My Very First EVP!

Those of you who are avid watchers of ghost hunting type shows like I am will probably know what an EVP is. For those who don't, an Electronic Voice Phenomenon is a voice or whisper that you record on any kind of recording device, like a phone or digital reorder, but you didn't hear it with your actual ears at the time of recording. These are a type of paranormal evidence that investigators LOVE to capture!

EVPs can range from a brief whisper to a complete sentence in an actual full voice. Sometimes they are responding to something that has been said or even asked of them. Other times, the EVP is simply something that was said in the distant past that repeats itself every now and then.

The first ever reported EVP was captured in 1956 with a reel to reel tape recorder. Those findings were published by the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1959.

What I'm going to tell you about now is the very first EVP I ever captured. It was in my grandparents house, of course, as I spent the night with them almost every weekend growing up. Every single time my sister and I stayed the night there, at least one strange thing would happen. Those events ranged from cold spots in the middle of summer when the house had no central heat and air, doors closing with little to no breeze, knocking sounds, banging sounds, the sound of furniture being thrown across the room on the third floor only to find nothing out of place, voices that could be heard with one's own ears, heavy feelings of the air suddenly being thick, and I even once saw a shiny oval floating in the middle of the room that stayed there for several minutes!

At about 13 years of age, I heard that you could record ghost noises on tape and was VERY excited at the prospect of having actual proof that I could produce when people doubted what I was telling them happened in my grandparent's house! I had received a boom box for Christmas and decided to try and catch something on it...

That weekend, I brought the boom box and a blank tape with me to their house. I knew the tape wouldn't last more than an hour so I waited until my grandparents were ready to go to bed, about 11pm on a Saturday night. I asked my Nanny to go with me to place it on the third floor because I was WAY too chicken to go up there so late at night and my sister, who is two years younger than me, refused to go with me. Honestly, I didn't even like to go up there in the middle of the day, let alone at night!

I gathered my courage and asked my Nanny to go with me. She smiled and agreed, wishing me luck as I tried to capture my evidence. Even with her with me, I wasn't brave enough to go into the actual room that she thinks the little boy died in. I sat the boom box just outside the door of that room, plugged it in, and hit the record and play buttons at the same time. Yes, kids, that's how you recorded things in the very early 90's!

With everything in place, we went back downstairs to go to sleep. I was so excited that I must have laid there in that pull out couch on the second floor for at least an hour, waiting for sleep to find me. Some nights, the sound of heavy footsteps walking back and forth would keep me awake, but not on this night. I remember being disappointed that I wasn't getting that on tape, since it was such a regular occurrence! I figured the ghosts knew what I was up to and were staying quiet to spite me!

The next day, we went to church with my grandparents, as we always did, and then my parents picked us up. When I finally had some time to really sit in my room and listen to the tape, I was super nervous and excited all in one! Part of me wanted to find something but the other part of me was afraid of what I might find...

I hit play and listened very still and quiet. For the first 10 or 15 minutes, all I heard were slow swooshing type sounds, like someone in a dress walking beside the boom box over and over. I figured that was maybe the sound the cassette tape made when it recorded but I didn't know. I was only 13 and didn't really know what I was doing!

About 15 minutes into the recording, as I was beginning to feel disappointed and bored, a loud male voice rang out and scared me out of my skin!!! I had let my guard down by then and was NOT mentally prepared for what I heard!

Out of the silence, I heard a male voice practically shout the word "STOP"! There is no way that was my grandpa! He hadn't even come up stairs with us to put the boom box in place. He had stayed in bed and turned the light off when we got back. We were ALL in bed and accounted for by the time that voice was recorded! It was only my Nanny and Grandpa, my sister and I. The four of us were the only ones in the three story house that night!

I was instantly terrified for a moment and then totally intrigued! I had done it! I had the evidence that I longed for! I rewound the tape and listened again....and again....and again! I started to worry that I might break the tape if I kept doing that so I stopped for a while and just sat, thinking about what I'd heard. Could it be that the energy up there did not want me recording and was making that feeling very known?! That's what it seemed like to me!

This incident actually made me even more scared of the third floor than I had been already! I was afraid I had angered whatever was up there! For that reason alone, I didn't do any other recordings until I was an adult and had my first smart phone, many years later. And guess what, in that very first recording with my smart phone, I caught three separate voices!!!

If you'd like to hear the EVPs I've recorded in their house over the years, you can find them on my podcast titled True Hauntings & Scary Stories. Some of them are just one word that you need headphones to make out and some of them are full phrases that you don't even need headphones to hear!

As for my very first ghost recording, I'm sorry to report that I misplaced the tape over the years and have no idea where it is or if it got thrown out. I didn't even play it for people like I thought I would. I was too afraid of being teased or not believed. I think that's why I love the EVPs I've caught since then and play them for anyone who wants to hear them!

These spirits or energies in that house are the REAL DEAL! I know my recordings are real because I was the one who recorded them and I know I don't have the knowledge to fake them! I would never do that anyway because it takes away from the authenticity of EVPs as a whole. I've always been driven by the need for proof and validation. I would never mess that up by faking evidence. Besides, getting the real thing caught on tape is way more thrilling!!!