Comments on: They garble unintelligibly, you decide.

They garble unintelligibly, you decide.

moonbird — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 16:19:21 -0800

Some believe, some don't. Welcome to the strange world of electronic voice phenomenon. Warning: some Real Audio formats.

By: mathis23

mathis23 — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 16:55:44 -0800

Nice post, moonbird. I had never heard of this phenomenon. I'm not even close to holding a belief in ghosts, but a few of those recordings are good creepy fun. Of course, some of those EVP associations had to go ahead and trash any semblance of credibility by bringing up two old standbys- 1. You can only hear some of these by playing them backwards. 2. Aliens. With all the signals, broadcasts and radio transmissions out there these days, I don't see it as any great wonder that maybe sometimes possibly a snippet or two winds up on a recording device. Now, that all having been said, I wouldn't care to hear some of those recordings again. In the middle of the night. All by myself. While locked in the basement.

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 17:16:19 -0800

Wasn't this in Pattern Recognition?

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 17:26:59 -0800

I listened to nearly everything on the Ghostwav site. Even with the author suggesting what I'm supposed to hear, 4/5 of the examples are unintelligible static.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 17:33:41 -0800

This is a favorite topic on Japanese TV, there was one on this week. They crank up the volume on blank sections of tape and cook up ghost stories, especially regarding abandoned schoolhouses, those are a goldmine for variety TV.

By: punishinglemur

punishinglemur — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 18:31:06 -0800

I listened to a few examples without reading what the message was supposed to be. I never heard it. But after reading what they claim is being said, I can hear it fine. Which says to me that this is crap, and I'm only hearing it because I've been told it's there.

By: re_verse

re_verse — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 20:18:18 -0800

creeped me out enough to have to turn on the light in my bedroom - chills up my neck - i'm a sucker for this kind of stuff it woudl be a lot scarier if they took out 90% of the stuff and just kept the really valid stuff in - a lot if just noise .. but some its impossible to say its not voice. a trick? i don't know.

By: frykitty

frykitty — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:04:59 -0800

Actually, if you go to the best of page on one of the above links, many of the recordings are very clear. Personally, I'd have to be there myself when the recording was made to have a shred of belief, but it is nicely creepy.

By: dorian

dorian — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:25:21 -0800

seem to recall that when The_Gibson was writing about it, the believers were looking for messages on pristine unrecorded tapes...? thought of that is just plain spooky.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:28:26 -0800

All of the above comments make good cases; EVP may be real, it may be suggestive. There's no definitive proof either way, which makes the speculation fun. It's all one big grey area with some blatent examples of trickery and some that are creepily mysterious. I've heard recordings [from way back] made in my parent's house, but could not eliminate possibilities such as RF and tape quality. Likewise, I've heard sounds on tape that have no clear source or meaning. All this phenomenon, true or not, is like one big Rohrshach blot, and it is what we make of it... I guess (?).

By: Pericles

Pericles — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 05:16:04 -0800

you know that if you listen to those tapes, you die within on week unless you pass them on? Dear George W....

By: anastasiav

anastasiav — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 13:57:24 -0800

Phone Calls from the Dead

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 14:11:08 -0800

"So many ghosts. So little time." Help June sleep at night.