Voices of the Universe; Conducting the EVP Session

By Robin M. Strom, author of On the Hunt for the Haunted

As discussed in the book, On the Hunt for the Haunted, the voice on the audio recorder was both clear and clearly exasperated.  The first said simply “Get out,” and then a few seconds later the female voice directed us to “Get out now!”  Both voices were female, and both were caught in an empty room.  We had been in the residence for several hours, and she had tolerated us up to that point.  But like the house guest that will not leave, we had clearly worn out our welcome.  That’s why I love EVP.  Those inexplicable voices are remarkable, provocative and sometimes simply brimming over with personality.  Our paranormal team uses EVP techniques on all of our investigations.  But you don’t have to be a paranormal investigator stomping around a haunted asylum to enjoy EVP, as I’ll explain at the end of this article. First, I’ll explain electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and discuss the various types of techniques our team adheres to on our investigations.  

Brief Explanation of EVP

The quickest definition of electronic voice phenomena are voices or sounds caught on recording devices that the person or persons in the room did not hear with their own ears.  They’re detected by someone only on playback of the device.  The question as to how a spirit might be able to speak and be heard on a recording device has long been a contentious debate. How does a spirit record sound on a recording device if they have no mechanisms with which to make sound, no vocal chords through which air is passed, no lungs to pump the air? One of two ways have been proposed. The first is that they imprint their thoughts onto the recording device via psychic abilities. The second that they mold the environmental noises to their whim in order to create sounds resembling human speech. It has been noted among those who study EVP seriously that the voices recorded, when there are at least two or more recording devices in a room, will show up on only one.  Thus, they cannot be accounted to environmental noises alone, because if they were, they would be recorded on all of the recording devices in the same vicinity.  Analysis made by experts in voice phenomenon also note that such recordings exhibit a frequency shift which is outside the frequency range of the human voice.

Equipment Requirements

The equipment needed to capture EVP is actually limited. The first item obviously is some type of device that records audio.  I tend to invest in mobile, studio-grade audio recording devices that have excellent microphones built into the unit, which also allow me to add extraneous microphones if needed.  I have many on my team that buy inferior audio recorders designed to record audio in large classroom or auditorium settings.  The results of these devices can be shocking. The audio is so loud, the pickup so sensitive, that a toilet being flushed one floor down is unmistakable. These devices tend to record as much machine noise as anything else. While this sounds bad, there are some in the paranormal field that contend that the machine noise of the cheaper devices may actually be beneficial, as it adds an element of white noise to the recording which a spirit may be able to manipulate in order to make a sound.  At the very least an audio device should either have SD card memory capability or be capable of USB downloads. 

Audio recorders, obviously, are not the only device capable of recording sound. We have caught as discarnate voices on video cameras as well. Computers can also be utilized to capture sound. In the end, anything that can record audio can be utilized.   In order to capture EVP of course, one has to have the capability of listening to the audio recorded.  A good set of headphones, plugged directly into the audio recording device can be utilized for real time analysis.  If doing analysis after the recording session it’s best to use a computer, again a good quality set of headphones and audio editing software.  Our team uses the free Audacity editing software. It’s extremely user friendly, and the audio can be easily boosted.

White Noise Generators

There are many in the field that believe the cleaner, more concise the audio recording, the more white noise needs to be emitted into the environment.  This would allow the spirit to use the sound in order to manipulate it into recognizable speech patterns.  Experts have suggested such generators as running water, fans blowing in rooms or computerized white noise generators as possible sources of white noise.  Still others have staunchly stood by such things as ghost boxes, which scan radio frequencies in the hopes that a spirit can manipulate radio frequency static.  Our group does not utilize such devices as ghost boxes for fear that these devices will give false positives.

To date, we have not documented a decrease in EVP phenomena, despite the fact that we have started using better audio quality electronic recording devices, and not used a white noise generator per se.  Then again, our modern buildings are rarely if ever without some type of white noise. If not the hum of the furnace in the winter, it’s the whine of the AC unit in the summer.  Wash machines, dishwashers, any and all of our modern appliances make a constant mechanical hum that we for most part tune out.

Active versus Passive EVP Sessions

There is certainly a debate among investigators about active versus passive EVP.  The active EVP session is when investigators are actively in a room conducting a session.  Normally such sessions last about twenty minutes, throughout which time the investigators will ask a series of questions, normally not scripted.  They tend to be mundane questions. An investigator might ask a question such as, “what is your name?” Then, they wait in silence for ten seconds in case something responds. Then they proceed with another question.  The philosophy behind the active session is that the entity or entities wish to respond to the questions being asked. The problem is, if the spirit isn’t interested in your line of questioning, then they’ll respond or not, as they wish.   

When possible, I try to use more provocative questions.  In order to do this, one needs to have some idea who they’re questioning.  By provocative I’m not talking about provoking, which is when an investigator actively tries to anger a spirit into responding, at debatable practice at best.  What I mean by provocative is finding a line of questioning which is personal and interesting to the spirit.  For example, we investigated an old home that had reportedly served as a brothel during the Civil War.  Legend had it that one of the patrons had been a young soldier who committed suicide in the home because he’d been a traitor, or was afraid of being tried for a traitor.  One of the questions that I asked that night was, “Did you kill yourself because you were afraid that your fellow soldiers would see you as a traitor?” playing off the fact that soldiers are supposed to have a sense of honor. Immediately after that question on the recorder the team caught a distinctly male sounding voice saying, “Yes.”  If I believe the spirit to be that of a child, I have been known to tell stories, or talk about things that children like to do. Trigger objects work well.  Music from the era you believe the spirit might have lived again can work very well.  When we do play music, we keep the clips short, however.  We don’t want to be playing a waltz for five minutes over any possible EVP’s we’ve caught.

The passive session is when investigators are not actively asking questions.  Instead a voice recorder is left in the environment.  Windows and doors should be closed so that as little outside contamination is possible.  Controlling the environment is extremely important. Voices in another room, or sometimes on another floor of the building, can literally be picked up on recorders, the devices are extremely sensitive.  The philosophy of the passive session is that a spirit will inadvertently leave a response while it goes about doing what it normally does. I usually begin such a passive session by hitting the record button and then instructing the spirit about what the device does and then setting it down and leaving it recording for the rest of the investigation. The scripted tag usually begins with, “This is Robin and it is March 3^rd 2019, we are in the Seaford house, 2^nd floor rear bedroom, it is 7:15pm.  With me tonight are… (and I name all the investigators that are with me on the investigation).”   I then place the device somewhere within camera range and I instruct the spirit about what it is and what they should do if they wish to make contact with us. It usually sounds something like, “I’ve placed a device on the chair over there.  Do you see the red light?  It will record your voice. We may not hear it tonight but we’ll listen to the recording. Please let us know what message you wish to leave the home owner.” I then depart the area and let my recorder do its work.

The debate comes in as to which of these two approaches are better.  Many new investigators believe one has to be actively involved in order to receive a response.  This is under the assumption that whatever entity or entities are on a property wish to communicate with you actively.  I’ve actually found the reverse to be the case.  As often as not, a spirit or spirits seem to go out of their way to actively avoid investigators.  It may be that they find the investigative group to be intrusive, and their questions uninteresting. They may have a message to impart, but they’re bored with the tenth time they’ve been asked, “what is your name?” Among the most remarkable EVP’s that my group have captured were of the passive variety.

Device Placement

Device placement is extremely important.  It should be placed in a position where it isn’t likely to pick up extraneous sounds. Case in point, my team did an investigation at an old house. It was myself and two investigators who were new to the whole investigative process.  I was busy setting up our four-camera surveillance system.  One of my investigators asked me where I wanted her audio recorder to be placed.  Off handedly I told her that I would like it in an upstairs bedroom, and went back to the infuriating process of running cables and setting up cameras.  She dutifully took the recorder to the upstairs bedroom. The house was under massive renovations, and there was literally no furniture in the building at the time. Not wanting to set her audio recorder down in construction dust, she instead set it on a window sill, hit record and left.  The house was in a residential area, and what the device recorded was every neighbor passing by, all the cars driving by, kids playing on the street.  The entire night’s recording was wasted.  Set up your audio device in a quiet spot, near an interior wall, keeping it away from windows and doors as much as possible. Do not walk about with the device in hand.

Tagging

When investigators move about or make sounds, they should tag such on their recorders with a statement such as, “that was me knocking.”  Likewise, extraneous sounds should be tagged. For example, if the voices of children are heard playing outside or a car drives by, those sounds should be tagged as well.    Investigators should also be diligent about tagging when they enter or exit a space.  Such entrances and exits are diligently logged in the investigator’s log book.  In that way we can chronicle who was in the room – or not - when the voice was captured.  As I said before, sometimes voices from another room are picked up, and they may be misinterpreted as an EVP. For example, I have a very soft voice, and the team has countless times picked up what sounds like a soft whisper, which is the way most EVP’s tend to come across, and it turns out it was me in another room.  If you’re performing EVP with a team of people it’s important to caution everyone to avoid whispering.  Speak in a normal tone of voice. And when it comes to the integrity of EVP’s, the more team members on an investigation is not the merrier.  I tend to keep my team very spare on investigations so keep the amount of vocal contamination to a minimum.  Silence is golden.  Conversations should be kept to break time.

Evidence Review

When reviewing audio, one needs to be very careful to listen to all of the audio, from the moment you hit record to the moment you hit stop.  We have found that we get a prevalence of passive EVP’s especially at the start of an investigation.  The entities appear to be curious as to our intentions. Whereas by hour five in the investigation they tend to be as bored with the process as we are.   Any possible EVP’s are logged in our log books and isolated into smaller clips which are shared among the members. It’s important to get several opinions about a possible EVP.  For one thing, we want to eliminate any false positives, such as team members in another room, or animal noises that may be misinterpreted as EVP.  Case in point, we did an investigation at a home with several cats.  One of the cats made the strangest meow sound I’ve ever heard.  At first, we thought it was a voice, but then we noticed on our video cameras that the sound only occurred when this particular feline was in the room.  Machine noises can be pesky as well.  Understandably, it’s depressing when you feel you’ve found the perfect EVP, only to find you’ve misinterpreted the hiss of the refrigerator. However, it does nothing for your credibility to present a clip that you feel is paranormal, only to find out that it’s the resident owl. Which leads me to my next point, classes of EVP.  Obviously not all EVP’s are of the same quality.  The founder of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon, (AA-EVP) Sarah Estep, established a simple three step tier system to classify EVP’s that is still in much use today.

Class A EVP: are of the variety we all dream of capturing.  They can be heard without headphones.  They are clear and distinct as to what words are being spoken. Without being prompted or told, anyone who hears the EVP will be able to understand what is being said or heard.

Class B EVP: Is a voice or sound that is fairly loud, still loud enough to be heard without the use of headphones.  People with normal hearing will still be able to hear the EVP and interpret it in the same way without being told what the EVP says, if they’re told what to listen for. Those who have been trained to listen for EVP will hear the EVP without prompting of any kind.

Class C EVP: Would require headphones to hear.  This type of EVP will be faint and will probably come across as a whisper or a soft sound.  The words being spoken may not be decipherable.  The sound may have a mechanical quality to it.  People listening to such would not all decipher the EVP in the same way, or would require prompting to interpret it. Many investigators would disregard this type of recording as flawed.  At best they’d archive such for future reference, but withhold presenting it. There is the ever-present danger with this type of sound that it is environmental nature, such as that pesky cat with the weird meow.  Beyond a doubt it is the Class C EVP’s that cause the most hurt feelings among investigators.  One investigator will distinctly hear someone calling them by name, another will interpret it as machine noise.  I always try to keep the T.A.P.S. (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) motto in mind, “when in doubt, throw it out.” Remember, if you didn’t collect an EVP today, there’s always next time.

EVP at Home

But say you don’t have a crack team and a haunted site to try out EVP for yourself. With a little discipline, you can conduct EVP sessions at home.  Even if the home doesn’t have paranormal activity, you can send an invitation out to the spirit world that you wish to communicate, much as people do who experiment with Ouija boards. What you should do is find a time when the home is quiet with as few people in the building as possible.  It’s best to set up a schedule, so that an entity or entities will know when you’re going to be conducting the sessions. You may wish to write up a set of questions.  And yes, you can ask for a particular person or persons to make contact with you, such as a departed loved one. Set up your audio equipment, make sure to also wear a good quality headset while recording so that you can hear real-time if and when a voice comes through. You may also wish to review the recordings after the recording session, just to be sure you didn’t miss something. Again, discipline is key.  You should stick to your schedule as closely as possible, and realize that it may take many such sessions before you actually capture anything. In the end, however, the voices of the universe are all around us, and you too can capture them, if you dare.

A Haunting in Hartly, Delaware Part I

In this video the director of Delaware Paranormal Research Group describes the evidence they captured on two investigations at the Hartly house. Written about in the book On the Hunt for the Haunted, (published by Llewellyn Worldwide) the Hartly house is an extremely active location.  Over the course of several years, the team has investigated the property three times. Find out what the team found, and listen to actual EVP's they captured. Sometimes the most haunted location may just be the house next door.

On the Hunt for the Haunted, by Robin M. Strom available in April 2019 at www.delawareparanormal.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, indiebooks.com and Llewellyn Worldwide https://www.llewellyn.com

Ghost Hunting 101: Conducting the Session

Teachable Moment

By Robin M. Strom-Mackey

 

When I started with my first group there was very little training.  We all just kind of bungled around in the dark and tried to pick up tips and tricks from one another. I learned my favorite thermometer technique from one of the directors (two brothers) who I realize in retrospect, were more knowledgeable in investigating than training.  I really wanted someone to tell me how to do it properly, but learned most of what I know in self-study, research and trial and error.  Listening to the audio from the last investigation, I realized that our team still needs to address some very fundamental issues.  A session the team did recently became the perfect teachable moment, a recorded segment to dissect and discuss.

Honestly, a lot of what good investigators do is just common sense – once you think about it. However, you’ve got to run your finger over the microphone a couple of times before you stop causing yourself sudden deafness while  wearing headphones (did it) and not claim someone whispering “flash” is actually an EVP instead of someone taking a photo and announcing it quietly to the team members (also me).  In other words, we learn from the mistakes, and therein lies the teachable moment.

This article is intended to be interactive with links to the soundbites discussed throughout the article.  If the links do not work for whatever reason, all the soundbites with their associated file names are available on SoundCloud.com - search under Delaware Paranormal Research Group https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group

Evidence Contamination

Let me start by saying one of the biggest obstacles in investigations is obtaining access to a building with little or no outside contamination.  I once went on an investigation to a house whose owners had decided they’d use the opportunity to throw a party – a boo-irthday, as the female homeowner called it, complete with birthday cake and snacks. Children and adults waltzed into and out of the house at will, and ran around the yard with cameras taking flash photographs.  I’m quite sure that at one point I was literally frothing at the mouth.

In a best-case scenario the team would set up the command station outside the building, allowing only 1 team of two or three individuals into a building at a time.  Some investigators will set up recording equipment and environmental monitoring equipment and then vacate the property entirely, at least for a portion of the investigation. I read an account by one investigator that was so determined to catch the “company ghost” on video that he set up surveillance cameras and ran them all night, every night, with a feed at his home,  while no one was in the building. He ran the experiment for a month or so  until he finally caught the apparition on film.  That’s blasted determination. (Lesson one; have patience grasshopper.)

The investigation

So in the situation I’m writing about the team was honored to have the entire building to ourselves for as long as we desired.  It being winter, we were forced to setup the surveillance monitor/command station in one room of the house, with one person left behind to monitor cameras while the two other investigators were performing a session.  All in all, aside from the outside neighborhood noise, we had a fairly pristine environment. 

Two investigators, M. and R., did a session together while I stayed behind at the command post and monitored cameras. Below is an audio segment of the session.

Soundbite 1: Triad of Doom

https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/triachy-of-doom

The team was excited to be collecting evidence, so excited that I don't think they considered the contamination situation they were creating for themselves..   There are at least three areas of contamination in this scenario a veritable chaotic cacophony (I can't resist an opportunity for alliteration, please forgive).

First, the person setting up the audio recorder, not wanting to place it on the dusty floor (understandable) placed it instead on a window sill. The unfortunate part is that the audio recorder picked up street noises (dogs barking, people talking, cars and motor cycles driving by, etc. etc.) Sadly, we can’t really be sure what might be actual paranormal activity and what is contamination.

Soundbite 2: EVP or Contamination

https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/evp-or-contamination

A better alternative would be to set the audio recorder somewhere in the center of the room, perhaps on a box. An even better idea would be to set the recorder up on a box somewhere in front of the surveillance camera.  Entities have been known to move or manipulate objects.  If it’s on a window sill no one can see what might be happening to the machine.  Also most investigators insist that you not use the recorder inboard mic, but mic the recorder with an external mic, as many of the cheaper recorders produce a lot of machine noise that further distorts sounds.

The Toys We Love

Second, there is a ghost box running, performing its endless amount of white noise, which is basically what the device is designed to do, as it scans the radio waves in the area. Honestly, I have to admit, I don’t have a lot of faith in this piece of equipment.  I think anything that purposely scans radio frequencies (i.e. radio stations) is prone to produce false positives by its very design.  





The author on an investigation using her dousing rods.

Now, I use dousing rods during investigations, though I know many investigators don’t approve of their use. I like to think of it as ghost hunting for those with ADD. The rods give me something to do with my hands during long hours of talking to empty rooms.  I do feel they help me find hot spots, which I can then probe with more reliable pieces of equipment. For example the rods may be active in an area, so I move in an EMF detector and voice recorder or snap off some photos… But I never go to a client or homeowner and tell them I think a place is haunted or not because of what the rods told me.  So, while I understand wanting to experiment with the Ghost Box, I wouldn’t call its burblings reliable evidence.  For that to happen it would have to be shockingly clear, like a ghost saying, “Hey, I’m a ghost and I’m talking to you through this device. Believe it B^%#!.” So while I understand wanting to experiment with such a device, I wouldn’t suggest using it for long sessions and consider it as collecting reliable evidence.

 

Soundbite 3: Workmen Clear As Day

https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/sb7-workmen-clear-as-day-01-18-04

 

Third, one of the team members decides to play music loudly, and for a really long time. The entire music/ghost box/EMF session goes on for over 30 minutes.  And during this time one of the members decides to attempt to dance with the entity while holding onto an EMF detector.  Now, here’s one of those teachable moments, the idea of playing music is a good one.   Trigger objects such as a toy car or doll, old coins from the time when the building was erected, revelry calls on a battle field, and music of a certain era, any of these might help to fuel paranormal activity. 

However, the playing of the trigger object shouldn't become the focus of the session.  If you’re going to play music at an investigation, choose a segment of a song, or one whole song and then go quiet. We use these objects as a starter to the paranormal conversation, not the conversation itself.  Do realize that the sound you’re broadcasting might be destroying your evidence. After the song is over, shut down and go quiet. Scan the room with eyes and ears to see if your trigger has caused any reaction. 

 t may not be a good idea to "dance" with a spirit while holding an EMF meter either, and here is why.  Holding this instrument and moving it vigorously around the room can cause false positives as you inadvertently move close to and then away from electrical sources.  Honestly, we need to reconsider our absolute faith in these devices.  They were designed to detect either natural electromagnetic fields that the Earth produces or man-made electromagnetic fields such as our toaster uses.  The Trifield Gauss meter which is a natural EMF detector is actually so sensitive it can detect thunderstorms several miles away.  

Remember, one stray EMF spike does not a ghostly encounter prove.  During set-up the EMF meters should be used to determine areas in a room which are giving off EMF so as to avoid putting meters in locations that will give off readings. Then during a session it’s a better practice to set the meter down in a location away from these sources and invite something to interact with the meter. If necessary, an investigator can hold a meter in their hand and slowly sweep an area for hot spots.  Also keep in mind your other senses, if you’re staring constantly at the EMF meter in the center of the room, you’ll possibly miss the dark shadow moving on its own down the stairs.  It’s a tool, but it’s not the only tool in the arsenal.

The Spirit Arrives

When the team finally did go quiet, things got really interesting!

EMF Soundbite4: EMF Conversation 12-15

https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/smyrna-house-emf-conversation-12-15

I almost feel like this spirit may have been jumping up and down trying to get some attention.  The detector is going off quite consistently. This is the perfect opportunity for a yes/no question and response session.  For example, M. asks, “Do you have a favorite color?”  M. notes she sees the color red.  R. says she thinks yellow, but that’s because it’s her favorite color.  Neither ever ask the spirit.

This is how the question/response might have gone. The team members come up with their color choices and then one of the team members puts it to the spirit, “Is your favorite color red?”  Wait 10 to 15 seconds for a response. Then ask, “Is your favorite color yellow?”  Wait 10-15 seconds for a response.   If a response is noted, it’s always a good idea to ask for confirmation, such as, “We think you said your favorite color is red. If that’s true can you make the meter go off again?”  If you get no response to either red or yellow try other colors like blue or purple. 

Joni Mayhan, author of Ghost Voices also suggests designating someone as session leader (Mayhan, 2015).  This person would designate who would be asking the questions for a period of time.  When that person had asked their questions they would "pass" the questioning to the next person.  This system would alleviate the problem of team members talking over one another.  During the controlled Q and A, she also suggests team members find a place to sit down, as people standing will inadvertently make shuffling noises and other sounds which might during review be interpreted as being of a paranormal nature. It's a good idea to also put the EMF detector down also, often a few feet away from investigators, lest a spirit be disinclined to come too close.  If there is an extra voice recorder or other type of sensing device it can be placed next to, or near, the detector.   Now you've hedged your bets. If you get an EMF spike that's one small piece of evidence. Get an EMF spike and an EVP that's two pieces of evidence. Get an EMF spike, an EVP and note a temperature fluctuation or a change in barometric pressure, now you've got 3 sources of evidence and your case is stronger yet.

Some topics during a session will elicit a greater response, probably because it’s a subject that’s important to the entity.  In this Q and A the members got a quick and vehement response on the subject of her fine Sunday clothes, but no response to the question of hats. 

The engaged investigator will follow the Sunday clothes line of inquiry, as it appears to be of interest to the entity.   And if you are a self-proclaimed medium, please remember; even the very best sensitives are only accurate around 50% of the time, according to Parapsychologist and author Vince Wilson (Wilson, 2012).  An impression, feeling or sensation is only that unless it’s tested and verified.  M. said she visualized red, but she never seeks confirmation that her visualization is correct. 

The clothing questions were on the surface fairly shallow questions.  When the team gets to the question about who else might be in the building – now I’m on the edge of my seat…and the team drops the subject almost immediately.  ¡Ay, caramba! This portion of the session might have gone something like this…

”Is there another entity that lives in the basement?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is it male?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is it female?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Did she or he live here?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is she/he hiding in the basement?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is she/he angry?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is she/he confused? Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Lost?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Sad?”

“Does she/he ever come up from the basement?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Is that the shadow figure that the workmen reported seeing?” Wait 10-15 seconds.

“Let me confirm that there is a male that is living in the basement because he’s hiding from someone.” Wait 10-15 seconds.

Oh, and also, make sure to entreat the entity to also speak into the recorder by saying their name, tell you the year etc. 

I think you get the point. When you’ve got an entity actively engaged, you need to dig, dig, and dig. Rack your brain for questions. Have the patience and persistence to really communicate.  And ride that pony till it bucks ya! In other words don’t stop the session and walk away until you’re sure you’re not getting any more responses.  Remember Minerva's words in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, "If you're going to understand the living you have to commune with the Dead (Berendt, 1994)."  By all means, please commune.

Teachable Moment Positive

On the positive side one of my members had the brilliant idea of comparing sounds in the building.  She found a segment of audio recorded in a room where the investigators were present and banging on a wall. Then she found the same segment on another recorder that was actually stationed in the attic of the building.  She edited both segments so the team could compare the sounds, i.e. figure out what banging on the walls in the bedroom sounded like when recorded in the attic.  In this way the team had a much better idea of what sounds were made by the team, and which sounds might actually be paranormal.  I intend to work this into our setup protocol in the future.  During set-up when we’re taking readings we’ll also bang on walls and stomp on floors and walk up and down the stairs meanwhile verbally tagging the audio as to our movements and then compare the sounds during evidence review, contrasting them to any sounds that don’t appear to fit.  Now that's good investigating.  

Soundbite 5 and6: Renne short audio knocking, and,  Renne knock attic audio

So here is R. knocking in the room.
https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/renne-short-audio-knocking

And this is what the same knock sounded like on the other side of the building in the attic.
https://soundcloud.com/delaware-paranormal-research-group/renne-knock-1-19-44-atticaudio-comparesoundlevel

 

Resources

Mayhan, Joni (2015) Ghost Voices.  Available on Amazon.com

Wilson, Vince (2012). Ultimate Ghost Tech; The Science, History and Technology of Ghost Hunting.  Cosmic Pantheon Press. cosmicpantheonpress.com

 

 

 

 

EVP with PRG: An Interview with Cindy Heinen, EVP Specialist

By Robin Strom-Mackey

 “There are a lot of ideas that haven’t been put to the test. A lot of things are put out as common knowledge just because they’ve been repeated so many times. But I want to do the testing for it, and I want to put them through the paces. And that’s kind of what we do.”

 Cindy Heinen is the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (E.V.P.) Specialist for the Paranormal Research Group (P.R.G.), formerly the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group (S.W.P.R.G.). The group recently expanded to include Wisconsin and Pennsylvania..  Heinen granted me an interview when I was in Wisconsin and is a wealth of information on E.V.P. She and Jennifer Lauer (P.R.G. Director) are members of the AA-EVP and have been guest speakers at the organization’s yearly conference.  Heinen also wrote the chapter on E.V.P. for the book co-authored by Lauer and Schumacher entitled Investigating the Haunted: Ghost Hunting Taken to the Next Level (see the Resources section).  In this interview, Heinen discusses the rigid protocols that her group uses for investigating E.V.P.’s

Robin: First of all, how does one become an EVP specialist?

Cindy: I came into the group five years ago already having four years experience doing EVP. When I came into the group, they didn’t really have anyone specializing in EVP. I was in the group for a year, and what I did was try to keep advancing it. Basically it was Jenn [Director of P.R.G.] who said, “Hey, we need an EVP specialist.” And I said, “Oh….ok!”

Robin: So I’m guessing you had some experience or…interest in the area EVP?

Cindy: I did.  I had read a book called “True Hauntings” It was written by Dennings, a psychologist out of California. It was her psychological approach to ghost hauntings. So, I read her book, and in the foreword of her book was a little paragraph about Constantine Raudive who had done EVP back in the 60’s and 70’s, and that intrigued me. And so from that little paragraph I started researching. I actually didn’t record any EVP for the first year; I just studied it, sort of the theory of it.

Then after that I went to Gettysburg to record my first EVP. Where else would anyone go? I went there. I took a little class there. And then I went out in the field, and I got nothing. Or I thought I got nothing. I’m sitting in the airport in Pittsburgh listening and listening to these recordings and finally…I was at Devil’s Den. So I’m there in the middle of the night, my team is way ahead at the rocks. So it’s me standing by this water and you hear a little voice on the recorder asking for somebody. And that was the first EVP that I got. It was just a little, ity bity recorder, and not the kind I would use nowadays, but it was enough to make me say, “Hmm, I think I want to study this some more.” That was my beginning.

Robin: Yes, well the first one you get is like a heart attack. Its like, “Oh my God, how did that get there?”

Cindy: Yeah, you can’t believe it. Its like, “How did that happen?”

Robin: So, you said you were there. You took a class on it. What is it about EVP that most people don’t know?

Cindy: Well, what I study today and what I studied at the beginning is totally different. It was very rudimentary, although I didn’t know that at the beginning. Listening to people and what sort of recorders they use, what sort of audio editors they would use. It’s the same thing that any EVP 101 course would teach you. Back then, nine years ago, there weren’t as many people doing it. I mean the AA-EVP, the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon wasn’t even as developed as it is now. But I still got a lot of information from them as to how to record.

 So, I read that and listened to people’s thoughts about things. That was still when people were thinking that EVP’s were imprinted on audio – on analog cassette tape – different theories and ideas were floating around out there. And so I just took that all in. But as I got involved in this group so many years later, especially in my association with Dave [Schumacher, Director of Anomalous Studies] I started researching other things, like what makes sound. What about acoustics? What do we know about digital recorders? There’s the quantization of the recording process, and about psychology and how we perceive things.

 The study of EVP can entail much about acoustics and much about equipment, but also does go into psychology, and how we perceive sound. So there are lots of avenues you can actually study to make good judgments…to understanding hearing and how it works....

 Robin: Well, you’ve intrigued me know. The psychology of how we perceive sounds, meaning what?

Cindy: Well, one of the things we did in the P.R.G., I’d say it was two years ago now, we started to upgrade the equipment. But we still had the old equipment. We still had the integrated circuit hand-held recorders everyone else is using. But we started using an analog backup.  So every time I would do a digital recording we would have an analog recorder right by it. If I thought I got an EVP on the digital recorder I would compare it to the analog.  And I have to tell you that 99% of the time the sound was so distorted because of the poor recording quality that I thought it was an EVP. If I hadn’t had the analog I would have said it was an EVP, the analog was a superior piece of equipment and it would reveal things.

 Someone could hear this vague sound and they would perceive it as an EVP if they don’t have the backup. We’re also looking for confirmation. When we’re in an investigation we have to think past that and figure out what the sound is, and where it came from, and whether we can validate it in any number of ways.

 Another thing we do, besides doing backup recordings is to look at what is happening on the D.E.A.D. system (Direct Environmental Acquisition Data-Logging System developed and used by P.R.G.).   Does something happen at the time when this supposed EVP happen? And sometimes it’s yes and sometimes no.

Considerations for EVP Recordings - Acoustics of a Room

Robin: You were talking earlier about determining where the sounds came from.  What do you mean by that?

 Cindy: Well, when you’re in a building –and I learned this when I was learning how to build a soundproof room for doing experiments in…I actually learn more these days, not in the paranormal community, but more from stepping outside of it. If I say I want to learn about acoustics I’m not necessarily going to go to the paranormal community, but look into the regular science of it. And that’s what happened.

 I wanted to soundproof a lab.  I found out how sound travels in a building. They call it structural borne sound. Sometimes it can be a low vibration, say a truck going by. That sound can travel as a low frequency through a building.  It can travel through the walls, it can travel through the joists, and it can travel through the floors and then come as a sound that you can hear. In apartment buildings we find that a lot. Certainly we’ve had experiences with it in duplexes. There are also impact sounds which are just people dropping things. And there are normal airborne sounds like talking, like we’re doing right now. Looking at all those different [types of] sounds, we started going into buildings and saying, “Ok, what are the acoustics of this room that we’re going to do this recording in?  One of the things we do now is to take a base line audio reading. So, with no one in the room, I will take a baseline audio reading of that room.  And I can go back to that and find out what are the normal acoustics of that room, what are the normal sounds of that room really like. And it’s been really interesting.

 We did one restaurant in particular, where I could hear sounds in the room from two floors down, of somebody in the basement.  They were doing something with the pipes, whether there was water running or whatever. But I could hear that throughout that building, and I could hear investigators from several rooms away.  So that is all really important when you’re going to claim that that sound is paranormal. Have you checked all your bases? EVP is not simply a matter for us of listening to a recording and saying, “Ah, I got something.” It’s a much more laborious process actually, to go through all these checks that we have to prove whether an EVP is actually that or just a false positive.

 Backup Necessary to Determine an EVP

 Robin: So, I’m an investigator, let’s say [laugh] for the P.R.G.  And say, I’m sitting with one other investigator in a room.  And I record an EVP session, and I’m going over my tape, and I find something, and I bring it to you. And I say, “Listen to this Cindy, this is rockin!” And you say?

Cindy: And I say, “Did you have your backup?

 Robin: So, in other words you have to have two recorders at least?

Cindy: Yes. And this has happened more than once, because, let’s admit it, everyone loves it, everyone loves to have a recorder and go out and do stuff. So this happens to me a lot. And they say, “Listen to what I got!” And I have to say, “Listen, what were you doing?”

Robin: So, for your group if there’s one EVP and there’s no backup you throw it out?

Cindy: Yes.  I know that’s harsh, but we do.  Unless…let’s say something happens and the data logging system goes wacky at the same time.  I actually look at that, because now I have the data logging system that says that your radiation dropped and your EMF spiked at that precise moment.

Robin: So, I go into this same investigation with one other person and we both have voice recorders on us and we’re in different parts of the room. He’s [hypothetically speaking] over by the window and I’m by the back wall. Ok?  I pick up an EVP and he does not. And I come to you and say, “Cindy, this is rockin, you’ve got to hear this, and you say?”

 Cindy: Well that’s pretty interesting. Because, I would have to say – well, when we set up our microphones you’d have to see them, they’re in a grouping together….

Robin: So, you put all your microphones together?

Cindy: Pretty much, because we’re trying to find out a lot of different things when we’re trying to do experiments. But in your case I’d want to know where he was, what sort of microphone he had, was it uni-directional or omni-directional. You know, there are a lot of different factors. I’d want to know where was he pointing [the microphone] and where were you pointing? But it wasn’t a true backup recording, because backup recordings should be right by the other recorder.

 But, there’s been times that - and a lot of people claim that - it is not a true EVP if you hear it on two or more recorders.  An EVP should only be on the one recorder because it’s the manipulation of that one particular recorder.  That means it’s not an audio but an electrical effect.  It’s a theory, a hypothesis; I’m not even going to say it’s a theory.

 Robin: Ok, have you found that to be true?

Cindy: [sigh]

 Robin: I mean you’ve got all your equipment set up right there in the room. You’ve got two or three recorders and all the microphones set up.  I don’t know what kinds of microphones you’re using, but I’m guessing you’re never going to use a recorder without a [external] microphone and probably a sensitive one.  I know that we all have budgetary concerns [regarding cost of microphones].

 Cindy: Right.

 Robin: So, you set them up and you’re doing your EVP and you get something. Is it likely to be on all of them or is it likely just to get picked up on one?  And, if it only got picked up on one, why wouldn’t you throw it out?

 Cindy: I have to be completely honest with you, since we started the backup regiment and also were using higher end professional equipment; we get almost no EVP’s. [chuckles] Because when we get them we realize that they were false positives.  Now, I have had in the past where I have had the incidence where we have gotten only a voice on one recorder and not on the other recorder. So I’m thinking, well that wasn’t an acoustical effect and but an electrical effect – that’s all I can figure. Do you understand what I’m saying?

 Using White Noise

Robin: Yes, I understand what you’re saying now, yes.  You’re saying that it was an EVP, because it was on only one recorder, because if both recorders picked it up then it would be something in the room [or building].

 Cindy: Then it would be an acoustical effect.  It would be a sound wave that we could hear.  Now there are a lot of ideas on how that would work. We won’t go into all of them here [laughs] it would be long.  But that’s an idea that some people have put forward, that that is an electrical effect. Now, you’re going to have people on the other end saying, “No, that’s an acoustical effect, but it’s so faint signal that it needs a boost through another sound source.”  That’s why people use these little IC recorders, they are, or they used to be very internally noisy.  Some people will say that that’s why you’re getting so few EVP’s now, because you’re using extremely clean equipment – because you’ve no longer got that sound source [white noise] anymore to work with. That’s actually an experiment we’re working with at the moment.

 Robin: So this is a white noise theory, in other words?

 Cindy: Yes, it provides resonance. You have your weak signal here, and you’ve got your sound source and that actually amplifies that sound into the microphone, for example.

 Robin: What are your thoughts on white noise?

 Cindy: I don’t know. That’s one we’re actually working on with this higher-end equipment. We’re actually set up to do some experiments with a stereo system so that we can have one mic that does have that background sound source and another mic doesn’t have it.

 They’re recording at exactly the same time on different tracks. That should be interesting. Let’s see which one gets more EVP’s, if we get any EVP’s. There are a lot of ideas that haven’t been put to the test.  A lot of things are put out as common knowledge just because they’ve been repeated so many times. But I want to do the testing for it, and I want to put them through the paces. And that’s kind of what we do.

 Robin: So you buy all this expensive equipment.

 Cindy: [laughs] When I have the money!

 Robin: And you buy expensive microphones for a pristine, clean sound, and then you’ll have to go buy a white noise generator to create noise.

 Cindy: [laughing] On just the one mic though.

 Robin: And I bet you don’t want me to go and explain that to your husband! [both laughing]

 Cindy: Actually I run all my experiments past my husband. He’s a PhD, a Physicist. And that’s part of the deal. I am in crazy land, in the paranormal, but I have a very smart Doctor of Physics in my house. So I was asking him, if I was going to set up this experiment, what you would think of this experiment and its flaws? And he looked at the experiment and said, “Yeah, this one will be ok.” And that’s really important to me. We try, as best as we can to use the scientific method, to use critical thinking, to use very clean experiments. Because that’s the only way we are going to get the particular answers that our group is looking for.

 Debate over Analog versus Digital

 Robin: OK. I was working with a investigator not too long ago. Now, he’s old school, but he says that digital is crap and that analog is better. Especially tape, because it has in particular a magnetic tape that is controlled by the entity. Or that because of its magnetic tape it is more easily imprinted. Thoughts on that, is analog better?

 Cindy: We use both.  We use a high-end Marantz set recorder – it’s another field recorder. I’ve got some interesting things on it, by itself. The only thing I don’t like about cassette is the hiss of it.  There are also some questions about tape type and bulk erasing your tapes so that you can get your original artifacts off. There’s a whole other world about cassette tapes you can get into the pros and cons of that.

I have a new digital system. I wanted the new digital system because it was going to eliminate the tape hiss that I found very annoying, and that is such a high quality system that it will be very clean – it is better than CD quality. It will actually reproduce a sound that is top quality. With the frequency and the bit rate it should be pretty good and that’s what we’re going to look at.

 Robin: So your theory is that analog isn’t better simply because it’s analog, because of the tape?

Cindy: I don’t think that’s ever been proven out.

Robin: So is digital better? Or do you not know?

 Cindy: I’ve seen no one do an experiment with magnetic tape.

Robin: So you’re going to take both of them to an investigation?

Cindy: We take both of them, yes we do. Why I went to analog first it was for monetary [reasons]. We all get things [equipment], as we can get them. I could afford the analog first, and I kept upgrading that until I got the one that I wanted. Basically that was better quality; the analog was better quality – even with the hiss – than any of the 24 little recorders I have. Because I wanted to try…all of them. I wanted to try the old-school, first-generations ones, the second generation ones. I wanted to try the new ones.  I want to try them in slow play, fast play; I wanted to do a lot with them.

And I finally concluded, they’re just not very good for voice reproduction.  I wanted fidelity. I wanted a good sound.  Yeah, I’m not getting my white noise, crackly sort of thing that the voices are in. But what I did find out from the cassette was that they are probably not paranormal voices anyhow.  It’s just that – a bad recording. What can I say? So, I did like the analog for that. But now I’ve decided I wanted to look some more, and so this particular recorder, it’s a Fostex FR-2 Field Recorder, it just seemed to have everything I wanted at a price I could afford. So, we’ll see. It’s brand new for me, it’s my new toy. [chuckles] I’ll let you know in a year what I think about it. Either that or you may find it on EBay in a year [laughs].

And I do have several cassette decks that we’ve used in home experiments, and those are fine.  But I’m looking for something different even in cassette now.  I’m looking for a stereo system in cassette, because I just have a mono system right now. So I’m even looking to upgrade that a little bit.

 How does a Ghost make an EVP?

 Robin: You’ve been at this for a while now, so do you have a theory? Do you have a theory because ghosts don’t have voice boxes?  So how can there possibly be a sound coming off onto your [recording equipment]?

 Cindy: That’s why it may be more…I don’t know. It’s so difficult. Is it an electrical effect or is it an acoustical effect from a weak signal? My money is riding on that one right now. But until I get through a whole series of experiments I can’t say to put my money on that for sure. But that’s just it; you have to pick one thing. If you’re going to do a long term experiment you have to pick one thing and say, “This is what I’m going to look at.” So that is what I am going to look at now within the Anomalous Research Department. So maybe within a year, maybe within two years, I will have more data to tell you for sure that, “Yeah, I’m getting more EVP’s when I’m using this sound source, and that I think the weak signal is getting boosted within  the microphone.”  Well, that’s what I’m going to try [laughs].

Microphones

Robin: Microphones, what types of microphones do you recommend?

Cindy: Well, I was using electrical condenser microphones, and I started using those because back in 2000 that was what I read to use. I never questioned it, because I had never read much on microphones back then. So I started with them, and I liked them because I felt they had a nice, clean, high-end sound. I liked them, but then I started reading that people liked these dynamic microphones because they have the magnet with the coil and the coil is attached to the diaphragm, and we’re working with a magnet here and a magnetic-electrical effect. That’s really intriguing, because more and more groups are saying that EVP is EMF related.  

 I figured the only way I’d know is if I tried it. So I have actually been comparing the two for a couple of years now and I haven’t seen a lot of difference. But now I’m going to go strictly with the stereo and the dynamic mics, and the computer system is going to use with electro-condenser mics. My background isn’t audio and technology, but I’ve been forced into audio and technology. You do what you have to.

Protocols for Running an EVP Session

Robin: Yes, it can be quite an education. So, what are the proper procedures for running an EVP session?

Cindy: Let me see, the protocol is like two pages long [laughs] when we teach sessions.  Right now we’re starting with a sound-scape of the room.

Robin: How long do you run it?

Cindy: Well I’ve run it for up to a half hour, sometimes as little as 10 minutes. I’m just trying to get a taste of the [natural sound] room. I want to know what it is like right before I do a session. I will have the people come into the session. We videotape all of our sessions. We have multiple recorders plus the D.E.A.D. system set up. So you can imagine we’ve got a lot of equipment. It’s not intimidating at all [chuckles].

 Robin: Do you also have the tinfoil hats [both laugh]?

Cindy: But then those who want to come into the session are allowed in. I don’t like my session to be too big because people move. And you’re listening for an EVP and it could be just someone shuffling their feet.  But then people come in. I have everyone introduce themselves because I want to get a voice print of everyone who is in the room. And then the session is timed to the DEAD system. So we start.

We usually do a question and answer sort of thing. Sometimes I know what’s going on, but sometimes I don’t know what is going on in the place because, especially when you’re going back to review you don’t want to be biased.  It’s much better if I don’t know what is going on, and say on review I pick up on the word Mary. Maybe that’s relevant to the homeowner, that holds a little more credence than me trying to make the sound into something like that. Anyway, I will go through with my spiel. I will ask those in the room if they have something to say.

If anything happens during the session, say we start hearing something off to the side, as has happened before we will direct the EVP session to what is happening at that time. I ask people to be still and do voice marking for every little thing like if a car goes by, or a dog barks, if you sneeze, whatever. That’s really important to us. Sometimes we’ll take notes.

The new thing we’re going to do, which I talked about in the protocol, we are going to be hooking someone up to headphones so they can be monitoring what is being said in the headphones as we’re running the sessions.  And that’s pretty much it. That’s, I think, the easy part of EVP.  And they last for 10 to 15 minutes, and we may do, depending on the location, three to four sessions a night. That’s enough to keep me busy for a couple of weeks.

Evidence Review

 Robin: Do you do all of the review of the tapes.

Cindy: I am one of the persons that do the review. We’re splitting up the reviews now, so that there are two people reviewing the same things. The new idea is that hopefully the second person will not have been at the investigation, because we want to see, if two people hear something do they hear the same thing. So there’s paperwork that we do with the review.  We don’t do any sound editing until we can confirm that a suspected EVP is not a false positive from another recorder. And so I will mark that.  If I heard something on one of the digitals then I have to go back to all the other recorders and check those recorders and also check it on the video so it’s quite time consuming. But I can get rid of probably 99% of my stuff that way.  I think EVP is actually a very rare phenomenon.  I don’t think it is as prevalent as people think it is. That’s just from my experience.

Robin: So most of the time when someone picks up an EVP what do you think it is?

Cindy: Well it depends. I have to ask a lot of questions. What sort of a recorder did you use, where was the recorder? I very rarely hear very clear voices on a recorder. Sometimes when I do it might sound like the person in the room. People forget what they do all the time.  They don’t realize they whisper, they don’t realize they’re talking to themselves. We’re forgetful creatures; we don’t remember these simple things. So it’s hard for me to say without a backup what it is.

Robin: So for an EVP to actually make it into your…hall of fame [chuckles] what are the filters?

Cindy: It would pass the backup recording test. We’d make sure on the better recorder that we can’t identify that voice.  Chances are that it’s on only one recorder.  That would be a plus.

Robin: I’ve noticed that that happens a lot in investigations. The sound will only be on one recorder when there were three or four recorders in the room.

Cindy: Which suggests that it was just that one recorder affected?  And then we’ll look at the DEAD system data at the same time.  That may or may not tell me much.  Sometimes we do get interesting data at the same time as we get an EVP. So we’re kind of looking at all that. It’s a lot to look at actually. What else do I do? Well just that takes forever.

 If I do get a voice and it has passed the backup recorder test then we have to decide are we going to filter it or not.  Are we going to do any cleanup on it or not? We do very little, because I really don’t want to mess around with the frequencies we have there. I want to be able to tell where this was and what it was originally and keep that data on hand too.  What was the top frequency, what was the amplitude of that particular sound and just try to keep track of all that over time.  Maybe it will tell me something some day.

Robin: Well, and I’ve always been worried about taking what I think is an EVP and putting it into an editing system and tweaking it and then trying to present it to the paranormal community. I can only imagine what the skeptics would say about that.

Cindy: Well, exactly because you can give me any sound and I could make it sound like an EVP with enough tweaking. And I’m hoping, honestly, with this new recording system that I’m not going to have that much trouble anymore because I’m hoping not to have to deal with bad recorders.  We’ll see what happens.  And if I do use a sound source [white noise generator] that it will be a very controlled sound source and I’ll have a record of that sound source and I’ll be able to take that out. That will still mess with my frequencies, but just for my own knowledge it would be interesting to see what happens when I take that out. I’m speculating here.

Asking Questions at an EVP Session

Robin: More on the emotional side of EVP work here, I’ve heard people say that they look into the history of the place and try to find something to say, even going to the point of scripting up questions.  You’ve already said that you don’t believe that…

Cindy: Well let’s say I went to West Virginia State Penitentiary and I knew all the history of that. So when I did do an EVP session there I would probably direct my questions to who I thought I might be speaking to. And interestingly enough, some of the better responses and activity we’ve generated has been when I’ve started asking about family members.

Robin: Yes, I’ve found that to be true too.

 Cindy: “So, tell me about your mother,” or “is there a loved one…” And you get an emotional response and you wonder was I projecting it or is that the entity out there projecting it back to me. And I don’t know. But sometimes we have had some interesting things happen, not EVP’s but interesting activity happen around those questions. I’ve been in this long enough where I’ve done it all, scripted things out to the nth degree. I feel like I’m a little more stifled when I do it that way, it’s not so free flowing. I’ve also done round robin with people. I’ve done all sorts of different ways. Right now I’m a little more laid back on it, just as long as I can control my environment.

 What I’m actually doing now is stepping back as the session leader and letting other people do the sessions. I’m doing more monitoring because we had a huge drop off of EVP. Now is it me? Let’s see what happens when other people control the session, and I’ll just monitor the equipment – so there’s another question to look at here. So let them run the session as they see fit, just as long as I can monitor the environmental control, and my sound is controlled, I’m a happy camper.

 Robin: Well, I’ve found too that after a strenuous EVP session that I’m kind of empty emotionally inside. I’ve had some very emotional EVP sessions.

Cindy: Hmm, I can’t say that’s ever happened to me. I think I’m probably too analytical in my thinking and how I approach that. And, who knows, that’s why I’m trying to get other people involved in the sessions, because maybe that is an important element. And maybe I’m too analytical about it, too skeptical about it, whatever, but too distanced. And maybe you do need that person that does have that glimmer.

Robin: Yes, because don’t you think if there is an entity out there and you’re trying to entice it to speak with you, don’t you think you’d have to make an emotional connection with them in order for them to respond?

Cindy: Well, and that is what I try to do, especially when I get into the more psychological questions. I try to draw emotions that are triggers for me, personally, or for someone who had a troubled background. But that’s why I’d like to see more people in our group step forward in the process just to see what happens.  But no, I can’t say I’ve experienced what you’ve experienced because I don’t know what happens really, unless we start to have activity start to happen during an EVP session, I don’t know what it is until I get home. Because we won’t and don’t at this time analyze onsite.

Thoughts on Provoking an Entity

Robin: How about provoking?

Cindy: I don’t. We do have some people in the group that do. On the cases I’ve been on, I can’t say that I’ve seen anything happen with it. I have heard from other investigations before I was in the group where they’ve done provoking and it’s not that they got EVP’s but they did get activity. And we had instances where we’ve had audible voices but they don’t show up on the recorder. I don’t know what that’s about!  Now that seems like more of a mind connection, but that’s a whole other topic.  And they got that through acts of provoking.  I’m just not personally comfortable with it; it’s just not my personality. But I generally don’t stop somebody if they want to.

Favorite EVP’s

Robin: So, favorite EVP?

Cindy:  Oh, yeah, but I can’t back it up. It was in the early days. I was doing a session for a gentleman who – well, I used to go to people’s houses in the early days and do sessions – so I went to a house for a gentleman whose wife had died. I was using one of the first, early edition recorders from Radio Shack. It literally looks like a Bic lighter! I still have it [laughs].

Robin: Let me guess it’s in the box with the other hundred recorders you bought.

Cindy, Yes, but it’s still my favorite because it was my first one. I used no external mic, just the one that is in there. But very, very clearly, you hear…sometimes you get interesting things when you’re just having conversations with people and you’re not careful about it and you get that third voice.  And we got that third voice, and it’s in a lull between when I’m speaking and he’s speaking – you hear a whispery voice that is extremely clear that seems to say, “Do you want this person?”

And yes, he does want that person; he’s looking for that person.  Other people have heard it, and as you know you’re best loved EVP’s nobody else can hear what you hear! [Laughs] They don’t necessarily hear what I hear. But that was pre-group, and that one has always stuck with me. I have no data to back it up, it was one little recorder. But it was one of those little things that has kept me going, especially when I was doing this pretty much by myself.

Within the group, some of the interesting ones…

Robin: I really love the one of the ghostly PA system.

Cindy: Yes, that one’s cool. But that’s not so much an EVP as a Direct Voice Phenomenon, because they could hear it. So it wasn’t an Electronic Voice Phenomenon because it was through a PA – but the PA system wasn’t plugged in!  It was wild. But it’s things like that that keep us going, because once you shift through all the data there’s not a lot out there that we can validate.  We’re looking for that 1% that’s showing something. If we come up with nothing maybe that’s showing us something too.  What we need is for other groups to step up and buy this similar equipment, and to have some really stringent protocol, not just waving recorders around because that doesn’t prove anything. That just gives us a lot of questionable sounds. We need other groups to step up so that we can get some answers.

Resources mentioned in this Article:

AA-EVP The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena
www.AA-EVP.com/index.htm

Dr. Dennings, Hazel M. (1966) True Hauntings: Spirits with a Purpose

Llewellyn Publications.

Fostex FR-2LE Compact Flash Field Recorder B&H Photo, Video, Pro Audio Catalog Summer 2011 Catalog.  www.BandH.com

Lauer, J., Schumacher D. (2007) Investigating the Haunted: Ghost Hunting Taken to the Next Level. Xlibris Corporation. Additional Copies of the Book can be ordered at Orders@Xlibris.com

 Marantz  2-Channel Portable Recorder. B&H Photo, Video, Pro Audio Catalog Summer 2011 Catalog.  www.BandH.com

Paranormal Research Group (P.R.G.) incorporates Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and was formerly known as the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group (S.W.P.R.G.)

http://www.paranormalresearchgroup.com/

Strom-Mackey, R. (2012) “Interview with Dave Schumacher of the P.R.G..” www.delawareparanormal.blogspot.com  January 23, 2012