The first group of characteristics are specifically for transform EVP, which are thought to be formed by the transformation of audio frequency energy into a simulated voice.⁷

EVP Are Distinctive: EVP have a distinctive character of cadence, pitch, frequency, volume and use of background sound. The voices have a distinctive sound to them that is difficult to describe. For instance, EVP messages often have an unusual speed of enunciation; the words seem to be spoken more quickly than normal human speech. Regarding this peculiarity, Konstantinos⁹ wrote, “The best way I can describe it is that it’s almost as if each word is spoken quickly, yet the pauses between the words are of a natural length. The combination of these two speed factors makes for the peculiar rhythm and perceived speed.” You may also notice that the paranormal voices often have a hollow and/or monotone quality.

Frequency Range: EVP are sometimes received at higher or lower time base than normal speech. The enunciation of words is not just faster, but the frequency range of the phrases are sometimes higher than normal human speech.

Missing Frequencies: Italian researcher, Paolo Presi,¹⁰ has reported that spectral analysis of EVP samples has shown that the fundamental frequencies of voice associated with the human voice box are sometimes missing in EVP. He describes the typical EVP as a “thickening” of the background noise to form the voice.

Precursor Sounds: Sounds are often heard prior to an occurrence of EVP. Although these vary in nature, they tend to be within tenths of a second of a phrase and are a “popping” or “clicking” noise reminiscent of the “squelch” sound caused when the automatic gain control engages as the “push to talk” button is depressed on a Citizens Band radio.¹¹

EVP Show Evidence of Being Limited by Available Energy: Alexander MacRae¹¹ has noted that the utterances tend to have about the same amount of audio power in their associated sound wave from one EVP sample to another. That is, a short EVP will tend to be louder than a long EVP. A very long phrase might be composed of two or more average-length phrases separated by minor pauses. Also, an utterance may trail off at the end, as if the energy is being depleted before the message is delivered. Again, this is as if the communicator is attempting to manage available power as “packets” of energy. The evidence is very strong that EVP are energy-limited phenomena.

EVP Are Complete Words or Phrases: Researcher Alexander MacRae has also conducted considerable analysis of EVP messages, determining that a message is typically one to two seconds in duration and is not truncated at the beginning or end. If EVP were crosstalk, they would often begin in the middle of a word. EVP messages are usually complete thoughts, as well.

EVP Are Found by Playing the Soundtrack Backwards: One of the more bizarre characteristics of EVP is that it is possible to discover an EVP that seems to be garbled, but that makes perfect sense when the soundtrack is played in reverse. By this, we mean to say that the sound track is played so that the voice of the experimenter can be heard speaking backwards, but the EVP can be heard speaking forwards.¹²

As with the ability of communicating entities to anticipate questions by placing answers into recording media before the question is asked, the phenomenon of reverse track EVP provides important hints as to the nature of time.

The Voices in EVP Are Often Recognizable: It is common for an EVP to contain the recognizable voice of the discarnate person thought to be speaking. It is also common for that entity to say something that was typical of what he or she would have said while in the physical. Their personality clearly remains intact even though the person no longer has a physical body.¹³

Mundane Voices Are Sometimes Transfigured: A communicating entity will sometimes remodulate or transfigure the experimenter’s words into EVP. In one striking example, the words of a French-speaking radio announcer were changed, mid sentence, into an English spoken EVP. The EVP was clearly inappropriate for what the announcer had been saying.

Party Line: Some EVP sound as if they are comments intended for someone other than the experimenter. This is much like momentarily listening in on a party line telephone call. It is not uncommon in both field and controlled recording situations to record comments that seem as if unseen people are discussing the experimenter’s actions in much the same way that you might discuss the activity of someone that you were watching.

A Need for Background Sound Sources: Research has shown that the voice in EVP is formed as “a thickening” of ambient sound energy. This is an opportunistic use of sound energy that often results in no or largely missing voice box frequencies and an unnatural arrangement of other frequencies usually formed by the passage of the fundamental frequencies through the mouth.⁷ Also, EVP has been recorded by audio-recording devices or processes which have been isolated from ambient sound by such techniques as removing the microphone, and in some instances, acoustically isolating the recording device.

Because of these characteristics, it is standard practice to assure the availability of ambient sound for voice formation, even while isolating the recording device or process from uncontrolled ambient sounds, such as crowd noise.

Layered EVP: Experimenters often comment that several layers of EVP appear in the same location of the recording media. This is especially common when more than one background sound source is used during the experiment. For instance, if a fan and radio static are used for background sound, then a message might be found in the fan noise while a second message is found in the radio static—both in the same segment of the sound track.

EVP is Found Wherever the Experimenter Listens: This suggests that the source of audio noise is not a factor for EVP, so long as the audio energy is suitable for voice formation. In practice, the majority of techniques for recording EVP involve sound conditioning, rather than unique forms of psi detection. For instance, upscaling infrasound so that it can be heard by human ears or downscaling ultrasound, really constitute techniques of sound conditioning, and the resulting EVP is not evidence that the utterance was formed beyond human hearing, but that it was formed when the audio energy was made available to the recording process.

All forms of EVP

EVP Are in the Language of the Experimenter: Alexander MacRae has conducted experiments in a place that has no English language radio or television stations, yet resulting EVP were in English, which is his primary language. It is typical for the EVP, no matter where they are recorded, to be in a language that the experimenter understands. There have been exceptions to this which were apparently intended as a demonstration, but as a rule, EVP will be spoken in a language understood by the experimenter or an interested observer.

This brings up an interesting point of speculation about psi-based communication. Mental mediums often report that they receive communication from nonphysical entities as images which they must interpret. These images are not just mental pictures. They are packets of information that are sufficiently complete for the receiver to fully understand their meaning. Robert Monroe⁸ referred to this form of information as “Thought Balls.”

EVP Are Appropriate to the Circumstances: There are numerous examples of EVP that are clearly direct responses to questions recorded just prior to the EVP phrase or to the circumstances. An example of an EVP being appropriate to a circumstance is an instance in which experimenters were trying to figure out how to set up a new tape recorder for an EVP experiment. The tape recorder was finally set up correctly, but not before causing a very loud feedback squeal that was recorded. On that recording, a male voice said in a Class A EVP, “Leave it alone” right after the loud squeal.

Precognitive Responses: Answers to questions may be recorded prior to a question being asked, so that the answer, as a phenomenal message, is on the sound track followed by the experimenter asking the question. More research is required before making informed speculation about this observed characteristic, but the indication is that, while time may be meaningful to us, our time may well be irrelevant to a nonphysical entity. Alternatively, the entity may be sensing what the experimenter is about to ask.

Vocalized Questions Elicit More EVP: There is evidence that the communicating entities are able to read our thoughts, as in placing an answer on a recording prior to the asking of a question. However, experiments conducted by Alexander MacRae¹¹ have shown that EVP responses increase when questions are asked out loud. MacRae conducted a simple experiment during which he ran numerous sessions and did not verbalize questions, and then the same number of sessions speaking the questions. He then counted the number of EVP responses. On the non-verbalized sessions he collected 3.2 utterances per session, whereas on the verbalized sessions he collected 5.3 utterances per session. (MacRae uses a baseline recording session duration of five minutes for such controlled sampling.)

The “Newness” Effect: The experimenter’s excitement in trying a new detection device or recording technique may be the source of improved EVP collection. As the new approach becomes “normal operating procedure,” the improvements generally fade back to a more “normal” Quality and Quantity (QQ) of EVP collection. This suggests that it is important for the experimenter to maintain piqued interest during experiments. This is also one of the reasons it is speculated that the experimenter is an integral part of the recording circuit. The experimenter is apparently supplying the necessary psi energy to enable a nonphysical to physical transfer of energy.

Effective Devices Unique to the Experimenter: Exceptionally effective EVP and ITC collecting systems have been developed; however, these typically work well for the developer, but do not work as well for other experimenters. This paradox supports the belief that the experimenter is part of the recording circuit. It has also reinforced the concept that the communicating entity may be specific to the experimenter.

Because various devices and equipment setups have worked exceptionally well for one experimenter and not for another, it has been argued that it is a waste of time to try to develop the hoped for equipment that would become the proverbial “spirit telephone,” allowing anyone to use it to call up a loved one on the other side. ¹⁵ This may prove to be the wrong assumption. There is growing evidence that people who have not done well with a cassette recorder are now recording increased QQ EVP using digital voice recorders.

EVP Can Be Thoughts of Living People: There have been a number of well-designed experiments that appear to have resulted in EVP initiated by living people who were sleeping at the time. As an ethical consideration, such experiments are always prearranged with the person who volunteers to be the sleeping “sender.” In these experiments, questions are clearly answered by a communicating entity, and the answers are appropriate for the sleeping person. This fact of EVP suggests the possibility that EVP can become an important tool for consciousness research. For instance, is it possible that a patient in a coma might initiate an EVP when requested?

The real questions are what causes the voices, who is causing them (if appropriate) and how they are caused. The following list details the most commonly proposed possible answers:

Radio signals, unnoticed conversations and/or light-generated signals: Probably the most obvious explanation is that the voices are recordings of stray radio signals. Inexpensive electronic equipment designed to handle audio signals are designed with “unbalanced” input and output ports, poorly shielded circuitry and what amounts to a “floating ground” in portable equipment. All of these design shortcuts leave the equipment open to detect and record stray radio signals, and if it is possible to pick up a radio station, with a portable radio, then it is also possible to record a stray radio signal. This does not often happen, but it is possible.

The most obvious way to test the possibility that EVP are stray radio signals is to shield the audio recording device from ambient radio frequency noise. One way is to place a turned on, voice-activated audio recorder in a padded metal container, such as a candy tin, place that in a second padded tin, and that in a third padded tin that has a metal strap from the metal side of the tin to a good ground—usually a metal water pipe will do. This will prevent most stray sound, all light and essentially all radio frequency energy from reaching the recorder.

Since research shows that the voices are formed from available audio frequency energy,⁷ some noise will be required for this experiment. Inexpensive digital voice recorders usually produce sufficient internal voice frequency noise for EVP formation, but if EVP are not collected in the above enclosure when the recorder is known to produce EVP in the open, it may be necessary to include a sound source, such as a turned-on am radio with the volume set so that the resulting static would not obscure the voice of a person speaking into the microphone.

Simple content analysis is usually sufficient to establish that the utterance in question is unlikely to be cross-talk or unnoticed voices from people in the room. Assuming the experimenter is not attempting to provide “scientific” evidence, it is usually adequate to note whether or not the utterances are complete statements, if they are appropriate to the circumstances and if they are understandable. If they were stray radio or television signals, they would contain the tell-tale signs of commercial broadcast, they would often be partial statements and they would usually be nonsensical, considering the circumstance.

Imagination of the experiencer: This is an important possible explanation for any form of phenomena involving unexpected sounds, images or events. Modern technology is capable of producing such a wide variety of unexpected results, often referred to as mundane artifacts, and a person can easily mistake an artifact as phenomenal unless the experiencer is an expert in the use of that technology. For instance, when used in an automatic mode, and with a flash, modern cameras often keep the shutter open much longer than the user realizes. A characteristic of film and digital image detectors referred to as “latency” will cause a moving camera to quickly image a bright light, such as a street light or flash reflected from a bright object in the scene, much quicker than a poorly illuminated background. This can result in a “ghostly” streak of light in a photograph while the background scene seems to indicate that the camera never moved.

The point is that such photographic artifacts are mundane, yet they are often offered as evidence of ghosts. In the same way, sounds in an audio recording can be made by very mundane influences but yet sound very phenomenal. For instance, it is common for a person to take a breath of air just before speaking, and the sound of that breath can be mistaken as something phenomenal when a person is examining every little deviation in the wave form.

All aspects of etheric studies are plagued by what is generally termed “the lack of critical thinking” amongst people seeking to experience these phenomena. This is a natural result in view of the complexity of the involved technologies and when the very large population of amateur experiencers is considered. So the casual witness to this field of study should be dubious about individual reports of phenomena, as many such reports are demonstrably misattributed mundane events.

It is intellectually lazy to say that all reports of etheric-to-physical phenomena are just the imagination of the experiencer when the evidence for the existence of EVP is reviewed. The fact that the voices can be collected by just about any person with average hearing, access to an audio recorder and sufficient patience to learn how to listen for the voices, provides sufficient reason to discount this argument.

Thoughts of the experimenter: Once the possible explanations that would prove the voices to be mundane have been dispensed with, there remains the possibility that the voices are phenomenal, etheric-to-physical influences, but that they are caused by a physical person. It is here that the argument changes from if EVP is real to who is talking.

A number of experiments have been conducted to see if it is possible to record the thoughts of people known to be still in the flesh. Perhaps the most conclusive was conducted by Jacque Blanc-Garin of the French ITC organization, Infinitude.¹⁸ In that experiment, Jacques had arranged with Monique Simonet to attempt contacting her via an EVP experiment while she slept.¹⁷ (It is an ethical consideration to ask permission of the “sender” before conducting such an experiment.) In the exchange, Jacques, in a different part of the house, verbalized the question, “If you answer me, you are maybe in the environment where I record.  If that is it, you can then tell me what I currently hold in my left hand?” The recorded EVP was, “It is a crystal” Jacques reported that, “I indeed, had a crystal in my hand.  Monique saw me!”

Lisa Butler and Sarah Estep also conducted coordinated experiments from either coast of the USA with convincing results.¹⁸ Other experimenters have reported similar results, some possibly impressing their thoughts into recording medium, although this point requires further research.

Current thinking is that the conscious aspect of a person is what survives physical death, and when a person still in the flesh is in some way disassociated from the physical body, his or her conscious self is much the same as the etheric communicator. In other words, it is predicted by some proposed theories that the thoughts of a living person should be able to be recorded in EVP. Probably the real question is whether or not all of the EVP are from living people.

EVP are “echoes of the past” or residual energy: The Quantum-Holographic hypothesis has been proposed to explain the origin of consciousness,¹⁹ meaning that the personality has a biological origin and the information being accessed via EVP and the other forms of apparent etheric-to-physical influences are either caused by the experimenter or some other physical agent, or a form of residual energy described by physicist David Bohm and neurophysiologist Karl Pribram as a field of energy that underlies all of reality.²⁰ This field of energy is thought to have three characteristics that might account for the observed etheric-to-physical phenomena. It is thought to behave according to quantum principles, especially that of entanglement which shows that, once certain objects have become associated in specific ways, influencing one object will have a similar influence on the other, even though it may be very far away.

The second characteristic is that this field exhibits the character of nonlocality, meaning that information in it is equally available from any place in the field. This characteristic is required to explain such phenomena as a remote viewer accessing information that is miles away and a medium supposedly getting information from discarnate entities. It is this nonlocality that requires holographic theory, since it is known that any part of a holographic representation of a scene can be used to reproduce the entire scene. In other words, the information is not local to any one part of the photographic plate.

The third characteristic of this field is that it is formed of the residual energy of consciousness, and therefore contains all that was ever known, thought and experienced. It is this residual energy that provides the information psychically gathered.

There is growing evidence that some form of field exists, that it is of a subtle energy that is not detected by normal means and that it interconnects groups of life forms. Rupert Sheldrake²¹ refers to this field as a “morphic field,” and Dean Radin²² calls it a “biofield.” However, the existence of a biofield does not assure that Bohm and Pribram’s field is proven to exist, or how such a field might be populated. This author is not aware of experimental evidence showing that residual consciousness does remain in a field. Conversely, the experimental evidence of EVP seems to show that consciousness is local, that it is self-aware and interactive.

Super-psi²³ is a second hypothesis designed to explain observed psychic abilities, but from the perspective of psychology. This hypothesis also depends on a vast reservoir of residual conscious energy which is accessible by people who exhibit the ability to access information that should not be available to them.

Both the Quantum-Holographic and Super-psi Hypotheses may provide important pieces to the puzzle which will eventually explain personal survival and EVP and should not be completely discounted—especially the concept of a biofield. However, neither hypothesis explains the evidence collected via EVP.

Cultural Influence: A theory that is gaining in acceptance is that the voices are phenomenally formed, and may be initiated by a discarnate entity, but that the utterances may also be considerably influenced by the practitioner or an interested observer. This theory is based on the hypothesis that the message is formed via a mind-to-mind exchange of information via the etheric aspect of the practitioner and the etheric entity. This is thought to be in the form of image, concept and understanding all wrapped into one gestalt package. The information is thought to be transformed into the physical via the entanglement of the practitioner's etheric Self with the physical body. This is the same path hypothesized for mental mediumship. The result is that the practitioner tends to filter what is allowed into the physical, and subsequently into the recording, depending on expectations.

For instance, the practitioner may expect that any discarnate entity speaking from a cemetery will naturally be earthbound and therefore in distress. In such an instance, the message would come to the practitioner as a gestalt "This is who I am and what I am doing," and come out as the EVP, "Help me," because of the assumption of distress.

There are indications that some EVP are initiated by the practitioner. As is discussed above, it is believed possible to record the thoughts of living, and as such, it is not difficult to think that some thought are spontaneously recorded. This theory should not be taken to say that discarnate entities are not thought to be initiating EVP. It is recognition that the subject is very complex and the degree to which the practitioner influences the result has not been well examined. At the very least, the meaning of EVP should be based on due consideration of this question.

EVP are thought to be initiated by a personality existing in the greater reality via a mind-to-mind exchange of information between it and the etheric aspect of the practitioner or that of an interested observer. The etheric personality-physical body entanglement permits the practitioner to transfer the information into the physical as a form of embodiment not unlike what is thought to occur with a mental medium. Rather than the mental medium embodying the information as words, the EVP practitioner unconsciously facilitates its formation into words using physical processes acting within an electronic process.