How to Increase Success in Gathe

How to Increase Success in Gathering Audio Recordings

Taken from Jeff Dwyer's question of the week. good info so I placed it here!

I use the Technical Method of ghost hunting. How can I increase my success in gathering recordings of audio phenomena?

For the past two weeks I’ve been writing about people who seem to trigger audio phenomena quite readily. They have been called “EVP magnets” because they get audio recordings of ghostly voices so easily that it seems as though they attract ghostly audio activity. A better term, of course, is “EVP trigger” because, in reality, those people are triggering audio that was imprinted on the environment in the past.

An even better term is “EAP trigger” because the audio phenomenon is often something other than a voice. It may be a door slamming shut, footsteps, breaking glass, a gunshot, a musical instrument, ship’s horn, or a bell. Thus, I recommend the term, Electronic Audio Phenomena. It makes more sense than calling a recording of an Indian flute an “electronic voice phenomena.”

For those who use the Technical Method –and shun the Psychic Method - of paranormal investigation and ghost hunting, there are ways of improving success in gathering audio recordings.

Use a parabolic reflector: if you’ve watched football games on TV, you’ve seen technicians standing at the side of the field holding a device that looks like the familiar satellite dish that many people use to get TV signals. These dishes gather audio in the form of sound waves and focus them on a sensitive receptor. They might increase you luck in gathering sound waves generated by ghosts if you believe ghosts make EAP in that way.

Most paranormal investigators with a solid knowledge of science believe that EAP or EVP are generated by direct influence of the recorder’s electronic circuitry by the ghost or electromagnetic fields generated by the environmental imprint, not through the transmission of sound waves that pass through the air to a microphone.

Multiple recorders: if you believe that a particular location is paranormally active, use three or more recorders. Place one directly on the most likely “hot spot” such as a rocking chair known to be a favorite of the deceased whose spirit you seek, old hospital bed, etc. Place two or more recorders nearby. If EAP is generated by “leaks” of electromagnetic energy, one of those recorders will pick it up. It is a numbers game; if you travel a great distance –say, San Francisco to New Orleans -- to investigate a haunted site, why would you do so with very limited instrumentation in the form of one audio recorder?

Use EMF emitting devices: some ghost hunters get more audio recordings if they “super-charge” the environment by using devices that emit electromagnetic energy. I know investigators who believe they get better EAP if they polarize molecules in the air or ionize gases. Theoretically, this creates a path by which a ghost may directly influence the electronic circuits of the recording device.

Repetitive Investigation: This may be the single most important way investigators increase their success in gathering EAP. If you have discovered a haunted site, don’t limit your investigation to one or two visits. I’ve heard ghost hunters brag that they’ve investigated 300 places in the past two years. Really??? You can’t possibly do a thorough investigation of 300 places in 700 days. I would be more impressed if they said they investigated 10 places in two years by visiting each one ten times.

The typical trend among amateur and some celebrity ghost hunters is that they investigate one place for 2 to 10 hours then leave to review their pictures, video, and audio recordings. A single follow-up visit may or may not happen. Usually it does not happen if spectacular EAP are not obtained. You must have patience to be a good (and successful) investigator, and you must be FOCUSED. A single visit to an allegedly haunted location is merely “glance” or snapshot.

Sound Editing Software: many ghostly voices and paranormal sounds are missed when the playback is done with the recorder’s speaker or a set of earphones. Invest in high quality audio editing software such as Adobe Audition. You will be amazed at your recordings once you become skilled in using simple processes such as noise reduction and bandwidth editing.