Paranormal Experiments with Images and the computer (PN043E)

Some experimenters have documented signals being picked up by a common computer and transferred to a printer without any involvement by the human operator. Strange messages, signed by people who died many years before or by un-known beings, have been registered this way and reported by researchers!

How to induce a computer to do that is an interesting problem that remains to be discussed and solved by the paranormal researchers. Some kind of device should be invented that can instigate this process. This is perhaps an interesting field to be considered by readers of this book.

Another interesting concept to be considered is how one might connect a data acquisition circuit board (analog-to-digital converter, or ADC) into the serial or parallel port of a computer, and what kind of software program could be developed to process the data. The signal applied to the ADC could be from a tape recorder (EVP) or even from white noise generators such as the ones described here, allowing the signals to be processed in real time.

The computer can also be used for other purposes when working with the para-normal voices or images. Although the microphone input of a computer can be used directly to record signals, with some limitations it can also be used as an in-put port for radio receivers, white noise generators, and other noise-producing devices.

To transfer the signal from a tape to a computer without receiving any noise from the room, it is necessary to use a shielded audio cable (available at any electronic supply store). The reader must be sure to purchase one with connectors that will fit properly into the devices to be used. If in doubt, tell the salesman that you intend to record on your computer from a small recorder. The salesman will probably know what size connector you will need based on that information. Once you have found the correct cable, you simply run the cable from the out-put of the tape deck to the microphone input on the PC. Many audio processing software packages can be used to edit the taped signals. However, if you don't want to invest money in sophisticated software for this task, the resources of Windows 95 or 98 or the Mac OS are sufficient for basic recording.

Using Windows (*)

The procedure to transfer the sound using Windows 95 is as follows:

1. Once the wiring is in place, go to the "start" button and from there to the accessories.
2. In the accessories, find the multimedia icon and click on it.
3. The next step is click on the sound recorder icon. Opening this device, you must set the recording option for maximum quality. Go to the edit pull-down menu at the top of the recorder and select audio properties. You'll see a window with an upper and lower section in it.
4. The playback device is shown at the top, and the recording device is shown at the bottom. In the recording area appears a little window titled "preferred quality." Set this window to "CD quality." If this is not an option in your computer, select one with at least 16-bit, 22 kHz mono characteristics. This will enable the system to retain the same quality as the tape used as signal source.
5. Going now to the file pull-down menu at the top of the tape recorder, select "New." With this selection, the red record button will be activated and ready for use.
6. Set the tape to begin a few seconds from the beginning point of the signals you want to transfer. Point the mouse to the record button and press the "play" button on the tape recorder, letting the tape run. You will hear the re-corded sound as it comes into the computer. Wait a few seconds and press the "record" button on the computer to save the sound to the hard disk. You may need to experiment a bit to synchronize the operations (playback of the tape and recording into the computer) properly.
7. When the recording is done, press the "stop" button and rewind the virtual tape back to the beginning.

Playing Back the Sounds from the Computer

• Press the "play" button (arrow pointing toward the right) and review your re-cording. Adjust the volume control to get a high enough volume to find the voices. If the voices are very faint (in the beginning of the experiments, the re-sults may be not so good), you have to keep trying.
• If your playback program has a graphic equalizer, you can use it to cut the bass and treble (low and high frequencies), giving emphasis to the middle, where voice frequencies are concentrated. ? If you are unsure about how to operate the program, go to the "help" section to see what is going wrong.

The main limitation when using the PC is that, in the process of converting the signal from analog to digital format, part of the high-frequency spectrum, where white noise is predominant and where important information can be overlapped, is lost. This can affect the results. The advantage is that the computer software can be used to examine the signal in detail and even to detect information that cannot otherwise be accessed.

A good approach is to try the software used for the analysis of space signals in the Seti Project (http://www.setileague.org), as described in the July/1999 issue of Popular Electronics (http://www.gernsback.com). This software can be adapted to separate signals from noise in your research.

More Information about ITC and EVP

There are many resources of ITC and the EVP in the Internet. As the Internet is dynamic, and everyday pages and sites are changed or disappear without any no-tice, the best way to find information in the World Wide Web is by using the search engines such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, Infoseek, Hotbot, and others. You simply enter the keyword and investigate the hundreds or thousands of documents that are returned from your inquiry. Some suggested keywords are as follows:

• paranormal
• EVP
• instrumental transcommunication
• Raudive
• spirit
• ITC

Note that the use of abbreviations can produce irrelevant results, as they can also be used to represent company names, products, and other unrelated items. Some recommend books about this fascinating subject, including material on EVP and EIP, are:

•  The Ghost of 29 Megacycles (John Fuller)
•  Breakthrough (Dr. Konstantin Raudive)
•  The Vertical Plane (Ken Webster)
•  The Mediumship of the Tape Recorder (D.J. Ellis)
•  Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources (Jon Kilmo)
•  Encounters With the Paranormal (Kendrick Frazier)
•  The World of Ted Serios (Jules Eisenbud, M.D.)
•  Paranormal Powers—Secrets of the Unexplained (Gary L. Blackwood, Daniel Cohen)
•  Beyond Light and Shadow (Rolf H. Krauss)
•  America's Restless Ghosts (Hans Holzer)
•  Beyond the Spectrum (Cyril Permutt)

We also recommend the movie "The Grass Harp" to any reader who wants to gain a deeper understanding of this subject.