Hallo Blink, and All,

This whole field of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) interested me a few years ago, and there seems to be quite a lot about it on the internet now.

A few years ago though, I bought a report from the British SPR (Society for Psychical Research) of a thorough study of the effect by DJ Ellis, under a studentship at Trinity College, Cambridge. The report is entitled "The Mediumship of the Tape Recorder" (1978, ISBN 0 9506024 0 X, publ David Ellis, Pulborough, Sussex UK) and runs to 161 pages. The author started the study with a clear expectation of verifying and optimising the technique, but afterwards had to conclude that the "voices" were actually just subjective constructs of random sounds. The most negative finding, in his opinion, was that individual listeners (including those who first discovered the EVP - like Konstantin Radive) differed in their interpretation of what any one "voice" was saying - and in what language! He described this effect as like reading "audible tea-leaves".

A tape I bought from the SPR, of a lecture by one of the then EVP specialists, (Richard Sheargold), was illustrated by some of the voices he had selected as his best specimens, and I have to say listening to them does tend to back up Ellis's conclusions. When you are told beforehand what the voices are "supposed" to be saying, you can convince yourself that indeed they are saying those words, but otherwise the interpretation is difficult, and tenuous, to say the least!

Have the techniques improved in the years since, and the EVP placed on a firmer grounding - or is the jury still out on the EVP?

Best wishes,

Alfred