EVP Vs RVP - Genre Differentiation?

EVP Vs RVP

Electronic Voice Phenomena, all modern paranormal investigators and paranormal enthusiasts know the term and the basics of the theories behind it.

I am not going to go into the long history of the phenomenon here, that has been covered extensively in my other writings on Paranormal Investigators: Past & Present, nor am I going to delve into the Psychology behind it all, Auditory Pareidolia or Apophenia as I am not trying to prove or disprove EVP here.

For those that read this that do not know the basics of EVP, here is a brief summary.

EVP are recordings done on audio or visual equipment (via the microphone) that are sounds which resemble human speech, or other recognisable sounds to the human ear.

EVP's are often found in the static or white noise of the recording, or the pauses in-between conversations of investigators. It is thought these voices or sounds may be from the afterlife, spirits or ghosts, or whatever you wish to call them.

There has been a class system attached to EVPs which is as follows:

• Class A: The voices are clearly understood by all who listen and the words are somewhat loud and clear. Usually, 5 independent people who listen at separate times (so not to be influenced by other investigators opinions) have to agree 100% on what the spoken words are.
• Class B: Voices cannot be clearly understood. Tones are also very low and hard to understand.
• Class C: Voices are exceptionally faint and virtually completely incomprehensible which are most common and usually unacceptable.

At this current point in time, Franks box and “the Spirit Box” (popularised by TV show Ghost Adventures) have become very common tools in the kits of many paranormal investigators. No matter how hard people try and claim that these devices are picking up the voices of the dead, sceptics will always bring forth the fact they are broken radios, that sweep through radio signals and pick up broadcasts.

Not only do they pick up the radio, but also TV and CB radio signals and interference from other devices like EMF pumps.

What they are not doing is recording EVP's.

Why are they not recording EVPS You ask? - quite simply because of the reasons above.

I am going to take a massive leap here and coin a new phrase “RVP” Radio Voice Phenomenon, voices heard, or recorded from radio frequency scanning devices.

My guess is that this may create some controversy, but so be it, but I for one am sceptical about any device that can allow a radio signal to be its source of “intelligent conversation”, this is purely because it is easy to manipulate, can be readily interfered with by outside sources (like someone on a CB radio), our brains are attuned to listen for words which in itself is a source of Auditory Pareidolia or Apophenia and, in my opinion, the way we question the spirit box is much akin to the psychic who throws out the question “Is there anyone in here who has a relative who's named starts with M!?”

We are throwing out questions expecting a preconceived answer, and more often than not we will hear that answer within in the noise of the radio sweep when there is actually nothing there.

So, the point of this exercise was not to discredit the Ghost Box, because there is always the chance that this device is genuinely picking up the voices of the dead as theorised, the point of this exercise was to create terminology to distinguish between two very different types of phenomenon that are all too often put under the one title of “EVP”.

EVP and RVP are two very different types of data collection used by paranormal investigators globally and should be categorised as such. Both have different traits, different advantages and very distinctly different disadvantages.

I for one will now refer to any recording that is captured from a radio device, Franks Box, Spirit Box as an "RVP"

I expect there will be feedback on this, please refrain from outright attacks because they will be deleted, but please do offer constructive feedback on the terminology (not the device itself, or the reason it does/does not work) – I'm not looking to change the world, just to clarify genres of paranormal data recording into more intelligent categories and sub-categories...

Thanks

Allen Tiller

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www.allentiller.com.au

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au