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Volume 15: Number 3: Article 3
Failure to Replicate Electronic Voice Phenomenon
Imants Baruss, Department of Psychology, King's College, University
of Western Ontario, Canada
Electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) refers to the purported manifestatin
of voices of the dead and other discarnate entities through electronic
means. This has typically involved tuning radios between stations and
recording the output on audiotape, although more recently anomalous
voices, visual images and text have purportedly been found using telephones,
television sets and computers in a phenomenon known as instrumental
transcommunication. Given the lack documentation of EVP in mainsteam
scientific journals, a review of its history is given based on English
language information found in psychical research and parapsychology
periodicals and various trade publications and newsletters. An effort
was made to to replicate EVP by having research assistants simulate
interaction with discarnate entities while taping the output from two
radios tuned between stations onto audio cassettes. There were 81 sessions
with an average of approximately 45 minutes per session for a total
of about 60 hours and 11 minutes of recording. While there are some
apparent voices and interesting noises upon playback, none of these
is sufficiently distinctive to merit being considered anomalous. Some
speculative reasons are given for the negative result although the possibility
that there are no anomalous phenomenoa associated with EVP is offered
as an explanation for consideration alongside the hypothesis that experimenters
create EVP effects through anomalous human—machine interactions and
an exosomatic theory of actual influence of electronic equipment by
discarnate entities.
Keywords: electronic voice phenomenon, instrumental transcommunication,
life after death, survival research
FULL TEXT:
Failure to Replicate Electronic Voice Phenomenon
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