Last night, I heard my first paranormal voice. Was it believable? Sure. Was it impressive? I'm sorry to say it was not. In real life, the dead are apparently as interesting as strangers you might try to talk to on the bus.
To launch the DVD of White Noise, a movie about EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), Tom and Lisa Butler spoke at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, an historic hotel with a history of ghost stories, about real EVPs.
They are the heads of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena. We heard some of the best recorded examples, heard some samples that had been recorded the night before and, then to top it off, we headed to the Gable-Lombard suite to watch the recording process live.
The hotel itself is gorgeous. With all the events I have attended in Los Angeles, I am surprised I have never been there. Take the photo tour at the website because my Treo pictures do not do it justice. In addition, it has the spooky atmosphere of the Tower of Terror. It alone was worth the trip.
Tom and Lisa Butler look like corporate management. That's what I put in my notes when they walked in. They dressed conservatively in suits. There was none of the atmosphere of New Age mystics burning incense, not that there's anything wrong with that. As it turned out, they had indeed both worked in corporated management in Kansas before turning to this line of work.
They try not to overstate the significance of what they do and they present quite credibly. I am not one for debunking. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio.
The problem is that EVP simply isn't that impressive. To link the demonstration to a movie in which EVP was very dramatic only diminishes the effect there is. One cannot hear the EVP while it happens. The samples have to be played back and the voices are heard on the playback (which is why we heard samples recorded the night before instead of the samples we watched being recorded.) They are always short, 1.5-2 seconds and 3-4 words long. They have to be amplified. Even with that, according to the Butlers, who don't overplay their hand, only 1 out of every thousand are easily understood.
When we recorded, the room was silent and the voice-activated recorder did not pick up any of the ambient noise. Then one of the Butlers would ask a question and wait. Sure enough, sometimes the recorder light would flash, recording something we could not hear.
We listened to the samples from the night before. The EVP appears out of nowhere. Silence becomes static white noise which sounds like voices. In one, Tom suggested the first word was "John's". They played it and I thought for sure it said "John's voice." For a brief moment, I was surprised at how clear it was. Then other people called out what they heard -- "John's room", "John's looking." The usual confusion about paranormal phenomena returned.
We heard some of the best samples. They were clear enough for everyone. The Butlers have conducted doubleblind experiments with this sort of communication in which they ask the EVPs to repeat phrases and then have someone else listen to the EVP to see what it says and whether it matches. There's enough evidence to accept the truth of EVPs unless you're just not willing to accept anything outside of your experience. I'm Catholic. I believe the bread and wine turns into the Body and Blood. I don't need much proving of voices on tapes.
The disappointment is that even though the best samples are indeed audible, they don't say anything. The best we heard were "It's Frank", "Please don't come", "Where's Mom?" All this work to talk to the dead and that's all they tell us back. The Butlers report that they ask if there is reincarnation and some of the EVPs answer yes and some answer no. The dead don't know any more than we do.
Audio highlights of the event, including the EVPs, are available in MP3 and Windows Media versions.
For more on White Noise, the movie:
The White Noise of EVPs
Movie Review: White Noise
The Duke Watches "White Noise"