Peering Through the Static of White Noise

Article posted Thu Jan 20 09:50:18 2005

by John Gaeddert

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP), the alleged attempts of the dead to contact the living through interference on recorded media, have been popular with the paranormal crowd for decades, and are enjoying a new burst of popularity from the movie White Noise, which recently premiered in theaters. But how accurate is the film with respect to EVP, and what do we really know about these “messages from beyond?”

White Noise follows architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton), who loses his wife, best-selling author Anna Rivers (Chandra West), in a mysterious accident. Rivers is approached by the eccentric EVP researcher Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who presents him with audio samples of Anna-speaking to him from beyond the grave! Price also introduces Rivers to Sarah Tate (Deborah Unger), who has been working with Price to contact her dead fiancée. Rivers becomes obsessed with EVP and the messages he receives, but soon his life-and the lives of his friends-are endangered by malevolent spirits who prey on EVP experimenters.

Of course, White Noise is intended as entertaining fiction; although it includes a quote from inventor Thomas Edison and some snippets of information on EVP for a semblance of authority, it takes liberties with EVP (and works in some other paranormal phenomena as well). In their simplest form, EVP (also known as “Raudive voices” after early EVP researcher Konstantin Raudive) are heard as voices and snatches of speech hidden amongst the static from radios, televisions, and other playback devices. Proponents claim that such interference is created or modified by spirits to speak to the living; skeptics point out that mundane explanations can account for most EVP occurrences.

There are several ways to collect EVP samples; they involve such measures as making recordings in empty rooms, taping the static between TV channels, or scrolling a radio through its full range of stations. Sometimes participants pose questions to any spirits that may be present. The recording is played back and analyzed for any speech samples that weren't heard during the recording process. Many of the results are indistinct at best; it may require repeated listenings or computer filtering to discern messages. (The film makes it look easy; Rivers struggles to hear EVP at first, but within weeks he has an easy time capturing semi-distinct samples in audio and video.)

Sarah Estep, founder of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP), has developed three categories for describing EVP:

Class A: Voices are clear even without headphones, and can be duplicated to other tapes.

Class B: Voices are fairly clear; can sometimes be heard without headphones.

Class C: Voices are faint and require the use of headphones. Difficult or impossible to decipher.

Since the rise of Spiritualism in the nineteenth century, many scientific researchers (including inventor Thomas Edison) dabbled in “spirit communications” while also engaging in scientific study. EVP, however, are a relatively new paranormal phenomenon.

One of the first EVP researchers was Friedrich Jürgenson (1903-1987), a philosopher, archaeologist, linguist, singer, court painter to Pope Pius XII, documentary filmmaker, and recording artist. After recording birdsongs with a tape recorder, Jürgenson heard human voices on the tapes, even though there had been no one in the vicinity. He began to study recordings specifically made with no one around.

Jürgenson's work on the subject (including two books, Voices from Space and Radio-link with the Dead ) brought him into contact with Latvian psychologist Dr. Konstantin Raudive (1906-1974). Raudive would spend the last ten years of his life studying EVP, making over 100,000 audiotapes and writing about his findings in the 1971 book Breakthrough . But skeptics, including some paranormal researchers, are unconvinced by EVP.

“Serious parapsychologists today show virtually no interest in EVP, and modern reports in the parapsychological literature find no evidence of anything paranormal in such recordings,” says James Alcock, professor of psychology at York University in Toronto. “That does not deter the devoted.”

While there is no single explanation for all electronic voice phenomenon, there are several well-known phenomena that may shed some light on the matter. There are mechanical phenomena such as cross-modulation, where electronic devices inadvertently pick up transmissions on other frequencies. Then there are mental phenomena, including pareidolia and apophenia, which cause people to see images where none exist (such as Rorschach inkblots) and to “hear” distinct sounds in white noise patterns (like hearing the doorbell or the telephone while one is in the shower).

Alcock explains that EVP can even be simulated in a laboratory setting: If the test subject is given an expectation of what they will “hear,” and if the cadence of those words matches the cadence of the white noise, “then the brain will turn those sounds into those-now clearly discernible-words.”

“Given that we can routinely demonstrate this effect, it is only prudent to suggest that what people hear with EVP is also the product of their own brains, and their expectations, rather than the voices of the dearly departed,” he writes.

There is also an emotional component to consider. Alcock points out that many people who report success with EVPs are “reporting an experience that was highly meaningful and perhaps highly emotional-not something that is easily challenged by logic.” Both Raudive and Jürgenson had intensely personal experiences with EVPs: Jürgenson thought he heard his dead mother calling him by his pet nickname; Raudive thought one of the voices talked about the recent death of a friend.

Despite its pseudoscientific veneer, White Noise is little more than an amusing supernatural thriller in the vein of The X-Files. It has already stirred a temporary interest in electronic voice phenomena, but brings no insights to the topic of EVP, and is likely to persuade only the fence-sitters. Skeptics will continue to be unconvinced, and devotees will continue making recordings and experimenting with new techniques.

Or, in the words of White Noise’s Sarah Tate, “I’ve heard what I wanted to hear.”

References

Alcock, James E. “Electronic Voice Phenomena: Voices of the Dead?” http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/evp.html

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. "What is EVP?" Fate, December 2004.

Raudive, Konstantin. Breakthrough. 1971.

Heinzerling, Jürgen. "All about EVP." Fortean Times, November 1997.

John Gaeddert is a cartoonist and Assistant Public Relations Director at the Center for Inquiry in Buffalo, New York.