176 replies to this topic

[FLBlake]

Hello everyone.  1st post here.  I love watching Ghost Adventures, mainly for entertainment purposes.  Though, some things on the show seem pretty legit.  My question this post is regarding the Spirit Box they use.  It's the thing that is supposed to cycle through multiple radio stations per second.  It seems like every time they use it, it works pretty well.  Does anyone have any first hand eperience with one of these things?  Is this some gimmick like a lot of other things on shows like this?

edit: sorry if this has been asked before, but don't know how to search the forum yet.

Edited by FLBlake, 27 February 2012 - 06:49 AM.

[karmakazi]

The spirit box concerns me.  It seems to produce interesting results, but it's pretty easy to chalk it up to random words coming through from radio signals that are generic enough to be answers to questions asked.  

I would like to get ahold of an Ovilus because I wanted to try some experiments with it - namely trying to make it say specific words by the will of a person or group of persons concentrating in the room with the device.  

The thing with all of these types of devices is that if they're able to be affected by a no longer living human spirit, it's reasonable to expect they could be just as influenced by the still living human standing there holding it - even if they aren't consciously aware of their influence on it.  Simply asking a question and having an expected range of answers in the mind could be enough to project one of those answers to a device.

Because of that, there's really no way to prove a device like this works because of ghosts or because of the humans around it, if it works at all.

Edited by karmakazi, 27 February 2012 - 01:07 PM.

[Seeker79]

Spirits don't use radio frequencies to communicate

[Shadesong]

I agree with Karmakazi. I think that I understand the logic (as much logic as people seem to put into this field, anyway, which isn't much) of spirits possibly communicating on a particular frequency, but even if that were the case, spirit boxes are just silly. You would achieve the same results by asking your television a question and then scrolling through the channels until you hear the word(s) or phrase(s) you want. It would be much, much slower, but it's the same concept.

Edited by Shadesong, 28 February 2012 - 06:09 PM.

[FLBlake]

Shadesong, on 28 February 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

You would achieve the same results by asking your television a question and then scrolling through the channels until you hear the word(s) or phrase(s) you want. It would be much, much slower, but it's the same concept.

The thing is though, you would have to be scrolling through like 5-10 channels per second while getting words or phrases directly related to any question that was just asked of it.  

I think the idea that they can be manipulated by the thoughts of the living as well as the dead, if possible, makes more sense.  You would have to stick one in a room and have questions played from a recording without human interference to get a better idea of that.  Or something like that, idk.

Just seems like the response they get from that thing is remarkable.

Edited by FLBlake, 29 February 2012 - 05:56 AM.

[karmakazi]

FLBlake, on 29 February 2012 - 05:55 AM, said:

The thing is though, you would have to be scrolling through like 5-10 channels per second while getting words or phrases directly related to any question that was just asked of it.  

I think the idea that they can be manipulated by the thoughts of the living as well as the dead, if possible, makes more sense.  You would have to stick one in a room and have questions played from a recording without human interference to get a better idea of that.  Or something like that, idk.

Just seems like the response they get from that thing is remarkable.

It does seem that way, I was actually a little creeped out when I first saw it but then my doubts kicked in    and I wondered again how much of the show I was watching was real and how much was done for TV.  (It was Paranormal State, btw)  That's why I want to experiment with these things myself to see the results, I don't trust anything I don't experience for myself.   Plus I'm very near Gettysburg, and if any place is going to have activity that's supposedly the one!

I saw two different kinds of spirit boxes too, one was called Frank's box and that one used more than just radio frequencies, it also had white noise/pink noise, and some other feeds into it so it sounded like words were coming out of the static.  The one that's just radio reminds me of Bumblebee... lol

[Seeker79]

karmakazi, on 29 February 2012 - 12:26 PM, said:

I don't trust anything I don't experience for myself.

Ha so this is why we get along so well!!!!

[Landry]

FLBlake, on 27 February 2012 - 06:36 AM, said:

Hello everyone.  1st post here.  I love watching Ghost Adventures, mainly for entertainment purposes.  Though, some things on the show seem pretty legit.  My question this post is regarding the Spirit Box they use.  It's the thing that is supposed to cycle through multiple radio stations per second.  It seems like every time they use it, it works pretty well.  Does anyone have any first hand eperience with one of these things?  Is this some gimmick like a lot of other things on shows like this?

edit: sorry if this has been asked before, but don't know how to search the forum yet.

"Skeptics" will generally try to denounce any technology or method that achieves evidential results and then scoff that there is no evidence of the paranormal.

[vitruvian12]

Landry, on 29 February 2012 - 11:44 PM, said:

"Skeptics" will generally try to denounce any technology or method that achieves evidential results and then scoff that there is no evidence of the paranormal.

Dont you mean what "you" consider evidential results?

[_Only]

FLBlake, on 29 February 2012 - 05:55 AM, said:

Just seems like the response they get from that thing is remarkable.

Seems is the perfect word.

Next time you see them use one on the show, shut your eyes when they play anything from it. You will be assured to not hear what they make it seem to say with the text on screen, and say after.

The spirit box can be a powerful tool. A tool used in the power of suggestion.

[karmakazi]

Landry, on 29 February 2012 - 11:44 PM, said:

"Skeptics" will generally try to denounce any technology or method that achieves evidential results and then scoff that there is no evidence of the paranormal.

It has become so easy to fake evidence of ghosts that it is no wonder people are skeptical about it.  Even though there might be a few real pieces of evidence out there, there is a flood of fakes from people who want attention or are just having fun.

How is anyone who wasn't there when the evidence was collected supposed to know if it was real or fake?  People who take photos or capture sound are equally convicing whether they are telling the truth or not.  By its own nature, the paranormal is outside of the normally accepted scientific method.  It's completely subjective, so unless someone experiences it for themselves they can't know if it was real or not.  Even then, people can be suspect of their own memory or the circumstances of the event.

I had a few experiences when I was a kid, but as so much time has passed I can't remember them clearly enough to say for certain that I wasn't dreaming.  The one experience I'm most certain was not a dream was when I was walking past a screen door, I glanced out and saw a dwarf sized old woman looking in at me, completely white and see thru.  As I was walking had looked away, realized what I saw and immediately looked back and it was gone.   After 25 or so years, I look back on that and wonder if there was a glass panel in that screen door, if it was my reflection somehow.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't because I'm certain I only saw her and only black around her (if it was my reflection I'd have seen the rest of the living room behind me including my toy box) also I was in mid stride facing away from the door as I was walking and the image that I saw was facing as if looking into the home and was stationary with her hands folded...

But I could be rembering it wrong too.  I just can't be sure, all I know is that all of my life I've remembered that experience and from the time it happened until now I've thought I saw something like a ghost... not a reflection.

[Ecto76]

I bought the P-SB7

http://www.pro-measu...it_Box_s/98.htm

I happen to work in an office building where employees including myself that have had multiple "Paranormal" experiences. I thought I would test the Spirit Box at work. I got great results there. I got Spanish responses. When I asked, how many of there are you? I got Quarto which means 4 in Spanish. The cleaning manager's name is Javier. I asked, do you remember who Javier is? I got Si which is Yes for Spanish. I got two names, Adam and Abbot. It seemed to have worked on Que.

However, now I am skeptical. Our apartment is active too and thought I would try it at home. The first time it appeared to work. I told my wife I bought it and wanted to surprise her with it because she investigates too. The 2nd time I tried it with my wife present, It actually tuned into radio stations. I was like WTF? I want my money back! lmao! Its not supposed to scan for radio stations, its supposed to just keep scanning without remaining on a frequency? Instead of communicating with spirits, I'm listening to WBLI!??? lol... Unless I got a dud from the company I bought it from. I bought it from the people who build them. Not saying it works or it doesn't work, I'm not a skeptic. I'm just sharing my experience with the Spirit Box so far. Wondering if I should open the box up and tanker with the component to make sure it doesn't tune a radio station? Maybe they just forgot to do it to this one. lol

[_Only]

Ecto76, on 08 May 2012 - 08:31 PM, said:

I bought the P-SB7

http://www.pro-measu...it_Box_s/98.htm

I happen to work in an office building where employees including myself that have had multiple "Paranormal" experiences. I thought I would test the Spirit Box at work. I got great results there. I got Spanish responses. When I asked, how many of there are you? I got Quarto which means 4 in Spanish. The cleaning manager's name is Javier. I asked, do you remember who Javier is? I got Si which is Yes for Spanish. I got two names, Adam and Abbot. It seemed to have worked on Que.

However, now I am skeptical. Our apartment is active too and thought I would try it at home. The first time it appeared to work. I told my wife I bought it and wanted to surprise her with it because she investigates too. The 2nd time I tried it with my wife present, It actually tuned into radio stations. I was like WTF? I want my money back! lmao! Its not supposed to scan for radio stations, its supposed to just keep scanning without remaining on a frequency? Instead of communicating with spirits, I'm listening to WBLI!??? lol... Unless I got a dud from the company I bought it from. I bought it from the people who build them. Not saying it works or it doesn't work, I'm not a skeptic. I'm just sharing my experience with the Spirit Box so far. Wondering if I should open the box up and tanker with the component to make sure it doesn't tune a radio station? Maybe they just forgot to do it to this one. lol

You have to press the "start scanning" button, stupid!

Just kidding. Your post made me laugh, though.

[CakeOrDeath]

Spirit boxes are frankly bunk as far as paranormal goes.  They work by capturing "voices" over radio  waves and jumping between them.  They can capture stuff from radio stations, baby monitors, trucker CBs and the list goes on and on.  There is an 30 year "expert" in the field who claims the true pioneer of the field Raudive, did some great studies with detailed results.  So I looked into it and came up with the following from just some cursory reading on the matter:

The belief in EVP in the United States seems to have mushroomed thanks to Sarah Estep, president of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, which claims to have members in some 40 states and publishes a newsletter. Estep claims that in the 1970s she started picking up voices on her husband's Teac reel-to-reel recorder. She is sure that the voices are spirits, proving there is life after death. Estep also claims to hear voices of aliens on some of her tapes. She says she has taped some 20,000 ghosts and aliens. Aliens don't speak English, however, so she is not sure what they are saying. Maybe she was picking up Satan speaking in tongues.


As far as the "grandfather of EVP", ya not that impressive either:



Other early pioneers include Friedrich Jürgenson and Konstantin Raudive. If what Raudive thinks he was hearing were indeed voices from dead people, it confirms the findings of other spirit scientists like Gary Schwartz that the dead have very little of interest to say to us. Raudive would hear things like "I follow you tonight," "please interrupt," and "might be Mary-bin." David Ellis investigated Raudive's and Jürgenson's claims and published his results in The Mediumship of the Tape Recorder: A Detailed Examination of the (Jurgenson, Raudive) Phenomenon of Voice Extras on Tape Recordings (1978). Ellis was not convinced. In 1997, psychologist Imants Barušs conducted a series of experiments attempting to replicate Raudive's work. His results were published in 2001 in the Journal of Scientific Exploration. Barušs concluded that "none of the phenomena found...was clearly anomalous, let alone attributable to discarnate beings."*



While it is impossible to prove that all EVPs are due to natural phenomena, skeptics maintain that they are probably due to such things as interference from a nearby CB operator, cross modulation, or ionospheric ducting. Given all the voices being transmitted these days by cell phones, AM and FM radios, TVs, baby monitors, walkie talkies, shortwave transmitters, etc., it isn't strange that unexpected voices should be heard now and then on our electronic equipment. I've picked up CB transmissions on my VCR and my neighbor's voice from her cordless phone on a baby monitor. Some of the "voices" are most likely people creating meaning out of random noise, a kind of auditory pareidolia or apophenia. And now that the phenomenon has a number of devoted followers (thanks in part to the movie "White Noise"), some hoaxers have probably entered the fray.

So ya...evp not so much.

[coldethyl]

Honestly I don't see how anyone thinks that these things or evps work.  We are beaming "I Love Lucy" to Mars now so there is always going to be radio frequencies etc out there no matter what.