Electronic Voice Phenomena ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'I didn't say that it was possible, I just said that it happened!' Sir William Crookes To my surprise, very few people are aware of the dramatic leap which has occurred in communicating with the afterlife using high-technology. Whilst there are highly credible books by unimpeachable sources on Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP as it is known, the mass media never report it. Yet these most important findings reveal objective communication between those who live physically here on this earth with those who died and are now living in a different dimension. For more than 50 years experimenters all over the world have been tape recording 'paranormal voices'- voices which cannot be heard when a tape-recorder is playing but which can be heard when the tape is played back. Many of the very short messages claim to be from loved ones who have passed on. They are responsive, use the experimenter's name and answer questions. There are thousands of researchers around the world who have been researching this most fascinating psychic phenomenon. At the time of writing, the Internet search engine Google had almost 50,000 listings for EVP. It is particularly relevant to my argument since it follows strict scientific procedures and experiments have been duplicated under laboratory conditions by all kinds of researchers in many different countries. Persistent investigators get a powerful shock when they decide to investigate electronic voice phenomena because by using the proper method of tape recording they are likely to hear voices of loved ones or friends who have died. Colin Smythe and Peter Bander That's exactly what happened to Dr Peter Bander, a senior lecturer in Religious and Moral Education at one of the Colleges of the Cambridge Institute of Education. Peter Bander, a trained psychologist and a Christian theologian with an intrinsic hostility towards psychic phenomena, expressly stated before his investigation into the voice phenomena that it was impossible for those who are 'dead' to communicate with us. He said that it was 'not only far-fetched but outrageous' to even think about it (Bander 1973: 3). When publisher Colin Smythe asked Peter Bander to get involved with the voice phenomena in 1972, Peter's answer was unequivocally no. So Colin Smythe himself experimented on a tape recorder following the procedures outlined in Constantine Raudive's book, Breakthrough (1971). He asked Bander to put the tape recorder onto record for a few minutes. Then he rewound it and let it play. After ten minutes he was about to give up when suddenly, Bander says: I noticed the peculiar rhythm mentioned by Raudive and his colleagues ... I heard a voice .... I believed this to have been the voice of my mother who had died three years earlier (Bander 1973: 4). Later Colin Smythe published Voices from the Tapes in which there are four pages of photos showing different participants in Bander's later experiments. These were carried out under the strictest control conditions. On one occasion when EVP experiments were conducted in soundproof studios to eliminate extraneous variables and to filter out other stray broadcasts. In the space of 27 minutes some 200 voices were received. Comments from observers quoted in Bander's book include Ken Attwood, Chief Engineer of Pye who stated: "I have done everything in my power to break the mystery of the voices without success"; the same applies to other experts. I suppose we must learn to accept them (Bander 1973:132). Dr Brendan McGann, Director of the Institute of Psychology, Dublin said: "I have apparently succeeded in reproducing the phenomena.Voices have appeared on a tape which did not come from any known source". (Bander 1973:132). A.P. Hale, Physicist and Electronics Engineer stated: In view of the tests carried out in a screened laboratory at my firm, I can not explain what happened in normal physical terms (Bander: 1973:132). Sir Robert Mayer, LL.D., D.Sc., Mus.D. concluded: If the experts are baffled, I consider this is a good enough reason for presenting the Voice Phenomena to the general public (Bander 1973:132). Ted Bonner of Decca and RTE said: This is no trick. This is no gimmickry; this is something we have never dreamed of before (Bander 1973:106). The Pye Laboratory tests conducted by Colin Smythe and Peter Bander prior to the publication of Breakthrough were set up and paid for by the Editor-in-Chief of England's The Sunday Mirror. Ronald Maxwell, a reporter for the Sunday Mirror, had supervised the tests and had prepared a three page feature article with photographs which was very supportive of them. He was delighted that the electronics experts chosen by the newspaper had verified that the voices were genuine and that no trickery or fraud were employed. However at the last minute the extremely important article was stopped without explanation by the Editor-in-Chief who refused to have the story in the paper. As Peter Bander put it: "The experiment which had been arranged and paid for by The Sunday Mirror had yielded results which did not please the man at the top (Bander 1973:68). Maxwell and Cyril Kersh, the Features Editor, tried again a week later. This time they had collected information and statements from leading scientists including Mr Peter Hale. Again the Editor-in-Chief refused to publish it (Bander 1973:68). Pioneers of EVP Peter Bander's experiments were inspired by the research of Dr Konstantin Raudive. Dr Raudive worked in Germany to duplicate the research done by Friedrich Jurgenson who by chance in 1959 rediscovered the Voice Phenomena. Raudive's classic research under the English title Breakthrough (1971) was based on 72,000 voices he recorded. Work on the Voice Phenomena had actually started in the 1920's with Thomas Edison who believed that there could be a radio frequency between the long and short waves which would make possible some form of telepathic contact with the other world (Stemman 1975:98). It is worth noting here that the pioneers of radio and television, Marconi, Edison.;, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, John Logie Baird, were all convinced of the reality of spirit communication and were using their professional skills to demonstrate it. The first voices were captured on phonograph records in 1938 and on tape recorders in the early 1950's. Since the Bander book was published in 1973 the work has been taken up by thousands of researchers in many countries. The Vatican & the EVP Unknown to many Christians ¾ Catholics, Protestants and Fundamentalists - the Catholic Church has been actively positive and encouraging towards investigation of the Electronic Voice Phenomena. o Two of the earliest investigators were Italian Catholic priests, Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli, who came upon the phenomena by chance while they were recording Gregorian chants in 1952. o Father Gemelli heard his own father's voice on the tape calling him by a childhood nick-name saying 'Zucchini, it is clear, don't you know it is I.' o Deeply troubled by Catholic teaching in regard to contact with the dead the two priests visited Pope Pius XII in Rome. o The Pope reassured them: Dear Father Gemelli, you really need not worry about this. The existence of this voice is strictly a scientific fact and has nothing to do with spiritism. The recorder is totally objective. It receives and records only sound waves from wherever they come. This experiment may perhaps become the cornerstone for a building for scientific studies which will strengthen people's faith in a hereafter (Italian Journal Astra, June 1990 quoted Kubis and Macy, 1995:102 ). o Pope Pius' cousin, the Rev. Professor Dr Gebhard Frei, co-founder of the Jung Institute, was an internationally known parapsychologist who worked closely with Raudive, a pioneer in the research. He was also the President of the International Society for Catholic Parapsychologists. He himself is on record as stating: All that I have read and heard forces me to believe that the voices come from transcendental, individual entities. Whether it suits me or not, I have no right to doubt the reality of the voices (Kubris and Macy, 1995:104). o Dr Frie. Professor Dr. Gebhard; died on October 27, 1967. In November 1967 at numerous taping sessions a voice giving its name as Gebhard Frei came through. The voice was identified by Professor Peter Hohenwarter of the University of Vienna as positively belonging to Dr Frei (Ostrander and Schroeder, 1977:271). o Pope Paul VI; was well aware of the work being done from 1959 onwards on the voice phenomena by his good friend, Swedish film producer Friedrich Jurgenson, who had made a documentary film about him. The Pope made Jurgenson, a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory in 1969 for his work. Jurgenson wrote to Bander, a British voice researcher : I have found a sympathetic ear for the Voice Phenomenon in the Vatican. I have won many wonderful friends among the leading figures in the Holy City. Today 'the bridge' stands firmly on its foundations (Ostrander and Schroeder, 1977: 264). o The Vatican also gave permission for its own priests to conduct their own research into the voices- Father Leo Schmid, a Swiss theologist, collected more than ten thousand of them which were published in his book When the Dead Speak in 1976, shortly after his death. o Another Vatican-approved researcher was Father Andreas Resch who as well as conducting his own experiments began courses in parapsychology at the Vatican's school for priests in Rome (Kubris and Macy, 1995:104). o In 1970 the International Society for Catholic Parapsychologists held a conference in Austria and a major part of that conference was concerned with papers on the Electronic Voice Phenomena. o In England in 1972 four senior members of the Catholic hierarchy were involved in the famous Pye recording studio tests conducted by Peter Bander (Connelly 1995: 44). o Father Pistone, Superior of the Society of St Paul in England said in an interview after the tests: I do not see anything against the teaching of the Catholic Church in the Voices, they are something extra-ordinary but there is no reason to fear them, nor can I see any danger (Bander 1974: 132). The Church realizes that she cannot control the evolution of science. Here we are dealing with a scientific phenomenon; this is progress and the Church is progressive. I am happy to see that representatives of most Churches have adopted the same attitude as we have: we recognize that the subject of the Voice Phenomena stirs the imagination even of those who have always maintained that there could never be any proof or basis for discussion on the question of life after death. This book and the subsequent experiments raise serious doubts, even in the minds of atheists. This alone is a good reason for the Church supporting the experiments. A second reason may be found in the greater flexibility of the Church since Vatican II; we are willing to keep an open mind on all matters which do not contradict Christ's teaching (Bander 1974:103). o His excellence, Archbishop H.E. Cardinale, Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium commented: Naturally it is all very mysterious, but we know the voices are there for all to hear them (Bander 1974: 132). o The Right Reverend Monsignor, Professor C. Pfleger commented: Facts have made us realize that between death and resurrection, there is another realm of post-mortal existence. Christian theology has little to say about this realm (Bander 1974: 133). o Bander's book (1973: 133) contains a photograph of the Right Reverend Mgr. Stephen O'Connor, Vicar General and Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain to the Royal Navy listening to the playback of a recording on which a voice had manifested claiming to be that of a young naval officer who had committed suicide two years earlier. Ironically, Dr Raudive had recorded the same message independently at an earlier session. o Since the 1970s the Vatican has continued to sponsor extensive research into all areas of parapsychology including Electronic Voice Phenomena. o Recently Father Gino Concetti, one of the most competent theologians in the Vatican, said in an interview: According to the modern catechism, God allows our dear departed persons who live in an ultra-terrestrial dimension, to send messages to guide us in certain difficult moments of our lives. The Church has decided not to forbid any more the dialogue with the deceased with the condition that these contacts are carried out with a serious religious and scientific purpose (printed in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano - cited in Sarah Estep's American Association Electronic Voice Phenomena, Inc Newsletter, Vol 16 No, 2 1997 ) Clearly, the Church realizes that science is making enormous, inevitable, irreversible and cumulative progress which nobody is in a position to stop. For details on how to how to conduct your own experiments in technical spirit communication see World ITC. Alternatively you may like to contact one of these National EVP Associations: American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena. Email aaevp@aol.com Mail to 3415 Socrates Dr., Reno Nevada 89512 German Association for Transcommunication Research (An English version of the site is available) National Association of Transcommunication - Brazil (An English version of the site is available)