Electronic Voice Phenomena

This is the time of year when freaking yourself out is fun. There's all kinds of ways you can do it; going to a scary movie, telling stories by a campfire, watching election news coverage…lots of ways.

I don't get scared often, I just don't. True, I'll get scared in situations where old grannies slam on their breaks in front of me on the freeway and I think, "Oh my gawd, I'm going to die!" but not ghosts and goblins scared. Even watching a so-called scary movie like “The Ring,” I'm never really afraid. Startled at times, yes, but not afraid. I can be thoroughly caught up in the eeriness of the flick, but in the back of my mind I know that I'm sitting in a theatre with lots of other people, watching a fictional movie.

So I always look forward to something that can really freak me out. I was listening to a radio program recently and they had guests on from the Ghost Investigators Society. These people spend their free-time going to known “haunted” locations and recording ghost activity. Most of it is audio. They set up tape recorders in different rooms to try to record some EVP (electronic voice phenomena.) They claim they never hear anything while they're there, but afterwards, while going over the recording, they often hear voices. A lot of these recordings are up on their website, www.ghostpix.com. Some of the recordings are just freaky-weird; like when two of the ghost investigators are sitting by themselves in a graveyard with the tape recorder on, wrapped in blankets. One of them feels a tug on her blanket and she asks the other “Did you pull down the blanket?” and the other says, “No.” Then you distinctly hear a child's voice say, “I did.”

You know, this is all more disturbing than you realize. If ghosts keep talking after they're dead, some people will literally NEVER SHUT UP. Can you imagine Roseanne Barr haunting you? That loud, shrill voice endlessly complaining about white-trash nonsense. Who needs hell with that going on?

Of course, this all could easily be a hoax, and probably is. That doesn't stop it from being entertaining. If you'd like to spend an hour or two in the dark with your computer, it's a sure way to give yourself the willies. (Yes I know there are lots of easier ways to give yourself the willies, but watching J-Lo movies can get tiring.) Give this a try. Have fun with it. Get yourself spooked.