So it occurs to me today that as a paranormal investigator, most of what I do is scientific, and not “Psychic” (I have a HUGE Acoustical Science background – I was interviewed in the middle of January by Shure Microphones for their newsletter about sound and production), but not many people want to talk to me about the scientific part, so I thought I would make a quick comment about it, to clarify, since there seems to be a pretty intense reverse-prejudice in the paranormal investigation world against anyone who has a sixth sense.
Now, in a quick side-note, I think the aforementioned is just flat weird – you’re trying to prove the existence of ghosts, but you don’t want the help of someone who can see them and talk to them – that’s sort of like a hunter NOT using a bird dog, because he thinks it’s not REALLY a kill if the bird dog, not he himself, flushes the bird out of the bushes. That’s what good Psychics and Mediums do on paranormal investigations – we flush out the paranormal phenomenon so it can be captured with scientific equipment and turned into hard data. That’s what I did while investigating with the team in my film “Montgomery House: The Perfect Haunting”, and we got some GREAT evidence. Psychics and Mediums are the bird dogs in the paranormal investigative field, but for the most part, we are regarded as taboo, since it’s wonky enough to tell people you “hunt ghosts” – so why add “ and meet the PSYCHIC on our team…” to one’s already teetering credibility to the mainstream world – lol!
That being said, most of what I do as an investigator, after flushing out the spirits, is in the “post-production” part of ghost hunting, which is the bulk of it -- evidence review. I am really lucky to have been blessed with ultra-sonic hearing
– okay, not really “ultra-sonic”, but it’s crazy good, which is why I have, again, been blessed with a prolific career in sound as a music producer, sound designer, engineer, and of course, an artist. Because of that background in production and engineering for 20 years, I know a ton about acoustic behaviors of sound waves, so in our group, The Western Pacific Paranormal Alliance, my primary job is to listen, and then be able to separate the EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomenon – disembodied voices not always heard by the naked ear but caught on digital media) from the background noise. “Separating Frequencies” is my middle name
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I’ll save you the whole hoopla, but in effect, there are a LOT of EVP’s that go “uncovered” – a majority, in fact -- because folks just aren’t sure what they should be listening for, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. In fact, I’ve been watching staple paranormal shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures, and I drive Jenny crazy because I’m constantly whacking her in the arm saying “OH!! Did you catch that? The ghost said ‘I’m Here’! “ And she thinks I’m on crack (“What are you talking about, that’s all hiss!”) until they replay it back and filter it out, and there it is. Sometimes they will do a replay of the EVP, and sometimes they don’t, indicating to me that they didn’t catch it, or maybe didn’t want to spend the airtime on it. As such, I’ve done audio evidence review for plenty of different groups, and they were always amazed at the AMOUNT of EVP’s that they *actually* caught, but weren’t aware were there.
Granted, there’s a lot that goes into EVP evaluation, and I’m certainly not slamming on anyone who takes the time to review them, or trying to paint myself as better than any other human on earth at picking them out. I just have a lot of experience with listening for certain frequencies, in both the studio and post-production. Sound has been my life, and it comes in REALLY handy when in evidence review.
In fact, many, many EVP’s are missed because people apply one or two filters thinking that will do the trick, but often times they’re shooting blanks because the frequencies that the EVP’s are produced on will vary dramatically from entity to entity, and a “standard” noise filter doesn’t even begin to nick the surface, or worse – the EVP will be eliminated altogether because it is in the hiss range that is being removed. I understand why those are applied, though, because if a person didn’t know what they were looking for based up on the variables in the environment (if you’re versed in this area, even if you weren’t there, you can listen to a recording of someone talking, and tell them approximately how high the ceiling was, approximately where the opposing walls were, approximately what size the objects in the room were that are baffling the sound as they move around to investigate, just from the way the sound in the room echoes ) anyway – if a person was going hit or miss with filters, they could literally spend days and days on one 30 second audio segment, so I’m sure that there is a practicality to the way people listen and evaluate.
However, there are certain overring characteristics that an acoustic environment can create – and if you’re well versed in those sound behaviors, you know what to look for immediately, and what to rule out as “noise” immediately, so what might take days and days to hunt and peck for, takes about two minutes to narrow out and start after, and another two minutes to separate the frequencies and make the EVP’s pop. Like it or not, caught by the human ear or not, sound waves are sound waves, and they all behave the same way.
SO – yes, I happen to be a Clairvoyant, and in addition to applying my Acoustical Science background in the field, I happen to do Psychic bird-dog work Paranormal Investigations. You can be both -- I am a Psychic, and an acoustical sound engineer, with years of audio evaluation experience and a studio full of sound evaluation programs, and I bring my ears to the to the table out in the field, and afterward in evidence review.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. And I have been thinking heavily about starting a blog about EVP evaluation -- for instance, did you know that “ghosts” don’t exist in the same frequency bandwidth as we do, and that’s why we can’t see them? They are out of phase with us, speaking in terms of wavelengths. They’re a little faster, or a little slower, and often, their voices caught on media reflect this out-of-phase difference. Did you also know that if you know how to listen for out-of-phase phenomenon, what you may dismiss as a “thunk” or “gurgle” can be a full sentence, if just slowed by even 80%? I’m telling you, I’m a virtual *wealth* of knowledge that no one but sound science or paranormal geeks everywhere would appreciate – LMAO -- but I really think that if people knew what to listen for, the field would rapidly advance in evidence display.
So thanks for listening, and remember, all you paranormal enthusiasts, be NICE to your fellow Psychics and Mediums!! We’re not ALL un-reputable ambulance chasers -- LOL
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