Electronic Voice Phenomenon is when a ghost or spirit attempts to communicate with someone via an electronic recording device like a tape recorder. And though the investigator may not hear the message while he is interviewing an apparently empty room in a haunted house, when the tape is played back it often yields incredibly disturbing results. But what are some of the most commonly heard messages when EVP recordings are played? And what can this tell us about the nature of the afterlife?
"Go away," is one of the most commonly heard messages of EVP. This could mean any number of things, but it's often interpreted quite literally as an imperative statement from the other side. If a ghost is telling you to go away, that means that somehow your presence is disturbing it. If an entity from the other side of life can be disturbed, then it seems to mean our existence on this plane translates fairly well into a different form of existence. Ghosts can apparently be bothered and therefore they have wants and things they do not want.
"There's a man here. He's trying to hurt us." This is one of the most disturbing things ghost hunters report hearing playing from their voice recorders (though not these words exactly, the same message appears to be ubiquitous). It seems often that paranormal entities are bothered by some force that seems like it could originate anywhere from the real world of flesh and blood to another higher (or perhaps more accurately, lower) realm. These entities reportedly can cause some harm or perceived harm to the entities you are investigating. And there is even a suggestion amongst some veteran ghost hunters that the entity occasionally turns its attention toward the investigators themselves. Of course in a field whose textbooks are a collection of folklore, it's difficult to distinguish the real from the fake in this matter.
"La la la." Singing and humming is often reported by ghost hunters as they search the sound-waves for signs of spirits. Ghost hunters commonly report hearing this humming, but rarely report hearing a specific song. Instead, it seems like the songs themselves have nothing to do with the entity's time on Earth - even though the act of singing itself is preserved. This could yield some clue about the nature of a ghost's "psychology" if they were a fan of a specific song but can't quite remember the words or even the tune but remember singing as an aspect of their identity. Is it possible we don't remember specific information from this life, but retain our identities nonetheless somehow? A similar example might be how we react in our dreams to our environments and lose conscious knowledge of the world outside before the dream started. Are ghosts simply the dreams of the dead? Poetic, but purely speculation.
"Who are you?" The strange thing is not that this question is asked, but it can be asked dozens of times even when an investigator has been to the same location weekly for the past year. The memories of ghosts seem to be affected by some unexplained force making them learn information over and over again. Of course this does seem to fit with the idea that a ghost might not be fully aware of their own death.
