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.
Stan: Look, my friend Kyle won't fly back home to Colorado. All I need you to do is just talk to him and tell him, you know, the whole talking to dead people isn't for real.
John Edward: Maybe it is for real.
Stan: Right, but it's not. It's a trick you do and I need you to just let my friend Kyle know that so he can go on with his life.
John Edward: Look, people have the right to be skeptical. I really hear voices in my head.
Stan: Yes. We all hear voices in our heads. It's called "intuition." Get over yourself and tell my friend it's just for fun.
John Edward: Look, what I do doesn't hurt anybody. I give people closure and help them cope with life.
Stan: No, you give them false hope and a belief in something that isn't real.
John Edward: But I'm a psychic.
Stan: No dude, you're a douche.
John Edward: I'm not a douche! What if I really believe that dead people talk to me?
Stan: Then you're a stupid douche
John Edward: I think I've had of your bullying me! Get out of my house or I'll runs upstairs, lock myself in my panic room and call the police!
Stan: I'm nine years old.
My old man, not one noted for psychic abilities, told me years ago; “Johnny... when you're dead... you're dead for a long time.”
Haven't seen anything to prove him wrong.
Hmmm. I thought the headline said "Votes from beyond (Electronic contact with the dead)" -- talking about the Florida voting.
And they are right.
They have been doing this since wire recorders. Who knows, maybe since Edison's wax recorder. The voices between the sounds. It is also possible to see faces in clouds and trees and get others to see and hear the same thing. It's what the brain does, it makes sense out of data.
"So whaddya know, not only do they vote, but the dead now speak!"
Hey, how do you expect them to "vote" if they can't say how they want the ballot marked? Seems though that only the cheatscape Dims have this technology perfected for balloting purposes.
Next thing you know, DemocRATs will want to let "the spirits" vote!!!
That's the name of my next band!
Electronic voice phenomenon is the alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices...[.]While it is impossible to prove that all EVPs are due to natural phenomena, skeptics maintain that they are probably due to such things as interference from a nearby CB operator or cross modulation. Some of the "voices" are most likely people creating meaning out of random noise, a kind of auditory pareidolia or apophenia.
Democrat + electricity = Assinine assumptions..
Democrat + electricity + FR = ZOT
ping.
==========================================
When my father passed in 1994, I dreamed of him almost every night for about six months. One dream remains vividly in my mind. We were sitting in his study in Baltimore, as we had on numerous occasions, just talking. Every detail of the study was there, in full color, sound, placement. "Dad, what's it like being dead?" I asked. "It's not bad...you know Jeanette is here, too, he replied." (Jeanette was his second wife, who died six years before. "Really?"
"Really. But we don't talk much."
"Why not?"
"Well, we know each other so well there really is not very much need to speak, and 'speech' is difficult here," he answered.
That's all of the dream I recall. It had the vivid verisimilitude of reality.
I know that dreams of the recently deceased are common, and that they decrease over time--but I will remember that one until I join him.
--Boris
I never think of these great moneymaking schemes first. :o(
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.
The son's lack of communication sure makes a whole lot of sense.
maybe it's just me, my own pet peeve or something. have you
ever noticed how these groups sponsor "workshops" , form "task
forces" and use "toolkits" ?
You mean it didn't work????
I've heard clips of this stuff too and it is very erie. ITC (Instrumental TransCommunication) is the field of psychic research this falls under. I think the Belgians have a big lab where they've done some experiments.
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