Directions

The actual EVP recording

At the beginning of the recording you should announce date, time, if applicable the locality, the applied technique, and the names of the persons present, followed by a short greeting. An example: "Today is March 16, 2001 at 5:23pm, here are Peter, Paul und Mary and we will now try an EVP recording using the water method. We'd like to greet our friends on the other side and would be glad about a good contact." Now everybody (best clockwise) may ask one or several questions. After each question a pause of about 15 seconds should be made to leave room for the answers to be expected. Example: "Dear mum, this is Mary, how are you and what are you doing now?" [15 seconds pause] [next question] etc. Saying your own name and the name of the addressed person aloud is important for making contact. It's also helpful to ask for a contact person on the other side who can help to mediate contacts with certain persons.

If you are finished with your questions, you should say "Thank you", which is a sign for the next one to begin with his/her questions. At the end of the entire session, say goodbye to those on the other side, e.g.: "Dear friends on the other side, we thank you all for talking to us and say goodbye till the next time." The recording is now finished.

The entire EVP recording should not last for much more than 5 to 10 minutes since the following evaluation is very time-consuming and requires a lot of concentration.

Instead of a single EVP recording with many questions asked "en bloc", the recording can also be evaluated immediately after each individual question (i.e. question no. 1 – pause of 15 s – question no. 2 – etc.). This enables you to react on possible voices already during the session and thus carry on a "quasi-dialog".