Up Close: Listening for voices from beyond

02:42 PM CST on Wednesday, February 9, 2005

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

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Could a simple tape recorder be the medium between the living and the dead? It's the focus of a new film and has been the focus of much debate for decades. Regardless what you believe, the topic is generating a lot of noise.

It is hard not to notice we are surrounded by sound even when it may seem silent.

"White Noise, or simply the ambient, atmospheric noise, it's always there. An accumulation of all noises," said Richard Smith, Electronic Voice Phenomenon expert.

In a recording it doesn’t sound like much of anything.

But if you listen closely, you might hear something else. Richard Smith does, with the help of his small voice recorder from Radio Shack and a little white noise. He hears dead people everywhere.

"You hear her saying help me," Smith said while listening to an recording. "It's not that it's out there. They are out there."

Smith said there are three types of Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVPs, classified by clarity. They are captured by simply walking around and asking questions. Spirit voices transmitted by energy are recorded.

"We turned on the recorders and asked her to speak. Apparently her name was Chris or Christina. She says, 'Chris is here'," said Smith.

Some recordings need a little help so sounds are filtered and cleaned up.

Some even appear to answer questions.

People are always trying to make sense of the world," said Dr. Carl Scott.

Psychologists like Dr. Carl Scott of the University of St. Thomas compare EVP to optical illusions, the twisted visions that come from the pavement on a hot summer day. If you stare at a cloud long enough, all kinds of images may appear, including faces or anything else. Some researchers even call EVP an aural Rorschach.

"People are really good at taking ambiguous situations and interpreting them, making sense out of them. And I think often the prior expectations that they have really guide those interpretations," said Dr. Scott.

Not everyone is listening.

When asked if he had ever been playing a file of something and had some strange voice pop up, Brad Summerfield said, "No. Not ever."

Brad Summerfield and Bob Vance are audio engineers at VT2 Studios.

"There sounds like there is speech in there somewhere," Summerfield said while listening to an audio sample.

But if a phrase is suggested – "How about 'we've got Daddy here'?" 11 News reporter Jeremy Desel said to the audio engineers. "Yeah. See when you say it, yeah. Now when you suggest that I can hear that," said Vance.

Another phrase was then suggested. "Bill loves you." "Yeah I can hear that sure," Vance said.

"If I had this file out and listening to this by itself and it's just supposed to be a quiet room and then you turn it up and then you hear that. That could be something there," Vance said.

Nothing was heard while asking a question during a trip to the cemetery, but in the computer -- "Bill loves you."

"That is a file? You made that?" Vance asked of Jeremy Desel. "Really?"

Richard Smith understands the skepticism, but he does this seeking answers to the big questions, such as 'why are we here?'

"I notice that people don't want to know the answers to these questions, but I do," Smith admitted.

And with every EVP he gets a little bit closer.

The label EVP. might be new, but it has roots much deeper in history. It wasn't just the light bulb that was invented by Thomas Edison. After the light went on he was working on a device to attempt to talk to spirits. So was the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi.