Sound devices are slowly replacing the Ouija board and for good reason; they work better.
The devices that I am talking about can do both what I like to call electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and two way transcommunication (2TC).
Electronic Voice Phenomena is very common and I am sure that you as a reader already know what it is. For those that do not, EVP is a recording that was not heard during the time of original recording. In other words, you talk to yourself on a tape recorder in a haunted location with thirty second gaps of silence and on play back, you hear things on the recording that you did not hear with your own ears.
EVPs can be done on both cassette recorders and digital recorders. Neither has an advantage over one another; cassette allows you to have a hard copy and digital is easier to hear. (We will go over this more in the equipment chapter.)
The theory behind this phenomenon is that the energy by which spirits manifest is able to manipulate the audio signals and create sounds. Since we know that a sound wave is nothing more than energy, it does not take much for them to rearrange the patterns to make a sound. They often come out as weak sounds since there is obviously energy lost in the rearranging of sounds. After all, it takes energy to reshape energy.
Sometimes you may even hear what sounds like your own voice come back on the recording or that of someone with you. The thought is that they can recycle the energy by using syllables in a different pattern.
In two way transcommunication, there is a device that creates sounds and pumps them out into the environment. Some examples of these are Frank’s Box and “The Shack Hack.”
While I am not experienced in Frank’s Box, I do own a “Shack Hack” which is nothing more than an AM/FM radio that has no way to stop scanning channels. It has been modified so it constantly scans the bands and pushes out loud clicks as it does this. The name comes from the popular model of radio that one can find at their local Radio Shack store.
The thought is that these sounds create sound waves, which are energy, and then can be used to create sounds and voices in the steady pattern by manipulation. This correlates to them recycling voices in the environment.
The usage of one of these devices is simple: you ask a question, you get an instant answer.
You ask a question such as “how many spirits are here with you?” and in the constant clicking of the scanning machine, you might hear what you think is the word “four.” Of course, the radio picks up sounds as they are broadcast and you might have caught a sports score or someone stating that President Obama is for tax cuts.
While my mind’s jury is still out on a decision for the “Shack Hack,” a lot of people in the field are using them. I still find it a bit hard to say that it is evidence of a ghost if I ask, “What is your name?” and get a radio station clip of someone then saying “Chris.” It is consequential but not evidential.