who have passed over fairly recently. In such cases of surviving consciousness located “nearby” in the more immediate post-mortem plane, the discarnate being is still influenced by experiences on the physical plane and has therefore the same, or a quite similar, psychic model.

To structure a new psychic model, it is necessary to have a strong willingness to supersede all previous existing schemes with new ones, even if at first sight, they appear impossible. In other words, to reach the desired goal, it is necessary to have an attitude of faith strong enough to set aside any rational interference.

Jesus Christ preached the same concept when He spoke of “the faith that moves mountains”.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States, June 9^th 2006

References

1. Thomas S. Kuhn – The Structure of Scientific Revolution – The University of Chicago, 1970.
2. For “Minds System” should be intended a group of interacting psychic beings.
3. Niels Bohr – Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature – The University Press, Cambridge, 1961
4. John Beloff – Presidential presentation at Society for Psychical Research, London, 1975.