Original headline: Electronic voice phenomena quietly studied for decades
Used to be, if you claimed to hear voices from your microwave, folks just called you crazy.
Now, you're trendy.
Thanks to the recent release of the movie "White Noise," Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) has been pulled from the gloomy, orb-lit world of the paranormal into your local theater.
In the movie, Michael Keaton stares at a TV set like a football fan whose cable has gone out during the closing minutes of the Super Bowl, straining to catch glimpses or sounds of the Great Beyond.
In real - if paranormal - life, the study of EVP has been quietly going on for decades. And its sudden splash as Hollywood entertainment has left North Carolina investigators of the supernatural awash with questions and claims.
"We can count on a surge of interest once movies like this come out," said James Hall. He's one of the founders of Haunted North Carolina, an organization in Chapel Hill dedicated to the scientific study of the supernatural.
"Remember when 'The Sixth Sense' came out? There are a lot of people interested in the field, in a general sense. When something specific comes along, like 'White Noise' and its use of EVP, people wonder how much is real and how much is just Hollywood."
But are EVP real, or just dead air?
Even after years of study, Hall says there's no clear answer. But he and members of his group have had plenty of creepy connections with unexplainable sounds.
"Some are almost inaudible, some are very clear," he said. "Some take place in broad daylight, some in the traditional creepy cemetery at night. When you're talking about EVP, the only common aspect is there is no common aspect."
In the film, what appears to be a ghost tries to reach Keaton. Through the efforts and special equipment of a paranormal researcher, the grieving Keaton decides the vision is his departed wife, who now must speak to him through various electronic devices.
It's not a sort of "My Mother The Car" reincarnation. Her soul hasn't come back in a Cuisinart. But it is communication.
In the world of paranormal research, that level of communication, especially between people who knew each other in life, is extremely rare. And, Hall notes, people who see the movie and suddenly hope to hear from departed family members will likely be disappointed.
From the beginning, study of EVP (also called Instrumental Trans Communication or ITC) has focused on two major issues: What are the anomalies that occasionally appear on supposedly blank tapes, and where did they come from?
"It's not just a bunch of people sitting around listening to tape recorders," Hall said. "There's been quite a bit of research by companies like BASF and Sony, people who work with audiotape."
"What exactly is on there and how it got there - those are good questions, and there are good arguments from people who are convinced they are communication from spirits, and from those convinced that they aren't.
"People come to us all the time with voices or images and want us to tell them what they've got. And the honest truth is because we weren't there when the recording was made, there's no way for us to verify whatever they have."
That's not just because they suspect fraud or hoaxes.
"Haunted North Carolina is an organization dedicated to research," he said. "And one of the keys, from an impartial research perspective, is controlling the experiment. That way, if you get something, you're able to say what it wasn't - even if you can't say what it was."
He offered one example from an investigation a few years ago. He was the only male in a research team setting up recording equipment at a supposedly haunted house. When the group listened to the tapes later, Hall's voice was on there. So were other male voices.
"That sort of creeped me out," he said.
Other EVP may have answers to questions or a serious of mysterious noises, which were unheard by the researchers.
"The theory is that perhaps the spirits are electromagnetic fields," he said. "The theory is they are manipulating magnetic fields to create communication on the tape."
Naysayers note that many of the sounds may be electronic interference, transmissions bouncing off the atmosphere, even garbled bits of cell phone calls. The sounds are also decoded by that most complex, yet biased, filter - the human brain. The brain is designed to try to make sense of sounds, even turning snippets of noise into communications from the departed.
"You can see how people would hear something and say 'They're trying to contact me,'" Hall said.
For all the fancy equipment used in "White Noise," he says the best investigative tool remains a portable cassette recorder, a microphone and a quiet area.
"If you chose too use filtering software, you could manipulate the sounds into what you want to hear.
"Some people believe - some don't. We're not so much about finding ghosts as we are analyzing what is there.
"It's in that studying that we may find the truth."
EVP FAQ
What are EVP? Electronic Voice Phenomena are strange sounds picked up on recording or broadcasting equipment. They may sound like voices or unrelated sounds, such as clanging bells.
Are they really ghosts? There's the big question, and the simple answer is nobody knows exactly.
How did these sounds get there? The prevailing theory is they are magnetic imprints from an unknown source. Ghost believers hold that the imprints are made by spirits, which are some sort of electromagnetic presence. Skeptics point to a variety of potential sources: microwaves, stray cell phone signals, shortwave messages, geologic magnetic anomalies.
When did EVP first show up? Thomas Edison began recording wax cylinders late in his life, hoping to hear spirit voices. Serious study of EVP began with the proliferation of personal tape recorders, when unexpected sounds would appear on supposedly blank tapes.
The first public recording purporting to be of EVP was in the late 1950s.
Why can't people hear them without the tape? The prevailing theory is the sounds are not sound waves at all, but magnetic impulses. So in a human sense, there's nothing to hear until it is caught on tape.
Is there any way to tell the difference between EVP and fakes? When it comes to voices, yes. According to EVP researchers, a recorded human voice cannot make a sound measuring below 300 Hertz. So when someone presents a sound caught on tape, that's the first thing they check.
How can I capture EVP? You'll need three things: A tape recorder with a microphone, clean recording tape and patience. If you've got a digital recorder, you won't need the external microphone. Take the recorder to a place you feel may produce sounds and start recording. Try to make it a place free of background noise. Remember, there are no guarantees. Some people have tried without success for years; others pick up EVP fairly often.
What am I listening for on the tape? There are hundreds of samples on the Web. Alas, you never know how genuine they are.
Here are some EVP captured by the researchers at Haunted North Carolina. They are researchers, not spiritualists, and they carefully research their work. Still, some of these are kind of creepy: http://www.hauntednc.com/evp.htm.
Is there a group I can contact about EVP? The folks at Haunted North Carolina are probably the closest scientific-based research group. Contact information is on their Web site at http://www.hauntednc.com
