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Where Is the Science in Electronic Voice Phenomena?


Everett A. Themer

Skeptical Inquirer Volume 37.6, November/December 2013





sound waves and shadowy figures


As technology advanced, digital recorders replaced tape recorders, and investigators began processing the recordings through computer programs and filters. Using these filters, background noise could be eliminated and frequencies isolated. Hypothetically this made it easier to hear the spirit voices. Lacking any scientific protocol, some investigators began manipulating the speed of the recordings. Their belief is that ghosts exist on a different dimensional plane than the living and would communicate in a different frequency range. In their opinion this means that the recordings need to be sped up or slowed down to hear any responses.

Some investigators began processing their recordings so much that to an independent listener it might be impossible to tell the difference between a response and ambient noise manipulated and processed into sounding like intelligent communication. At the other end of the EVP spectrum are recordings of investigators asking questions and the responses that they get are so obvious and clear without any processing that the recordings are either intentional hoaxes or definitive proof of life after death.

In its current form, the recording of electronic voice phenomena is more of an art than a science. With no accepted protocols, results are often vague and left to personal interpretation. Why would some spirits communicate on different frequencies and at different speeds while other spirits are able to give a response that sounds almost as if they are standing in front of the recorder? Scientifically it stands to reason that spirits would respond one way or the other and that method would be universal within the spirit world.

What happens after we die may be an unanswerable question, but as the interest in parapsychology grows it is time for both believers and skeptics to look at the field and begin to adapt some universal protocols for its study. Until these are created, real evidence and data are going to get lost in a soup of frauds, natural phenomena, and poor science.

Everett A. Themer

Everett A. Themer's photo

Everett A. Themer is an audio engineer and copywriter for a Midwestern marketing company. He used to be an active researcher into paranormal concepts until he became tired of people going into it proclaiming that they intended to be science-based but in reality just wanting to find activity they could claim as paranormal.