The Witches' Book of the Dead (25 page)

You must look diligently for natural explanations in all your evidence before you consider the paranormal. My paranormal investigator friends often get frustrated as they are frequently asked to comment on photos that show orbs, clouds of moisture, camera straps, explainable shadows, lens flares, and so on. Remember, you can see just about anything in a cloud if you truly want to.

Despite all the hunting and investigating going on, no one to date has come up with hard proof of survival or existence of ghosts that science will accept. However, piles and piles of
unexplained
photographic and audio evidence
have accumulated over the years. For many, the reality of ghosts and an afterlife are articles of personal faith, often based on personal experiences.

Electronic Voice Phenomena

One of the easiest and best ways to communicate with the dead is through electronic voice phenomena, commonly known as EVP. And what's best about it is that the only tool you need is a digital or tape recorder.

EVP involves the capture of mystery voices that cannot be heard by the human ear. Turn on your recorder, ask a question, leave a space of about ten to fifteen seconds for an answer, and remain quiet. On playback, you may hear an answer during that quiet gap. Sometimes the responses are clear and sometimes they're less distinct, and you may need to use software to edit or augment them in order to understand them. It is not unusual to receive no replies.

No one has an explanation for why EVP happens, but the phenomena have been noted since the turn of the twentieth century. Recording equipment has become increasingly sophisticated and sensitive, making EVP obtainable by just about anyone who has the patience to experiment. The ghost-hunting TV shows portray EVP within the context of investigating haunted locations, but in truth these voices can be captured anywhere. Many of the thousands of dedicated EVP researchers around the globe work right within their own homes. These voices can often be the whispers of the dead seeking communication with the living.

A Short History of EVP

The invention of the phonograph in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison marked the beginning of our awareness of mystery voices. The phonograph could play recorded voices, music, and sounds, which in the late nineteenth century seemed miraculous to many. Even more astonishing was the discovery that the phonograph could also record unknown voices of invisible presences.

The first known demonstration of that happened accidentally in 1901. An exile in Siberia, Waldemar Borogas, set up a portable Edison phonograph
to record the trance rituals of a Tchouktchis tribe shaman. The shaman beat his drum and chanted to enter a trance. On playback, Borogas's recording picked up strange mystery voices joining in the ritual, as though invisible presences were chanting along. Shamans, like Witches, are known for standing at the thresholds between the worlds, and so it comes as no surprise to me that such voices would show up.

Some may have considered Borogas's results to be a weird fluke, but others who were experimenting with the new technology also got mystery voices they could not explain. Serious research of EVP got underway in the 1930s, but little headway was made with the limited technology of phonographs. In the 1950s, magnetic tape recorders enabled better recordings, and led Friedrich Jurgenson, a Swedish opera singer, painter, and film producer, to become convinced he was talking to the dead while casually recording bird songs. Jurgenson devoted the rest of his life to investigating the mystery voices contained within his recordings. His work captured the attention of a man named Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian who was living in Sweden. Raudive met with Jurgenson and was so intrigued by the voices that he launched his own research.

Raudive in turn recorded over 100,000 electronic voice words and phrases during the course of his research. The voices spoke in different languages, some very clearly, others sounding like bad long distance telephone connections. Some of the words and phrases were clear, while other messages seemed to be delivered in code.

Raudive's work gained widespread attention, and soon the mystery voices were labeled “Raudive voices.” When his work was translated into English in the 1970s, his London publishers coined the term “electronic voice phenomenon,” which became known over time as “electronic voice phenomena” or EVP.

EVP research expanded rapidly in the wake of Raudive's work. On the heels of Raudive came Sarah Estep, a Maryland woman who was convinced the voices were explainable—in fact, Estep firmly believed that there was no survival after death at all, negating any possibility of communication with the
dead. Her own experiments to disprove EVP, done with a reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder in the basement of her Annapolis home, sent her into a life-changing spin. Instead of silence, she recorded voices with messages and specific answers to questions that she could not deny. Estep became an EVP convert, a believer in life after death, and one of the leading EVP researchers in the world, founding the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, now called the Association for TransCommunication.

Experimenters discovered that voices could be captured using a variety of techniques. Especially helpful was the presence of a background noise, such as static, radios tuned between stations, fans, running water, electrical humming, and so on. It seemed the noise—called “white noise”—provided undifferentiated sound that could be manipulated into words by spirits.

EVP remains scientifically unproven, but hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of recordings have been made over the years that cannot be explained naturally. The field has become quite sophisticated with equipment and techniques, including the capturing of real-time, audible mystery voices—more about that later on.

Friends of mine who specialize in EVP have yielded tantalizing messages from a variety of communicators. I definitely believe they've been in contact with the dead, and also with unknown beings in other dimensions. One of the factors that makes EVP so exciting is the hard evidence of a recorded voice—and it gives such tangible weight to much of the occult work that Witches do.

The Characteristics of EVP Voices

The voices that come through during EVP sessions are rarely like those you speak to over a telephone. They are often faint and hard to understand; sometimes headphones or excessive amplification are necessary. The average EVP lasts two or three seconds—hardly a chatty conversation. What's more, the voices have their own peculiar characteristics: they are compressed, have odd cadences, and often sound robotic or tinny. Nonetheless, it is often possible to distinguish gender and age; that is, the voice of an adult versus
the voice of a child. Some people who attempt to connect with a specific individual on the Other Side say they can recognize the identity of the communicator by her voice.

Jurgenson was startled to hear the voice of his dead mother. So was one of the English editors of Raudive's work. Peter Bander was a skeptic, not inclined to purchase the translation rights of Raudive's research—until he listened to one of Raudive's tapes and heard his own deceased mother with a personal message for him. She said in German, “Why don't you open the door?” For Bander, there were two meanings to the message: she was referring to his habit of keeping his office door closed most of the time, for which he was teased by his colleagues. He also thought the message to be a veiled reference to “opening the door” to Raudive's work. Bander went from skeptic to believer, and joined the growing ranks of prominent EVP researchers in his own right.

It also seems that the voices coming through are always understood by at least one person present for the session, regardless of the language spoken. And yes, voices do speak in different languages, sometimes changing language in mid-reply. It is possible to ask a question in one language and get an answer in another. For example, Rosemary told me about how she took a trip to Mexico to engage in some EVP research; she asked questions in English and got answers in Spanish!

Researchers have attempted to explain how EVP occurs, but the process remains as mysterious as the voices themselves. How do disembodied entities without physical vocal cords make sounds at all? And how are the voices impressed upon recording devices? The “how” behind EVP may have to do with conditions we do not yet understand.

How to Do EVP

Recording EVP is easy. Like all forms of spirit communication, repeated practice brings better results. Nonetheless, some individuals seem to be EVP magnets and get more results than others. Don't be discouraged if you get little or even nothing in the beginning; most of the world's foremost researchers
were frustrated with their initial results. Estep was on the verge of quitting before she got her first voice.

Get a good quality recorder. Almost any equipment can record EVP, but since many voices are faint, quality equipment will improve your odds. I favor digital recorders that have built-in USB plugs, which make the transfer to computers quick and easy. In that way, you can set up files of a permanent EVP library. Most record in one or more of the MP3, WAV, WMA, or AAC formats. Just as I prefer to take digital spirit photographs in as high a quality as possible, I also recommend recording your EVP with your device set to its highest quality. Just as JPG compression can affect what you see on a picture, the compression of sound can do so even more, since it is even harder for the human ear to fill in the blanks of audio recordings than it is for the human eye to do so with pictures. As with all forms of spirit communications, you must try a variety of approaches until you hit the ones that work best for you. Some experimenters swear that magnetic tape is better than digital, but that is not the case for everyone. You might also experiment with using background noise to see if it enhances your results.

Frequency and consistency are important, especially in the early stages of your EVP work. Set aside a regular time and place for recording. You do not have to devote a great deal of time; even a few minutes a day or evening can be productive. In fact, many experimenters hold sessions of only ten to fifteen minutes. Some experimenters, however, conduct long sessions. First they ask a few questions, and then leave the recorder running for a few hours. Prepare your questions in advance, especially if you are intent on contacting someone specific.

Build ritual around your session. Work in a visionary state, use your altar of the dead as the recording place, and invoke the participation of the spirits that you work with regularly, as they will want to help you succeed. Keep a log and note conditions or circumstances that seem to affect results, such as time of day or night; weather conditions; significant dates; lunar phases; astrological aspects; planetary hours; and even your emotional state of mind.
Manifest
good results and you will get them!

Because of the brief nature of EVP responses, don't ask questions that require long and complex answers. And be sure to leave gaps of about ten to fifteen seconds between questions.

Play back your recordings over quality speakers, or use headphones. Understanding EVP is an “ear” that you will develop with practice. Good EVP should be fairly easy to understand. You can augment your listening with an audio software program that can enhance faint voices. Adobe Audition and the freeware application Audacity are two programs popular with EVP researchers; both are available for Mac or PC—but I use Apple's GarageBand and I only add amplification and very careful equalization. Be careful not to manipulate your files to the point where you are creating EVP rather than enhancing it.

How Should You Talk to the Dead?

The Greeks and Romans said that ghosts muttered, moaned, howled, squeaked, and chirped, and their necromancers imitated them when trying to evoke them from the underworld. The rituals must have been frightful spectacles indeed, with the blood sacrifices, howling necromancers, and gloomy shades of the unquiet dead.

The voices we hear via our modern technology are closer to ordinary, conversational ones. As noted, they have odd cadences, accents, and tonal qualities, but they are a far cry from ancient descriptions. I recommend talking to the dead as you would talk to a living person.

Evaluating Identities

It is often hard to know for certain who is speaking from the Other Side. Sometimes a voice is recognizable as the individual spirit you're trying to contact or the communicator gives information that validates that identity. Sometimes there are “drop in” communicators that, for unknown reasons, are able to briefly come through and interrupt the prevailing voice; they may or may not identify themselves before dropping back out.

Regular sessions are likely to connect you to repeat communicators; in fact, one of your familiar spirits, those that you work with at your altar
of the dead, may make frequent appearances with advice and suggestions. Communicators who are rude, abusive, or manipulative should be ignored or instructed to stay away. Please see
chapter 5
on how to banish such mischievous entities.

Real-Time EVP

Nearly all EVP is collected passively by asking questions and listening for voices on playback. Around 2005, however, some interesting devices made their way into public use that enable
real-time
EVP: the voices are heard live, not just on playback. Real-time EVP is sometimes referred to as “instrumental transcommunication,” or ITC, a field of research that involves hightechnology spirit communication. ITC was an outgrowth of EVP research, developing first in Europe in the 1980s and then spreading around the globe.

Real-time EVP has been documented for decades, but it is only in recent years that it has found its way into the mainstream. The chief method for real-time EVP employs radio sweep: a device that rapidly scans up and down the radio bandwidth to create a jumble of noise. The effect is like having a radio tuner on permanent scan. As the sweep hits and moves past a station, you hear a word or two from the broadcast or a note or two of music. The scan becomes background noise for real-time EVP. Mystery voices may speak on top of the scan.