Electronic Voice Phenomenon or EVP for short is where voices and noises sometimes not heard by the human ear are recorded on various electronic devices such as audio cassette recorders, digital audio recorders, audio from video recorders and so on.

How these voices actually get onto the media for us to be able to play back when we did not hear it with our ears is still up for debate. TIPS has a theory that the energy given off by an object projecting itself in the form of a voice or noise communication my actually modulate the pickup sensor (dynamic mic, electret condenser microphone, etc) using low level magnetic or RF (radio frequency) energy.

Our ears are designed to pick up vibrations and differences in pressure which is then converted to an electrical stimulus in our cochlea and transmitted to our brains for interpretation. Our ears can hear roughly between 50 and 30,000 Hertz of frequency bandwidth. But that bandwidth consists of vibrations in the air. Did you also know that radio transmitters can also send out signals in the same frequency range? Government and other entities (pardon the pun) have been using VLF (Very Low Frequency) transmitters for decades. One application is for transmitting signals to submarines deep within the oceans where standard HF and VHF radio signals cannot penetrate.

Thinking about VLF radio signals, being magnetic in nature, is it not possible that a spirit or entity could give off magnetic frequencies similar to standard audible frequencies except they are RF instead? If that were the case, this magnetic energy would interact with the pickup sensor of a recording device in almost the same way as audible frequencies do with the exception of not being able to physically hear it without aid.

TIPS is currently seeking ways to test this theory. One such way is to use a coil of wire usually found on the diaphragm of a dynamic microphone attached to one recorder, while simultaneously recording on a similar recorder in close proximity. If its RF or magnetic energy then both recorders should theoretically hear the same thing, with the exception of the test recorder not hearing background noise. Another thought is to leave the coil inside the magnet on a dynamic microphone with the diaphragm material cut out to see if it is a difference of magnetic fields and not the sum that causes the audio to manifest.

TIPS is using several methods to record EVPs. We use Olympus WS-100 Digital Audio Recorders. In high quality mode (and you do not want to record in anything LESS than HQ) they will store about 4 and a half hours of audio. We place a recorder in each location of interest statically (we leave them there and don't move them). The reasons for having this many recorders going at the same time are first, to catch anything that might be in the area, secondly we want to see if audio heard in one area is also heard in another (this can validate outside noises so you can discount them), third, help determine the strength of the energy used to manifest an EVP (if an entity can be heard on one recorder it shows locality but if it can be heard on multiple recorders the strength of the energy used is indicated indirectly by proximity of recorders). Also beneficial is the fact that team members will be heard and observations recorded on the audio making note taking easier and with less errors.

In the hottest spots we use two recorders placed exactly 6 inches apart and started at the same time. The reason for this is simple. TIPS is trying to determine the general direction the EVP is coming from. Human ears are approximately 6 inches apart. We can determine on which side of our heads a sound is coming from by which ear hears the noise first and also the intensity of the sound. The same goes for audio recorders. The audio files will be channeled in the audio processing software so the right recorder plays on the right channel and the left on the left thus making it a stereo recording. In this configuration we hope to be able to hear if an EVP comes from one side of the room or the other. This may help in follow up investigations to help determine the best location to place the recorders next time, and also determine if the entity(ies) are mobile when making statements. I know this sounds trivial but its interesting data and sound scientific method.