Paranormal investigators tend to use a variety of methods and techniques in their attempts to gather evidence for the existence of ghosts. Among the most common is the collection of electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, for short. Could the sounds recorded on EVP samples really represent voices of the dead?
In order to begin addressing that question, it is very important for investigators to consider ordinary factors for the sounds and try to rule them out as much as possible. With that aim in mind, this new blog article highlights some issues relevant to the recording and interpretation of EVP that paranormal investigators should be aware of in their efforts to collect and evaluate their own EVP samples.
One section of the article refers to the work of auditory psychologist Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. Additional details about the "phantom words" audio clips she developed can be found on her UCSD webpage devoted to this topic, along with a few illustrative audio samples that you can listen to yourself. And for additional information about research on EVP, readers may want to listen to the audio overview entitled "EVP - Is Anybody There?" that was recently made by Dylan Jones, who is a member of the Society for Psychical Research. It is available for listening on SoundCloud.