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 EVP History
A look into the discovery of Electronic Voice Phenomena.
When I first began doing research on the history and discovery of the first EVP ever recorded. I discovered that attempting to uncover the origins of the first EVP to be no small task. Mistakenly, a lot of credit seems to go to Thomas Alva Edison, the early 20th century inventor, who invented the light bulb, motion picture camera and phonograph. This perception seems to stem from a 1920 interview Edison did with Scientific America reporter, B.F. Forbes; in which he stated he was working on a machine that could contact the dead. Apparently, Edison had been asked to comment on the possibility of using one of his inventions to communicate with spirits. He replied that if the spirits were only capable of subtle influences, a sensitive recording device would provide a better chance of spirit communication than the table tipping and Ouija boards mediums employed at the time. Several newspapers caught wind of the interview and reprinted the story. A few years later, Edison announced that he had simply been making a joke and that he had not been working on such a device. According to the Edison National Historic site, that holds some 400,000 artifacts and 5,000,000 pages of documents, reports that none of them mention that any such experiment ever took place. According to the Associated Content website, EVPs were first recognized and used in public in 1852, by an Ohio man named Jonathan Koons. He attempted to build a device he believed could communicate with the dead (Edison was only 5 years-old, when this took place). However; there are claims that it was an idea that Edison predicted would come to be in existence in the near future. But I should state again - Edison did not attempt to build or experiment on such a device and I have been unable to find any truth to that statement, nor was I able to find any further information on Jonathan Koons or his EVPs. There’s a story that a friend of mine relayed to me regarding the EVP phenomena and its history. According to the story he relayed to me, in 1952, two Catholic Priests; Fr. Emetti and Fr. Gemelli, had accidently picked up an EVP while recording Gregorian chants on a magneto phone. When the wire kept breaking, Father Gemelli looked to the heavens and asked his dead father for help. To the shock of both men, his father’s voice was heard on the recording, calling him by a nickname that only his father called him and said “of course I will help you, I am always with you.” I did a little bit of research on the story and found a slightly different account of the events. According to CJ EVP Research and true-ghost-story.com; it was Fr. Emetti who discovered the EVP and was able to repeat the phenomena. Alarmed, he sought audience and counsel from Pope Pius XII, afraid that this might allude to spiritualism; which was definitely frowned upon by the church. The pope assured the priest, that if the phenomena were real and based on scientific fact, he would have nothing to worry about. Which account is accurate is really unclear, as I was unable to find more information on the story. But Fr. Emetti was a not only a priest but a Scientist, Physicist and Philosopher, which probably means he was a Jesuit, so it’s likely this sort of phenomena would have intrigued him a great deal. If anyone can find more details on this story I’d love to hear it. Friedrich Jürgenson; a Russian-born Swedish painter and film producer, was born in 1903 and by most accounts is said to have captured the first documented EVP. According to the Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia, in July 1959 Jürgenson was recording bird songs on his recorder and on play back, the tape was saturated with hiss and noise, so he could barely make out the birds singing. However; half-way through the tape there was high pitched signal that interrupted the noise and he heard what he thought was a human voice, speaking Norwegian. Immediately after the anomaly had played, the tape began functioning normally again and the chirping of birds was clearly audible. Other sources claim he was recording voices of the Chaffinch, which is one of England’s most common breed of bird and the voice had either been talking or singing about birds. Some accounts, I came across say he had been at his family’s summer cottage when this happened, most accounts though make no mention of his location. There’s also no mention of Jürgenson’s proximity to any radio towers that might have interfered with his recording. What is known and confirmed by most sources is that at first he thought his recorder had simply malfunctioned, subsequent recordings contained messages he believed to be from his dead mother. Jürgenson would later mention his experiences in a book that made a deep impression on Latvian Psychologist Konstantin Raudive. The two men began conducting further research into EVP’s, including collaborations with other scientists from 1964-1969; some of whom included noted scientists, Hans Bender of the University of Freiburg, and Friedeburt Karger of the Max Planck Institute in Munich. However, in 1969 Raudive and Jürgenson came to have differences in opinion and ended their collaboration; but both men continued their research independently. Raudive’s research became rather extensive and included of collection of over 100,000 recordings. He later published a book on the subject entitled; “Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead”. The book was translated to English and published in 1971.
Although the phenomenon is now most commonly referred to as Electronic Voice Phenomena, by those in the field of paranormal investigations , in the beginning they were generally known and referred to as “Raudive Voices”. It should be noted that traditionally the Catholic Church was opposed to Spiritualist phenomena, but the work of Jürgenson had been known to the Vatican since 1960 and despite his suggestion they were voices from the dead, the church considered the idea a possibility. In 1969 Arch Bishop Dr. Bruno B. Heim presented Jürgenson to Pope Paul VI for investiture as commander of the Order Of St. Gregory. However; the honor had been bestowed for his work as a filmmaker and had nothing to do with his research. Jürgenson died on October 15, 1987. American Photographer and purported medium Attila von Szalay was the first to attempt recording “voices of the dead” as a way to augment his research in photographing ghosts. Von Szalay began his research in 1941, using a 78rm record, but it wasn’t until 1956, when the reel to reel tape recorders had been introduced, that he believed he had been successful. Von Szalay collaborated with a gentleman by the name of Raymond Bayless and conducted a number of recording sessions, with a custom made apparatus. It consisted of a microphone in an insulated cabinet, which was then connected to an external recording device and speaker. They reported finding many sounds on the tape that could not be heard on the speaker at the time of the recording, some of which had been done when there was no one in the cabinet. Like others before and after them, they believed they were voices from the dead. Among some of the first recordings they took, included such phrases as “This is G!”, “Hot dog, art”, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You All” others included “help me”, or “get out”. The even recorded one that sounded like a teenage boy saying “wanna hear a fart?” afterward they could hear what sounded like a little boy laughing. Their work was later published by the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. In 1980, an inventor by the name of William O’Neil constructed and electronic audio device, called “The Spiricom”. O’Neil claimed the device had been built using specifications he received psychically from George Mueller, a scientist who apparently had died six years earlier. He later went on to hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 1982 and stated he had been able to hold two-way conversations with spirits through his Spiricom device. He even provided the design specifications to researches for free.
However; no one is known to have successfully replicated O’Neil’s results. O’Neil’s partner, George Meek (Retired Industrialist) had attributed O’Neil’s success and the failure of other researches to replicate his findings, to O’Neil’s mediumistic abilities; forming part of the loop that made the system work. There was no mention as to whether or not O'Neil had actual recordings from is device. If any exist I would certainly like to hear them. EVP researcher Sarah Estep founded the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena in 1982 and is located in Severna Park, Maryland. It is a non-profit organization with the purpose of increasing EVP awareness; as well as teaching standardized methods for capturing them. Estep began her exploration of EVP in 1976 and says she has recorded hundreds of messages from friends, relatives; even such notables as Raudive, Beethoven and extraterrestrials whom she speculated came from other planets or dimensions.
While the validity of these claims might be arguable, it’s clear the interest and study of EVPs continues to grow. I hope this has helped give you some insight as to where and when EVP’s were first recorded and documented. Raudive did more extensive work on the phenomena and I’ll be talking about those a little later on. Resources: The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research; New York: Paragon House, 1991. Authors: Arthur S. and Joyce Berger Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia, Copyright 2001. Gale Group Inc. CJ EVP Research True-Ghost-Stories.com Edison National Historic Site I would to thank the Edison National Historic Site, for their insight and help in getting the facts, their help is greatly appreciated. I would also include a very special thank you to my good friend Daan from Norway; who despite living in Mexico was able to track down a copy of the original recordings from Jürgenson and some of Raudive’s work. I’ll be posting some of those recordings soon. :) Copyright 2008-2009. Allrights Reserved. The El Paso Alternate Reality Project.
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