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Conducting an EVP Session, by Robin Strom

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The voices on the audio recorder were both clear and clearly exasperated. The first said simply, "Get out," and then a few seconds later the female voice directed us to, "Get out now!" Both voices were female, and both were caught in an empty room. We had been in the residence for several hours, and she had tolerated us up to that point. But like the house guest that will not leave, we had clearly worn out our welcome

This is why I love EVP (or electronic voice phenomena). Those inexplicable voices are remarkable, provocative, and sometimes simply brimming over with personality. Our paranormal team uses EVP techniques on all of our investigations. But, you don't have to be a paranormal investigator stomping around a haunted asylum to enjoy EVP. So, what exactly is an EVP, and how can you get started capturing them?

A Brief Explanation of EVP
The quickest definition of electronic voice phenomena is voices or sounds caught on recording devices that the people in the room did not hear with their own ears. They're detected by someone only on playback of the device. The question as to how a spirit might be able to speak and be heard on a recording device has long been a contentious debate. How does a spirit record sound on a recording device if they have no mechanisms with which to make sound, no vocal chords through which air is passed, no lungs to pump the air? One of two ways have been proposed. The first is that they imprint their thoughts onto the recording device via psychic abilities. The second is that they mold the environmental noises to their whim in order to create sounds resembling human speech. It has been noted among those who study EVP seriously that the voices recorded, when there are at least two or more recording devices in a room, will show up on only one. Thus, they cannot be accounted to environmental noises alone, because if they were, they would be recorded on all of the recording devices in the same vicinity. Analysis made by experts in voice phenomenon also note that such recordings exhibit a frequency shift that is outside the frequency range of the human voice.

Equipment Requirements
The equipment needed to capture EVP is actually limited. The first item obviously is some type of device that records audio. I tend to invest in mobile, studio-grade audio recording devices that have excellent microphones built into the unit, which also allow me to add extraneous microphones if needed. I have many on my team that buy inferior audio recorders designed to record audio in large classroom or auditorium settings, and the results of these devices can be shocking. The audio is so loud, the pickup so sensitive, that a toilet being flushed one floor down is unmistakable. These devices tend to record as much machine noise as anything else. While this sounds bad, there are some in the paranormal field that contend that the machine noise of the cheaper devices may actually be beneficial, as it adds an element of white noise to the recording, which a spirit may be able to manipulate in order to make a sound. At the very least an audio device should either have SD card memory capability or be capable of USB downloads.

Audio recorders, obviously, are not the only device capable of recording sound. We have caught discarnate voices on video cameras, as well. Computers can also be utilized to capture sound. In the end, anything that can record audio can be utilized. In order to capture EVP, of course, one has to have the capability of listening to the audio recorded. A good set of headphones, plugged directly into the audio recording device, can be utilized for real-time analysis. If doing analysis after the recording session, it is best to use a computer, again a good quality set of headphones and audio editing software. Our team uses the free Audacity editing software; it's extremely user friendly, and the audio can be easily boosted.

White Noise Generators
There are many in the field that believe that the cleaner, more concise the audio recording, the more white noise needs to be emitted into the environment. This would allow the spirit to use the sound in order to manipulate it into recognizable speech patterns. Experts have suggested such generators as running water, fans blowing in rooms, or computerized white noise generators as possible sources of white noise. Still others have staunchly stood by such things as ghost boxes, which scan radio frequencies in the hopes that a spirit can manipulate radio frequency static. Our group does not utilize devices such as ghost boxes for fear that these devices will give false positives.

To date, we have not documented a decrease in EVP phenomena, despite the fact that we have started using better audio quality electronic recording devices, and have not used a white noise generator per se. Then again, our modern buildings are rarely (if ever) without some type of white noise. If not the hum of the furnace in the winter, it's the whine of the AC unit in the summer. Washing machines, dishwashers—any and all of our modern appliances make a constant mechanical hum that we for most part tune out.

Active Versus Passive EVP Sessions
There is certainly a debate among investigators about active versus passive EVP. The active EVP session is when investigators are actively in a room conducting a session. Normally such sessions last about twenty minutes, throughout which time the investigators will ask a series of (normally unscripted, mundane) questions. An investigator might ask a question such as, "What is your name?" Then, they wait in silence for ten seconds in case something responds before proceeding with the next question. The philosophy behind the active session is that the entity or entities wish to respond to the questions being asked. The problem is that if the spirit isn't interested in your line of questioning, they likely will not respond.

When possible, I try to use more provocative questions. (By "provocative" I'm not talking about provoking, which is when an investigator actively tries to anger a spirit into responding—a debatable practice at best. What I mean by "provocative" are questions that are personal and interesting to the spirit.) In order to do this, one needs to have some idea who they're questioning. For example, we investigated an old home that had reportedly served as a brothel during the Civil War. Legend had it that one of the patrons had been a young soldier who committed suicide in the home because he'd been a traitor, or was afraid of being tried for a traitor. One of the questions that I asked that night was, "Did you kill yourself because you were afraid that your fellow soldiers would see you as a traitor?" playing off of the fact that soldiers are supposed to have a sense of honor. Immediately after that question, the team caught on the recorder a distinctly male-sounding voice saying, "Yes." If I believe the spirit to be that of a child, I have been known to tell stories, or talk about things that children like to do. Trigger objects work well. Music from the era you believe the spirit might have lived again can work very well. When we do play music, we keep the clips short, however. We don't want to be playing a waltz for five minutes over any possible EVPs that we've caught.

The passive session is when investigators are not actively asking questions. Instead a voice recorder is left in the environment. Windows and doors should be closed so outside noise contamination is as limited as is possible. Controlling the environment is extremely important. Since the devices are extremely sensitive, voices in another room, or sometimes on another floor of the building, can literally be picked up. The philosophy of the passive session is that a spirit will inadvertently leave a response while it goes about doing what it normally does. I usually begin such a passive session by hitting the record button and then instructing the spirit about what the device does and then setting it down and leaving it record for the rest of the investigation. The scripted tag usually begins with, "This is Robin and it is March 3, 2019, we are in the Seaford house, second floor rear bedroom, and it is 7:15pm. With me tonight are [names of investigators that are with me]." I then place the device somewhere within camera range and I instruct the spirit about what it is and what they should do if they wish to make contact with us. It usually sounds something like, "I've placed a device on the chair over there. Do you see the red light? It will record your voice. We may not hear it tonight but we'll listen to the recording. Please let us know what message you wish to leave the homeowner." I then depart the area and let my recorder do its work.

The debate comes in as to which of these two approaches are better. Many new investigators believe one has to be actively involved in order to receive a response. This is under the assumption that whatever entity or entities are on a property wish to communicate with you actively. I've actually found the reverse to be the case. As often as not, a spirit or spirits seem to go out of their way to actively avoid investigators. It may be that they find the investigative group to be intrusive, and their questions uninteresting. They may have a message to impart, but they're bored with the tenth time that they’ve been asked what their name is. Among the most remarkable EVPs that my group have captured were of the passive variety.

Device Placement
Device placement is extremely important. It should be placed in a position where it isn't likely to pick up extraneous sounds. Case in point: my team did an investigation at an old house. It was myself and two investigators who were new to the whole investigative process. I was busy setting up our four-camera surveillance system. One of my investigators asked me where I wanted her audio recorder to be placed. Off-handedly I told her that I would like it in an upstairs bedroom, and went back to the infuriating process of running cables and setting up cameras. She dutifully took the recorder to the upstairs bedroom. The house was under massive renovations, and there was literally no furniture in the building at the time. Not wanting to set her audio recorder down in construction dust, she instead set it on a window sill, hit record and left. The house was in a residential area, and what the device recorded was every neighbor passing by, all the cars driving by, kids playing on the street. The entire night's recording was wasted. Set up your audio device in a quiet spot, near an interior wall, keeping it away from windows and doors as much as possible. Do not walk about with the device in hand.

Tagging
When investigators move about or make sounds, they should tag such on their recorders with a statement such as, "That was me knocking." Likewise, extraneous sounds should be tagged. For example, if the voices of children are heard playing outside or a car drives by, those sounds should be tagged as well. Investigators should also be diligent about tagging when they enter or exit a space. Such entrances and exits are diligently logged in the investigator's log book. In that way we can chronicle who was or was not in the room when the voice was captured. As I said previously, sometimes voices from another room are picked up, and they may be misinterpreted as an EVP. For example, I have a very soft voice, and the team has countless times picked up what sounds like a soft whisper (which is the way most EVPs tend to come across), and it turns out it was me in another room. If you're performing EVP with a team of people, it's important to caution everyone to avoid whispering. Speak in a normal tone of voice. And when it comes to the integrity of EVPs, the more team members on an investigation is not the merrier. I tend to keep my team very spare on investigations so keep the amount of vocal contamination to a minimum. Silence is golden.

Evidence Review
When reviewing audio, one needs to be very careful to listen to all of the audio, from the moment you hit record to the moment you hit stop. We have found that we get a prevalence of passive EVPs especially at the start of an investigation. The entities appear to be curious as to our intentions, whereas by hour five in the investigation they tend to be as bored with the process as we are. Any possible EVPs are logged in our log books and isolated into smaller clips that are shared among the members. It is important to get several opinions about a possible EVP. For one thing, we want to eliminate any false positives, such as team members in another room, or animal noises that may be misinterpreted as EVP. (Case in point: we did an investigation at a home with several cats. One of the cats made the strangest meow sound I've ever heard. At first, we thought it was a voice, but then we noticed on our video cameras that the sound only occurred when this particular feline was in the room.) Machine noises can be pesky as well. Understandably, it's depressing when you feel you've found the perfect EVP, only to find you've misinterpreted the hiss of the refrigerator. However, it does nothing for your credibility to present a clip that you feel is paranormal, only to find out that it's the resident owl.

The above leads me to my next point: classes of EVP. Obviously, not all EVPs are of the same quality. The founder of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon, (AA-EVP), Sarah Estep, established a simple, three-step tier system to classify EVPs that is still in use today.

• Class A EVP: These EVPs are of the variety we all dream of capturing. They can be heard without headphones. They are clear and distinct as to what words are being spoken. Without being prompted or told, anyone who hears the EVP will be able to understand what is being said or heard.
• Class B EVP: This is a voice or sound that is fairly loud—still loud enough to be heard without the use of headphones. People with normal hearing will still be able to hear the EVP and interpret it in the same way without being told what the EVP says, if they're told what to listen for. Those who have been trained to listen for EVP will hear the EVP without prompting of any kind.
• Class C EVP: These recordings require headphones to hear. This type of EVP will be faint and will probably come across as a whisper or a soft sound. The words being spoken may not be decipherable. The sound may have a mechanical quality to it. People listening to such would not all decipher the EVP in the same way, or would require prompting to interpret it. Many investigators would disregard this type of recording as flawed. (At best, they'd archive such for future reference, but withhold presenting it.) There is the ever-present danger with this type of sound that it is environmental nature, such as that pesky cat with the weird meow. Beyond a doubt, it is the Class C EVPs that cause the most hurt feelings among investigators. One investigator will distinctly hear someone calling them by name, another will interpret it as machine noise. I always try to keep the TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) motto in mind: "When in doubt, throw it out." Remember, if you didn't collect an EVP today, there's always next time.

EVP at Home
But, say you don't have a crack team and a haunted site to try out EVP for yourself. With a little discipline, you can conduct EVP sessions at home. Even if the home doesn't have paranormal activity, you can send an invitation out to the spirit world that you wish to communicate, much as people do who experiment with Ouija boards. What you should do is find a time when the home is quiet with as few people in the building as possible. It's best to set up a schedule, so that an entity or entities will know when you're going to be conducting the sessions. You may wish to write up a set of questions. And yes, you can ask for a particular person or persons to make contact with you, such as a departed loved one. Set up your audio equipment, make sure to also wear a good quality headset while recording so that you can hear real-time if and when a voice comes through. You may also wish to review the recordings after the recording session, just to be sure you didn't miss something.

Again, discipline is key. You should stick to your schedule as closely as possible, and realize that it may take many such sessions before you actually capture anything. In the end, however, the voices of the universe are all around us, and you, too, can capture them—if you dare.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019. All rights reserved.

I have this strange feeling that we need to move from our current home. I feel like there is so much negative energy here dragging my family down. The house seems dark all the time; one room in the house in particular really scares me. We do not use the room as I don't want anyone to sleep in it. I close the door of that room every night so nothing can come out and disturb my family at night. Is this strange? I want us to sell the property or at least move out. What should I do? When offering your advice, please note that I do not want to have any contact with spirits. What can I do on a physical plane to improve this situation? Thank you kindly!

Amy

Susyn:

I believe you have answered your own question: The only way to improve this situation on the physical plane is to move out of the house. Though this may sound like a rather drastic solution, it's the best way to go in your case.

You didn't mention how long you have lived in the house, but it seems like this dark energy has been there since you moved in or perhaps very soon thereafter. The bottom line is that it is controlling your world and occupying your every thought, and giving it this much attention and energy will just encourage and empower any spirits involved.

The fact that only one room seems to generate fear suggests that your house may be built over a vortex, which is an opening where entities from another dimension can enter this one. Unfortunately, if this is the case, it's next to impossible to clear it up. Even if you hired a shaman or exorcist to clear the home, you would still live in fear that these spirits may return.

While you may not have encountered specific spirits or hard evidence of a haunting, you must trust your instincts and how this house makes you feel. If there are dark energies dwelling in your house, you or other family members could begin to suffer health problems such as depression, insomnia and low energy. Your ability to function in the world and feel joyful will diminish. I have seen situations like this where the dark energy resulted in the break-up of a marriage or led family members to turn to addiction.

Given current economic conditions, you may find it difficult to sell the house, so you may want to consider renting it out. If you adopt this plan, you won't have to compromise your financial situation in order to move.

You must also be careful not to pack up any negative entities and take them with you to a new home. Because of this, I recommend you smudge your home and belongings before you move. The ideal way to do this is to smudge each room and box as you pack. I would then perform this cleansing ritual again once you move into your new home, first in each room and then with each of the boxes before you unpack them. From what you describe, I'm sure that the trouble is connected to the house you live in now, but smudging is always a good idea.

I truly believe that you will feel instant relief once you have changed residences. Though moving can be a daunting task, it will be worth it. Within a month, you'll feel more energetic, joyful and renewed. Youíll immediately notice improvements in your family members as well, and you'll all be able to return to living a balanced, peaceful existence.

*****

Oceania:

I suspect that you are a sensitive person who can pick up on energies around you, and that you aim to please and tend to set aside your own needs to accommodate others. Physical spaces like homes are like theater stages; over the years, dramas take place with many casts of characters. Stories are layered through time, so if youíre tuned in, you can pick up on echoes of past energies.

The important thing to realize now is that this is YOUR time in the space. Claim it as your own. Your reluctance to take your turn is about YOU, not the house. Moving wonít make a difference because no matter where you go, there you are! The house is the canvas upon which you express your identity, values and outlook. Donít let the house overpower and define you. Wrangle and tame it so you can mold it into your own work of art.

Claim it as your sanctuary. March into that scary room and show it whoís boss. Your avoidance of the room is an example of you avoiding conflict. You close off from things that intimidate you instead of facing them with your powerful, radiant loveliness. This is not about the house being too dark; itís about keeping yourself in the dark. No matter how many times you move, youíll manifest dark, scary homes until you face and conquer the skeletons in your closet.

Here's the thing: I donít think there ARE any skeletons aside from your conflict avoidance. I sense a strong, feminine woman who tends to skulk away quietly and apologetically instead of kicking the closet door open and coming out swinging.

Darkness is the absence of light. Strut down the hall, bust into that room, and turn on your high beams. Bring a boom box and blast some empowering music like 76 Trombones, Weíre Off to See the Wizard, Michael Jackson dance tunes, Queen anthems like We Will Rock You or We Are the Champions - whatever turns you on!

Jump, twirl, stomp and be sure to sign along! Lay down a blanket and have an indoor picnic, and then hug every family member and tell them how much you love them. Invite them to shout, scream or read a poem out loud to imprint their energy in the room. Grab some scissors and cut positive images and words out of magazines and thumb-tack them to the walls. Use crayons or water colors to add flowers and hearts to the decor. Stick glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. Hang a psychedelic mobile. Leave photos and special mementos in the room. Let it teem with life - YOUR life!

It ís not the room that needs to be escaped - itís the Warrior Princess in YOU that needs to be embraced. Go Warrior Princess, go!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.