Posted on 11/23/2004 8:17:53 AM PST by Kennesaw
Voices from beyond Proponents say Electronic Voice Phenomena help people cope with death, loss, grief
By BILL OSINSKI The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/22/04
Like many empty-nest mothers, Martha Copeland must get by with only sporadic contact with her grown children.
She thinks her daughter is better about staying in touch than her son.
Her son is in the military.
Her daughter, Cathy Amiss, has been dead for almost three years.
Cathy calls home frequently, Copeland says, communicating via a method labeled Electronic Voice Phenomena. This means that Cathy sends brief, mostly reassuring, messages from "the other side" by means of electronic devices, most often digital tape recorders.
"Mom, I'm right here," was the first message. Copeland almost fainted when she heard it, she said.
When she told others that Cathy was communicating with her "people thought we were nuts, or talking to the devil," she said. Cathy was killed in an automobile accident in December 2001; she was 20 at the time.
Nevertheless, Copeland has persisted. The basement of her Lawrenceville home has been turned into a center where she and her friends believe they can receive and record messages from the spirit world. She has a computer with noise-filtering software on which she has recorded hundreds of snippets of sound she believes are messages from Cathy.
One of those messages has been used to help promote "White Noise," an upcoming Hollywood thriller starring Michael Keaton that explores the world of EVP. Copeland said she also is writing a book about her experiences.
On a recent evening, Copeland led an EVP workshop for six other people at her home. After prayers, relaxation exercises, and meditation, the members of the group simultaneously hit the record buttons on their tape recorders.
"Cathy, please come through," Copeland asked. Others sought practical advice from the departed; still others simply called for any kind of a greeting.
After the five-minute recording period, the devices were plugged into a speaker and played back. The people searched through the static to find a message.
There were no "Class A," or very clear, sound bites. On several of the recorders, however, there were bursts of scraping noises that definitely did not come from the room during the recording period. Those bursts would later be analyzed on the computer.
Simply making the effort to contact the spirit world was comforting to some of the participants.
"We feel the workshops are healthy," said Kathy Malone, of Snellville. "Other people may not, but we do."
Judy Quillen, of Lawrenceville, said it bothers her when people tell her to "get over it," meaning the death of her daughter, 20-year-old Jamie Ann, in a 1997 car wreck. Quillen said she has gone through years of counseling and still participates in a bereavement support group.
"My life is a journey," she said. "I live in two worlds now — the real world and the spiritual world of grief." It lifts her spirit to get an EVP message from her daughter, she said.
Martha Copeland is a member of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, based in Reno, Nev. Tom and Lisa Butler, the co-directors of the association, said their group has about 300 members, most of whom have been able to use technology to receive reassuring messages from deceased loved ones.
"This is the most powerful thing in the world," Lisa Butler said, in a recent phone interview. "It's evidence that there's something past physical life."
Tom Butler said that while some people find affirmation for their religious beliefs in EVP messages, his association's approach is more technical than spiritual.
"It's all about evidence and fact, not religion," Tom Butler said.
Some people use EVP techniques for "ghost-hunting" expeditions, such as trying to communicate with the spirits in a house they believe to be haunted, he said.
However, the "most important and profound" use of EVP is to help people cope with death, loss and grief, he said.
Copeland said some of her relatives believed they had psychic gifts, but she never explored the subject until after Cathy died.
Cathy had, however. Copeland said her daughter and a cousin had made a pact that if one were to die, the other would try to communicate through the computer.
About a month after the fatal accident, the cousin called and said, "Aunt M, you have to come to my house. I have Cathy's voice."
Copeland said she was skeptical and a bit angry, but she went to her niece's house. The niece played a recording of a voice filtered out of background noise. It seemed to be saying, "I'm still here," Copeland said. To her, the voice was unmistakably Cathy's.
After that, Copeland launched herself into the world of EVP. Her husband helped transform their basement into a recording center, including an all-black "Spirit Room" where she and her friends go for meditation and distraction-free communication.
Sometimes, Cathy responds when they ask her to communicate, she said. Other times, the messages come unbidden, she said. Copeland said she always carries a tape recorder with her, to be ready to receive a message.
One year around Halloween, she got a message that said "Trick or treat. Cathy's here." Another time, she left the house and left the tape recorder on. When she got back, she saw that Cathy's dog had chewed up some furniture; on the recorder, she could hear Cathy scolding the dog.
"To hear her voice again gives me comfort," Copeland said. "I didn't ask for this; it just happened."
To her, the messages are Cathy's way of saying she's still present in the world she has left physically, Copeland said.
The dead have always been around us, but we can't see them," she said. "We've just never been able to pick up their voices like this before."
• For more information, go to www.aaevp.com.
Electronic OUIJA Boards? reach out and scam someone......This was on Art Bell the other night......
Cathy calls home frequently, Copeland says
Hi Mom, it’s me Cathy again. Listen I have this really great friend who lives in New Jersey and goes by the name ‘dead’ on the internet. It’s very important that you empty your savings account and mail the cash to dead! His address is…
Whatever helps the survivors get through their grief. I just hate to think that someone is getting rich by preying off of them.
Back in '96 or '97 there was a site that, for a fee, promised to take your e-mailed prayer, convert it to binary code, and beam it into deep space.
I'm still shaking my head over that one.
I think it's the voice of Marlena Dietrich speaking from a 10-year old grilled cheese sandwich.
Wow that is so weird. My dead grandmother keeps telling me to send all my bills to "dead in New Jersey". I hope Cathy's mom has enough to cover them all.
Thomas Edison was right! Who would have thought it! He was ahead of his time, having worked on this in the late 1800s or early 1900s. True fact! He did. (Of course it didn't and doesn't work) :)
Don't tell microshaft! I guess if this takes off, I'll see spam for "noise-filtering software to contact the dead" in my inbox among all those "enhancement" and "refinance" offers. It going to make fishing the emails from the guy in Nigeria, with the millions he wants to transfer to my bank account, that much more difficult.
So whaddya know, not only do they vote, but the dead now speak!
I just got a call from Cathy, she said she thinks you are so hot. I asked what that meant and she said, "Think about it!"
Now, as a Christian and as someone with more than 2 functional brain cells, I don't believe in this stuff for a minute BUT hearing clips of this is just about the creepiest thing I have ever done.
I think it's so creepy because humans are hard-wired for pattern recognition and the suggestion is that we are hearing the dead and well.......creepy!
I believe the dearly departed do watch out for the living. As for communication, there's no way to get messages to the beyond and back. We will have to wait for the reunion in the next life.
When the prophets get communication from on high, they always went to a "high" place - ditto the Shamans.
I'd be a little leery about communications coming thru in the basement ;o)
Yeah, but she talks nonsense. She said Kerry was gonna win.
ping
Sounds to me like someone is cashing in on other people's misery.
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