that's a good one I never thought of that before now if I look at it the board spells out but the recorder talks....how about the spirit box does that really work? or can it sometimes get interference like a baby monitor or walkie talkie where other people can listen and just say a few words or is the spirit box real?

I've gotten to see that a couple of times and sometimes there will be a show where someone will have a work with techs. I'm curious about the spirit box myself. As far as the with sensitives go good ones usually got either evp or pic around the moment they picked up on something.

i wonder the same thing about the spirit boxes. I've seen it used on GA show but really how accurate or reliable is it? I do find it interesting that from what I've seen on the shows it seems to respond with answers relevant to the questions being asked...pretty interesting.

PS: Thanks to everyone for jumping into the discussion...all responses have been interesting and helpful!

islandflower66 wrote:
From what I understand the ghost box flips through am channels and gives a ghost something to work with. Now what could make it give a false positive I don't know. It would be great to hear from the more technical folks how that works.

Yes, the Ghost Box (and I have one that I made myself) works by flipping through the frequencies at a rapid rate.

Basically the way you create one is by taking a normal radio that has the ability to scan for a signal and then stop. And you remove that barrier which tells it to stop. So what you've created is something that keeps scanning whether it gets a signal or not.

The best ones are able to scan on many frequency bands. AM, FM, and ShortWave (SW1, SW2).

Now, to address the question of their validity. The scientific side of me says that there is no way it can work. No spirit would have the know-how to manipulate frequencies in such a complex manner as to know where the radio is about to scan and then create an frequency modulated signal to produce a word or phrase. No way! I don't know any people who could do that in life or even know what it would take, much less do so after passing.

But, the observed evidence stands clear that there is in fact something to it. The number of instances in which such a device did yield "On Topic" responses is too large to be random. I built one just to find out if there was anything to it, and I went into it very doubtful that anything would come of it. But much to my surprise, on its maiden voyage we did receive some responses which were to direct questions. So now is that possible?

Here is my take on this. I believe it works a bit like a white noise generator. It creates noise which our minds can then use to matrix into a complete word. I also believe that the spirits or entities in the area can use that to help along their communication with us. Not all of us have a direct link to the other side. We can not all communicate and hear what is being spoken to us as clear as day. But as several new friends of mine have told me now, we all have the ability or should I say potential for it.

So I'm thinking that the white noise simply creates that bit of a push or pressure that our brains can use to link onto these communications and matrix the noise into a valid idea. That would explain why everyone in the room hears the same thing.

We somewhat breached on some of this in another thread: *HERE*

If this theory is true (and here comes the scientific side of me again) it should be verifiable. If you record a spirit box directly (not with a microphone since you don't want to hear the responses of the people in the room). And also record the responses of the people in the room separately. You now have two versions of a session, one with the responses of the people and one with the spirit box's output by itself.

Then after the investigation you combine the audio from the room where the questions are asked but remove the audio where the responses are given. Play that at the same time as the audio from the spirit box directly and lets someone listen to it. See if they come up with the same responses.

My guess is that they will not. That would go towards proof that it is in fact spirit entities interacting with our minds during the investigation to push us towards hearing a response.

I think I'm going to have to figure out a way to tap into the output of the spirit box and feed it into a Voice Recorder on the left channel, and then leave a microphone on the right channel so I can record the two streams and test this theory.

crystalcross wrote:


Several of the Zoom models have stereo mic inputs that could be used for that purpose.

I agree with you on the observations. It is really hard to completely validate but hard to dismiss. We have found that we actually hear less at the time of the session (or at least there will be more interpretations) and then we can sometimes hear more over the headphones later and still more listening to it over high fidelity speakers.

Case in point, on my first session...We asked it to say my name as a control question. At the time we thought we heard "Wes". We then asked it to repeat the answer. We heard it again. Wes is a pretty easy phonetic sound so we moved on. Upon review through head phones the second answer was "Wesley". A little more impressive, but still phonetically simple. Later we were playing the session over a decent set of speakers for some friends and they said "wow, so it said your first and LAST name". Upon further review you could indeed hear "Forsythe" clearly but buried deeper in the noise. Still, since I am not sure someone who had no idea who I was would have made that guess.

While I agree that the phonetic sequence could have easily been ignored had a casual observer heard it, I can't for the life of me bring myself to find another interpretation of the sequence knowing what was asked at the time.

I suspect the results are related to EM bursts (yes, there is actual research supporting the relationship of EVP to EMF) and don't have a lot to do with the actual RF signal. The tuner may be picking up the EM bursts and translating them into sounds much like it seems our digital recorders do, with the white noise acting as some type of carrier. This is more of a "that makes sense to me" kind of thing rather than anything that I would call a testable theory at this point.

Wes,

I'm intrigued. When you were doing the tests with recording the GhostBox output and playing the recording back afterwards. Did you ever have a separate groups of individuals listening to it than were at the investigation? The original group could be poisoned by what they already conceived of hearing. I a separate group which does not know what was heard the first time (control group) would be ideal to have listen to the recording.

Dying to hear the outcome!

That is our plan. We have only had two "productive" sessions. The box is still in my "research" phase. The other occasions I have tried it, we did not get an easily defined answer within a couple of minutes and we shut it down. As I stated elsewhere on here I am pretty sure if you listen to one long enough you will think you hear the Gettysburg Address. I also won't use it if there are too many active radio stations being picked up. Too many words and sounds would make it wayyyyy to easy for our minds to piece together what we want to hear.

I recently started helping to get a paranormal group back onto their feet (way too many members who used the TV shows as their training). I plan on using their members who might not attend a particular investigation/hunt but show up at a meeting as a reasonably untainted control group. They will know what they are listening to, but not necessarily what they are listening for.

A quick story: At one well known haunted "hot spot" in our area, we decided to to try to obtain the names of the three female spirits that are believed to roam the location. I am a big believer in dowsing rods and I incorporated them into the session. We would hear a name on the box and then "confirm" the name with the rods.

We got Ann and Christine on the first or second try (confirmed by the rods for those of us who believe in them), but NEVER could come up with a third name despite numerous attempts.

When I came home and reviewed the audio, the name Amanda was not only on the recording, it was PLAIN AS DAY and repeated MULTIPLE times during our multiple attempts. So I have to ask why could we not hear the name at the time despite it being plainly the clearest of the three upon review, and will this spirit EVER bother talking to me again because I had to be annoying the hell out of her.

We have two investigations scheduled this fall at the location. The box will definitely be a part of both.

I think anything used with the intent of "conjuring" an evil spirit may do just that. I don't believe Ouija boards are inherently evil or open portal etc. unless the user is attempting to do so. In other words I don't think evil entities need a Parker Bros. deal or product placement on the shelf at Walmart to enter into this world -they're just here - and it's one of those be careful what you ask for deals...so EVPs can be very useful tools in communicating with spirit and elemental entities in mho, but Ouija boards are just a game that result in unsupportable results...again mho...

BTW I think Candy Land is a pretty creepy game too!! lol j/k

nonakre wrote:


Good point although I would also add that spirits are drawn towards any means in which they can communicate with us. I make not claims of being a sensitive but I have talked to enough to know that spirits tend to coalesce around them. I imagine its a bit of a welcome for some spirits to be able to be heard by the natural world, and so they tend to crowd around those who can hear them.

I think the same can be said about Ouiji Boards. If its perceived as a means to communicate, then its likely to draw in some attention which you may not otherwise want. I think it a bad idea to simply "play" with anything that attempts to communicate with spirits or the other side. Its a good idea to be aware of the possible effects, side effects and repercussions. To go into it with your eyes closed simply to have some fun is like playing with matches. You may get out of it perfectly fine with no problem at all, but you're increasing the likelihood that you may get burnt.

As much as I fully encourage everyone to get into paranormal research and investigations themselves. I would be remiss if I didn't also advise caution and recommend that you first become aware of the possible side effects.