PARC | the ghost orchid | An introduction to EVP

Raymond Cass

Raymond Cass was born in Yorkshire, England in 1921 and educated at RiLey High School in Hull- From an early age he became interested in the paranormal, reading avidly on the subject- The massive slaughter on the Western Front raised serious questions in his mind about the purpose of life and the futility of war- He was engrossed in Harmsworths History of World War 1' when a male voice suddenly called his name over a primitive radio which was switched off at the time- Alone in his grandfathers seafront mansion this was an enigmatic experience- but even at the age of seven he was aware of paranormal forces- The primitive horn-type loud speaker could have only been activated by some kind of magnetic pulse or flux-

To gain a more intimate knowledge of the paranormal he joined a Hull psychic society, and it was at this point that he found that an ancestor. Robert Cass who died in 1898, was not only the founder of spiritualism in Hull but also a powerful medium who could levitate a heavy table with three men on top to the ceiling- They wrote their names there with carpenters pencils- A psychic thread in his lineage first emerged in 1773 in Learning; North Yorkshirei where Molly Cass was persecuted as a medium and psychic- In 1938 at a Helen Duncan seance in Bridlington it was predicted that Raymond would develope voice mediumship; Although it was not until 1971 with the publication of Konstantin Raudives book; ^ Breakthrough1, that this prophecy came true and as part of a dedicated team of EVP buffs Raymond rapidly overtook other UK researchers and produced voices of clarity and amplitude which attracted worldwide attention- He produced examples of the much disputed ~ Polyglot Voices' (see tracks 3-10], where a sentence would contain the elements of various different languages- Fluent in German. Raymond was able to keep up with European experimenters, aided by his association with the German section of the Foriegn Office- But on his release in 19^5 from a German prison camp he was forced to shelve his passion for psychic affairs and concentrate on earning a living- Interested in acoustics, he qualified to trade in hearing aid technology and founded his own practice in Yorkshire where he was active for 20 years- During this time he found the resources to begin experimenting with EVP in association with the well-known experimenter Mike Vinter, who is still active to this day;

Obtaining EVP is a difficult and arduous pursuit with many setbacks and fallow periods, and the conditions needed to make successfull EVP recordings are largley unknown- Rays office in Hull, where the best results have been achieved, appeared to be a 'window area' with a lively magnetic flux upon which the voices seemed to ride- In 1997 at the age of 76 his psychic energies seemed to peter out; much burning of the midnight oil had taken its toll- At the time of writing he is in a negative period, described by him as being like 'writers block', and it remains to be seen whether the powers that be will relent and permit him access to EVP again in the future- In the early days. in 1972 a voice said 'Wll work the switches"- In other words, the voice entities are calling the shots, and for now at least, this is what seems to have happened-

Raymond Cass is considered one of the world's foremost researchers into EVP- His voice samples have been played at many lectures and presentations worldwide- Raymond's tapes have also been the focus of study by various institutions such as The Bio-Energetics Institute in Osaka, Japan, The Parapsychology Unit of Olivet College. Michigan. USA, The ESP Research Associates Foundation at Little Rock» Arkansas; and The Parapsychology Unit at Freidburg University- His work has also been observed by The War Department, USA, and The Ministry of Defense here in the UK.

[Raymond's cassettes are commercially available- Details can be found on page 22 in the 'Further Listening' section-]