How to Record an EVP

Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) is one of the most compelling forms of evidence used to support paranormal phenomena. Paranormal investigators everywhere use EVP in an effort to validate claims of ghostly activity. You’d think that capturing voices from another dimension would require a lot of technical training and expensive equipment, but that’s not the case. After reading this article, you’ll have the knowledge required for basic EVP capture. And as far the equipment goes, it’s probably already lying around your house, or even already in your pocket (i.e. cellphone).

Before attempting to capture an EVP, make sure that you’re prepared for the possible aftereffects. Unless you’re prepared to deal with the realities of living in a haunted house, don’t attempt to capture an EVP in your home. As some of you already know, I learned this the hard way. Always be cautious and respectful when attempting to initiate contact with a disembodied spirit –you never know what kind of spirit you’re opening the proverbial door for.

According to many experts, EVPs can be recorded virtually anywhere: outside, inside, at the beach, in the office, in a parking lot –wherever. Although, that doesn’t mean you will record an EVP anywhere; the experts are simply saying that anyplace is possible. So, in other words, you don’t have to be in a ‘haunted’ location in order to record an EVP.

Things You’ll Need (for basic EVP capture):

• Recording device. Virtually any recording device will do. Some people swear by tape-based recorders, and some swear by digital recorders. I use my phone (i.e. digital recorder) to record EVPs and it works great. So, like I said, you don’t need and fancy equipment –just use anything that has a microphone.
• Headphones. While headphones aren’t necessary, they’ll make things a lot easier for you. While you’re listening to the playback of your EVP session, headphones are great when trying to listen for an EVP. EVPs are often faint, so a pair of headphones will help you pickup on things you may not have picked up with speakers.
• Pen and paper. When you’re recording, it’s good to have a pen and paper handy to document any unanticipated background noise. So if you’re recording and the doorbell rings, write down the sound and the time (elapsed time on recording device) the sound was made. This helps out a lot during the analysis.
• Time. The time consuming part isn’t the recording, it’s the playback and analysis. It could take 3 minutes or more of analysis for every 1 minute or recording time. You don’t want to rush the analysis because you could easily miss a compelling EVP.

The Steps:

1. Prepare the environment. Make sure you turn off any other noisemaking objects (e.g. TVs, radio, ringer on cellphone, etc.), or remove them from the room/vicinity (e.g. dogs, cats, etc.). Also, make sure to tell others in the room to be silent during the recording session. No one should be speaking whatsoever –that includes whispering.
2. Prepare your recording device. I recommend that you keep the device on some kind of surface; holding the device might cause interference.
3. Set the intent. Right before hitting ‘record’, make sure you state the something akin to the following: “If there’s anyone here with me right now, I’d like to communicate with you through this [the recorder] device. I will only communicate with positive spirits.” This does two things: it lets any disembodied spirits know that they can communicate through the device, and it helps protect you from any negative spirits.
4. Start recording. There’s two fundamental ways of conducting the recording session: you can run a silent session (i.e. letting the recorder run without asking questions), or you can run an inquiring session. I prefer the inquiring session, because the results can be a lot more validating than a silent session. If you’re asking specific questions (e.g. “What is your name?”) and receive a relevant response (e.g. “Casper”), the EVP will be very convincing.
5. Ask simple questions. When asking questions, it’s imperative that you ask questions that only require a simple response. Most EVPs are only a few words long at best –I’ve only recorded EVPs with one-word responses. So don’t ask complicated questions. The questions I usually ask are: “What is your name?”; “What year were you born?”; “What year did you die?”; “How old were you when you died?”; “Where were you born?”.
6. Space out the questions. It’s very important to wait at least 30 seconds in between questions –you have to give the entity time to answer. Our perception of time is a lot different than theirs; for example, 1 minute to us can be be like 5 seconds to them.
7. Analyze the recording carefully. Once you’ve finished asking your questions, that’s it –you’re done. Now all you have to do is listen carefully to see if you were able to pickup any anomalies. The analysis (listening to the recording) is just as important as the recording. If you’re not listening carefully, you can miss an interesting anomaly.

Remember, EVPs are usually faint and subtle. You should listen to the recording at least 3 times. It would also be ideal to have someone else give the recording a listen to. Someone else might be able to hear something that you couldn’t.

Similarly, If you think you captured an EVP, let someone else listen to it. It’s extremely important that you don’t tell them what it is that you think you heard. Have the person listen to it, and then ask them what they heard. If you ask, “Listen to this. You hear the word ‘broccoli’, right?”, you just corrupted your verification; the person won’t be listening with an impartial ear.

You now have the [basic] knowledge necessary to capture your own EVPs. Just don’t forget to really think about whether or not you’re ready and comfortable with the possible repercussions, especially if you’re recording at home.