EVP: History and Classifications

In 1928, Thomas Edison worked on equipment he hoped would permit communication with the dead. He believed it would one day be possible to build a machine that would help humans communicate with the dead. He once said: “If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore ... if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something.” Unfortunately, Edison did not live to see his invention take shape.

In 1949, Marcello Bacci of Italy began recording voices with an old tube radio. People would come to Bacci's home to talk with their departed relatives. A few years later, two Italian priests named Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli were trying to record a Gregorian chant on their magnetophone, but the machine kept breaking. Exasperated, Father Gemelli looked up and asked his father for help. To his surprise, his dead father's voice answered from the magnetophone, "Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you."

In 1959, Friedrich Juergenson, a Swedish artist and film producer, went into the woods to record bird songs. On playback, he discovered paranormal voices. After four years of experimental recording, he called a press conference to announce to the world what he had discovered, and then wrote his book Roesterna Fraen Rymden (Voices from the Universe). In 1982, the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) was formed to study EVP. The AA-EVP was founded by Sarah Estep, who designed a classification system that is still used by most paranormal researchers today.

CLASS A A clear and distinct voice or sound that is universally accepted and undisputed, because it must be understood by anyone with normal hearing and without being told or prompted to what is being said or heard. It can be heard without the use of headphones.

CLASS B A voice or sound that is distinct and fairly loud. This class of voice is more common and can be heard by most people after being told what to listen for. It is usually audible to experienced persons who have learned the skill of listening to EVP. It can sometimes be heard without the use of headphones.

CLASS C Either faint sounds or whispery voices that can barely be heard, and are sometimes indecipherable and unintelligible. It may have paranormal characteristics, such as a mechanical sound. Most investigators would apply objectivity and disregard it, but may save it for reference purposes.

The AA-EVP has documented the following characteristics: More EVP messages are recorded at night or during stormy weather than during the day or when the weather is clear. EVP message length is typically very short, ranging from one word to short sentences. The voices involved in EVP messages often exhibit a shift in frequency outside of the normal human voice frequency range. Voices may be clearly male or female, old or young, even mechanical or "human" sounding. Some messages are delivered in a singing voice. EVP messages are often preceded by a sound that has been described as a "click" or a "thud." Messages are usually in the language of the experimenter, but individual experimenters have received other languages.