EVP Question...

[LIGHT L.I. Paranormal]

Say if you get an EVP, do you count EVP's as grounds to call it a haunting? Or EVP's are just a phenomena in itself? I think its a very debatable question.

In my own opinion, I don't think EVP's are enough grounds to consider a place to be haunted. However, unless you have mutliple EVP's then would it be considered?

Just some thoughts...

[boorite]

I don't know that EVP's can uphold or falsify conjectures about anything other than EVP's-- unless you do some conceptual work up front.

In other words, what EVP's are and aren't grounds for depends entirely on the research questions you ask and how you ask them.

[NoahJaymes]

It varies. You really have to understand the evp and distinguish if the evp u recorded is that of a ghost, spirit, or just a natural happening. Some key tips:

1. When recording, try not moving, stay in one spot for a few minutes, ask questions. Your footsteps can be heard in the recording and it will give a false presentation of evp.

2. When recording refrain from actually holding the recorder. I say this in reference to an inside haunting where u can sit it down on something. This will reduce the transfer of friction on the recorder in your hands. The slightest little movement in your hands can stir up a lot of noise.

3. When you are about to record, this may sound stupid, but ask permission first, ask the ghost or spirit to allow you to record their presence. Might get a better read this way.

4. Speak clearly, try not to mumble and definately do not whisper during recording. For obvious reasons.

To review the recording and distinguish if you actually have something or not, my suggestion is to download audacity. Nice program to filter out sounds.

Anyway, i do believe that true evp is an indictation of a haunting, or at least something present.

[LIGHT L.I. Paranormal]

I already have Audacity, and plan to use it to filter it. I know someone who caught an EVP and it spoke of two words during certain circumstances. When he closed the grage door, we loudly said we are closing the garage door because bugs were flying in constantly and on the Audio recorder the entity spoke NO in such a distinctive voice. You could tell it wasn't me or the other person.

It was creepy but exciting to get an EVP.... I was curious about EVP's because I know most scientists and paranormal experts think they are their own phenomena and not evidence enough to relate them to a place being haunted. But as I said before unless you have multiple recordings of EVP's and you can filter out the sounds to identify it, its possible.

[boorite]

I used to make my living as a sound man, and here's my opinion, for what it's worth: All the software I've ever heard used for digitally processing alleged EVP recordings produces results that are worse than useless. This processing is at bottom a form of distortion, and I say that with full awareness of that term's technical meaning. The problem with most alleged EVPs is that they are ambiguous. Adding a layer of distortion on purpose just makes it worse. It's like saying, hey, this picture is fuzzy, so look at it through a foggy shower door and tell me what you see.

The way to go, in my opinion, is to start with a competently-made recording on good equipment, and if a particular signal does not sound like something definite, you just ignore it. If your signal-to-noise ratio is maximized (i.e., you use a quiet recorder in a quiet place with good input levels), and you avoid distortion (by having the input levels low enough to avoid clipping), then you will have an excellent recording that doesn't need "cleaning up" with dubious noise reduction software that modulates the bejeezus out of the signal.

Then I'd go so far as to have different people listen to the alleged EVPs and separately write down what they think they're saying. If the answers don't coincide at above chance levels, it's too ambiguous. It's noise.

That's just me, though, and if this advice seems bogus to you, I wouldn't blame you for ignoring it. Had to say it, though. Listening to horrible, horrible EVP recordings online has been driving me nuts.

[dani10]

In my opinion if you are in a place(that is supposedly not haunted) and you get an EVP, then that automatically classifies the place as haunted. After all, evps come from ghosts, and ghosts are what makes a place haunted.

[Bella-Angelique]

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[boorite]

In my opinion if you are in a place(that is supposedly not haunted) and you get an EVP, then that automatically classifies the place as haunted. After all, evps come from ghosts, and ghosts are what makes a place haunted.

Fair enough. In your model, there's no such thing as a non-haunted location in which you get EVP recordings. I don't know if that's true, but let's say that's the model we're working with.

The next question I have is, what constitutes an Electronic Voice Phenomenon? To be even remotely scientific, we need an operational definition that can distinguish between, say, a random burst of static and a "voice." So many alleged EVP sound to me exactly like "zzzzpppppssshhh ssshhhhhppppfff." Then someone insists it says "don't move" or "buy bonds" or something. So how do we go, this noise is an EVP, and this one isn't?