XI. Electronic Voice Phenomena

EVP’s, to us, are the most convincing evidence of how life continues on even after death. We can only speculate if the anomalies we capture in photos are actually connected with the spirit world, but voices and messages, are another story completely.

The Night Watchman and I do our investigations with only the two of us. On one occasion, we took two friends of ours from out of town, had another set of friends go with us to show us some cemeteries in their area, and once in a great while, we will take our girls when they don’t have other plans on their agenda. For the most part, it is just the two of us. We like it this way as we feel that it is easier with less people to avoid getting sound that might not be paranormal in nature at all. It’s quite simple to tell if you’ve captured another investigator’s shadow or image on film, but sound is much trickier.

As mentioned earlier, we are very careful when we are recording to make note on the recorder if one of us coughs, or makes any other odd sound, or whispers anything instead of talking out loud. We also tell the recorder about any barking dogs, cars that pass, animals that rustle around, etc. This is a good habit for us and has kept us from mistaking things on the recorder that we might have spent a lot of time on with Acoustica if we hadn’t made comment on it at the time.

We have captured a lot of EVP’s in three and a half years. The first ones were, as you’ve already read, from Hazel Green Cemetery. There are several of the others that we have captured that need mentioning as well.

There was a house that we rented in Hampton, Iowa that wasn’t all that old. It was a good sized house with a full basement and plenty of room for us and the three kids still at home. Our bedroom was on the main level. Many nights we would hear thumping within the double his/hers closets next to our bed. A good sized crawl space was above them which could be accessed only with a ladder from the garage, but it was completely empty as the house was up for sale.

Just on a whim, The Night Watchman and I decided to place a cassette tape recorder on the top shelf of his closet. We went to bed and let it run as long as the cassette would allow. Due to our excitement over Hazel Green Cemetery, we did not listen to the tape in the closet for several weeks. We truly did not expect to get anything on it. After all, our house had never been said to be haunted, so it was just an experiment.

Finally, I took the recorder and headphones outside as it was a beautiful day and I sat on the deck chair to listen. I could hear us getting settled in for bed and the conversation that we had before falling asleep. After that, there was silence. I kept listening, but was also kind of zoning off as oftentimes happens on such a nice day while relaxing. Suddenly, I sat up in the chair. Had I heard what I thought I’d heard? I rewound the cassette and listened again. Sure enough there it was.

Two voices could be heard on the tape. They seemed to be men and one had an accent. The Night Watchman and I still debate on the first voice and what it says. He believes it says, “I’m Brower” and I think it says, “I’m born.” The second voice, after a few odd clicks between the two, says “shit” very clearly.

Listen to this EVP HERE under "Rental House in Hampton, Iowa

It was a completely nonsensical message, but exciting nevertheless. We never did attempt to record any further messages in that closet as we were busy investigating other places.

It is one thing to get nonsensical messages, but completely another when the message is personalized. I found this out from the Eden Cemetery in Rhodes, Iowa.

The Night Watchman and I went out in the evening to see what we could capture. We had been there a number of times before and gotten some great photos both in the daytime and at night, and we’d gotten a few sound bites on other visits as well.