Electronic Voice Phenomenon

Electronic Voice Phenomenon

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are supposedly not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings. Common sources of EVP include static, stray radio transmissions, and background noise. Recordings of EVP are often created from background sound by increasing the gain (i.e. sensitivity) of the recording equipment.

Interest in EVP surrounds claims that it is of paranormal origin, although many occurrences have had natural explanations including apophenia (finding significance in insignificant phenomena), auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in one's own language), equipment artifacts, and hoaxes.

Parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, who popularized the idea, described EVP as typically brief, usually the length of a word or short phrase.

Read more about Electronic Voice Phenomenon:  History, Explanations and Origins, Organizations That Show Interest in EVP, Cultural Impact

Famous quotes containing the words electronic, voice and/or phenomenon:

    “The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.”
    —Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)

    ““Maman”, said Annaïse, her voice strangely weak. “Here is the water.”
    A thin blade of silver came forward in the plain and the peasants ran alongside it, crying and singing.
    ...
    “Oh, Manuel, Manuel, why are you dead?” moaned Délira.
    “No”, said Annaïse, and she smiled through her tears, “no, he is not dead”.
    She took the old woman’s hand and pressed gently against her belly where new life stirred.”
    —Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)

    “If you could choose your parents,... we would rather have a mother who felt a sense of guilt—at any rate who felt responsible, and felt that if things went wrong it was probably her fault—we’d rather have that than a mother who immediately turned to an outside thing to explain everything, and said it was due to the thunderstorm last night or some quite outside phenomenon and didn’t take responsibility for anything.”
    —D.W. Winnicott (20th century)