From Our Viewpoint

Normalyn Armour had written us asking if it was possible to get an ITC picture of her son, Alan, in our experiments. Lisa had kept a picture of Alan at her desk after Normalyn made the request and we asked for him to appear during a couple of our experiments but seemed to get nothing pertaining to Alan.

A year or so ago, we gave away the spare bed and moved our experiments to what was the spare bedroom. After a few recent video loop experiments in that room with very limited results, Tom returned the TV and camera to the prior location (now an exercise room) to try and see if we could reestablish the video feedback loop. We ran an experiment asking for no one in particular, as we were just hoping to see the abundant faces we usually recorded when in the old room. Sure enough, the faces were back, and while evaluating the results of that experiment, Lisa felt that she recognized one face in particular but she could not put her finger on who it might be. (For those of you doing video loop experiments, besides moving from one room to the adjacent room, the things that changed were the camera and TV were about twelve feet farther from the circuit breaker box mounted on an outside wall, and the orientation changed from camera facing east back to camera facing north. More experiments are required to see if those changes are important and we would like to hear from you if you note a similar environmental influence on your experiments.) Early Monday morning, Lisa woke up with the words, "It’s Alan," in her head, but she was supposed to report for jury duty that morning and was unable to review the video frames from that experiment. (Just a funny aside; if at any time you want to get out of jury duty just list on you questionnaire something about talking to dead people!) Even though she was given an early release, she had totally forgotten about the message that she had received.

Amazingly, early Tuesday morning, Lisa once again woke up with the words, "It’s Alan." This time we didn’t forget and the first business of the day was bringing up the ITC images and finding Alan’s picture, now under some papers on her desk. The eyes of the ITC image looked very much like they were indeed, Alan’s. The picture was very difficult to print in black and white but we tried our best and sent a copy off to Normalyn. We were delighted when she sent a letter back thanking us for the picture of Alan. She wrote, "It does look like him and I do believe that he was trying to get a picture through to me.… You see, August 5^th was his birthday and his brother and I took flowers to the cemetery so it makes sense that he was trying to come through August 6^th.

Well, the experiment room is … well, it is the experiment room and we needed to make the video loop experiments work in it. At least we had ruled out the possibility that we had a problem with the camera or TV set. We decided to move the equipment back to the experiment room, but to a different location and orientation. This time, the TV set was about five feet farther from the power box than in our earlier, less successful experiments, with the camera in about the same place but facing southeast. We did another meditation, EVP and ITC experiment, and tried to reestablish the video feedback loop. We were relieved that the very first frame after the download showed this man with an unusual beard from perhaps the medieval time period. (It may be that an east-west orientation is less effective in our home for Video ITC).

We have been so inspired by the amazing results of Diane and Alan Bennett, and their results from reflecting light off of crystals, that we had been wanting to also try experimenting in this way. Diana and Alan had been kind enough to provide a couple of diagrams of their experimental setups, and we now had a higher resolution camera, so set up an area in the ITC room to run a couple of crystal experiments. After arranging the camera, lights and crystal in a configuration we felt would work, we did our normal meditation and then took a few pictures. We actually recorded some interesting results on our first attempts. The fourth experiment brought several more faces along with this interesting three-dimensional face. We were very pleased with the open mouth, as the mouth is often obscured in many of our pictures.

Our next success with the crystal experiments was quite a surprise. We meet with a small group every Sunday morning for an hour of meditation. After our meditation, one of the members, Mary Beth, handed Lisa a picture of her parents and ask us to keep a lookout for them in our experiments. Lisa asked her to write the names of her parents on the back of the picture and then put it on her desk when we returned home. That afternoon we did another meditation on our own and conducted a few EVP experiments to test various settings on the two recorders we would be using at a video session for a shoot with the Sci Fi channel. We also worked with reflecting light off a couple of different crystals. When we looked at the results, the image of a man was clearly seen on the very first picture. The resemblance between the ITC picture and Mary Beth’s dad was noted with surprise. It was like he had heard her and stopped by during our experiment to make sure she got an ITC picture of him.

Mary Beth felt that it was her father. We were so surprised with his answering her request so quickly that we wondered if he had been a powerful medium or something, but she explained that she had never known her father. He had left her mother before she was born. He had crossed over many years ago and they had never met. Mary Beth also told us that she had received a message from a medium at a Spiritualist church who had asked her who Franklin was (this was her father’s middle name). The medium told her that Franklin was saying that he was sorry that he had not been part of her life. We were honored that the picture was so meaningful to Mary Beth and we also felt that the positive result was also due to the wonderful positive energy of our meditation group. Tom and Lisa

Jayme Jone’s father, Harold, was a Marine for twenty-two years. Jayme remembers that he always protected her and this sometimes put a strain on her social life. If she was having a fight with a boyfriend and then the boyfriend showed up to see how she was, her dad would throw tools at him. She recalls that there were a few times dates would not happen because her father would scare them off. Jayme recalls, "His favorite thing was the hammer, and he had really good aim. Whenever I went on a date, my dad always invited the boy into the house, saying, ‘Let me show you my gun collection.’"

"I think that after I got married in April, 1993, he felt that I was safe and ... his health got worse…like he gave his body permission to begin his journey toward death. I had the realization that he was letting go eight months prior to his massive stroke and heart attack, so I began to go to my parents’ house every day to have morning coffee with him before going to work."

After the stroke and heart attack, the doctors told Jayme and her mother that Harold would not recover. He had been in a coma for three days and they were considering moving him into the veteran’s Administration hospital. Jayme had stopped by her Dad’s room before speaking with the doctors. She wrote, "I walked in and began talking to him like I normally would just in time to see him take his last breath … and he was gone. This was a very special moment that I will never forget. It was April 19, 1994."

Just eight months later, Jayme learned that her brain contained a growing cyst and brain tumor. She was given the terrible news that they thought it was malignant. Jayme had to go out of her own state to have the twenty-hour surgery. She wrote that, "During that time… I was having a conversation with my father. We talked about everything that had been happening with me and my family; health problems, everything. When I came out of surgery, I felt that the conversation with my dad had been very vivid and I knew in my heart and soul that it truly happened." Jayme added that, "Ever since this experience, I have become a stronger person dealing with things that I could not have dealt with in the past. Then six months ago I tried to do EVP after watching White Noise, and on my very first attempt, when I stayed silent for a minute before saying anything he came through and said my name. At first I thought it was just my imagination so I transferred it to the computer and worked on it. It was him. He said my name and it was the way he said it. He put more emphasis on the first syllable just like he used when I was younger."

Jayme has less than a year before having her Bachelor’s Degree in teaching and she is a member of the International Honor Society for Educators. "Thanks to my dad, God and the surgeons in Minnesota, " she told us, "I’m able to live and thrive and make life better, not just for me but for others as well."

We have received quite a few new members in the last few months, many after seeing Martha Copeland’s appearance on the Montel Show. Because of this, we have been asked questions about the Big Circle and group recording sessions.

The "Big Circle" consists of our loved ones in spirit along with their loved ones in the physical world. The realization that this group existed in the spirit world, and was trying to connect to their loved ones here in the physical world, prompted members of the AA-EVP to form a special group called "Big Circle – Bridge to the Afterlife," or more simply the "Big Circle." This group is made up of bereaved parents, spouses, siblings, and friends, whose mission is to build a channel, a "Bridge to the Afterlife." We do this by joining our energies together on alternate Thursdays at 8:00 PM (Recording dates are listed at the end of this article.) We effectively conduct a worldwide group recording session. Some participants join together in local groups, or individually from their homes, making a joint effort to record for about five minutes.

Originally, the group tried to all record at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, but this was difficult for members in different time zones. Martha received emails from people saying that they snored through the designated recording time. It was decided that members should try to record at 8:00 PM on Thursday no matter what time zone they were in. This would make it possible for members overseas to be a part of the recording group. Even if you can’t record exactly at 8:00 PM on the recording date, record as close to that time and day as you can. Martha writes, "The group energy will be there and if you miss a recording session try to do one when you can. If you receive EVP please share them

with the Big Circle group on the Idea Exchange (Class B or better so that others can make them out). You may pick up a voice that belongs to another member’s loved one. It has been well documented that our friends in spirit will sometimes use someone else in the group as a channel to get their message across to their loved one in the physical world.

Begin your recording session with a prayer of protection and then ask for assistance from the Big Circle Spirit Team to bring your loved one, or the loved one of another AA-EVP member, through. You may want to have a picture of your loved one close by.

Any type of recorder can be used and it does not have to be expensive. Speak into the recorder and ask questions while you are recording, making sure to leave quiet time for your loved one to answer back. Think of your loved one perhaps looking at their photo if you have one. Record no longer than five minutes. End the session with a prayer of thanks and send healing energy throughout the universe. Then listen to your recording using headphones.

EVP messages recorded during these sessions are shared on the ATransC Idea Exchange discussion board under the Big Circle topic. If you would like to take a look at the messages on the board, members should login at with their first and last name.

A note about attaching EVP samples: save them as mp3 files, mono, sample rate = 11025. Try to reduce the sample to some of your voice and the EVP or just the EVP. This will make it easier for others to listen to them.

We have carried the ITC work of Diana and Alan Bennett in the NewsJournal a number of times. Through their presentation at the 2006 AA-EVP conference and through the Updated Edition of The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death, we are able to share more of their fantastic results as well as information on their experimental methods.

The Bennetts are experimenting with refraction and reflection of light as a means of conditioning optical energy for image formation. As they explained in the updated version of the postscript of The Scole Experiment, "With our light experiments, we generate a vast spectrum of color and intensities by passing the light source through crystal. This source itself is variable, which, in turn, causes many different light patterns and colors to be formed. Some of the light frequencies generated are of course beyond our own visible spectrum, so the resulting light contains much more information than we realize.

"We may include a mirror between the source and the crystal (focus) or beyond the focal point, allowing the light to flood back onto the subject. Apart from ordinary mirrors, we have used convex and concave mirrors to very good effect. We have also experimented with polished metallic disks such as brass (yellow) and copper (red), which have created some of the more striking images."

As you can tell from some of the pictures taken by the Bennetts, they may use water along with a mirror. The camera that they presently use is a Fuji FinePix set on Fine (4048 x 3040 pixels), which produces a computer file of about 12Mb. They focus a concentrated light source onto the side of a crystal and then capture images. The resulting images must be studied in the minutest detail and may have to be magnified as some of the faces can be very small.

The examples shown here display the flaws, facets and textures of the natural quartz crystal used in the experiment. Keep in mind that these characteristics of the crystal may help to make the phenomenal features possible, so a perfect crystal may not be desirable.

The apparent scale of the imperfections should give you some sense of how much the photograph has been enlarged to display the phenomenal feature. Also, the great enlargement is supported by very high resolution cameras. While the Bennetts are recording files of 12Mb per picture, a video camera will only produce a file of 0.9Mb which will not support such drastic enlargement.

During the conference, the Bennetts strongly suggested that people who plan to work with this technique should also consider the spiritual aspect of the experiment. As world-class mediums, they have learned that contact is often a function of the experimenter’s spiritual attunement.

At this time, the updated version of the Scole Experiments is not available in the USA and must be purchased via Amazon.co.uk. Grant and Jane Solomon are writing a book called the Norfolk Experiment and for updates on their work visit thescoleexperiment.com.

An interesting recent event in the Bennetts’ Experiments is the discovery of a picture that looks like Seth 3. Lisa was working on a project and looking for pictures of some of the ITC pioneers when she discovered a picture sent to researcher Adolf Homes of Seth 3 on the World ITC website (www.worlditc.org). "I immediately recognized that the face was one that I had seen in some of the examples from the Bennitts’ experiments. I found the picture that I had in mind and was amazed by the striking likeness between two of their ITC photos and the photo sent to Adolf over ten years ago.

Adolf Homes is no longer on the physical plane and there is little information on the web about Seth 3. Dr. Ernst Senkowski documented much of the research done by Homes and the Bennetts were going to write him to get more information about Seth 3.

By looking at previous journals published by Mark Macy, I ran across a couple of references to Seth 3. One of them from the article, "More about the ‘Rainbow People,’" in Contact Issue #96/03 says, "Seth 3, Ishkumar and others are are also ‘technicians’ just like the one you are familiar with. Some of us call them great souls or creators. They live on our plane and yet are really not among us. They can ascend to higher planes and again ‘bend down’ to our level. Their power is almost unlimited and so is their wisdom and goodness. Their entire being is illuminated by understanding and forgiveness. It is impossible to describe the good feeling that overcomes the person who faces them and can speak to them. We seek council with these higher beings to determine the information to send to Earth."

If you have other information on Seth 3 we would love to hear about it.

Reported by Edgar Müller

Approximately seventy highly qualified researchers were participating in the convention and nine of the fifty-one papers presented or items on the agenda were about the Survival Hypothesis. This is quite a substantial proportion of the total material, considering the fact that many parapsychologists, at least officially, refuse to accept the possibility of dualism; that is to say that there may be a brain and a mind, integrated in the daily functioning but nevertheless separate components of cognition and that the mind, which is not an identifiable physiological organ, may survive the death of the brain.

Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC), including voice, was dealt with on three occasions during the Convention, once in a negative way and twice quite positively. As far as I know, this is the first time in the long history of parapsychology that ITC was officially discussed at the Convention in this way and that the Survival Hypothesis received so much attention.

As we know, parapsychologists have tremendous problems to make their field of research acceptable within psychology and other disciplines in mainstream science. At the same time the issue of survival has a low status within parapsychology. It seems that most parapsychologists endeavour to avoid being connected with the topic, so that their already questionable reputation in mainstream science should not become even worse. At least until recently, most parapsychologists who are engaged in some kind of survival research have dismissed EVP as not being serious and suitable for scientific research.

One of the speakers, an impressive professor from an European country, presented a well prepared paper on the aspects of the survival hypothesis and commented briefly on all the known indications that survival may be possible, such as NDE, OBE, birthmarks on children claiming reincarnation, apparitions, mediums and at the end of the list there were the magical words ITC. However he did not comment on ITC, and instead hesitated, shook his head and finally said, "Others may talk about it," as if he did not want to be contaminated by this field.

Some of the papers on the Survival Hypothesis were very balanced. That is to say that the speakers presented all pros and cons in an open minded way, keeping the door open that there may be a survival. Admittedly it was underlined that we probably never can get scientifically acceptable evidence that there is an existence after the death of the body.

One delegate said that he definitely was not a survivalist and it would be difficult to convince him that some functions of cognition and personality could exist after the death of the brain; however, he said he had participated in an experiment about which he said, "Could you believe it, there were voices coming out from a radio…." So he gave a brief but correct description of the Bacci experiment that occurred in December, 2004. It was obvious that he had been shaken by this experience and was now more open to the survival hypothesis.

One important paper presented by a professor from the United States included a kind of summary of the topic and he opened his speech by telling a personal experience regarding EVP. He was in Mexico visiting some colleagues when a young girl was murdered. Apparently a friend of one of his colleagues was doing EVP research and succeeded in getting several utterances from the murdered girl. This professor listened to the tape and was quite impressed; he took a copy of the tape back to the United States and decided to present it at the Convention. Thus a session was played back for the whole convention via all the loudspeakers. The quality was very good.

I am glad to notice the change of my colleagues’ attitudes in the Board of the Swedish Association of Parapsychological Research. There are some who still think that all talk about ITC is rubbish but others have now stopped joking about me and ITC and take the topic more seriously. Thus my old mentor in this field, Dr. Nils-Olof Jacobson and myself, can now work in a friendlier and more understanding atmosphere for EVP in Sweden.

One of the papers and comments from several participants were very critical to psychic mediums. My personal experiences are unfortunately not encouraging either. I have several times tried to get some advice from mediums concerning how to proceed with ITC research to get better results, but without any reasonable answer.

Finally, an observation from the convention. As you know it is customary to give each speaker a polite applause when the paper is finished. Normally these applauses have duration of three to four seconds. After the first and admittedly the best paper on the Survival Hypothesis, there was applause like in a theatre; long and intensive. Of course it came spontaneously, maybe from the subconsciousness of the delegates…

Edgar Müller is one of the administrators for the Helene Reeder Memorial Fund for Research into Life After Death, (HRF) which has awarded two ITC research grants.

In July, Vicki Talbott had an amazing experience. She told us that she turned her television off to go to sleep, just as she always does. She explained to us that she has Dish TV so the TV is set to channel 3. At about 1:00 AM the TV turned on, and when it did, it was on a snowy channel. Vicki later learned that this was channel 2. She wrote, "I watched in amazement as many faces and people appeared. I thought it was interference, but suddenly the set turned itself off and on again, and then the face of a man who appeared to be in his thirties, still snowy looking but fairly clear, came from the right side of the screen and said in an American accent, ‘You are here to give us some expert advice.’ (Ridiculous, I thought.) He was looking right at me, and as he said this, the sound came not only out of the TV speakers but also out of the boombox that was in the room! The boom box was turned off but plugged in. It doesn’t work half the time, so we never use it. I sat there stunned.

"When he knew he had my attention, the man in the TV said, ‘Good, now what is it you want us to do?’ I tried to mentally communicate, ‘Communicate with us.’ And then he said, ‘In English, please.’ My God, I was in shock! Still, I managed to say it out loud, ‘Communicate with us!’ Then many faces started appearing, including what I thought were the faces of Braden and Jim.

"I didn’t want to go and try to find my camera, as it was pitch black and I thought the connection would be lost. The TV turned off and on a couple more times and I saw a woman who looked like she had a ‘flapper’ type hat on from the 1920s. Her voice came through the boombox and TV speakers as well, but I couldn’t understand what she said. The man also said something else that I forgot when it came time to turn on the lights, find my camera, and write it down. The TV turned itself on again and I turned the lights back off, recorded on movie mode, and got what I think is a picture of Braden, among others (no more direct communication in these videos, although the TV turned off and on a couple of times when I was recording)."

Vicki went through the frames of the video and found this ITC picture in which her son Braden, now on the other side, appears like he did in an old school photo

New Ideas in the Treatment of Grief

Excerpts from Chapter 4 of Induced After Death Communication by Dr. Allan Botkin

Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) is a new therapy for grief and trauma that has helped thousands of people come to terms with their grief by allowing them the experience of communication with their departed loved ones. In Chapter 4 of Induced After Death Communication, Dr. Botkin discusses changes in the way grief therapy is being looked at and practiced. This should be of great interest to those using EVP to reach loved ones.

From the book: “…For the greater part of a century, standard grief therapy has insisted that the bereaved must extinguish emotional ties to deceased loved ones and replace the attachment to the deceased with other people and interests. Grief therapists now realize, however, that people simply do not separate psychologically from their deceased loved ones. Instead, they continue to think about, feel for, speak to and even ask for advice from them. The new approach to grief therapy now emerging acknowledges this reality and helps patients develop this natural aspect of grieving into a healthy continuing bond with the deceased. [Italics is AA-EVP emphasis]

“…Most grief counselors agree that it takes people from one to two years to feel sufficiently reconciled to a loss that they can again find enjoyment in living without their loved one. It takes even longer when the grief is for a deceased child or a spouse of many years, and reminders of the loss can continue to trigger the grief emotions for a lifetime.

“…Standard grief therapy since Freud … takes survivors through this sequence:

1. Help survivors accept the reality that the loved ones are dead by having them talk about the circumstances of the death and issues associated with the loss. This assists survivors to get through the initial shock and numbing phase of grief.

2. Help them withdraw emotionally from the deceased by supporting them in expressing and working through the usual feelings associated with the loss: anger, guilt and sadness.

3. Help them adjust to a life without the deceased by learning to live their lives in different ways and develop new relationships.

4. Provide support during more difficult times such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

"The goal of standard grief therapy in this conception is to help survivors accept their loss and get on with their lives. The process often requires years of counseling with limited success. Recently, however, a growing number of grief therapists have begun to suggest that patients who maintain their bonds with the deceased often adjust better to their loss. These observations are resulting in a reconsideration of grief and grief therapy.

"In 1996, Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman and Steven Nickman published Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief, which challenged mainstream thinking about grief. The book’s twenty-two well-respected scholars in the field of grief and loss offer a radical new model for understating and treating grief. Their model presages the grief therapy exemplified in IADC therapy.

"The authors explain, ‘…The goal of mainstream grief treatments has been to help survivor’s maximize their autonomy by fully accepting the finality of death and severing their bonds with the deceased. The assumption has been that the survivor will only then be able to establish new relationships and a life without the deceased…’

"The authors … cite many clinical observations and research outcomes that challenge these assumptions. They report that survivors who maintain a continuing bond with the deceased appear to be better adjusted psychologically throughout the grieving process. Continuing bonds are fluid, changing and affirming. They assist survivors in dealing with their ongoing issues in life and are integrated into current relationships providing survivors with context and meaning.

"These continuing bonds are distinguished, however, from pathological denial in which the survivor’s only connection with the deceased is static, unchanging and stuck in what once was and can never be again. The best criterion for judging whether the connection is pathological or helpful is the person’s quality of life.

"Examples of continuing bonds the authors cite:

1. Dreaming of the deceased

2. Talking to the deceased

3. Believing the deceased is watching the survivor

4. Keeping items that belonged to the deceased

5. Visiting the grave

6. Frequently thinking of the deceased

"While some of the authors describe a few continuing bonds that appear to be true after-death communications, on the whole, these scholars chose not to speculate on the ultimate nature of these experiences. Instead, they prefer to collectively label the experiences, ‘inner representations of the deceased.’

"…Instead of encouraging acceptance of the feelings of disconnection and withdrawal from emotional attachment to the deceased, IADC therapy actually provides psychological resolution through the profound, life-changing experience of reconnection with the deceased. Their sense of love and unbroken connection is renewed by an uplifting experience that gives them the feeling of a different but satisfying and permanent new relationship with the deceased. They rebuild meaning through the new relationship, and they continue their bond knowing their loved one is OK and imminent.

"The experience of reconnection heals."

Raymond Moody has this to say about the book: "Dr. Allan Botkin’s (Induced After-Death Communication) probes the profound therapeutic and spiritual implications of apparent contact with departed loved ones. This book is a must-read for all serious students of death and dying.

by Terri Beck

Nathan and I were together for almost twenty-four years. We have three kids: Shad who is twenty-two, Kyle who is seventeen and Chase who is nine. He was my best friend and we did everything together. He was the foundation of our house and now that he is gone, it has crumbled. My middle child said it best, "It’s never going to be the same ever again." Boy do I know that now.

Nathan was diagnosed with cancer two weeks before he died. He was treated for back pain for nearly four years. There was never anything really wrong with his back: he really didn’t start showing any signs until the last three or four months. That’s when he had to go on workers’ compensation and for my husband not to work, there had to have been something terribly wrong. I thought that we would grow old together. When he was told that he was going to die, I’ll never forget that look in his eyes. He was more worried about me than himself. I miss him so much. Our place is empty without him. Nathan was a very good man who never saw a stranger. He was well liked in the community. He passed away on August, 1, 2005.

I could not accept his death so I went searching. I read books and looked on web sites. I planned to see a psychic because I wanted to know that he was alive and well…. A friend asked me if I had seen the movie White Noise. I didn’t know what she was talking about until she explained the movie and told me that I had better watch out that the bad spirits would get me and she was serious. Ha! I was very interested and had to see the movie. I knew about the tape recordings because when I was young I had a recorder and something talked back to me and I freaked. I erased it and never touched it again.

While I was watching the movie I noticed that he was getting messages on his answer machine. I was getting strange messages on my machine! That evening my youngest son and I went to town…. When we got home my machine was flashing. I played the message and it freaked me out. It was a very excited voice almost like yelling at me so I would pay attention and not erase it. This was on February 1, 2006 and I knew it was Nathan. After this I started receiving more messages. He would say things just like when he was alive. One of them says, "Put your Mom on the phone." Whenever he would call home from work and the kids would answer that’s all that he would say.

I had not received any messages from Nathan for about three weeks and I didn’t like that. I needed to hear from him. I tried recording, asking questions, but I only got one reply and it wasn’t Nathan. A month went by and I started doubting everything. I wanted a second opinion on what was on my machine because everybody that I would play the tape for would look at me and say nothing except for one friend who said, "Oh that’s right Nathan passed away at home with you," and then she ran out of my house. It was shocking, but at the same time, funny.

I contacted Christine at CJ EVP Research. She helped me and got me on the right path and that is how I wound up here. The people on the "Idea Exchange" (AA-EVP member message board) always want to help anyone who has a problem with their EVP or questions. They are truly amazing, strong people.

I remember the first three or four months after Nathan passed. I couldn’t pay my bills, I couldn’t go to the store, I couldn’t even find my clothes to get dressed. All I felt was numb. But you know, I think that was better than now because there is so much pain after the numbness goes away. Nathan was all I ever knew for twenty-four years. I’m forty-three years old now but sometimes I feel like I’m a hundred.

There is a new social networking web site for Americans aged fifty-plus. Jeff Taylor, founder of Internet job site, Monster.com, launched the new site called Eons.com in July. Eons sports interactive games to build brain strength, news on entertainment and hobbies for older people. The site also contains something more unusual. It has an online obituary database dating back to the 1930s, to which people can add photos and comments. Members can even sign up to receive an alert when someone from a particular area dies or in response to predefined keywords such as a company or school name.

Taylor sees online obituaries replacing the traditional announcements in newspapers and feels that baby boomers, the seventy-seven million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, want to have a greater input into their own funerals. So Eons is looking into a do-it-yourself funeral service.

The AA-EVP has a current average of five hundred members representing forty-seven states in the USA and twenty-one countries. California has the most members with fifty-four, but the East Coast has the majority. The UK has the most members outside of the USA with eighteen. Canada has fourteen.

Debra Caruso’s son, Joey, (left) leaves dimes as a sign that he is around. She says that she can clean out her purse only to find a dime at the bottom a short time later. Joey is on the other side but, along with leaving dimes around, communicates with Debbie through EVP. Debbie’s web site, "Listen to this for me; Listen to my son Joey speak to me from Heaven - Others speak to me also" contains many of the EVP that she has received from Joey and other people.

At the 2006 AA-EVP conference, Debbie was one of the people interviewed by Lisa Huston for a documentary on ITC. When Debbie entered Lisa’s hotel room for the interview, she noticed a dime on the floor. She told Lisa that Joey would leave her dimes all the time and asked if she could have it. Lisa told her that of course she could, and before leaving the interview, another dime was subsequently found and kept by Debbie.

What Debbie did not know is that when she left, Lisa Huston asked Joey to give her a sign that the dimes had come from him by leaving her one. Lisa found two more dimes on the floor soon after asking Joey for them. [Update: Debbie has transitioned to the other side]

Over the years, more and more sophisticated programs for managing audio files have become available. Audacity, for instance, is an excellent, free program that has a growing number of important features helpful for analyzing a sound file for EVP. The only problem is that it has become too tempting to use as many of these new editing tools as possible to try and make an indistinguishable bit of audio into a Class A EVP.

As an engineer, I have tried my share of tricks to improve the quality of a sound file, and I am guilty of the occasional overprocessing. It is just too tempting. However, our policy is to do as little as possible to a sound file. We reason that the communicating entities can do better, so it is part of our experimental procedure to ask them to repeat what we think might be important but unintelligible statements. They do not always comply, but it seems reasonable to put the burden for communication on both ends of the circuit.

In voice formed by our physical body, the fundamental frequency (F0) produced by our vocal cords form harmonic frequencies (formants known as F1, F2 and so on) on the way out of the mouth. It is the intensity of these frequency groups, and how our mouth modulates them that form our voice. The formants are in predictable groups, and a voice print will show this relative order as clusters of frequency that have more intensity. This is the voice print and examples of speech spoken by a person while in the physical can sometimes be compared to EVP to determine the likelihood that the speaker is the same person.

Research has shown that the voices in EVP are formed out of available audio frequency energy. See "Computer–Based Analysis of Supposed Paranormal Voice," Daniele Gullà in the Journal section of atransc.org. This means that, in some cases, the voice will be formed of odd groupings of sound, rather than the orderly array of biologically initiated formants. When a physically formed voice is filtered, we can expect it to respond in predictable ways, but when an EVP is filtered, it is possible to unknowingly delete frequencies vital for the meaning of the word. As an example, the word "love" has a strong beginning sound that, in an EVP, might be formed by a noise burst initiated in the amplifier by the entity, rather than a biologically formed "L." If the EVP were passed through a noise filter that reduced the intensity of that noise burst, the word could be changed to sound like "of." A meaningful but poorly heard EVP would be changed to well-heard nonsense.

A second hazard of over processing sound files is that it is possible to amplify a sound file many, many times with a press of the mouse button. Hand-held audio recorders have a "floating ground" which does not very effectively exclude external electrical signals such as a nearby radio station. When they are being handled, the experimenter can function as an antenna to further exacerbate the problem. Finally, the connection between a computer and the recorder makes the recorder even more of an antenna. The zero-signal or quiet state of the recorder while in the record mode will, in normal circumstances, show as no sound being recorded, or at worst, a small background sound. But if this zero level signal is amplified a great deal, all sorts of modulation can be discovered, and it often sounds a little like EVP. In fact, it is probably a composite of all of the local radio broadcasts in town.

There are other hazards, most too exotic to be concerned with, but the bottom line is that it is possible to change the meaning of a phenomenal utterance by using too much filtering, sound reduction and/or amplification. This is especially evident when many tools are used, such as noise reduction, filter, normalize and amplify. Even changing the sequence of how these tools are applied can change the outcome.

As policy in the AA-EVP, it is recommended that no more than ten or twenty decibels of amplification and only passive filtering of frequencies above about 3,000 Hz be used if the EVP is to be shared with others or used in research. An alternative policy is to provide the original EVP as a raw file, followed by about a half second of silence, and then the same example as it has been modified. In this case, there is

probably no reason to limit the processing, except it is a consideration to tell the listener what processing has been applied. If the recording is only for personal use, then of course there are no limits, but be sure to understand the hazards of self-deception by making the utterance something it may not be. For instance, it is very unlikely that you can trust an utterance that has been "recovered" from a sound file that displays as a nearly flat line.

One point to consider here is that we recommend converting the example to mp3 for posting on the Internet or emailing, but we do not recommend processing an mp3 sound file in any way. Well, perhaps a little amplification. So, save, process and store your files as Windows PCM (*.wav) files or whatever is equivalent for your operating system, and convert a copy to mp3 for distribution. Also, we have had some difficulty with *.wav to mp3 conversion at very low sample rates, say 8,000, so listen to the resulting file before distribution.

As a final note, other than as a demonstration that it is possible, we feel that EVP found on the reverse of a sound file may be more problematic than useful. There are too many sound combinations in normal speech that, when played backwards, make other normal words. As a rule of thumb, we feel that unless the utterance is a Class B+ or Class A that is clearly an appropriate response to a question or comment about the circumstance, it is best to disregard reversed examples. As always in trans-etheric phenomena, the content of the message should be a guide as to whether the message is ... well, is trans-etheric. Tom

by Martha Copeland

I was walking Cathy’s dog, Doja, and strolling my little Chihuahua, Shorty, in an umbrella stroller (Shorty needs surgery on his hind legs). I then noticed something shiny out of the corner of my eye, across the street, in the woods. A light breeze picked up, and suddenly a shiny object swirled out of the woods across the road and orbited around us. Doja and Shorty started to bark when it rose up directly in front of our path, stopping us in our tracks. At that moment, I realized that the object was the remains of a heart-shaped balloon I had released from our deck on Valentine's Day for Cathy. The balloon danced in front of us, displaying the words that were written on the front saying "I Love You." A small white butterfly appeared and joined in by circling the damaged balloon. After speaking out loud saying, "I love you Cathy, and thank you!", the balloon proceeded to go back in the direction it had come from, until it reached the woods where it lay flat and still as before.

While meeting with some of the mothers for lunch (who had previously attended my group recording sessions until they moved away), I relayed my balloon experience to them. Each mother had a similar balloon story that had a significant meaning they could relate to as being a sign from their child in Heaven.

I remember another story (not involving balloons) that happened in January 2002, right after Cathy’s death. It happened while I was walking Doja and strolling our longhaired miniature (overweight) dachshund, Muffin. Cathy’s death was still so new to me, and I felt as if everything in the world was foggy. The reality of Cathy’s death had not yet sunken in. Grief counselors refer to this time (right after a loss of a loved one) as being in the first stage of the grieving process, and you are in a state of shock. Many of you can relate to this horrible time of not being able to feel anything either mentally or physically, and you are numb to your surroundings. I even found it difficult to cry, and this added to my stress because I felt guilty for not being able to express my sorrow through my tears. A good comparison for someone who cannot imagine this state of being would be that of a "walking zombie," experiencing a feeling of detachment from the real world.

This day was sunny and warm with bright blue skies, checkered with large, white puffy clouds. I knew that Muffin’s days were numbered because she was failing fast due to her age. Muffin was deaf, blind and she could not walk anymore, but the thought of having her put to sleep was unbearable. We had experienced so much death in such a short period of time that I envisioned my home as a "death house," sort of like John Belushi’s version of the "Death Float" in the movie Animal House. Our house had become such a quiet and sad place, instead of the once active and noisy home filled with Cathy’s friends. I was missing the ‘aliveness’ of the small things, such as the cell phones that would go off in various tones providing each person with a sense of having their own identity.

We had just lost my husband Don’s mother, Jessie, in August, when my beloved dog, ShiShi, died in November, just three weeks before Cathy’s passing in December 2001. Our cat Precious had escaped from the house, and was hit and killed by a car on our street. Hence I wanted to hold on to Muffin, because of the history that connected her to Cathy. We purchased Muffin while Cathy was in elementary school, and Cathy had nicknamed her Ladybug. We had left Muffin with my parents for the three years while we lived in Japan, but she was given back to us when we returned. Cathy was so silly over Muffin that she had a tiny ladybug tattooed on her stomach, to represent never being separated from her special dog again.

It was during this walk that I first noticed a little yellow butterfly that seemed to circle us as we walked down the road. A shiny blue dragonfly soon accompanied the butterfly. While watching these two little creatures in awe, I couldn’t help but wonder why it was possible that they could be out so early in January. All of a sudden, rays of sunlight engulfed me, providing me with the most peaceful feeling since Cathy’s death. I knew that somehow these little creatures had been sent for a reason, and I was not to question why.

It is the small things that we miss in life when the death of a loved one occurs, and it is the small things that we learn to look for that will help lift our spirits to enable us to continue on in our daily routines. Our body, mind, spirit, and God seem to coordinate ways in helping us in our individual journeys for healing grief.

[Editor’s note: Sarah Jane has made her transition to the other side. We had the honor of meeting her at Martha’s house while we were in Atlanta for the conference, and we can say that Sarah Jane is truly a unique cat.]

It is very difficult to open a sound file and listen to the whole message a few times to understand what is said. There are just too many uncertainties in, say a Class C EVP for the average person to be able to grasp the message all at once. A technique we use is to select small portions of the sound track and then to put the audio program in "Loop Mode" and listen to it until words can be understood--or until it is clear that words will not present themselves. It is best to select more than one syllable, but not more than a couple of words.

In a Class C example, the words that come to mind are not necessarily what is spoken. They are just what our mind thinks is close, so be open for alternative interpretations. A good way to check what is possible is to look for sound combinations for a hint to what is said. For instance, we heard a "wau" sound right below the letter "A" in the above example offered by Margaret Downey on page 23 of the "Amanda" topic in the Idea Exchange. The "wau" sound seemed to be followed by "ter," so we have reason to think the word is "water" rather than "slaughter."

Paolo Presi (right) presented the ITC work of Marcello Bacci at the 2006 AA-EVP conference. Pressi’s presentation, The work at Il Laboratorio, is now in the "Articles" section of the AA-EVP web site, but for those of you who were not at the conference or who do not have access to the Internet, here are the highlights.

Presi began his presentation by introducing Bacci: "After more than thirty-five years of dedicated study of ITC, Marcello Bacci can be considered a leading expert in the field due to this exceptionally long record of experimentation with the voices. The remarkable phenomena that have occurred in the past decades in Grosseto, Italy, indicate that this persevering experimenter is always prepared to locate new openings to communicate with the beyond."

The "remarkable phenomena" Presi is referring to centers mainly around real-time, two-way communication with the other side via an old Nordmende tube, short-wave radio. The radio is visible in the photograph of Bacci.

Bacci routinely invites people to join him in the communication sessions. It it common during these sessions for there to be conversations between parents and discarnate children. These are sometimes accompanied by meaningful apports, such as a sea shell when a child known to love the sea is speaking.

Another remarkable phenomena associated with Bacci is that experiments have been conducted in which the station is changed without interrupting the communication and the radio’s tubes have been removed, also without interrupting the voice. In one experiment, Bacci himself pulled the plug for the radio after the tubes had been removed and the voice continued for several minutes. This last experiment lead some experimenters to theorize that, as Paolo said in his article: "From my point of view, the above peculiarities provide evidence that, once the phenomenon commences, the radio ceases to function as a normal radio receiver. The radio appears to become a device, psychically supported, through which the paranormal voices can be heard." He concluded his thoughts on this subject by saying, "It is my personal opinion that the phenomenon should be considered as an interactive process among a ‘Mind System.’"

Presi notes that, "The invisible communicators affirm that they are Spiritual Beings. Sometimes they have asserted, ‘The Spirit is speaking to you,’ without giving any indication of their identity. With unequivocal precision all the communications reveal the presence of autonomous intelligent beings, differing from each other by the voice characteristics and by the emotional and conceptual content that characterize each communicating personality."

As we have said, the communication sessions are usually attended by people who have loved ones on the other side. Presi notes that, "Particular care is given to the messages that provide parents with direct evidence of the continuity of life after death of their deceased children. The entity called ‘Gregorio’ often addresses parents with warm words of deep understanding, giving reassurance to those who are still doubtful, as in the following example:

Presi observed, "It is astonishing how the children’s voices are sometimes modulated with timbre, lilt and inflexion recognized by the parents. They can be male or female, childish, juvenile or adult depending upon the circumstance.... To overcome the distrust and incredulity of participants who are attending an experiment for the first time, the voices adopt an effective, direct method: they address such people by their own, personal name. The impact is immediate; those who listen to their name coming from the radio are astonished, literally captivated."

Presi explains in the report that information about the other side is sometimes given: "From an unknown communicator who introduced himself as "a citizen of heaven" came a significant message on the subject of death:

Paolo Presi concluded with, "Many times the communicators invite the people attending the experiment to overcome their doubts by making a full immersion in the mystery. To this regard I believe that the following communication, coming from an Entity, recognized by his nickname ‘The Wise,’ is addressed to researchers like myself who are trying to rationalize the voice phenomenon or, in a broader sense, the spiritual experience.

"His message was:

"The sentence reveals an interconnection that goes beyond the physical plane and introduces us to an indissoluble network of relationships that go beyond time. Delving deeper into the meaning of the message, it is possible to derive the real meaning: only by opening the mind and the heart is it possible to allow the mystery to penetrate us. By ‘availability of the mind,’ we might understand ‘silencing of the mind’ or a faithful attitude, rather than strict rationality. By ‘availability of the heart’ we might understand ‘silencing of any egoism.’

"Since 1985 I have defined this special mind attitude as ‘Inner Attentive Disposition,’ which is, I am sure, an absolute prerequisite for establishing contacts with other planes of consciousness. From my point of view, this is the determining factor in opening the hidden channel that connects our physical plane to the higher planes of consciousness where one day we will, I believe, again meet all of our loved ones."

It is encouraging to see members take up the challenge to work with visual ITC. In video loop experiments, it has proven especially difficult for us to establish a suitable loop using a digital video camera. This is an important issue because analog cameras are rapidly being phased off of the market—even the used market. So, we are delighted to see that two experimenters are recording impressive features using digital equipment.

Kathleen Griffin has posted a few very good examples in the Idea Exchange. We featured one in the Spring 2006 issue of the NewsJournal. Kathleen uses a Sony Super 8 camcorder about three feet from a twenty-seven inch television set with the camcorder tilted at ninety degrees. The camera output is connected to a DVD recorder, and the output of that is connected to a TV set. The camera is zoomed in to a point where the video begins to oscillate between light and dark areas. Blues, white, blacks and sometimes "great" colors appear.

Once a session is recorded on tape, Kathleen transfers it to the computer using a DVD Express Box via USB. The transferred video is then analyzed frame by frame with Ulead Studio 7 software. She told us that, "I go through it frame by frame and if I find something I feel is an image of interest I have the option of capturing an image with the software to JPEG and store it in a library of files from that recording."

Daniel Reddig has been aggressively experimenting with the video feedback technique of energy modification. He is using a Sony DCR-TRV38 mini-digital video camcorder, and has succeeded in establishing a video loop with a variety of CRT [cathode ray tube] television sets. The camera is set approximately three feet from and centered on the television screen. He prefers recording onto a memory stick instead of videotape because, as he wrote, "We get a cleaner feedback loop with different characteristics than recording to video [tape]. There is also more color. However, in memory stick mode, only about ten frames a second are taken, as opposed to the usual thirty for standard video. Using a memory stick also produces smaller files for the computer."

Daniel gave a good description of how he conducts an experiment: "At first, you can see the TV within the TV. The camera is adjusted here to be pointed at the center of the TV screen. Any misalignment will become more obvious the more you zoom in. I use about fifty percent zoom. As you zoom in farther, you will see a white blob that ends up covering most of the screen. It may be slightly to one side. Zoom in a little further. Now you may see either predominantly green or red pixels zooming by at a faster speed. We take pictures in this area also, but they seem harder to get. Zoom in a little farther, and it may turn to a bluish color, and instead of flashing in all directions from the center, the whole screen may appear to ‘hold’ with different patterns that bounce around. Here is where we find the most pictures in our case. Occasionally, this point of focus will provide pictures "holding" in the exact same spot that will be covered and uncovered by pixels as you watch frame by frame. Zoom in too far, and you will get a solid white, green, or red screen, which is not good for ITC."

Your experience may be a little different, because different combinations of equipment will produce different results. For instance, we have not been able to achieve the "hold" stability of the feedback loop and still have a light-dark pattern as Daniel describes.

We have found that changing the orientation of the camera/TV set combination with reference to north might produce different results. Also, different video cables may change the results, and we have never established the desired video loop using an S-Video link between the camera and TV set.

Daniel uses a strobe light [Compact Luma Strobe] bought from Spencers Gifts for $20. It is not available at this time from the online store, so we recommend that you look for something around twenty-five watts, with adjustable strobe rate and interchangeable lens covers. Daniel noted that, "Other video ITC researchers have made a note of the usefulness of an external light source. Pictures can be received without it; however, in cases where a sufficient feedback loop is hard to obtain, a flashing light can help induce a feedback loop. Also with some TV sets, you can control the speed of the feedback loop by adjusting the speed of the strobe. For now, all I can say is that it has helped a little bit in some cases. When used with the fifty-two-inch TV, the amount of light produced by this little strobe was not quite enough to jump-start the feedback loop."

As for capture of the video into a computer, and "grabbing" individual video frames as still pictures, Daniel said that, "The only video player [software] we use is Media Player Classic version 6.4.9, as it is the only one with high enough quality we have come across. [This is a free download available at www.download.com] For some reason, all of the other players don’t come out clean, but have interlaced lines across them. You can forward frame by frame with cursor keys, you can even zoom or move the picture around with number pad keys.

"Simply download, extract the file, go to where you extracted it, click on ‘mplayerc.exe’ and open your video file. You may want to create a shortcut to the program on your desktop. To view frame-by-frame, simply pause the playback and then use the right arrow button to step forward or left to go back. Hold the button down to go faster.

"Use the Alt and Enter keys together for full-screen display and the Nine key [with numlock] to zoom in. More keyboard shortcuts can be found in View > Options > Player > Keys.

"There can be as many as fifty faces in a frame—most undeveloped. Just like when we try to post our best EVP examples, I try to pick the ones people can see, and filter out the rest. Also, most of the pictures [I post in the Idea Exchange] have been enlarged. The average size face is only about a half-inch [at seventy-two pixels per inch]!"

The "grabbed" individual video frames can be examined in a photograph editor. We use Photoshop Elements, which is a middle-priced program, but it may be worth it to look for a good freeware program on the Internet. Erland Babcock did wonders with the program that came with his digital camera. Be sure to have rotate, crop, color select and enhance, contrast and save as tools. You will find nearly as many features in each of the ninety-degree rotations as in the "normal" view, so take your time looking at all angles. Also, try stepping back from the screen now and then. A different perspective sometimes points out different features.

Keep the original frame [picture] as a high resolution image, but use "Save as" to keep cropped or copied versions of the original containing possibly phenomenal features at seventy-two pixels per inch for sharing on the Internet. File size limits for the Idea Exchange are 250Kb and images cannot be larger than 650 pixels per inch on a side.

As a final observation, Daniel noted that, "Most likely, a large portion of the pictures received may not be specific attempts of the person in the picture to communicate with us. At least, I feel this is true in my case."

The picture with this article on page 13 was recorded by Daniel Reddig using the technique described here.

We encourage other members to experiment with visual forms of these phenomena. As a rule of thumb, any form of visually complex energy is apt to produce a phenomenal face or two. Remember that you do not have to use expensive equipment. Using a simple camera to photograph light reflected from moving water or from the surface of a turned off television set can produce faces. We look forward to seeing your examples posted in the Idea Exchange.

by Dave Schumacher, Cindy Heinen and Chris Carter

The AA-EVP is very interested in any research carried out on EVP and has recently added a Research section to the AA-EVP web site. The first article is a contribution by Dave Schumacher, Cindy Heinen and Chris Carter.

After discussing the group’s work with David, we believe the introduction to this report will set the tone for future research they will conduct. From the Introduction: "Those who believe EVP to be real think that the voices of the dead are being recorded while those who do not believe in the paranormal nature of these phenomena claim that they are nothing more than stray radio waves or auditory pareidolia or apophenia. It is a proven fact that the human mind can create meaning out of insignificant sound and random noise. Those who support the paranormal nature of this phenomena claim that the voices are interactive and can be identified as someone who has died. The question then is how do the deceased manifest their voices on the recording equipment?"

And later, "The ghost hunting community overall believes that times of increased solar activity are ideal for ghost hunting. It is thought that, with enough energy in the air from charged ions and an energized electromagnetic field, manifestations, including EVP, are more plentiful.

"There is little or no formal analysis that increased geomagnetic activity leads to an increase in the frequency and clarity of EVP. This study is an attempt to determine if there is a correlation between geomagnetic activity and the quantity of EVP."

The full report is in the new Journal section of the ATransC.org website, but we will say here that, using their records for the number of EVP collected versus the historical geomagnetic environment as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Association (NOAA), they have concluded that there was no apparent correlation showing that changes in geomagnetic conditions results in changes in the quantity of recorded EVP.

We wish to thank this team for having the presence of mind to conduct this kind of formal research. We will endeavor to publish other such reports, as they become available. Meanwhile, remember that it is okay to believe in something, but it is even better to have evidence.

Martha Copeland had a very interesting experience during a recent vacation to the Island of Vieques. There is a bar to which the locals go to watch the sunset. Martha and her husband, Don, decided to go there one evening and were amazed to find that someone had used their finger to write the words, "Big Circle," in the accumulated dirt on one of the windows.

Martha asked the employees about it but no one had a clue as to who wrote it or when. The words also had no particular meaning to the people she talked to. The bartender said that it could have been there a long time as no one ever cleans the outside windows.

An Edmondon Alberta, Canada veteran policeman is convinced that the voice of murder victim, Rachel Quinney, was picked up on an audio recording as she spoke from beyond the grave. "I saw it. I heard it. I believe," said Const. Wayne Fermaniuk, who accompanied psychic and spiritual medium Alan Hatfield, from Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia to the spot where Quinney’s body was discovered. Along with the voices of Fermaniuk and Quinney’s mother and sister, who were all present, Rachel’s voice could be heard on the tape’s playback, said Hatfield. "It was clear and came in between other dialogue," he said. "Rachel came on, and her grandmom and granddad, who are Delia’s mom and dad, they came on, too. I heard the clips that the mother (Delia) said were her daughter talking. It kind of sounds like it’s in the background, and you have to turn it up a bit, but it's there."

Neither Hatfield nor Fermaniuk would reveal what they heard Rachel say on the recorded audio of the approximately hour-long session, saying it could jeopardize the police investigation into her unsolved death. From July 5, 2006 "Cop hears murdered prostitute speak," By Eliza Barlow, Edmonton Sun

• Long time member, Lloyd Bradshaw, has been into spirit photography for most of his life. He has also loved several Yorkshire Terrier dogs who have gone to Spirit but still often visit him and his present Yorkies. This past July, a friend stopped by with her granddaughter to visit. The little girl was running though the house saying out loud, "Doggie, doggie!" Lloyd says as he was dishing up the ice cream, the friend was saying to the granddaughter, "What is this? What’s going on in here?" just as the child started with "There’s more of ‘em! Where’d they go?"
          Lloyd says that, "I immediately showed her a picture of a spirit Yorkie just to get it all straight. For her it was too much. She grabbed the kid and her car keys and headed out my door. A little while later she called me up and apologized. She said, "I can’t deal with stuff like that and how do you manage to?" I told her I’m ‘with it’ twenty four hours a day. It’s what I do."

• Chris Fleming of the TV show Dead Famous, told us of an interesting encounter he had via his television set in his bedroom. He said that it crackles and pops for about a minute after he turns it off. "This always happens," he told us. "It is dead quit in the room except for this crackle noise and it always grabs our attention, as when this first occurred we wondered what the sound was, but over time we got used to it.
          "What was bizarre this particular night is, about a minute after the TV was shut off, a child’s voice emanated from the location of the set. It was only a few words and it sounded just like you would expect from a clear Class A EVP, but we could both hear it in real time as if someone was in the room. It had that rhyme and distant affect you would sometimes get with an EVP. My girlfriend grabbed me and we both said, ‘what was that?’ I turned to her and said, ‘what did you hear,’ and she said, ‘It sounded like a child.’ … 20-30 seconds later a male voice then bellowed out clear and similar in the fashion of a Class A EVP. It sounded as if it was coming from a great distance, but the audio was heard in the room, once again from the location of the TV. I sat up, while she screamed and grabbed my arm holding me back. ‘They’re communicating,’ I said."

From our communication with LeAnna Reardon of Ogden, Utah, we can see that she is one who is interested in "good science" when it comes to the research of things etheric. She also believes in personal commitment to both her community and the paranormal. Even though the Exchange Building is a definite "fixer-upper," LeAnna purchased the building and is rapidly turning it into a new asset for the city of Ogden.

You should know that the building appears to be haunted, and LeAnna has hosted a number of investigations to help determine the "who," "what" and "why" of the local etheric inhabitants. This then, brings us to the point of this article. We were very impressed with LeAnna’s sense of organization displayed in the methodic way in which she is documenting haunting activity in the building.

If you visit [Web page no longer available], you will see that LeAnna has included a floor plan of the building, which she has marked with colored numbers indicating the kind of phenomena that has been experienced in each room. For instance, blue is for an EVP recording and green is for photographic phenomena. She has also included a table containing room number, type of event and who had the experience or the name of the investigating organization with links.

In some of the cases, the links take you to web pages on the investigating team’s web site containing the examples. We were especially interested in one such example recorded by the Ghost Investigators Society (GIS). We are referring to example seven under "Mental Hospital." (The example is very long for an EVP and takes a while to load as a Quick Time player.) It sounds like a child saying something like "Help me, I can’t breath, and an adult saying something and then the sound of someone walking in knee-deep water. The recording sounds as if it were made in a basement vault, echo and all. We have heard a similar one from David Vee in the UK that has similar voices and then the sound of a drawbridge being lowered can be heard. The bridge was removed hundreds of years ago. Both may be "echoes of the past" EVP rather than the voice of a sentient entity.

We think LeAnna’s documentation of the investigation of her building is very helpful to all of us. Perhaps something similar to her approach could become standard in the field of hauntings investigation.

• Rob Fitzgerald hosts the Dead Science podcast at deadscience.libsyn.com. In August he did a show on EVP and interviewed fellow AA-EVP member, Margaret Downey

• Harry Flagle received the 2006 Primetime Creative Arts EMMY Engineering Award for inventing and holding the patent on the "Quad-Split Screen," which has been used in the production of motion picture and television shows from the 1960s forward.

• Jeff Hahn is also doing podcasts on EVP and told us that he is trying to help people learn how to do EVP for themselves. (evppodcast.libsyn.com/)

• Georg Lindström of Finland, wrote that he had participated in a seminar offered by Hans-Otto König in Germany. Georg said that, during both days, Hans-Otto conducted Direct Radio Voices (DRV) experiments with wonderful results in which "loud and clear male and female voices came through his huge device."

• Al Rauber and Garrett Husveth told us about their 31^st podcast (hauntednewjersey.com) in which they discussed Al's investigation of the Lizzy Borden House and played EVP that Al recorded while there.

• Rob Smith was excited that after trying for three years, he finally got a spot regarding EVP on Australian National TV. However, he was disappointed after seeing the program and said, "My segment was hijacked by the skeptics and I was manipulated to look like the village idiot." The program was seen by a million people and Rob hoped that some people would at least do more research on EVP.

• Karen Thorne has a new book called, Giving Up the Ghost: The Walk-in, based on actual paranormal events including numerous EVP that she has recorded. Karen writes that, "While the storyline is fiction, the majority of the paranormal events in the book have happened either to me personally or people I know … I will also be releasing a CD of the EVP recordings as a companion to the book sometime in the near future. Currently both print and download copies of the book are available exclusively at lulu.com/soulworks as an advance release.

• Jake Wheat was involved with the Sci-Fi Channel documentary "Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium." Jake is the EVP analyst for The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society (louisvilleghs.com) and says the documentary was soon to be released on DVD.

We receive lots of correspondence but some letters just really make us feel that it is all worthwhile. Here is one that came from a new member via the Idea Exchange.

"…Lastly, I would like to thank you Tom and your wife, Lisa, for well, for being who you are and for trying to bring to the public the truth about EVP. I watched the movie, White Noise, when it first came out, and to be frank, it disturbed me on a spiritual level thinking about the not so nice characters that can be found here on our plane of existence as well as where we evolve to. But somewhere around five or six weeks ago, my life partner made a trip to the used book store and bought the movie for me.…

"I had never really talked to her about the movie disturbing me, ... very seldom does anything disturb me. When I put the DVD in, I went to the specials that are on all the DVDs now. I like to watch the bloopers and the making of the movie, etc. Anyway, I watched the part with you and Lisa. I watched it again. And then I watched White Noise and was not disturbed anymore and just enjoyed the movie. You and Lisa were so peaceful and calming, and explaining about the basics of EVP that I was very glad that my partner had brought the DVD home. It is what made me decide to find the AA-EVP and join and start trying to communicate with, well at least my brother so far. I want to thank the both of you again for what you said and believe and showed on that DVD. It was fantastic."

People who hear voices are thought to need the help of a psychiatrist and are often given a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Dr Mark Hayward, at the University of Surrey in the UK, is studying whether or not some "voices" may have a positive impact on the hearer. To test this, a study of clinical patients is to be measured against other ‘voice hearers’ who neither seek nor need treatment. Some sixty existing patients drawn from National Health Service lists in Southern England are being invited to answer questions about their unseen voices, which traditionally have always been considered to be negative. Their answers will be compared to non-clinical hearers who find their voices to be a positive benefit in their lives. Dr. Hayward states, "So much of our understanding is biased towards patients who are distressed and we can only guess about the characteristics of positive relationships with voices. We don’t want to guess. We want to know." From: Psychic World

[Editor’s Note: "hearing voices" as intended here refers to the mental hearing of people talking with discernable words. It is common for the mind to seek order in random signals, causing people to almost hear a distant conversation, maybe even a hint of music, in the noise from a fan or air conditioner motor. This "almost" hearing voices is sometimes referred to as Pareidolia and is not the subject of this article.

• Janet Arone writes that she records at various locations thought to be haunted and has had pretty good success getting EVP with her Panasonic RR-US380.

• Regina Antonucci wrote that a cemetery in Hudson, NH yielded her first EVP of a little girl’s voice saying, "Follow me," in a sing-song voice.

• Debbie Caruso shared an interesting EVP saying, "We’re fishing below the brook."

• Martha Copeland was at the hospital before her father’s surgery and recorded, "The Big Circle." It is very clearly her daughter Cathy’s voice.

• Jody Cupp tried to contact her grandfather who passed in January. She wrote that she got an EVP saying, "Goodbye Darling, we’ll pray for you," but that it did not sound like him.

• Terri Daner recorded, "Jasmine," which is the name of a member’s daughter now on the other side.

• John Debney got an EVP with a wonderful message saying, "Lets get it Mom, you please love life again."

• Margaret Downey has a spirit lady who is interacting with Margaret’s dog, Kindred. In one recording you can hear Kindred barking at something outside. Just before she barks, there is a female voice saying, "Kindred, what was that?"

• Kathleen Griffin said that the group had been discussing birds, dogs and animal noises help form words and she remembered a recording that she had done in front of her sister, Cheryl’s, grave that had birds singing loudly. She listened to the recording again and within the bird sounds hears, "Cheryl…sing."

• Linda Gregory tried recording on her day off. It had been raining for two days and she said, "Anybody want to speak today, it’s raining here," and recorded a male voice saying, "Yep, it’s raining over here."

• Cheri Kussavage writes that she is using an Olympus DW-90 digital voice recorder and that EVP comes through just about everywhere.

• New member, Rae Ann LaPierre’s son Chad, made his transition on June 10 of this year. Since his death, Rae Ann has had strange things happen with her telephone. She will receive a call but the phone won’t ring. The calling party hears a man answer and then hang up. One person that this has happened to was Rae Ann’s ex-husband and Chad’s father. She told him that he must have dialed the wrong number but he was using the number that had been in his speed dial for three years.

• Jutta Liebmann wrote that she had read an article about the intelligence of animals, and although she had not asked a question regarding this, she received the EVP message, "Intelligenz haben Tiere" (animals are intelligent as well). Jutta says that her spirit friends know exactly what she reads and her way of thinking and she added that she was very happy to receive this confirmation about animals.

• Tracie Mazlo told us that she has been recording EVP for eight years. She wrote, "I use different approaches using a standard micro cassette recorder. I find just being myself, asking random location questions and normal chit chat work for me very well."

• Kim Richardson asked if anyone from the Big Circle was with her and recorded "Gary and Jay Wood (or would)."

• Richard Shenk recorded during the Thursday evening session at the AA-EVP conference in June and got, "Its Erland, Dick."

• Leslie Taylor recorded, "It’s Geoff." This is the name of Terri Daner’s son and she said it also sounded like him.

Regina Antonucci wrote, "I am a technical illustrator (I draw hardware for tech manuals). I am a skeptic and I believe people will usually believe in what they want to rather than take the time necessary to uncover all the facts. This having been said, I am also a believer in EVP as being unexplained phenomena because I actually went out and took the time to find out for myself what this was all about. And what I discovered has surprised me. I am unable to explain the phenomena as being some type of radio emissions or a matrixing trick of the mind either of which is what I honestly thought it probably would be.

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