Q & A: Haunting Voices & Ghostly Leverage
October 8th, 2007 by John WolfeQuestion: Since you mentioned disembodied voices in one of your recent posts and you’re devoting October blogging to ghosts, there’s something I’d like to get your opinion on. Have you ever noticed that EVPs [electronic voice phenomenon] usually sound very strained and choppy in comparison with how clear disembodied voices sound? I’m not sure if you’re familiar with EVPs, but if so I’m interested in hearing your theories on what could be causing this.
Answer: Electronic voice phenomenon, for anyone that may not be familiar with this term, is an occurrence that can be captured on voice recorders. EVPs are not detected by the human ear (during their actual occurrence), even though people may be at the location at the exact time the voices are being recorded. Later on, when the recordings are reviewed, strange sounds and voices will often appear. Michael Keaton did a movie a few years back loosely based on this phenomenon called “White Noise.”
I’m no ghost hunter, but since I’ve experienced quite a few ghostly encounters, especially with disembodied voices, I’d love to share my opinion on this subject. I too have noticed that most EVPs I’ve listened to (either online or on ghost documentary programs) are very bizarre sounding. They appear to be extremely garbled, almost forced and often times the voices are very androgynous. The sound quality causes many people to automatically interpret the voices as malevolent. They remind me of those murder mystery movies where the killer/kidnapper cuts letters out of a magazine or newspaper to create a ransom note. If you could apply that visual to recorded sound, then I think it would fit EVPs quite well. It’s almost as if EVPs are being roughly cut out and pieced together by whatever form of energy is responsible for creating them.
On the other hand, disembodied voices (that we can detect at the time of occurrence with human hearing) usually have easily recognizable traits and sounds, including quite obvious sexual orientation. The voice quality is almost always far superior to that of EVPs and the force and strain behind the sounds are minimal. These observations could imply that whatever’s responsible for creating disembodied voices is present within our dimensional existence, possibly even imprinted upon it, while whatever produces electronic voice phenomenon may be located at a subtler realm, possibly a dimensional shift away.
Many EVPs appear to be responses to questions that are being asked by human investigators, but it’s quite possible that the responses are being generated by the thoughts that the investigators are thinking and not their spoken words, through a sort of mental telepathy. If the entities that produce EVPs (if they are produced by entities) exist within a subtler dimension, then they could be interpreting the thoughts of human investigators at that level and communicating back in a similar manner, and for whatever reason they are only being picked up by electronic devices.
There’s also a theory I’ve come across, that suggests the investigators themselves are responsible for creating the EVPs, not through methods of intentional trickery but through their own thought patterns. Again these are being somehow recorded through sound waves and imprinted on the recordings of electronic devices. But it’s extremely difficult to say how this would occur.
Another possibility is that EVP production could be directly related to an entities ability or lack thereof, to harness energy. Entities that (for whatever reason) seem to be less capable of communicating in a more purely audible fashion; can only do so through means that vibrationally carry their speech among other sounds. This is why you often hear about hauntings where voices can only be heard while water is running or during other sound interference.
There’s something strange about why EVPs can only be captured and heard through electronic means that have no greater capacity for hearing audible sounds than the human ear. I’m not sure that I’ve shed much light on the subject, but I do believe there is a major reason for the difference in electronic voice phenomenon and your typically audible disembodied voices- I’m just not sure what’s at the root of it.
Question: Do ghosts have the ability to directly impact or affect the lives of the living, through mysterious means?
Answer: You didn’t specify this, but when you say impact, I’m assuming you mean in a negative manner. I want to approach your question from the angle of self empowerment. I feel that if we allow ourselves to reach an extremely vulnerable emotional state then we can set ourselves up for many types of undesirable interactions, which can make their way into our lives. This is true physically as well as metaphysically. It’s similar to the wounded animal scenario. Once you’re down you will inevitably find others that are willing to continue subjugating you. If we allow ourselves to become a victim there will always be someone or something that comes along, obliging us to continue viewing ourselves in that role. “Victims” and “bullies” may appear to be polar opposites, but they have more in common than most realize.
They both are approaching life from a point of insecurity. The bully is only slightly more empowered than the victim, yet they are still matches for one another. Typically most haunting scenarios that seem to spiral out of control, in a negative manner, also revolve around a bully and victim scenario. The first step in ending such scenarios begins with taking control over how we feel and how we see ourselves.
I don’t believe that ghosts have a mysterious ability to leverage some undercurrent for magically controlling our fate. In worst case scenarios you may see extreme poltergeist activity, but on the average ghostly interactions are benign. Although ghosts appear to exist in a misty realm, if they wish to contact us they still have to interact with our awareness through methods that involve aspects of our physical senses, even if it is the sixth one. If we can’t see it, feel it, or hear it, that doesn’t mean it’s not around us; however it does mean that it’s not affecting us. Our reality is shaped through our awareness and if we are incapable of bringing something into that awareness, then I feel its power of influence over us is nonexistent.
And that does it for this question and answer installment. I would like to thank both of the individuals that sent in emails, for their questions and everyone that took the time to read this post. Please keep the spirits and haunting questions coming in, as I would love to do a couple more ghostly Q & A’s before Halloween. As always, your name will be kept private unless you request otherwise.
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