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Frequently-Asked Questions > Concepts

 

  • How do I know that the messages I record in EVP are not from my own mind?

  • What do you mean by being "Clairvoyant"?

  • Is there any danger in EVP?

  • More about the safety of EVP

  • What are "Formants" and what is a " Sinusoid" and what are the main differences between paranormal voices and ours?

  • Will I get the same results with a letter to my etheric friends in an envelop as by putting it on the table?

  • How should I teach my very young children about EVP?

  • Beethoven did not speak English, so why would his ghost be able to?

     


    How do I know that the messages I record in EVP are not from my own mind?

    Please note: We know that the following argument needs a lot of work to make it good logic. Consider it a first effort to explain why it is reasonable to think EVP can be initiated by survived personalities.

    It is not realistic to look for messages telling you something that you do not already know because you know more than you remember. Experiments with hypnotism has shown this. What does seem to be a good test is if someone else records something for you that they could not have known. Then, you need to look for the odds that the person could have made a lucky guess. The 4Cell EVP Demonstrations have shown rather decisively that the Receiver can record answers to the Questioner's questions. The results are far beyond chance. (http://aaevp.com/articles/articles_about_4cell_experiment.htm)

    Rather than etheric communicators, an alternative explanation for the 4Cell successes is that the Receiver is reading the mind of the Questioner. I do not think that we have devised an experiment to satisfactorily answer this possibility. For instance, all I need is a unique identifier of a person, such as name, age and address, and I can tell you what their health condition is. It does not matter where they are in the world. The Silva Method used to teach that to just about every student (http://www.silvamethod.com/). This ability seems latent in all of us, and in fact, is a version of remote viewing. However, it is an ability that must be practiced to be useful. Nevertheless, the fact of this ability has been demonstrated to me and by me enough to make me aware that simply having the question in my mind might provide a unique enough identifier for the Receiver to be able to mentally find the information. If this is true, then there is probably no way for us to satisfy a scientific inquiry as to whether or not the experimenter is the source of the message.

    The solution, it seems, is to examine the entire body of evidence, what I refer to as "etheric studies," to see if there is supporting data for the idea that our communicators are the survived personality of our loved ones. The same question applies to mediumship, so we cannot use it as a support for EVP, other than to say that the processes are essentially identical--which is good since that supports other cosmological points.

    The main metaphysical concept that seems to support survival is that the Survival Hypothesis requires that survived personality energetically exists "outside" of the physical. Here, "energetically," is more correct than terms like "vibration" or even "outside," because while they are descriptive, they imply qualities that are not supported by the evidence. All we can say is that there is some qualitative difference in the energy of which our aspect of reality is formed and that which forms other aspects, such as wherever survived personality exists.

    Back to the point, there are a number of principles generally described as "Natural Law." Although it seems no two metaphysicians agree on more than a few of what must be nearly an infinite number of principles, a survey of the field will show that what I call the "Principle of Agreement" is generally accepted, albeit in a variety of guises. It holds that the object of reality, in this case a message from a loved one, must be energetically in agreement with the aspect of reality it will inhabit. Your daughter is in the etheric, which is a general term I use to mean somewhere in reality that is not in the physical. In order for her etheric message to come to you in the physical, it must be made to energetically agree with the physical. You are an etheric Self inhabiting the physical aspect of reality because of your entanglement with your physical body. We know that without it, your etheric Self could not remain here. According to the metaphysical lore, you (or an interested party--maybe a group like the Big Circle) must provide the channel through which the message can be "embodied" as a physical thing. Following this reasoning, physical people would necessarily be the source of all the energy required for all etheric to physical influences, including EVP. That is how mental mediumship works, that is how EVP apparently works.

    So that is the hypothesis designed to describe how etheric to physical influences are enabled. If your daughter is the source of those messages and not your subconscious in some way, then one of the things we would expect to see occur is that you would have to provide the vocabulary of mental images that are available for embodiment of her words, which are actually just mind-to-mind transfers of conceptual information. One of the characteristics of EVP is that the message is always in a language the experimenter or an interested party understands. The only exceptions to this we have seen documented have clearly been demonstrations. This is one of the "proofs" that we are the channel for etheric to physical influences.

    Another "proof" is that haunted places are virtually always places that have had long-time human occupancy and/or the expression of extreme emotions. Again, according to the metaphysical lore, humans emanate energy that is generally described as auric energy or vitality. Auric energy is something between physical and etheric, and is apparently the raw stuff required to enable etheric to physical influences. A physical medium is able to manage this energy to enable phenomena, but we all provide it and manage it to some extent. That is probably one of the factors determining how well one does with EVP. The point is that we see phenomena in places where this energy has accumulated. It is the same energy we seek to accumulate as a contact field or the energy of rapport. That is why we think the Big Circle is so important.

    One more reference is that it is fairly well established that there is such a thing as subtle energy. Remote viewing (clairvoyance), psychokinesis and what is being described as morphic fields are all well documented aspects of life that require the existence of subtle energy. Subtle energy does not require the existence of the survival of the personality, but survival would not be a supportable hypothesis without it.

    So the "proof" that EVP can be initiating by survived personality include:

    Given:

    • Subtle energy exists, is not explained with currently understood physical principles and some forms of it imply a subtle energy aspect to who we are.

    • EVP exist and cannot currently be explained with known physical principles.

    • It is possible to record EVP containing specific information asked for by a third party.

    • The voices and statements in some EVP are recognizably initiated by specific people known to be physical "dead."

    • The existence of EVP requires an intelligent manipulation of subtle energy that manifests as the manipulation of physical energy.

    • The Principle of Agreement and the concept of embodiment predict that etheric to physical influences will be facilitated by the availability of subtle energy, which is in fact, what has been experienced.

    • Out of body and near death experiences as well as some reports of reincarnation,  (not discussed above) argue the existence of a subtle energy aspect of who we are that survives independent of the body.

    Therefore: The above elements provide a foundation of reasons why an etheric aspect of reality is required, and why it is reasonable to say that this etheric aspect of reality is inhabited by the etheric aspect of Self.

    And: The etheric aspect of Self remains sentient, retains the personality of the person when incarnate and is able to cooperate with people remaining in the physical to cause etheric to physical influences, such as EVP messages and direct voice.

    What do you mean by being "Clairvoyant"?

    "Clairvoyance" is a term meaning "clear seeing." There are other terms for hearing and such, but "clairvoyance" is generally used to mean "clairsentience" or clear sensing.

    Clairvoyant ability is the etheric Self's vision and the physical body is able to host that ability just as it is able to host the ability of Self to think, visualize, remember and dream. All of these abilities are naturally expressed to some extent, and our society helps us develop the obviously physical ones. The apparently etheric ability to dream, for instance, is not taught in schools, but may be in the future as our scientists learn to apply the ability in "practical" ways they understand.

    So we are all clairvoyant to some extent, but as an information gathering tool, we are taught by our current culture that that source of information is nonsense, causing most people to ignore the ability. Telling yourself that, "I'm not clairvoyant," is an excellent way to suppress your clairvoyant ability. Oh, and it is an ability, not a gift any more than thinking is a gift. It cannot be taken away from you if you "misuse" it, whatever that term may mean to you.

    There are some who are naturally very clear sensing, there are a few who are essentially clairvoyantly "blind" and most of us have a little ability. Like any ability, it can be developed to the extent that your body is able to support it in the physical. In fact, much more of what we think we know comes from our inner sensing than we realize or our scientists like to admit.

    The concept is important in trans-etheric communication because it appears that we sense information as our etheric Self admits etheric objects of reality into the physical via the Self-physical body entanglement. That may be why some EVP experimenters will maintain that a particular recording has an EVP in it saying a particular thing, while witnesses only hear gibberish. The experimenter has sensed the information as it was channeled through his or her body.

    This is also why it is a good idea not to be too quick to discount what is claimed of an EVP. We must still have EVP that others can hear and understand for EVP to be a proper tool, but for personal use, it is good to use all of the tools we have available to us for physical to etheric communication with our etheric friends.

    Is there any danger in EVP?

    Answer: There have been no documented instances of lasting problems experienced by EVP and ITC experimenters of which we are aware. The only danger we can see is in the possibility that a person who has mental health issues might mistake the meaning and intention of the messages. We advise that people who have a history of emotional instability or who are experiencing mental health issues should not work in this field. It is always important that the experimenter is able to use discernment by recognizing that the communicating entities are people and that they have the same ability to mislead as do people still in the flesh.

    In the Autumn 1989 AA-EVP Newsletter, Sarah Estep wrote:

    “Obviously, no one starts taping, automatic writing, or playing with the Ouija board, thinking he will become possessed or obsessed. But it can happen. As I wrote on page 196 of Voices of Eternity, The difficulty is in ascertaining who is susceptible…I am not trying to frighten people who are thinking about beginning to tape….Working in the field can bring some of the most rewarding, enriching experiences of your life. It would be amiss of me, however, not to caution you about the darker side of psi. Experienced tapers will tell you not to believe everything that comes through. You have your liars on the other side, as you have here. The more they realize they are getting you upset, the more they will continue. Human nature being what it is, we may imagine certain messages are there, when in fact, there is nothing. The important thing though is, if a person believes a message is on tape, he will respond to it for better or worse.

    “If anyone at any time thinks he is in contact with low-level entities, leave your tape recorder. Remain in control at all times. Anyone can sit down to tape. It takes much more inner strength to pull the plug and walk away.”

    The evidence found through EVP has shown that the description of “evil” or “demonic” entities is probably inaccurate. It is true that some communicating entities reveal themselves to be of relatively low spiritual maturity, but it is a reach to argue that they are evil or demonic in any sense. These entities are typically referred to as “low levels” because of the nature of the messages they give us. For instance, it is possible for an entity to masquerade as someone you are seeking to make contact with—even a loved one. It is also possible that a “low-level” entity might tell you something that is not true, but that is something that they believe you want to hear. This is probably why many of the prophetic EVP have not come to pass.

    A prolonged period of carefully listening to EVP samples has been shown to increase the experimenter’s sensitivity to sounds and flickers out of the corner of their eyes. In this way, experimenters report an apparent increase in their clairvoyant ability. Since we feel that everyone is inherently clairvoyant, and that the ability can be improved through practice and training, it seems reasonable that working with EVP might increase clairaudience or clairvoyance.

    The attitude that we maintain toward a bothersome entity is that it is a person and that it is not natural for the entity to remain close to the physical locale. We are in charge of our personal space and we will ask a bothersome entity to move on. In fact, an important aspect of EVP is the “rescue” work some experimenters conduct in trying to tell an apparently “stuck” entity that it should “go to the light.”

    In the final analysis, there is no obvious danger that an experimenter will ‘bring home” an entity that will bother the family. If an entity does become bothersome, there simply are too few reports of any danger due to such a situation to warrant considering it a threat to the experimenter’s welfare. The best safeguard against any possible problem is your Self-education of the involved concepts. You will find that the Spiritualists provide such information. (See http://nsac.org/)

    More about the safety of EVP

    The issue is the exchange of influences between the etheric and the physical. That requires energy which we think of as physical/etheric or fringe etheric energy. Vitality, auric energy Kundalini energy, Ectoplasm ... whatever it is, it comes from the person in the physical, and is required for etheric to physical influence to occur. That is the theory.

    Since you are the source of the energy for communication as the medium or channel, if you have a fearful attitude, then you are more apt to enable fearful things. All sorts of things are out there but you tend to select what you experience based on your expectations.

    The second part of the answer is that people remain people and transitioning to the other side does not automatically make people nice or wise. Just as in life here, we encounter people over there who have remained "close" to the physical and who are apt to cause trouble. They only way they can cause trouble is if you give them the energy, and it is for that reason that we say ignoring them is the best way to make them go away. "Clearing a house" or conducting an exorcising in some way only gives them energy.

    A more common horror show theme in the movie and television industries is a "bad" entity getting a "living" person to do something like cut a pretty girl's head off, so that the entity can experience the act vicariously. That was part of the movie, White Noise and we have all heard of people who do what little voices in their head tell them to do. We try to advise people to stay away from any form of trans-etheric communication if they might not have the discretion to know not to do what an entity tells them to do.

    For the vast majority of people, there is no danger at all and we have no reliable evidence that a person has been harmed by the etheric communicators when working with EVP.

    What are "Formants" and what is a "Sinusoid?" Also, what are the main differences between paranormal voices and ours?

    Answer: A Sinusoid or Sinusoidal signal, is in reference to a sign wave shaped cycle that is the foundation for cycles per second in analog sound. You can have sound formed of other than Sinusoidal waves, such as square waves, but biological system do not often form other than a Sinusoidal-like wave, even if it is as a pulse.

    As the sound from a voice box passes through the mouth, that fundamental frequency produces harmonics that combine, along with mechanical shaping in the mouth to form the voice. The fundamental frequency is often referred to as Formant 0 (F0), and the subsequent harmonics as Formant 1, 2 and so on. They are "formed" from the base frequency and tend to show in frequency, time, amplitude graphs as bands of energy.

    In a normal voice that is not a whisper, you should see F0 in a spectral analysis of the voice, and then clusters of energy associated with the formants as bands in the display. The Italian researchers have found that F0 is often missing in EVP, indicating that they were formed without the presence of F0. This would be an indication that the voice was formed without the presence of the vocal cords.

    Further research has shown that the voices are formed by, as the Italians say, "a thickening of the background noise." A good illustration of this can be seen by recording for EVP while using a fan and a small water fountain as sound sources. In such a situation, it is possible to record a voice formed in the tinkle of the fountain and a different voice formed in the deeper sound of the fan.

    This also illustrates the nature of the background sound we are looking for. We do not want white noise, which is all of the frequencies equally represented. We want only the frequencies associated with the human voice. In Spiricom, they used thirteen tones as a group to simulate a human voice box. Sonia Rinaldi of Brazil uses crowd babble. Whatever you us will tend to determine what your communicator has available to transfigure into voice.

    As for your question about knowing if a voice is phenomenal, the best comparison audio program I have seen is Audacity, which is free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php. Use the pull down menu beside the file name (at the left end of the wave form display) and use the "Pitch" view. In truth, though, I doubt that any of the programs you are going to buy for under $1000 are going to give you a view that can be used for proper analysis. For instance, Audacity does not offer a frequency scale in the pitch view.

    The research has been done to study the voices as described in that article. They have compared "living" to "dead" voices and conclusively found them the same. Rinaldi gave them one such excellent example to study. The research has also been done to show that the voices are not the product of imagination, stray radio signals or artifacts of the equipment. Further research has been done to show that the voices are not caused by echoes of the past, super psi (the mind of the experimenter) or some imagined quantum holographic field. With these things established, then you should feel comfortable accepting a recording as the voice of a discarnate entity if it is a direct response to something you say or do. EVP should be considered communication. If it does not make sense, then discard it and seek further communication. If it tells you it loves you and sounds like the voice of a loved one you know to be "dead," then you have good reason to believe it is that loved one. Let the future take care of proving the phenomena to the rest of the world.

    You can test almost all of these things for yourself. And since it sounds like you are looking for authentication from science, remember that almost the entirety of the scientific community is based on the assumption of a biological origin of consciousness. They cannot allow the existence of a discarnate person or "living memory" without first changing their fundamental assumptions. As such, they are "scientifically" not allowed to validate EVP as phenomenal.

     

    Will I get the same results with a letter to my etheric friends in an envelop as by putting it on the table?

    Answer: The Butlers have studied in many different modalities of working with subtle energy. Based on their study, and on experimental evidence from EVP, they are pretty sure that it is we who must provide the energy necessary for etheric to physical influences. In effect, we or an interested person, are the mediums through which the message must pass. [Here, I will refer to it as the energy of the aura of life or "auric" energy and define it as the energy that bridges the etheric (nonphysical) to the physical.]

    Since we supply the energy necessary for communication, the nature of that energy has a lot to do with the nature of what we will experience. If you expect a loving response, that is more apt to be your experience than if you are fearful. We think it is both a matter of who you attract to communicate with you and what you will allow to come in. For instance, you will find that Spiritualists do not put up with a lot of nonsense from their etheric communicators. Spiritualist mediums are taught that they must be in control, not the entity.

    Your attitude is everything. Lisa Butler recently recorded the EVP, "Prepare to die!" in response her question, "Do you not want people here?" The example is at http://aaevp.com/examples/examples_voice11.htm. the point is that a person with a fearful attitude about spirit communication may take the EVP as very dangerous. The Butlers found the utterance very funny--how can you not with that dramatic tone.

    Your desire to communicate produces far more potent and directed auric energy to reach your daughter than would be produced by someone recording for you. Even more important, the very act of writing the note to your daughter helps to focus your attention and tells reality what you intend. The act of writing the note is probably more important than the fact of its existence.

    They can apparently read the letter if it were laying on the table, but the letter in an envelope or in a drawer should be as effective because it remains a focus of your attention and intent.

    How should I teach my very young children about EVP?

    Answer: The Butler just purchased two kittens from a family that accepts foster children form the state. They are usually hardcore trouble maker boys, but the Butlers found them to be very well behaved boys who were pleasant to be around. The secret was that the family taught the boys to meditate (mindful contemplation, really), and the whole family meditated on a regular daily schedule. They also taught the boys about the concept of a greater reality and teach the kids to direct their meditative attention to one lesson or another intended to build character and tolerance of others.

    We do not have a precedence for teaching very young children about EVP. The technology may be a little too much for them; however, after they master the computer and the remote control for the TV, they are probably ready for the technology of EVP. In the meantime, you might consider teaching the fundamentals of spirit communications. There is precedence for that in Spiritualism. Check out www.nsac.org/lyceums/index.htm. The NSAC Lyceum is mostly intended for children and can be used without the need for the children or the rest of your family to become Spiritualists. Let that come in time if it is right for you.

    Beethoven did not speak English, so why would his ghost be able to?  He was also deaf, not for his entire life but most certainly by the time of his death, so wouldn't his ghost be deaf?

    Answer: Answer: The ability to hear sound is a function of the biological ear and the mind's interpretation of a nerve signal. We think that hearing in the etheric is mind-to-mind, meaning that the etheric aspect of who you are, what we think of as the "real you," communicates with the all-etheric entity. We encourage EVP experimenters to voice their questions, but that is mainly to help them focus their intention. So the answer to the second part of your question is that the biological ear is not involved in EVP. As for language, an important characteristic of EVP is that the utterance is virtually always in a language the experimenter or an interested witness understands--no matter what language the etheric communicator spoke when in the physical. We think the reason for this is that mind-to-mind communication again. The formation of an EVP is thought to follow the circuit of, mind-to-mind etheric communication, transfer of the information into the physical via the experimenter's etheric Self to physical body couple, and then impression of the information into audio frequency sound energy in the recorder via the action of stochastic resonance on the week telekinetic signal. In this model, the etheric communicator uses the vocabulary and library of images held in the mind of the experimenter. Thus, a long dead German speaking man can speak English so long as the experimenter understands English.

     

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