Best Way to Conduct an EVP Session

Having a set of standards or guidelines can be very helpful for Ghost Hunters, or Paranormal Investigators at any experience level. Guidelines can be especially valuable for creating a distinguished, high quality, somewhat controlled environment for collecting evidence.

In order to have the ability to discern between temporal sounds and voices from the beyond during an EVP session, you should set your EVP session up sensibly with a small group of 5 or less (the least amount of people is best, but never alone) and be sure that no one else in your group is wandering about in a nearby room or even outside the location your are in. Noise can travel in some surprising ways, so eliminating the possibilities of your own team contaminating the evidence is a crucial step in collecting quality data.

If it is possible take some time to just sit and listen to the sounds of the location you are at before you begin any type of serious evidence collection. This time taken to observe will familiarize you with the normal sounds to be heard at on-site like those of the building settling, nearby wind or water, people or cars that may pass by on the street, and the list goes on. When it comes time to review this familiarity will be helpful to identify any sounds that may be generated by natural sources.

Also inspect the location before you begin. Look for;

• Poorly sealed windows and doors
• Thin windows and doors
• Generators, furnaces, pumps and the like that may cycle on and off during the investigation.
• Nearby businesses like bars, or movie theaters that may close late at night forcing everyone out at a particular time.
• Areas at the location where sound may travel unusually from one floor to the next, echo, or just has some unusual acoustic properties.

* Highly Important: Make sure that you have batteries for your audio equipment, and fully charged ones at that, having spare batteries is also recommended. Be sure that you have used and are familiar with your audio equipment before you try using it on an investigation.

All of these things can aid in picking up phantom voices and noises that are not supernatural.

When your small group finally gets down to the act of attempting to communicate with something unseen there are a few simple rules that further assist in making your review process more conclusive, and simplify sorting out the explainable.

1. Make sure you have started recording with your voice recorder.
2. Tag the recording when starting. Say something like, "This is Joe at the haunted mansion, in the study on Sept 10, 2011 at 10:30pm with Judy, and Ben". It is also a good idea to occasionally tag the time throughout your recording every 1/2hr to 45min or so. These tags help to ensure that your audio clips are identifiable during review.
3. Don't Whisper! There are a few reasons for this; whispers sound creepy when recorded, distort your voice, and may not have been heard by others in the group when said. During an EVP session Either speak up and speak clearly or do not say anything.
4. Tag identifiable noises as they are heard, ex: If someone is to cough, kick something, adjust in their chair, whisper (my personal favorite), or make any similar type of identifiable sound say something like, "Joe just fell on the stairs", as it happens.
5. Ask to the point easily answerable questions, ex: What is your name? What is your favorite item to move? Is it cold where you are? Do you like scaring people? It is widely believed that for an entity to communicate an incredible amount of energy is expended on their part, making it highly unlikely that they will be able to answer a huge open ended question successfully.
6. When a question has been asked give a moment of silence to allow for an answer. If something is trying to communicate it will be very clear if it is to answer in the allotted space. If you continue right into another question the answer may be missed.

Following all of these guidelines should be helpful in making sure that if there is truly something that is willing to try to communicate from some other reality you will catch it, and be confident that when you do it,s for real.