Are you fascinated by the EVP examples you hear on your favorite paranormal television shows? Have you ever wanted to learn just how to conduct an EVP session? Or maybe you’re already actively involved in an area of spirit communication, but you’d like to learn about someone else’s process and hear a new perspective on EVP. In this episode, I share the techniques that I’ve learned and use in my research on Electronic Voice Phenomena.

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How to Record EVP: The Session

There are many many ways of recording for and capturing EVP. For decades, people all over the world have successfully recorded spirit voices in their own individual way. There are basic techniques and there are techniques that are rather complicated, some requiring more equipment and more explanation. There are also techniques that due to times changing and new technology, are just outdated. 

My experiences with EVP began as a paranormal investigator, but more recently it comes from research and conducting various experiments and seances, mostly in my home. 

I want to make it clear that my intention for this episode is to share how I typically go about recording for EVP during experiments in my own home, specifically. The process might be a bit different during a paranormal investigation, especially if you are investigating with a group.

And before I really get into my process, I have to give some credit to the following researchers/authors who have influenced me in recent years: the late Sarah Estep, one of America’s great EVP pioneers; Tom and Lisa Butler, directors of Association TransCommunication; and Randall Keller, a wise and experienced researcher who has been a great mentor. And he’s also a former guest of the podcast, from Episode #8 from August 14, 2014. A lot of what I know and the “how to” came directly from these folks in one way or another.

My technique for recording EVP

Determine your location/recording environment

• Quiet and comfortable
• Avoid bad energy/pick a feel good place
• Be familiar with your surroundings (noises and sounds)
• Ideally, you will want to record when you are alone in the house or location
• Document the location and details of others in the house if you’re not alone.
• Pick a time of day where the neighborhood (if that is an issue for you) is at its quietest. 
• Document specific equipment you’re using (if it’s out of the ordinary).
• Document anything you may be trying or changing as far as technique goes.
• Document anything odd in your surroundings for a session. 

Recorders and their placement

• Use a digital audio recorder with USB capabilities
• I use the Sony ICD PX-820 and Sony ICD PX-720, and they’re nearly identical. They’re also old models, so don’t go looking for them on Amazon, unless you’re wanting a used one. I also use a nicer and techier Tascam DR-07 with an external Tascam microphone.
• In my opinion, it is important to use two recorders at the same time for sessions. These recorders should be different models or brands. This may help you to rule out questionable sounds that could be picked up or more easily explained in another recorder. 
• EVP are not often recorded in multiple recorders at one time. If I hear something or a voice out-of-place in one recorder, but not in the other, I’m more likely to believe it is truly paranormal and possibly an EVP.
• Place your recorders near you, probably on opposite sides of the room, but far enough away where you won’t hear your every breath.
• Using headphones or ear buds? Maybe. Maybe not. 

Advice for saving time and frustration later

• Starting both recorders at the same time (or close to it) will be very helpful when comparing time stamps during analysis.
• Get in the habit of “tagging” while investigating or during an EVP session. 

Just before the session

• Brief meditation or prayer.
• State intentions. I invite spirits/guides/loved ones to help in sending or inviting appropriate spirits to help with research and to learn about life on the other side.
• Sometimes before a session I’ll simply play relaxation or meditation music lightly in the background to help me chill out.
• Be in a good place or frame of mind when practicing any form of spirit communication.

The Actual EVP Session

• Click record and allow for at least 30 seconds of silence.
• Re-state verbal request for protection/invitation 
• State the date and time
• Briefly describe the equipment used and where it is placed
• Document anything unusual in the environment
• Once again state intentions
• Begin by asking some basic identifying questions.
• Give 100% respect
• Don’t interrogate.
• Don’t assume you’re smarter because you’re alive.
• Don’t assume they want or need your help.
• Don’t assume they’re miserable.
• Don’t assume they’re “earthbound”, troubled, or in need of help.
• Do not jump to the conclusion that because you’ve captured an EVP, your home is haunted. Some very impressive and historic examples of spirit communication have come from spirits reporting to be communicating from a kind of station used for communicating from the other side.
• Further questions might be more specific, possibly relate to a specific spirit, or be no different than elements of a conversation you’d have with a living person.
• Allow plenty of time (20 to 30 seconds) in between questions.
• If you have a complicated or deep question in mind, consider breaking it up into smaller chunks.

If you experience activity during the session

• I don’t always instigate it, but as you may know from a previous episode of the podcast, often I get spirits who like to let me know of their presence by knocks or “rapping”. I guess it’s just the best way for some spirits to communicate with me. When this happens, I roll with it, and I try to continue the communication through the rapping. In my opinion, this kind of communication is just as fascinating and noteworthy as EVP.
• Sometimes at the end of a session I’ll ask for some kind of validation through touch or the moving of an object. If you’re comfortable with it, why not ask? I know that when I get two or three loud knocks or raps when I ask for it, or if I ever capture a recorder being moved across the table, I’ll be way more likely to be confident about any EVP captured in that session.
• To hear examples from my sessions where I communicate with spirits through rapping and knocking, be sure to listen to Episode #6 from July 30, 2014. 

Before ending a session

• Give any spirits present the opportunity to give feedback or suggestions to make the research, or the communication in general, more successful.
• Thank those present for their energy and presence and invite them to return for future sessions.

I think my sessions are longer than most people prefer. A typical session for me is 15 to 20 minutes. Just remember that depending on how thorough you are during the analysis of your audio recordings, it will take at the very least twice as long to listen and analyze as it took to record. Some of my more complicated and longer sessions can take a day or more to get through. And that’s just with one recorder. You get the picture. 

Other techniques and tools that you can combine with your EVP session

• The use of background noise, such as “white” or “pink noise”, or even taking advantage of explainable noises in the environment. Many believe, and some are convinced, that using background noise during EVP sessions may help entities to communicate.
• I will sometimes use a “spirit box” or any device that will help me practice the “radio sweep” method of capturing what is an example of “opportunistic EVP”. Avoid falling for pareidolia.
• One last tool that I tend to use now, won’t surprise most of you at all. But I will also spend some time in my session, often by myself, but sometimes with a partner, using the Ouija board. As of this date, after around 3 years of occasional use of the Ouija, I’ve yet to experience or capture movement on the board. With that being said, I have captured a possible EVP that I’ve shared with listeners in a past episode. This communication seems to say “Ouijee… board” after I asked “what am I touching” during a Ouija session. Pretty cool, if you ask me. That was in Episode #5 from July 23rd, 2014, and was my first interview with Karen A. Dahlman.

So as you can see… there are so many things you can do with an EVP session. You can have a very basic session, or you can be very detailed, go crazy with it, and pretty much make a full-time study of it. But as I always say, as long as you’re being respectful and have good positive intentions, there’s nothing wrong with it. Just be smart and have fun.

Perhaps in a future episode, I’ll get into how you can listen to and analyze your recordings, in search of those possible spirit voices.

Also in this episode:

Listener Feedback

Check out Todd Moster’s Kickstarter Project – The Afterlife Files

Sneak Peak at next week’s episode with returning guest, Karen A. Dahlman!

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