PARC | the ghost orchid | An introduction to EVP

EVP • New Techniques and Interpretations

A Preliminary Report on a Scientific Investigation of EVP

While one of the authors (M. Tschapke] is concerned with the investigations of the EVP for about 25 years. our collaboration in this field only started about seven month ago. While my co-researcher approaches the phenomenon from a psychological angle; I |J. Hagell am concentrating mainly on the physical and electronic aspects of this phenomenon; Both authors think that EVP is basically an animistic phenomenon and thus originates from the subconscious parts of the experimenters themselves. However in the .course of our work we found that EVP might also be subcon¬sciously and consciously influenced by other persons not directly involved in the recording process- The goal of our investi¬ gation is threefold:

1. To improve the basic understanding of EVP. This concerns mechanisms for the creation of EVP as well as the relationship between EVP and the telepathic transmis¬ sion of information and precognition phenomena;

2. To improve the sound quality of EVP. In this context the method of superposition in its different modifications turned out to be very promising.

3; To establish theoretical models of EVP within or at least compatible with the known laws of nature.

Also. we are trying to set up a fully docu¬ mented data base of EVP; including digitized recordings for further research;

Methods of Superposition

In his ground breaking book on the "discovery" of EVP; Friedrich Jurgenson already observed that EVP are seemingly dependant on a certain amount of back¬ ground noise (tape hissl or other "carrier signal" being present; For our experiments, we employed a superposition method, whereby a recording of a male or female speaker is mixed with a second audio signal. For this secondary signal, "tape hiss" or other types of noise might be employed as well as artificially distorted copies of the primary signal. It can be experimentally demonstrated that such a superposition can produce EVP even if no EVP is present in either of the two com¬ ponents before they were superimposed.

Creating EVP by Using Two Radio Receivers

The classical "radio method" of recording EVP employs a radio signal [newscaster or other speech signals! as the "carrier11, which is then recorded by a tape machine or other recording device. Some experi¬ menters use a modification of this basic setup, where the signal is played over the radio receiver's loudspeakers and then recorded by a microphone. Generally? the number of EVP produced by this method increases significantly if the receiver is slightly detuned, adding an amount of noise and/or distortion to the signal; If severe detuning is used, this will of course reduce the quality of the recorded EVR In order to overcome this limitation, we decided to employ two radio receivers tuned exactly to two different channels, so either of the signals would serve as a -carrier1 for the other. EVP produced by this method will be free of noise or distortion, although some of them might go undetected as they are covered by the original speech recordings. Our setup also employed a microphone, which was positioned halfway between both radio receivers1 loudspeakers and connected to a tape recorder or computer audio card set to recording mode-

After setting up this apparatus it became immediately obvious that EVP can easily be created using the described method> The following EVP has been created by tuning the receivers to ^01 Whz and 1(K Mhz 1FMI respectively. Actually this EVP (in German language] contains two voices tone female and one male) at the same time.

Example text: [German/English]

Male: "ICH HOERE. DASSJEMAND PLATZ HABEN WILL"
("I HEAR THAT SOMEBODY WANTS [Al PLACE"]

Female: "JA ES GEHT NICHT GUT1 ("YES IT IS NOT WORKING WELL-1

This "double" £VP appeared in reverse direction? ie played backwards, and is very interesting for three reasons: firstly, the female voice seems to give a mean¬ ingful answer to the male one: secondly, the whole situation described is closely related to something that happened to one of the authors (M. Tschapke] the very same day the EVP had been recorded and thirdly, the EVP was recorded by J. Hagel. who was in Switzerland at the time - while the event took place in Germany (Cologne) without any knowledge of J. Hagel. One of the gen¬ erating mechanisms of "two component EVP11 can be illustrated in the following way: imagine two spoken sequences of the following form:

Sequence 1 = " ...YES HE LOVES TO EAT OUTSIDE •„••
Sequence 2 - " .•»HERE ARE ROBERT AND JULIA ..."

where the relative timing is indicated by the gaps between the words; Coinciden¬ tal the words ••YES. ROBERT, LOVES and JULIA are slightly emphasized, resulting in an "overlayed" third sentence, which is perceived as the EVP: "YES ROBERT LOVES JULIA'

If the experimenter coincidentally knows a man named Robert who loves a woman named Julia, this will be interpreted as a "meaningful" EVP. As a matter of fact, a large number of such related EVP have been obtained by us in the course of our investigations;


EVP Generated by Computer-Alded Superposition of Signals

Suppose that two Independent spoken sequences of two different lengths [say L1 and L21 have been generated le.g. from two radio transmlssionsl and have been stored in the memory of a computer Many different superpositions can be generated by digitally "mixing1' the shorter signal into the longer one at a relative position specified by a "time delay" in respect to the beginning of the longer signal Using two fixed signals, we found that different °time delays" will inexplicably yield a huge number of different "messages". As for all other types of generation of EVP this method works for forward as well as reversed sequences.


Pavarotti Voices

In our experiments with computer-aided superposition, we found out that the clas¬ sical procedure of 'recording" is in fact unnecessary for producing EVP; as much the same results can be obtained by digitally copying voice data from computer storage media Isuch as compact discs; In our experiments, we copied two sequences of significantly different lengths and superimposed them with a randomly chosen amount of time delay; Note that this is a fully deterministic process, since the two signals are represented by binary numbers. Digital superposition is in fact a rather simple mathematical operation which should produce a predetermined result • or so we thought. Instead; we were again confronted with EVP!

For example, we present a related EVP that has been obtained by a superposition of two reversed parts of the famous opera ••La Fille de Regiment" by the Italian com¬ poser G. Donizetti with a segment sung by Pavarotti. These parts have been taken from a CD version of the opera using a ran¬ domly chosen shift. Although the opera Is sung in French, an EVP is created in Oerman which is related to a situation that occurred to me one day before its actual generation:

"VON WAS VERDIENT MAN E5"
("FROM WHAT DOES ONE DESERVE THIS'l

Actually, at the time when I U. Hagel] cre¬ ated this EVP. 1 had serious trouble with my bank manager. An amount of money that 1 had asked to be transferred from a foreign country to my account did not arrive for almost three months. The day before this EVP appeared I had told my wife Johanna that the money was still in limbo. Being rather upset about this situation ehe answered:

•WAS HABEN WIR GETAN, UM DIES ZUVERDIENEN?"
(•WHAT HAVEWE-DONE TO DESERVE THIS?"]


Voices Generated by the Echo Effect

A special application of the superposition method is the superposition of a signal sequence with its echo. This can be achieved for example by recording a radio transmission in a large room where the microphone is positioned at a distance of between 9 and 10 meters from the radio receiver. In this case the microphone will in fact receive two signals: the direct acoustical output plus the reverberant field created by the reflection of the orig¬ inal signal back from the walls. A very clear example [reversed speech) has been recorded by M. Tschapke using this method and a radio receiver tuned to the exact frequency of Deutsche Welle:

••ES 1ST MASSLOS TEUER"
|"IT IS IMMENSELY OVERPRICED^!

This EVP was recorded about 2 hours before ti. Tschapke received a phone call from her sister, who casually mentioned that the prices of simple items of every day life offered in shops are "MASSLOS TEUER". ie. so expensive that you wonder how people can afford buying them.

The echo method can be also be simulated using a computer I (J- Hagel) found following EVP after reversing a recording of a French speaker and mixing it with an identical copy delayed by 0.1 sec:

"JETZT HABEN WIR NICHT MEHR ALLES FALSCH-
rNOWWEDONTHAVE EVERYTHING WRONG ANYMORE-)


EVP Produced by the Experimenters Own Voice

EVP can also be produced by tha experi¬ menter's own voice. Basically; we found this method to be quite effective, employing a computer fitted with an ordinary audio card and suitable audio editing software:

1. The experimenter records his/her voice with minimal distortion or noise.

2. The second half of the signal is mixed with the first halt

3. This sequence is reversed. so the exper¬ imenter would not be able to recognize his own words.

^. The reversed signal is checked for EVP.

In the following example I [J. Hagel) recorded the folk song "Heidenroeslein" based on a poem by Wolfgang von Goethe and composed by Franz Schubert. After applying the process as described above, I found following EVP:

•SO EINE HUEBSCHELIEBE"
(••SUCH A KIND/BEAUTIFUL LOVE-)

A very special case is the one of EVP in recorded telephone conversations. Here no artificial superposition has to be under¬ taken since the low quality of telephone lines will add sufficient amounts of distor¬ tion and noise. However, it is preferable to reverse the signal. This produced the following EVP in a recording of a telephone conversation between myself and my wife Johanna:

"WEIL ICH LIEBE BR1NGE-
(•BECAUSE I BRING LOVE']


Telepathic transmission of information

In a sequence of experiments lasting about three months, we investigated the possi¬ bility of information on one of the experi¬ menters being present in EVP recorded by the other. Using the different types of the radio method we experimented with recordings "guided" by the following questions:

M.Tschapke:
"Is there any information about J. Hagel in Geneva?" and -What are the names of the children of J. Hagel?"

J. Hagel:
"Is there any information about M. Tschapke in . Cologne?" and"WhatisthenameofM.Tschapke~s mother?"

We both recorded about 150 EVP and analyzed them for messages relating to our questions. Afterwards, we exchanged selected EVP via Email for confirmational analysis. It has to be noted that during the whole experiment we never met directly and knew practically nothing about each other. Despite this. we found some 25 EVP which directly related to the other experimenter's life.

We found the following general features of such EVP:

* The scope of information on the other's life is rather wide and completely unpre-

• While some of the voices will transmit correct but rather trivial information, others contain highly intimate detail You will understand that in five select cases, we decided that the material should not be released to the public.

* The names of J. Hagels children and M« Tschapke's could not be found; although other names were present in many cases.

As one example of such a voice presenting accurate information we present the following example recorded by W. Tschapke with J. Hagel serving as the target:

"REDUZIEREDQLCEVITA"
('REDUCE THE DOLCE VITA"!

The explanation of this EVP related to a partic- ularevant in the Ufe ofJ. Hagel may be put thus: In Way 1998 I U- HageU suffered from pneumonia with high fever and had to stay in bed for a week After the fever had gone I visited my physician. Everything seemed to be in order as • completely unexpectedly - the doctor put on a critical look and sug¬ gested: •YOU SHOULD REDUCE YDUR DOLCE VITA', relating to my overweight It has to be noted that this EVP had been recorded in the third week of June, about two weeks after this event;


EVP and Precognition

A distinct class of EVP has been discovered by the authors in 1998- They appear as normal radio EVP and seem to have no relation to circumstances and/or events in the lives of us or of anyone known to us. Often the content seems ridiculous and resists any attempt of interpretation; However. up to now we have at least three well documented cases where the EVP point to events in the near future, ie. EVP of a precognitive nature; The first example was recorded by J. Hagel on 15 September 1998 employing the two radio method as described using the voices of French speakers:

ICH MACHE BN OMELETT MfT DREI MESSERN-
(-1 HAKE AN OMELETTE USING THREE KNIFES-]

For more than two weeks this EVP seemed utterly nonsensical until my wife Johanna-Marie left Geneva for a trip to Austria on 8 October 1998; When I had taken my children home from the kinder¬ garten. my daughter Selma-Marie insisted that she wanted an omelette for dinner. Despite the fact that I had never prepared an omelette before, I cracked some eggs and added salt. butter and ham under the close observation of Selma-Marie. Sud¬ denly I heard my little son Felix-Ludwig crying from the adjoining room and left the kitchen to look after him. When I returned to the kitchen, the omelette was still baking on the oven. but Selma-Marie had neatly arranged three knifes in the pan, Asking her what I should do with these three knifes she answered: -Omelett machen" which means -preparing an omelette". In this moment I realized the precognitive nature of the above voice.

The second of the two voices together relate to a rather sad event concerning our family dog Bobby. On 14 August 1998, 1 recorded the following EVP using the two radio method:

••ACH UNSER MOPS AUF ElNUNDDREISSiG -
('OH OUR PUG ON THIRTY ONE"]

This rather meaningless message con¬ tinued to puzzle me over several months. It has to be mentioned that by August 1998« Bobby was already over thirteen years old and suffered from a progressive and degenerative paralysis. While I considered the possibility that it might relate to the approaching death of our dog, I instantly dismissed this idea as I had not yet experi¬ enced precognitive EVP. While his death was expected around this time. he man¬ aged to get along quite well until he died. Theni on 19 December 1998, M. Tschapke received an EVP by recording the signal from a detuned FM channel:

-NA STERBEN MOPS ?-
FTHE PUG DIESi DOESNT IT?-)

In December 1998 we already knew about the basic possibility of precognitive EVP and became quite convinced that both EVP were "forecasts11 relating to the day Bobby would die - 31 December 1998. But a med¬ ical check on 23 December revealed that he was in a relatively good state of health. Anyway^ two days after Christmas, his physical condition rapidly deteriorated in an alarming progression. At 6:00 in the morning on 31 December, I decided to take him for a walk- When we returned home, we met a woman walking her Labrador. As usual. Bobby started barking loudly; which proved too mucli for him ss his heart failed him at 6:30 pm on December 31st 1998.


Synchronicity and EVP

The concept of synchronicity was intro¬ duced in the first half of the 20th century by the famous psychoanalyst C.G; Jung, a pupil of Sigmund Freud. Jung proposed synchronicity as a fundamental explana¬ tion for the interactions between matter and mind, defined as a coincidental rela¬ tion between an external physical event and an internal psychological condition. This relationship is defined as a synchro¬ nistic event which, by its nature; has to be experienced consciously and, according to Jung> as a 'numinous emotional experi¬ ence' by the person involved .These experi¬ ences are evidently something very common to everybody and thus mirrored in many proverbs, as in

•WENN MAN VON DER SONNE SPRICHT,
SENDET SIE IHRE STRAHLEN AUS-
1-AS ONE ADDRESSES THE SUN. IT SHINES')

It is important to note that a •synchronifitic relation is not governed by causality; which means that no law of nature links the two events; Their common occurrence is only coincidental but precisely for this reason synchronicity does not contradict any law of physics; However, from C;G- Jung's def¬ inition it is apparent that synchronicity can only occur in systems containing a suffi¬ ciently high grade of conscious perception;

It is a striking observation that EVP very frequently exhibit a strongly synchronistic behaviour This can be observed in various direct and indirect ways. Out of many hun- collected, we shall present two; In the first one we directly detect a coincidental relation:

The following voice was recorded in Cologne on the morning of 17th February 1999 by M; Tschapke and J- Hagel at about 10;00 am just before having a late break- fast We tuned to a local channel [107-10 Mhz] and recorded the signal for one minute; During the process I U- Hagelt mentioned that I was very hungry and looking forward to having breakfast; Immediately after stopping the recording process, we reversed the obtained signal directly in the computer and listened to the result; Both of us independently detected the following German speaking voice:

"SOICHWILLAUFESSEN"
I-SO i WANT TO EAT UP (EVERYTHING]']

Hence, the internal psychological condi¬ tion of J; Hagel, - the feeling of hunger • coincided completely with tire external process of the formation of an EVP with a meaningful connection to the internal condition; It is of course possible to explain this event by a mechanism of selective perception but even this does not really contradict synchronicity which • as has been pointed out above - is normally well embedded in the 'flow of events' of daily life;

The second example relates to the precogni- tive EVP concerning our dog; The remarkable property of this EVP,

••NASTERBEN MOPS'
[••THE PUG DIES; ISNT IT')

is that it appears as the reverse of a com¬ pletely "normal11 extract from a German news FM programming; The newscaster mentions a Russian producer of natural gas named GASPOM, which supplies gas to Germany:

-RUHRGAS 1ST DER WICHTIGSTE KUNDE DERGASPOM IN DEUTSCHLAND-
(••RUHRGAS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CLIENT OF THE GASPOM IN GERMANY')

It is actually the reversal of •ASPOM IN DEUTSCHLAND' which leads to the pre- cognitive EVP "NA STERBEN MOPS'; So in this case the external event of recording a given vocal srgnal precisely at this moment in time coincides with the internal psychological condition of feeling concerned about our pug dog, which exactly conforms with the definition of synchronicity;

Margot Tschapke and Johannes Hagel


Comment by Jurgen Heinzliger

In their articlei Margot Tschapke and Johannes Hagel provide an impressive argument for their animistic thesis; Since their first experiments were conducted. others have become involved in their work, sharing their determination and basic thesis that EVP are generated by the experimenters rather than disembodied entities;

At the time of writing, our investigative team consists of four people who are struggling hard to produce EVP under reli¬ able conditions; While we must confess that we are still mystified and spooked by the phenomenon, we are convinced that EVP might produce the key to a new understanding of paranormal phenomena in general, as it produces a huge amount of precognitive and other unorthodox data rivaling even the impressive results of the Ganzfeld* experiments; Currently, we are experimenting with other targets than humans, specifically objects, as this might reveal if Johannes and Margot are right in assuming that the data is derived via telepathy; If these experiments should reveal that EVP employs other paranormal faculties than telepathy, we could largely eliminate the subjective factor from the analysis, which would take us onto a new stage of research-

In due time, we hope to publish our find¬ ings and conclusions in a detailed account on this mystery that is probably the most astonishing of all "X files", as one might quite appropriately name those phe¬ nomena that were completely unknown before the 2nd half of the 20th Century. Like the Chupacabra. Flying Saucers and Men in Black; EVP might be seen gs custom-tailored miracles for a society on the brink of self destruction.


* Used in testing ESP. this involves sub¬ jecting a volunteer Ithe 'receiver1! ^ mild sensory deprivation by placing him In a soundproof windowless room; screened electro magnetically; and then asking him to select from several different options the image that he believes another volunteer I'the sender^; sitting outside the room; is gazing at In March 1997; at a conference of the British Psychological Society; a scientific team from Edinburgh's Koestler Institute; led by Professor Robert Morris; said that their own trials utilizing the Ganzfeld Experiment and over 100 people had a success rate of almost 50%; double the rate that won Id be obtained via random guesswork; thereby offering dramatic evidence for the reality of ESP.


PARC | the ghost orchid | An introduction to EVP