EVP And The Ghost Box
Paranormal investigations have become extremely popular over recent years, with many amateur enthusiasts seeking out ghostly phenomena and proof of the unknown. The area of research which seems to be the most popular, and indeed the most accessible by all is EVP or electronic voice phenomenon. The thought of capturing voices and receiving messages from those passed away on ordinary audio recording devices is an area that intrigues all and I am certainly no different.
I have been a paranormal investigator for many years now and recently have focused my attention on studying and recording EVP. I have used many methods for capturing EVP evidence ranging from leaving old cassette recorders taping in empty rooms, to contacting ITC (instrumental Transcommunication) devices on Skype. Some methods seem to be more successful for spirit communication than others and one of the most interesting and thought provoking methods I have found lately is that of the ghost box.
The designer of one of the first ghost box‘s (the Franks Box), Frank Sumption designed a device that produced random audio segments and white noise through an AM tuner. The noise that was created was then thought to be manipulated by spirits to form words, and unlike ordinary EVP recording this enabled the possibility of having a 2 way conversation, hearing voices of the dead in real time! Following on from Franks work, more recently paranormal researchers and developers have found ways to modify basic portable radios to continually sweep the AM or FM band frequencies, the most famous being the Shack Hack. These hacked radios which are generally now known as ghost box’s have a similar effect to that of the Franks Box, creating tiny audio snippets and background static as it sweeps the frequency ranges. This method has caused a lot of debate in the paranormal field, are we just hearing bits from the radio waves or is it possibly spirits or other beings coming through trying to communicate with us? Of course, it goes without saying, yes we do capture tiny audio segments from broadcasting radio stations, but that is the whole point of the modern day ghost box. It is these tiny pieces of raw sound that in theory is remodulated by possible entities to talk to us.
My Methods And Experiences
The setup I use is quite simple really, I connect the ghost box to a set of desktop speakers and have an external microphone connected to my laptop. I will then start my ghost box, sweeping the AM band and then record the session on my computer using software such as Audacity (which is free) and Cool Edit Pro. In the recorded session, you will hear the audio coming from the ghost box and my voice as I ask the questions and try to communicate with the other side. You don’t have to use a PC to record the session though, any ordinary Dictaphone, digital or tape will do. Occasionally, I may even film the session in case any visual phenomena in the area manifests as I am recording. Once everything is set up I will then proceed to try and establish some communication by asking various questions and talking in general.
Ghost Box Setup Video
The questions I ask vary depending on the responses I hear and as with most ordinary EVP recording I wont hear all of them until I play the recording back, but a lot of the time you will hear the voices as they are being said live in real time! It is always good practice also to ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer, the longer the sentence you capture, the harder it is to debunk by normal means. Other things I may ask are things that only I, or anyone in the room with me would know and more often than not I will hear the answers to my questions being said correctly. What are the odds of hearing an exact and correct answer to questions asked at that precise moment in time coming through randomly on the radio waves? On all recordings, my own name is always being said and this is the same with all ghost box users, their name will always come through very frequently. All this tied together makes it highly improbable that you are co incidentally hearing nothing but natural radio segments. I have kept an online diary of all my ghost box recordings, all in order up to the present day and I have found the more I use it, the stronger the communication seems to be becoming.
Ghost Box Diary Play-list