This last fall I was so very excited and honored to be asked by Randall Keller, EVP researcher and paranormal investigator, to join him in an EVP experiment.  In the past I’ve thrown “no relation” in a set of parentheses after his name, but according to his research (the family tree kind, not the paranormal kind), we are third cousins, three times removed… but I don’t even understand what that means… so I just smile and nod. Cousins or not, in the last year I’ve known him as a great teacher and mentor, and I want to thank him sincerely for inviting me (ahem… and for putting up with me). As a fairly new guy on the scene, it is a great honor to be involved in this kind of research. Unfortunately we’ve not had the opportunity to shake hands since we’ve never been in the same geographic location at the same time (insert lame bilocation joke here), but we’ve done the telephone and online equivalent. We send the occasional smoke signal as well.

Spirit Bilocation… What is it?

Through our experiment, we hoped to achieve results that suggested bilocation in the spirit world was possible. In other words, we wanted to prove that a spirit could be in two different places (like Randy’s house in Maryland and mine in Missouri) at the same time, or be able to travel great distances instantaneously… and we’d prove it through EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena).

I believe Randy’s inspiration for this experiment came out of an earlier project where he began capturing EVP in cemeteries. He figured no one in the world would want to stand guard at their own grave site for all eternity, so since many spirits seem to be there to communicate when he records, it certainly suggests that it may be possible for them to show up if someone is paying them a visit. Are they able to be in multiple places at one time? And if not, do they just travel really fast?

The Experiment

So here’s a basic summary of what our experiment looked like. Using the same recording devices, Randy and I recorded for 30 minutes, 5 nights in a row, same time each night. We followed an agreed upon script that allowed for a few opportunities for improvised questioning, but was otherwise strictly timed and planned.  For the first 15 minutes I recorded in silence as Randy introduced the experiment and our intentions to any spirits present at his location.  During this time he asked these spirits to visit my location and to deliver specific answers or responses to my recorder. After 15 minutes passed, I began a similar process on my end as Randy recorded in silence.

One of the exciting elements to our experiment was that each night we agreed on what I like to call our “secret password”. For example, Randy would ask his spirits to deliver his middle name to me in Missouri while I would ask my spirits to share my middle name with him in Maryland. Each night was a different password. Similarly, each night I decided to throw a very random word on a piece of paper that was displayed next to my recorder. At some point during each session, even though I never said the word out loud, I asked for any spirit present to visit Randy and deliver the word from the paper. This was something I kind of just threw into the mix early on in the experiment. I didn’t tell Randy what word was on the paper until it was all over after the fifth night.

The next step was to review and analyze our own recordings, identifying what we felt were EVP or at least a classification that I like to use often, “possible EVP”. Anyone who follows my blogs or my thoughts on EVP knows that I have a hard time having the confidence to declare something as “EVP”. Even though there is no council or jury to say that I am right or wrong, I’m very careful and very analytical about it. Yes, it is annoying… but Randy still likes me (I think). So when it came to the last major step in our experiment, to compare and agree on our joint EVP, it was a challenge for me… but a great learning experience. Randy then put together an amazing timeline of events for each session, including questions asked and EVP responses that were documented. This way we could easily see if responses matched up to a question being asked on either end.

Our Results

Though we did capture EVP, most of which were from Randy’s side of the experiment (this was not a surprise), we did not capture clear evidence of bilocation. We did, however, capture one of our “password” responses on Randy’s end. Randy recorded a response of “Keith” during the session where I asked spirits present to deliver my middle name (Keith) to Randy. Really cool… but not enough to shout “Bilocation is possible!” But this certainly doesn’t mean it is not possible. We just have more work to do.

More to come…

I’m not sure I was completely prepared for the amount of work this experiment actually took. With a full-time job and other paranormal research happening at the same time, it really takes a nerd and a lot of time. But as I said before, I learned a lot through this process. And guess what? We’ve decided that we’re taking what we learned and will soon be organizing part two of the experiment, which will happen this summer! This time Randy is going to work me even harder. Stay tuned for more info on part two!

Randall Keller

I encourage you to check out Randy’s Voices Podcast, episode 55, titled “Is Spirit Bilocation Possible?” to get a more thorough explanation of the experiment from Randy himself. You can also visit www.RandallKeller.com, his The Voices Blog, and The Voices Blog Unplugged. Tell him Patrick sent ya. Actually, tell him my middle name, which is “Keith”. On second thought, both of those ideas are really dorky. Just go visit Randall Keller! 🙂