Stepping into grey area

Whether spirits or ghosts exist or not has engaged the attention of scientists and researchers for many years now. Attempt to verify their existence have yielded a lot of interesting information. Instrumental transcommunication is the name given to the activity of receiving electronic voices and images of spirits (spirit photography), obtained with electronic equipment.
Instrumental transcommu-nication is a more discernible way of communicating with other levels of existence. And when audio devices are used to get these phenomena, they are called electronic voice phenomena (EVP).
Electronic voice phenomena are said to be manifestations of voices of ghosts or spirits made audible through static on the radio, or on electronic recording media. According to some scientists, this voices can be heard on diverse media, including radio, television, tape recorders, video recorders, and digital recording devices, and sometimes answer to questions asked during the taping. Mainstream science has ignored EVP, and as a result the topic has been studied mainly by a small handful of parapsychologists and, more often, amateur researchers who lack the facilities and expertise to conduct scientific research. EVP is considered by paranormal researchers to be a subset of instrumental transcommunication.
A brief history of electronic voice phenomena
1967:
Thomas Edison spoke through West German clairvoyant Sigrun Seuterman, in trance, about his earlier efforts in 1928 to develop equipment for recording voices from the beyond. Edison also made suggestions as to how to modify TV sets and tune them to 740 megahertz to get paranormal effects.
1968:
Dr. Raudive publishes his first research on voice phenomenon in his book The Inaudible Becomes Audible.
1971:
American George Meek and Bill O'Neill become interested in EVP and develop an instrument called 'Spiricom' -- a two-way voice communication system.
1978:
William J O'Neil, using a modified sideband radio, had brief but evidential contact with an American medical doctor said to have died five years earlier.
1980s:
Researchers in several countries have pictures of the "dead" appearing sporadically on their TVs. There is no control over the appearances of these images.
Sophisticated Electronics
1982-88:
Hans Otto Koenig, West Germany, develops sophisticated electronic equipment, using extremely low beat frequency oscillators, ultra-violet and infrared lights, etc.
1984-85:
Kenneth Webster, England, receives (via several different computers) 250 communications from a person who lived in the 16th century.
1986:
Swiss electronics engineer Klaus Schreiber gets pictures of the dead on TV by means of an apparatus he calls 'Vidicom' which consists of a specially adapted TV switched on but not attached to an aerial with a video camera in front of it to capture images that appear on the screen. The word ITC (instrumental trans-communication) is coined.
1995:
INIT (International Network for Instrumental Transcommu-nication, ITC) formed.
2003:
Scottish researcher Alexander MacRae made a number of attempts to capture EVP in a specially designed laboratory belonging to the Institute of Notec Science, Petaluma, California.
At the present time there are thousands of individuals and organisations from all over the world actively engaged in their own research. Hopefully in time, through the efforts of these groups and individuals, we shall truly make that important "breakthrough".
How it works
According to Sara Estep, the founder of the American Association-Electronic Voice Phenomena, there are classes to the different voices that can be heard.
Class 'A' voices are clear, can easily be heard and are able to be duplicated to other tapes.
Class 'B' voices are clear and loud enough to be heard without the aid of headphones.
Class 'C' voices are the quiet, whispery voices that need sound boosting and are often undecipherable. In most cases, these kinds of voices are used.
The electronic voice experiment works with very low frequency or noise. In this kind of experiment, a recorder is kept in a very soundproof room to record sound without any one speaking. Very low frequency or noise like sound is then amplified and some kind of sound is produced. Many of the results are short phrases, single words, laughs or other human-like vocal sounds. EVP voices are not limited to English speaking occurrences; there have been some recordings of foreign languages, sometimes mixed languages as well as animal sounds.
In the case of tape recorders, the messages seem to appear on the recording when the recorder is left in record mode within a quiet environment. It would be reasonable to assume that all that would normally be recorded would be tape 'hiss' caused through the mechanical action of the tape passing over the recording head. With appropriate motivation, e.g. asking for communication to be demonstrated, voices can sometimes be made out. These are classified by three ratings: 1) loud 2) clear and 3) interpreted by all listeners. And for the EVP experiments, the last type of sound is used.
Correlation of reverse speech and EVP
The correlation between EVP and 'reverse speech' Phenomenon is close. Whereas EVP is the recording of disembodied voices, reverse speech is the recording of a person speaking normally and the resulting tape played backwards. The study of reverse speech has been around for quite some time now. And some believe that the use of this can bring to light the underlying feelings of the speaker. For 20 years, researcher David John Oates has been studying this phenomenon, referring to it as a sub-conscious truth detector.
Examples of reverse speech include playing Beetles recordings backwards, revealing another message. Although deliberately inserted into the recording, this is known as backward masking. Other songs, including Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zepplin, include natural reversals.
Oates has studied recordings of political officials such as George W Bush, and found some interesting messages in the reversals. "We will sit in Baghdad" -- this was taken from a speech of George Bush two weeks prior to the United States went into Iraq. If, says Mr Oates, reverse speech is a truth detector, then it could be used to deter crimes, to help get to the root of problems and to help get proper diagnosis from patients.
Radio frequency for EVP
- Jurgenson frequency range: medium wave (MW) 1480 KHz (1,48 MHz)
- Hans Otto Koenig frequency range: short wave (SW 31 m band 10 MHz and SW 41 m band 7 MHz)
- Marcello Bacci frequency: SW 7 to 9 Megahertz,
- Raymond Cass frequency: 127 MHz (air band frequency).
Development in EVP and ITC
So, it is certain that most EVP instruments require headphones to distinguish the voices and open them to individual interpretation. The television has also been used as ITC source. However, some people are working with much more expensive and professional equipment than domestic portable recorders and they are obtaining clearer results by employing digital signal processor audio filters. Others are working with computers that are connected to sensitive receiving devices that pick up faint electrical pulses and patterns that would otherwise be indiscernible.
Electronic voice phenomena have brought a new way of looking at the electronic noise. In normal situations very low-frequency sounds are neglected and labelled as noise. But what we perceive as noise is actually paranormal energy in the air. Though conventional science does not recognise EVP or ITC, experiments by some great scientists really make us think twice. Next time you turn on your radio or television, be aware of the spirit!
References: books.google.co.in, csicop.org, wikipedia.org, home.maine.rr.com, armageddo nonline.org, ghostpi.com, worlditc.org, seekeronline.org and transcommunication.org
The author studies electrical and telecommunication engineering at Independent University, Bangladesh