What Are EVP's?

Many are interested in ghost investigations, but like many fields the prolific use of acronyms can make newbies' heads swim in confusion. EVP stands for electronic voice phenomena, and is something that many ghost investigators actively use. An EVP is a voice recording not of natural origin, that typically shows up in the background of an audio recording. Many EVP's are only detectable once the sensitivity of the recording device has been increased. As with most paranormal investigative techniques, EVP's are controversial with skeptics.

EVP's are popular with many amateur or rookie investigators since they are something basically anyone can do. I will not get into the how-to's of EVP recording, but really all you would need would be a recorder. Other electronic devices can be used to record EVP's. A word of caution, though: as with Ouija boards and other methodologies for contacting the dead, EVP's have been known to be addictive for some people. There have been cases of those who have been so obsessed with recording EVP's that they dedicate hours a day to recording and then listening to their recordings. This obsession was dramatized in the 2005 movie White Noise starring Michael Keaton.

If you are interested in conducting your own investigation and want to record EVP's, keep in mind the experience can be a very interesting one. Most EVP recordings are brief. Some people become very disturbed to find there are multiple entities living in their very home that they were completely unaware of. Others become frightened by the things recorded on EVP's captured in their own house. There are many sites on the internet where you can go to listen to EVP's recorded by others, many of them posted by established ghost hunting organizations. The recordings can range from humorous, odd, to downright threatening. If you still want to move forward with recording EVP's, I would suggest looking over the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena's website listed below. There is good information on the site about how to not only record but also analyze what you capture.
For more info: The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena - www.aaevp.comHere is a link to a very interesting and long EVP recording (worth the wait to download) - http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghostaudiovideo/a/aa101507.htmA page with some examples of more common EVP's - http://theshadowlands.net/ghostwav.htm