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.
Eleanor is that you, Eleanor, Eleanor.......???
Thanks for the ping. Interesting reactions on this thread.
Ghost Ping!
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you [any one] that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, [or] that useth divination, [or] an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For all that do these things [are] an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
I was out a way-out-nowhere cabin near Jenner with some folks. It got to be about 2 in the morning... the guys had crashed. The girls stayed up drinking. We started getting tired, but we were still pretty buzzed... All of the sudden it got quiet. Really quiet... and we heard this kind of far-away howling... Periodic howling. One friend announced the sound was coming from a lone wolf howling in the distance. We all sobered up pretty quick.. for a 20 minutes we listened to that lone-wolf way out yonder until the buzz in my own head cleared.. and I realized the sound was coming from the woman's husband asleep in the next room. He was a heavy smoker.. and that noise was coming from his inhaling lungs.
I have long since realized there are many interesting ways we can find meaning out of a collection of sounds, moods, ambiant noise. And that a lone wolf was "speaking" to us, that night, through the man's sleeping body. :)
It won't work unless she says "breaker, breaker" first. Ghosts are really big on etiquette.
With this life being as short as it is, that time will be here before you know it.
I don't know what to think. As for the mother, if she needs to believe this in order to cope, who am I to argue? None of us know what happens after death. I just hope people aren't taking advantage of her.
LOL!
What a creepy story!
Except folks don't use CB's anymore.
Thanks for the ping!
Check out the reviews of the Ouija board game on Amazon.
Contact too MUCH electricity, and you can talk DIRECTLY to the dead!
Finally!!!
An explanation of 'Evolution'!
I read this post with interest as it touches on the subject of my latest book, "Voices from Beyond: The God Force, the Other Side, and You."
Communications with the other side, in all forms, are not usually what they appear to be. Are we now able to record these voices out of thin air? I guess soon, we won't need radio or tv. We can simply record whatever we want out of thin air.
As far as I am concerned, this is a serious subject that should be seriously discussed. If you do not agree with it, that's fine, but keep your cockiness out of it.
Got Proof??
Skeptics are just close-minded fools. They refuse to believe there are things out there that exist beyond science and explanation. They like to ridicule people who have seen such things as UFOs (even groups of people seeing them at the same time) and ghosts. I am of the ilk that if you do not agree, you simply say so and shut up, not run around calling people "tin foil hat wearers" or "nuts."
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