1. Take a US radio to another country.

2. Press the Scan Stations button.

3. As it scans, it will occasionally lock onto anything that resembles a recognizable signal and spit out bits of noise. Sometimes this noise might contain words or music.

4. Listen to this noise with an extremely biased ear. Latch onto anything that sounds like a real word. Use imagination to fill in missing words so as to fit whatever context you have created. Be sure to add it to video as written text so as to immediately influence anyone else who might be watching.

5. Get spooked.

6. Make a fool of yourself on the Internet. Votes: +68

So the ghost is a British Indian named Mike who says things like 'wanker' and 'oi'? This guy was so nervous, he was hearing things in the room before he turned even turned anything on. I think we can appropriately put this in the 'woo' category now. Votes: +3

Simple 'patterns in noise' illusion.
I like reversed 'stairway to heaven' much more ! Check WIKI if you haven't heard yet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairway_to_Heaven
I know people who believe it really is influence of Satan Votes: +6

Audio pareidolia. Votes: +10

It's difficult to be thorough when the answer seems so simple. I would chalk all of this up to pareidolia. It's unclear whether the voices Jamie is receiving while he's scanning are simply something on the radio, such as a talk show, or, more likely, the radio picking up interference from a CB radio or other transmitter. My old tube guitar amp used to pick up some really zealous, fire and brimstone preacher... which is neat until you are recording. Either way, there's some voice on the radio (a voice on the radio! of all things!) and he's reading more into to it than he should. I notice he doesn't mention the spectral pop music he is also picking up.

I am, of course, giving him the benefit of the doubt on all of this, although the voice that keeps "answering" him does sound similar to his own voice, and this would be a very, very easy trick for anyone with even a basic knowledge of sound editing and design. I'll assume Jamie is genuine.

Something else to be considered - and he points this out himself - is that he is taking a cheap radio-shack radio, running it through small speakers, recording it with a low quality voice recorder, and then compressing it so that he can put it on YouTube. That many levels of re-sampling on an already questionable sound can have serious consequences as to the quality. You can plainly hear distortion (not to mention that the sound constantly drops in and out), as well as other artifact (there's a lot of warble and background noise). This makes everything sound spookier and more mysterious than it probably does in real life. I hear lots of things when I scan my radio, but their source is usually pretty clear to me.

The sound quality relates to the presentation, and the presentation is the most telling aspect of this. First, he starts with the typical ghostly introduction sequence that has plenty of eerie images but no real relation to the video subject. Then he talks about how this "phenomenon" has freaked him out, all set to a creepy soundtrack. He doesn't question the existence of the spirits at any point, and in fact mentions that they follow him - just a tiny bit of bias, maybe? He seems to imply with his wording that the pocket radio is something special - it was sent to him, it's modified (as far as I can tell, the only real modification is that the radio continually scans without stopping...). Apparently, an average radio is now legitimate research equipment, as long as it comes from another country and can scan forever. His questions and the spirit's "answers" are posted as text in the video as well, which automatically colors how the listener processes the nearly random sound being thrown at him. If you listen to it without watching the video, there are lots of things to hear (I heard “Madonna” and “penguin” at one point). The entire presentation is constructed to make the video seem more ghostly and unusual than it is.

I notice, also, that he doesn't do any "communication" on video, and instead plays a previously recorded "interaction". I would bet that he was very careful to choose what section of the recording he put online. If I thought I was picking up the voices of the dead, I would record more than 3 minutes of it, as I'm sure he did. And even if that was the best stuff he got, the "answers" he hears are, shall we say, questionable at best. Despite his claims to the contrary, the spirit's responses are not particularly sensible. As far as I can tell, the ghost Jamie is talking to is either Mike, Martin, or some Indian, and Indian Mike/Martin is inexplicably hostile.

All in all, Jamie is looking for ghosts and is therefore setting himself up to find them, regardless of how inane and boring the situation really is. And, in his presentation, he is setting us up to find ghosts where there are none as well. It's a radio. There are radio waves around us all the time, many of which where intended to (surprise of surprises) transmit sound and speech. The only problem is that the said speech is transmitted to a living person from another living person, not from beyond the grave. Votes: +19

First, you need to understand what it is that the box does.

From the explanation:
"In March 2007 we, the other members of a Yahoo group for EVP, started experimenting with a new method of providing a "raw audio" that the spirits can use to for their voices. We just tune a radio slowly across the band, either AM, or FM by hand while recording directly from the radio's speaker to a tape deck, or digital recorder. The results are coherent messages assembled from the speech, and music bits from the radio. In April of this year I made the first linear sweep board, automating this manual tuning method, but have only done one test session on the new system so far. The results are very encouraging. I had assumed after using EVPmaker, and my system, that the "raw audio" had to be random. Apparently this was mistaken, as the new linear system seems to work just as well, and maybe be better than the random system."

Basically, he's sweeping the AM or FM band very rapidly and hearing brief fragments off of dozens of channels as it makes and breaks a carrier wave lock. Simple, really.

His error is a combination of factors, but basically it breaks down to two things:

First, human brains are very good at pattern recognition. So much so that they find patterns where there are none. This is a form of post hoc fallacy, associating the event with something happening at around the same time, even though no association exists.

A simple example of this is "lucky item" thinking. An example would be where one believes that a piece of clothing is "lucky" because lucky things happened while wearing it. Compulsive gamblers have many of these types of behaviors, where their wins or losses cause them to mentally associate the immediate events in the vicinity with those events. Over time, a pattern will develop, like the player wins when he's wearing a certain shirt, or where he thinks that a pair of socks is unlucky because he loses while wearing them. The events are wholly unrelated, but the pattern recognition part of our brain associates these random events as if there was a causative factor connecting them.

The second part of the error is a form of selection bias. Sometimes he gets something that seems to match, and these are the recordings he saves, or the pieces he saves. However, what about the times that don't create a strong match? These are ignored or turned into positives, thus creating a situation where he cannot be mistaken in his beliefs.

In the recording, for example, he asks "is anyone here" many times with no real result, or with uncertain results at best. These negative responses he attributes to "ghostly" factors, as if the ghosts are having difficulty communicating or something. The few times he gets a decent "hit" are the proof that the methodology works. In either case, his result is validated, because there's no way to get a falsification of the results. There is no plausible scenario will tell him "this doesn't work".

In other words, people tend to be gullible. Votes: +16

I'm with Dr. Hall: audio pareidolia. We humans are evolved as pattern-seeking beings. We hear and see patterns everywhere. Some represent reality, and recognizing the possibly dangerous ones may keep us alive. It's less harmful to react incorrectly to a perceived threat (so we run away) than to ignore a real threat (and get eaten because we ignored a pattern in the grass that turned out to be a real carnivore). If your belief system leans toward woo, random patterns may have real meanings for you. An artifact of human evolution gets stretched a bit too far. Votes: +2

On a side note, I fell into a similar trap when I was a kid. I had a stereo system, and at night, the speakers would emit extremely faint noises that were clearly human speech. In a dark room, alone, in the silent night, these were clearly audible and very spooky. Especially since the stereo was turned off. This happened several times, usually on consecutive nights.

Had I been prone to magical thinking, ghosts would have seemed a likely explanation. However, I'm a nerd. What I noticed was not the oddity of the events, but the pattern in the timing. The nights in question happened at semi-regular intervals.

Eventually I worked out the explanation: truckers.

A few miles away was a freeway, and my speakers were using cheap unshielded wire. What I was hearing was actually CB radio signals from truckers on the interstate, picked up and brought down to just barely within the human frequency by the way my speaker wires happened to be coiled.

Okay, actually I figured it out because it got extremely loud one night when a friend of mine happened to drive to my house, while he happened to be using his CB radio. I caught the sound loud enough to hear words and a couple of names popped out that I recognized, and voila. Mystery solved. After investigation, I found that the intervals I noticed corresponded to the timing of when there were the most truckers on the highway.

Anyway, after changing out my speaker wires, I could get a good nights sleep once again.
Votes: +13

This is what is known as a "Shack Hack" the device is a spin-off of the Franks-Box/Telephone to the Dead.
The box that this is based off of was originally built here in Colorado by a man by the name of Frank Sumption. But he originally designed it to talk to aliens.
The difference between the two designs are as follows:
1-Franks Box makes sound by using a car stereo tuner that uses voltage to tune the channels, the tuner is hooked up to a random voltage generator. The output is then fed into a "echo chamber" and then re-routed to either a speaker or a audio out jack.
2- Shack Hack. Because people wanted a "Franks Box" but were not able to get one (Low production because Frank makes them in his basement and will not sell them) they had to find an alternate source of similar audio. It was discovered that if you take a cheap radio that scans and clip the pin that tells the tuner to lock in when a signal is found, you get a similar (linear) relsut.

There are also several different commercial versions of this piece of pseudo-science research tool available. There is the Ovlious, The Mini-Box, Steves-Box, etc...

This is the same type of box that Chris Moon has been "Talking to the Dead", ripping people off (at a thousand dollars per hour) and psychologically damaging his "Clients" with for several years.

There is nothing to the claims of these types of devices, they are nothing more than generators of noise that the person listening can percieve as a ghost/demon/alien via pariedolia.

Chris Moon has taken it a step farther by claiming that there are only 30 people who are "Gifted" and can translate what the box is saying. This is handy for him because he charges extra to "translate" what the box has told him.

A great example of the damage that this type of "tool" can do is that of a woman who had just lost her son to suicide. She heard about the Shack Hack and how she would be able to commuincate with her son, so she purchased one and now instead of moving on and accepting her loss so she can have a normal life, she spends the days talking to a broken radio.

We (Rocky Mountain Paranormal) are doing everyting that we can to expose frauds like this and make sure that people wont be harmed by the use of nonsense like The Box.

You can see more details about this "tool" and the claims that Thomas Edison was the designer at our website devoted to the exposure of it at: www.telephonetothedead.com Votes: +9

It doesn't need any fancy explanation. It's just what he said: a radio scanner that returns snippets of people talking. He adds words over the vid. to authenticate his claim, but it's not even worth bothering with. I tried to post a comment but it didn't appear. There are some 155 comment at this moment and NONE of them are critical. Hmmm ...

Votes: +3

1 - He is using a modified radio from radio shack. My understanding is he wires the radio so that it will not stop when a signal is picked in scan mode. This allows for a continuous signal of noise. From my basic understanding of radios there are going to be some signal or stations that sound clearer than others due to signal strength and proximity to the broadcasting tower. Thus if you are scanning all channels on a continuous cycle you should get good strength and sound bits at regular intervals on the radio from the same station or channel.

2 - The mannerisms of the person in the video are already setting the stage for “ghostly” encounters. The person is visible shaken and nervous or rattled. This in turn plays on the viewers feelings because of our natural tendency of empathy. We all show empathy, maybe some more strongly than others, towards our common human. Therefore if someone is nervous or excited or scared that feeling will have a tendency to push us towards those same feelings.

3 - We live in an extremely modern world. There are millions of radio signals and other sound transmission floating around out there. From radio stations to CB to service bandwidths (police, fire, etc). This just means that there is tons of information out there waiting for a receiver to pick it up. Now because radio communication is meant to on the civilian level entertain us and on the service level protect us the communication is done in very simple terms. This allows for little confusion, say when a commercial is playing on the radio or a policeman is being dispatched to an emergency. Both of these want to communicate to us as quickly as possible and with as little confusion as possible. This will help as many people have previously stated on this bored with the case for Pareidolia.

4 – So looking at the actual recording that was done we can see that really only one questions was answered out of all the questions asked. And since the first question was for a name it is easy to say that on the radio your are likely to hear a name at any time. Flip stations and you get commercials, DJ’s, radio guest, and even station names that can all have a very human name.

5 – Amazingly, as it seems with many “ghost”, the entity went from being extremely nice, saying there name to hostile by ignoring the person asking the questions. Funny I find that most people that want to be heard don’t stop talking right after they say their name. Usually it takes a little more to shut them up.

6 – Another thing I would like to point out on the video is that I believe this video is pure audio and no video. If you look at the radio itself in the video the digits on the screen are always at 100.5. Now if you were scanning the radio waves shouldn’t this be moving as you scan also? This leads me to believe that the audio is dubbed into this video, which obviously leaves open the opportunity for audio tampering.

7 – Lastly to speak to bias again the video person inserts text into the video, so the room for interpretation is completely removed because your mind has already seen the supposed response form the ghost before you actually hear it. Again this leads into the case for Pareidolia.
Votes: +8

I think that this is one big piece of hooey, and the guy that did the video needs to use his time more wisely. Take a picture of a radio and some speakers. Take a Beach Boys am transistor radio from the sixties and twirl the dial back and forth. Add a little dialogue from the host. Voila~ instant ghost voices, just add crap. Sounds like there's an advertisement theme song somewhere in there for Mario Brothers too. LOL. Votes: +2

I could even hear snippets of music from time to time. It's a radio. It's suppose to pick up transmissions by transmitters. What should we expect? If he stopped asking, he'd discover he's still going to keep getting "answers" from the (weak) signals he's picking up.

Does the JREF really get such silly submissions such as this? Votes: +2

Is it too cynical to suggest the possibility of recording the scanning first, and doing it multiple times till you get some good 'material' with questions added in after to seem to match? Or just doing it over and over till you get something not too bad, either by him or the general population doing it.

Pareidoilia is the easiest answer, but non-verifiability is the other obvious issue. Selection bias is another, if there's 1000+ recordings out there, only the 'good' ones will get attention on Youtube etc.

Votes: +3

Audio pareidolia. Is Radio Shack coming out with a 'Frank's box' line of broken radios? Votes: +2

Please tell me the paranormal investigators are of a better standard than this. The first half of the video is nothing but talk. The quality is of a poor amateur. Other people have said just about everything about the second half that is worth saying. All in a few hours.

Compare the comments on youtube with comments here. Big difference. Votes: +0

Yes paranormal investigators have better standards than this. It is just the people without any critical thinking skills (or basic thinking skills) that want to believe. Or people that see the opportunity to fleece people of their money.
There are people conducting paranormal research both for the research and to help stop nonsense like this.
We interviewed Joe Nickell last week and it was great to see a true researcher in the ocean of para-stupid like this. Votes: +0

Aww man. Someone already beat me to the pareidolia. lol It's the same that happens in any type of white noise whether it's a radio, a fan, long car trip, breeze outside, ocean waves, etc. Our brains are wired a little too well for recognizing patterns and this includes language. We think we hear voices where there aren't any. Add to that that he's using cheap electronics, however they may or may not have been modified, possibly in a country where it isn't compatible, and there you have it.

It's kinda neat to play with and freak your friends out. lol And you don't need a scanner. Turn the radio or television to any blank station, and give a listen. Part of the trick is the pattern recognition and another part is that the fuzz you hear is really made up of broken airwaves from other stations that are too far away or have too weak of signals to pick up. So a syllable or two slips in anyway.

Theeeeeen, we are also hardwired to seek closure and explanations. Anyone who does not know this about white noise and pareidolia will seek to explain it somehow, because it would drive them nuts otherwise. So, it's commonly explained as paranormal activity since we get so many of those ideas from our media and pop culture.

When people claim to see spooky faces in things, that's the same pattern recognition at work. We are hardwired to look for and recognize faces. Votes: +1

This is well covered by other posters. The radio is indeed rapidly scanning across a broadcast band (from the noise it's picking up I'd say it's the AM band, although it's hard to tell for sure.) So you hear mostly snippets of words but now and then a full word. None necessarily are what you see posted on the screen- That's where audio pareidoilia comes in. Try this: play the clip but close your eyes or look away from the screen. Write down the words YOU think you are hearing. Now play the clip again and see if the words you wrote down are the words the narrator listed. Very few will be the same as what the narrator claims. (On the other hand, if you watch the claimed words AS YOU LISTEN to the audio I bet you'll find those words really DO seem to be there.)

This is the very same kind of thing that was done back in the days of vinyl records- run them backwards and all sorts of "interesting" words and even sentences seem to be heard. Tell your listeners what words to listen for and indeed they will clearly hear these words. Votes: +4

All I hear are the "ghosts" of random radio stations. You can hear anything if you have a good imagination... I am curious as to why dead people would feel the need to swear at and insult the living. Shouldn't they be beyond that? Votes: +2

Amazingly, this guy has somehow tapped into the same frequency that Bumblebee uses. You know, the Transformer who lost his voice box and therefore must use sound bites from the radio in order to communicate. Pareidolia - 'whatever', next thing you guys will be telling me is that the creepy music was put in for 'effect'. Votes: +0

With enough random noise, you can usually hear whatever you want to hear. The video shows a cheap radio scanning through different stations, and played back through low quality speakers producing a distorting effect. The rest is in the imagination of the person doing the hearing. In February 2008, there was a talking Elmo doll in Lithia, Florida that allegedly said "Kill James" (no disrespect to Mr. Randi). There is a video of the doll here: http://ponyurl.com/6dtsgt Votes: +0

Sounds like the radio is picking up an errant CB conversation between two people talking on sideband of a CB. Being a trucker, I know that sideband can sometimes seriously bleed over onto an FM station on a nearby radio. Bad timeing is all this appears to be.

I also noticed that the readout on the radio stayed on the same station while the video was running. Another simple explanation is a friend in another room with a microphone and a small transmitter of some type. Haven't heard that one yet. Why everyone gives this guy the benefit of the doubt as being genuine is beyond me. Remeber, he sent this video to the JREF channel so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he posted a made up video. Votes: +1

Sounds to me he is picking up snippets of local radio stations and a radio-controlled taxi firm which are common here in the UK whereas CB radio is not. Votes: -1

It called him a boring wanker!

Maybe there IS something to this after all!

Votes: +5

This...is...so...sad.

Yep--Jamie's a wanker. Votes: -2

And totally boring to boot. This is all bollocks. I remember doing this in the late 1960's, early 70's using the old transistor radios. There were fewer radio stations back then and we'd pick up all sorts of things in all the white noise. Most of it was due to a lot of ham radio operators in the area and later CB radios. The moment I saw that Radio Shack radio, I started laughing. What a total wanker.
Votes: -1

FM channels in Europe are not the same as the US for one. US channels are 200 kHz apart and English are 100 kHz apart, these extra channels will drive a US Fm radio that is scanning nuts.

Paul Votes: +2

Rubbish. The only reason you "hear" what is being said is because it's being written on the screen in front of you, just like the led Z song..The first time you listen to it backwards you have no idea what's being said then once you have the "Satan" lyrics next to it you "hear" everything. Funny how the screen changes to a cut out of the radio thing with a black background when he starts so it isn't LIVE footage. you don't think he just spent a day sitting listening to radio stations recorded correct things for the questions he asked and then made the video later...haha people believe anything. I could make this video in one day and i bet i'd have a million believers on youtube also. Votes: +4

written by otto, December 11, 2009
...Anyway, after changing out my speaker wires, I could get a good nights sleep once again.

Otto, you could probably sell those speaker wires for several thousand dollars per foot! There are plenty of audiophile woo-sters out there.
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/97-swift-october-12-2007.html
The audio-woosters would love to have "danceable" wires and to be able to hear the voices of prominent audio pioneers at the same time. Votes: +1

What exactly is going on here? A radio is playing while it's scanning through different radio-wave frequencies, meanwhile an idiot is talking to this radio, since then people who were actually able to watch the whole video of this act wasted 6:44 minutes of their life. That basically seems to sum up all of it. Votes: +1

I'm in the process of putting together a book on the history of mechanical means of spirit communication a real coffee table book, primarily focusing around in the Edison hoax. Anyway while pareidolia has already been thoroughly explored, it makes no difference whether the random noise is interference from a CB radio ham radio, baby monitor or what ever it just needs to be random.

I built my own ghost box from Frank's own specifications and it lives in my office, over a one-week period of time I let it run randomly, one of the things I've noticed is that personalities seem to play a big role in what the individual picks out of the random noise. Young people (oddly enough) tend to hear profanity. Those on the more conservative side heard basic parts of speech. Those with more technical backgrounds have a tendency to assemble sentences. And some heard nothing at all except for that group most everyone heard their own name. By the way I did not tell my subjects (or colleagues) that this device is used by some of the paranormal community for spirit communication.

After a week I waited a while then substituted the tuner scanner in the Frank's box for an MP3 player that played a two minute loop of random station scanning. Individuals still picked out many words and phrases, oftentimes when the same random bit of audio would come up they would find a different word than from the same bit two minutes earlier. It should be noted that some did catch on that it was a loop. I'm wondering if the mind discards the previous bit of random noise in anticipation for the next interpretation. In the past have done the same type of experiments with alleged class one EVPs my subjects have never picked out the original interpretation. My sample was small but interesting nonetheless.

The video, there are many like it on Youtube this one was complete with the eerie music and images set up for an opening but I don't understand the x-rays. Along with the dripping blood background music, a must-have for any serious presentation of paranormal evidence. Jamie is obviously a believer, I don't know if he's genuine or just a bad actor my "friend in America sent me this thing and I'm all freaked out my girlfriend is gone and I'm alone with it and I don't know how to use the can opener " now it's on to the presentation with the dripping blood music still playing. A modified RadioShack radio known as the hack box,or broken radio. Two very poor quality speakers. And a digital recorder which he makes a comment that if you are an investigator you know why we never use these. He's right paranormal investigators usually use analog tape systems primarily $29 dictation machines, which have a very high noise floor with low casing isolation on top of narrow frequency response, this raises the chances for audio anomalies. Which later can be interpreted as EVPs this is why they think the tape systems are successful in capturing ghost voices.

On to the voice evidence, as already stated the his interpretation of the ghost of voice is fonted up at each bit of audio. "Can you say Jamie" voice- "you win some" does Jamie consider this a hit? Phrases like "head injury" sound like it is coming directly from a news broadcast, " is anyone here" voice "you wanker" in the US may have been interpreted as "boot tanker" but all of those who believe these ghost boxes are communicating with the other side always take their bits and pieces of information and start fabricating a story to match what they think their hearing. The same dynamic that occurs when Ouija boards are involved. There's nothing remarkable about this video.

The ghost box movement in the paranormal community is surprisingly big, a true ConMan by the name of Chris Moon actually charges large amounts of money for sessions with the Frank's box, which he uses as a cold reading device. He claims he is in touch with Thomas Edison who approves of his work and Chris uses Edison as some type of cosmic switchboard operator.

Votes: +3

The video is reminiscent of our old friend Herc (aka Graham Cooper, see http://www.randi.org/site/inde...we-do.html ). The only difference here is that it involves playing guessing games with an electronic device rather than choosing words from a book. As for qualifying for the JREF Million Dollar Prize, the same problem applies as it did with Herc: how would the claim be tested to show that the "voices" were not spirits, aliens from Alpha Centauri etc? The prize is safe, methinks. Votes: +0

The best way to answer that video is to link to another video. Audio pariedolia: so easy a kid can do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul3GqD_E45w Votes: +1

Gawd what a painful 6&2/3 minutes to listen to. Couldn't you guys have found a more 'together' ghost hunter's video to subject us to?

Random sounds and static on a radio claimed to be something else. That's my answer. If indeed there was any 'response' to questions there, which was extremely hard to discern, then I'd say every time the guy asked a question he likely came closer to the radio changing the antenna to include his body. Votes: +2

"I'm in the process of putting together a book"

Amazing what some people will do for a James Randi DVD!

Votes: +0

Like everyone else here, it really didn't take me long to figure out that it was, really, just random bits of radio stations. Like others have said, I'm quite sure there was a lot of editing at work here.

When I was a kid (about 40-odd years ago) we had a pair of, I think (and rather ironically,) cheap Radio Shack walkie-talkies. We also had in our neighborhood, a citizens patrol that called themselves the "Blue Light League," because their cars had, you guessed it, blue flashing lights on top.

There was an alley between our back yard and the next block, that they would routinely drive through. Apparently, either they had the same kind of walkie-talkies or we just happened to be on their frequency, because we used to get quite a kick out of sitting up in our room and playing havoc with their communications. "Batman" routinely called "Superman" and they never could figure out where it was coming from. Maybe it was "Ghost Comics" communications? Votes: +0

I don't think that you get the point.

We have been fighting to stop people and the damage that this type of nonsense causes.
We have spent the night with scared families that have been subjected to these types of "tools". It is horrible what people are willing to do to others when they find out how easy it is to scam people out of money when they are in a time of grief, or that they really think that they can talk to the dead.

Many of the people writing on this post have missed the main part of the reason people and groups like us are so upset about the fact that this kind of thing happens. We all already know about the pariedolia and the causes for this type of sound.We need to look past the obvious and stop the people that are promoting this and hurting others.
The person who posted this YouTube link is well know in the "paranormal community" and not taken the least bit seriously.

Votes: +1

It's a radio scanner picking up fragments of earthly transmissions.
What more can be said? The bloke needs to get out more. Votes: +0

I am extremely disappointed in myself that I wasted any time on this drivel.
Votes: +1

Oh, COPS is on! That will be much better than this carp.
Votes: +0

As soon as he put up those captions I scrolled down so I wouldn't read them. And suddenly it's pure noise!

Isn't this just like taking photos of TV static and tracing lines on them to make an image appear?


Votes: +0

First he shows a video of the speakers and all of a sudden we are looking at only a picture of speakers and a few pop up words that are supposed to translate the almost impossible to understand low quality sound. I do not have a lot of money and i can make the exact same video and sound like him with the use of my cheap microphone(5$) and free software i can download in a few seconds from internet and mix both together. There is no need for complicated scientific explanations because it is as simple as that he made a recording(could be a prank call since it has swearing in it, or just joking with his friend...) and added the sound to a picture get this a picture!!!!! of the speakers anyone and i mean anyone can do that!!!!!!!!! Votes: +0

I was looking at something else and just listening to the video and I never heard a discernible word from the radio. A lot of wishful thinking going on. If he was as freaked as he was pretending one wonders how he manages to crawl through life as an adult. Votes: +2

I realize this is not a thorough explanation of the gadget in question but I am sure I already have one in my truck.
I spend a lot of time driving from Alaska to the lower 48 and back. My AM scanner will only stop at a signal for a few seconds unless I push stop. On clear, cool nights in remote areas of Canada and the US, picking up the skip I have heard many a strange thing.
My favorite was a five minute period where I could hear Rush Limbaugh and Al Sharpton skipping and bleeding over each other and it sounded like they were agreeing with everything the other was saying.
PS: On the late night skip I have also heard Aliens—um well actually it is the skip allowing me to hear Mexican stations from thousands of miles away but since I don’t speak Spanish, it sounds Alien to me.
Votes: +4

...I guess you do not have to give an explanation of what went wrong here. I think we all agree that there's some audio-fragment-pattern-delusion going on. More interesting is the "why" of this video. In my opinion, and since the device is so prominently shown in this video, it's just a clever promotion video for the radio-device.
Votes: +0

If he were to try this in say Spain or Germany it should still work right? I mean, since the ghosts intend to communicate directly with him they should do so in the language (English) that he understands even though the radio stations would be broadcasting in Spanish or German. I suggest he try that experiment. I think it would take a lot longer to get the results he is looking for. Yes, he would still get them, but hopefully that would mean fewer videos. Votes: +2

I can never figure out what mechanism these people think the ghosts are using to send these messages. If the claim was that the radio is just picking up the ghosts' disenbodied voices, I could sort of understand it (well, apart from the fact that some of the voices are so obviously from radio stations and people having conversations). But that doesn't seem to be the claim. At least some of these people accept that the noises are from terrestrial signals but that the ghosts somehow manipulate the way they become pieced together to get their message across. With random scanning, I could again sort of understand the point: the ghost would presumably manipulate the random number generator to pick the right places to tune to, but how is this supposed to happen when the tuning is linear? Presumably the ghost has to manipulate what people say on those radio sources, which would seem to be a pointlessly complicated way to get their message across, especially when the 'message' is so devoid of content. Votes: +2

I'm an electrical engineer with a primary focus on radio wave propagation. I'm certain that pretty much everyone who has said, "He's listening to snippets of audio coming from a scanner that is scanning" are correct. The only thing I would add is that it sounds as if the radio is in AM detection mode because I heard different sounds (such as music and voice) simultaneously. That happens on AM, but it's extremely difficult to happen in FM because of something called the "FM capture effect". I was also disappointed to learn that (a) he didn't show the radio in action during the video, (b) he disabled embedding of the video (What? Was he afraid someone was going to embed it on a skeptic website and completely, totally, and utterly debunk it in a matter of seconds?), and (c) he disabled comments to the video, even though he stated multiple times, "I'd be interested to hear what you think about this."
What is it with those believing in the paranormal always thinking it has something to do with electromagnetic waves? They try and use thermal imagers (which are far- to mid-wave infrared waves), radio scanners (radio waves), E-field meters (extremely low frequency radio waves) and lowlight cameras (near-infrared waves). I'm waiting for someone to go into a haunted house and take x-rays or use an ultraviolet camera to "see ghosts". And when the technology matures, I'm certain that they'll figure a way to add T-ray (terahertz) devices to their bag of tricks. Once they have these last three, they'll have the entire EM spectrum included. Sigh. Votes: +5

Gsparky2004 - things have changed over the last few days. When this SWIFT came out there were comments present. Now there are none. I think the mere presence of this SWIFT has had an influence on him.

The power of JREF and its supporters in action. Votes: +0

Hello my name is Allen I am a medium. I speak to the dead via ghost box also regular evps all the time. I can actually talk to the dead. I have been able to contact 95 percent of the people I have tried to. I have spoke to multiple past love ones for friends and family. I can speak to some one that James Randi knows or just about any one. I would like to take the challenge I can proof that spirits exist and there is a heaven and hell with out a doubt in my mind. I have had spirits here take two pics of another house I have never seen with them in it with my cell phone. the pics where taking at 7:47 pm I also have a picture of Jesus Christ that I took here in my room with the same cell phone at 7:47 pm. the pictures are physically impossible to take. The only way they could have put int he camera gallery is if they where taking. Please some one help me I promise I can proof that spirits exist 100 percent with out a doubt any where in my mind. They leave messages on my answering service have called 911 and interrupt calls. Please check out my website ot see and hear some real amazing paranormal evidence. I only have a very small percentage of any of the evidence I have posted any where online. Votes: -10

Hauntedn2009 - Please read the what is in the link below.
http://www.randi.org/site/inde...enge.html

you can also join the forum http://forums.randi.org/forumindex.php?

You may be able to speak to the dead, but I am 99.99999999% sure you cannot actually get a reply from the dead.


Just watched your "Video ghost box response to mad hobbits videos and his actions." It is no better than MadHobbit's video. Votes: +0

Hey rjh02 how much money you want to bet I talk to people all the time for my friends and family. I bet I can talk to any one just about and get responses from them get them to tell me what i am holding curse any thing. I bet i can talk to some one that has died you know and find out things that I would not know or any one would know. So whats up you wan't to make a bet here? I know what I do what about you? And lol no better lmao that is funny he got nothing he hears what he wants not what is said and I can prove that. I can prove that spirits exist with out a doubt in my mind. Hell I already have proof from the spirits there self in photos so don't try to talk to me about the other side when you have no clue about it. Votes: -5

I'm pretty sure you have collected evidence, at least enough to convince yourself. I too watched your video ( nice shot of the ceiling by the way) when you come up with a protocol for your challenge be sure to include this video. I found it quite useful in determining your abilities.

Votes: +2

The "Frank Box" is currently very popular among ghost hunters in my area. As previous comments have noted, there is much evidence people are fooling themselves with it and no evidence of any ghosts.

What I am trying to work out is how to demonstrate that clearly and elegantly to my local ghost hunting friends. I am thinking of something along the line of EVP's, where I show people that without prompting for the phrase, no one ever hits on a consistent one. This does not convince them EVP's are not real of course, but does leave them in a bit of a quandary for an explanation.

The "Frank Box" is trickier to refute in this way, due to the interactive nature of the process. Does anyone have any ideas for something that might be convincing to a ghost hunter? Votes: +0

Does anyone have any ideas for something that might be convincing to a ghost hunter?

Now there's a question. Just about everyone here has said that EVP is foolish self-deception, but the true believers are always hard to convince. Pointing out the possibility of pareidolia may have little effect on people who are well into ghosts and UFOs and are determined to interpret any evidence to fit in with their beliefs. How about showing a true believer The Marmoset Song on YouTube? It is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oiLfTnrC40 Votes: +2

What do you want to convince me for? I am a nobody. However there is a $US1 million for someone who can do what you can claim. Win that and the whole world will be at your feet. You will get so much business from it that the actual prize money will be peanuts. If you can do what you claim it would be easy.

I have already given you the links.
Votes: +0

Man batboy the reason the pic is up there because it has Jesus Christ in that pic you cant really see it on the video but it is. That pic and the two pics that the spirits here at my house took with my cell phone of another house with them in it where all taking at 7:47 pm. I have so much evidence that you or any one else could not debunk recreate or any thing else. Do not tell me what I can and can not do. You have no clue you do not know me and I can prove I am not crazy and the rest of the world is though for not believing. And that ghost box session is shitty compared to some of the sessions i have and the things I have caught. Votes: -4

As long as there are gullible people like this in the world, Radio Shack can expect to ride through the recession with ease. I bet this fella thinks Sylvia Browne is a MILF... Votes: +1

I did not see Jesus Christ in that picture only a ceiling, it is not my job to debunk your evidence it is your job to give concrete proof that your evidence is valid. Until that day we have no conversation. By the way if spirits are using your cell phone may I recommend you switch over to the "dead friends and family plan" you could save a lot of money. Votes: +2

I first just listened to the video without watching - nothing intelligible could be heard coming from the radio. In fact, this man seems to have problems recording his own voice clearly and should not dub spooky music over an already fuzzy narration. I think he's angling to get on TV (people who say that they're "speechless" after a three minute introduction usually are!). Votes: +0

Well i know you can not see it in that picture that well in the video. But that is not funny about the calling plan they used it to take two pics i have never seen before of another house with them in it. They where taking at 7:47 pm also the pic with jesus is on my cell phone it was taking at 7:47 pm the pics can not be taking. That is why I left them on the phone in the camera gallery there is no other way they could have got there besides taking them. But i have literally hundreds of regular evps and ghost box from any thing them talking about dying to heaven and hell and every thing else in between the other side is nothing to play with it is not a joke. As a matter of fact I just got off the phone with a physic women in my home town that has a shop. I called her and asked her about helping her told her I speak to the dead and she said how can you prove this to me. I told her I could speak to some one she knows that has passed away she said she would like to speak to her father or hear from him so i asked her his name she said bill and her name is grace i got in touch with him and got him to tell me there last name and how he died i called her and told her and she verified that information was correct she wants me to do a ghost box session with her tonight over the phone lol going to do a reading for a physic lol Votes: -5

It's great that you have so much evidence and I'm sure it's all just as spectacular as your video. I was just curious. When Jesus uses your cell phone what does the caller ID say? You and your newfound psychic friend have a good time tonight. Votes: +0

Haunted, do you intend to apply to the JREF Challenge or not?

I apologise to everyone else here, but I'm afraid I can't resist asking Haunted about the supposed significance of 7:47.

I know it's best to ignore him/her and I know he/she will rant about that rather than answer the question about the JREF Challenge, but I couldn't help myself. Votes: +0

I'm guessing Luke 7:47. Votes: +0

batboy you going to hell if you do not start believing and making fun God does not like that at all keep playing you will burn in fire for the rest of eternity. Yes I am going to take the James randi challenge i am trying to get a way to wake forest college to meet witha professor up there so i ca get him to sign a paper then I will have all the requirements met. As far as the 7:47 thing i have no clue why that time is so significant to the other side but it is also 11:47 is also. I do not know why it just is. And Batboy god never used my phone i just took pic of him the other spirits here took the two pics I have never seen o s a old house with them in it. Votes: -3

Ok, I feel bad now. Votes: +1

Mystic messages divined in the same way from Urdu song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG_fey4_ow Votes: +0

A badly acted attempt at 'Blair Witch Project' meets 'Most Haunted'. I note that he has good enough equipment to record, add FX to and overdub good quality video, but finds he gets the best mystical results from using cheap gear badly. If he can add annoying music and FX to his little drama, why should anyone entertain the idea that his supposed recordings are in any way authentic? I wouldn't mind except that the result is so extremely tedious. Votes: +0

http://www.bestcooldesigner.co...s-c-1.html cheap nhl jerseys
http://www.bestcooldesigner.com/nhljerseys-c-1.html 2009 nhl jerseys Votes: -1

It's youtube, so there's no validating the authenticity to begin with. It looks like the audio doesn't match the vidoe to begin with; otherwise it's just aural pareidolia from errant radio signals
I took radio devices with me to Europe once and quickly learned that they were designed for the N. American designated bandwidths. Votes: +0

Sorry, but I didn't waste my time visiting Youtube to watching the silly video. It is fake. They are all fakes. Votes: +0

Excuse me, that's not a "modified radio", that's an unmodified Apple iPod. Can we start over again?
Votes: +0

Alas, woo takes many forms. An individual who believes in one form will most likely believe in others as well. Votes: +0

Yes, I think the basis of these claims is pareidolia. But there are a couple other elements thrown into the mix that artificially strengthens the convictions of those claiming that these are voices from beyond.

First, adherents have become very good at jumping from concepts like “Sounds like”, “could be”, and “might be”, to the statement “Is saying”. If pushed or challenged, they might then back up to “might be”. But by and large, they just skip that phase and go right to a pronouncement.

Second, the people making these claims and populating the EVP websites do not like to post their results, unlabeled and uninterpreted, and ask for private comments. Instead, they post the recordings, label them what they decide they are saying, and THEN post for PUBLIC comments. It is much easier to see a dragon in the clouds once someone points it out to you. And even easier when five people before you say they see it too. And it is much easier to hear curse words in random noise, once someone has framed that for you. Even the original person, whether they realize it or not, frames their interpretation just by preceding the recording by asking it a question. It is amazing how many websites post EVPs that ask yes/no questions, and are constantly showing proof of their results by posting the EVP with a YSSSSSS on the tape (at least in English, yes/no questions almost always get good results – since recorded noise sounds like YSSSSS all on its own). It goes back to the first point: they label it as something, which is really saying it could maybe “Sound like” something, but skip that comment. Then, when a believer reads the label, they hear it too. Confirmed!

And third, and this is what I find most interesting, is that this seems in many case to be a sort of sonic Rorschach test to the person doing the recording. It is amazing how suddenly all the EVP groups are getting message about 2012 and the end of the world. Spiritual people get a lot of spirit guide stuff. And some people (who seem to me to be sort of angry or frustrated) get a lot of curse words on the tape. Almost everyone eventually hears their name. And no one hears verifiable predictions (at least, not after the first couple failures). This sonic Rorschach test is interesting to me because it seems to have the tendency to reveal what is most occupying a person’s feelings, or thoughts, or concerns. They post all that on the internet, and its seems like they are performing a sort of vicarious therapy on themselves. So if there are any cognitive science PhD candidates out there looking for a thesis idea, there you go!

There are probably very good methods that these people could use to really test their beliefs in the Ghost Box. But, with the community and social experiences they are getting, with the feeling of being on the cutting edge of spiritual and scientific progress, with the abundance of confirmation that the above elements give them, and with the potential of free therapy, stepping into a process that could strip them of all these things, is probably a very daunting prospect. Votes: +1

"And third, and this is what I find most interesting, is that this seems in many case to be a sort of sonic Rorschach test to the person doing the recording. "

Very interesting! I'b be interested in a study on this. I think you just may be on to something. Votes: +1

The best way I can think to refute this nonsense is to introduce controls and blind testing.

If you run across some woowoo that thinks this stuff is real, then do the following:

1. Produce a control recording. Run it somewhere neutral, that is not "haunted". In the park or something. Record that.

2. On their "haunted" recording, edit it to remove the questions, leaving only the "responses" that they think they hear. Have others listen to those responses, find out what they think the words being said are. Compare the results to the question that was asked. Repeat with the questions and notice how the responses they hear all suddenly "make sense".

3. Repeat #2 with random or suggestive sections of the control tape. See if they hear anything.

4. For extra credit, mix in sections of the control tape with the "real" responses, see if they can spot the fakes too.

If there really are words, then not only would most people get similar results, but they'd get similar negative results from the control sections. In reality, because there's nothing there, the results are going to be highly random *except* in those cases where there is a word in the clear, like from a DJ speaking or something.

Votes: +0