[Tom Butler]

Your comments and questions are on point. As I have said, ITC has taught us that the practitioner or an interested observer provides the conduit for the influence of intended order. That is a shorthand way of saying that formation of ITC appears to be the expression of intended order. That intention is moderated by someone’s worldview. Our experience has been that:

> Content of ITC examples is bound by what is considered true by the practitioner.
> When the person speaking in an EVP is recognized in voice, appropriate response and attitude, that familiarity may come from the practitioner. Consider Martha Copeland’s communication with her daughter. We all hear them as she reports. Cathy has shown up in some of our EVP, as well, but we had previously learned from Martha what Cathy sounds like. It does appear that a separate personality has initiated the EVP, especially the “Dojo no!” example, but Martha’s worldview may be shaping the speech from memory. https://atransc.org/copeland-evp/.
> There is a strong “sounds right” tone in the information in EVP. There are exceptions, such as the unexpected “Please don’t come” and “The Death Knell” at https://atransc.org/evp-tom-lisa-butler/.
Also see “The Raudive Device” Page 5 of https://atransc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/29-1-Spring-2010-ATransC-NewsJournal.pdf. In that, the microphone in a vacuum instruction from a channeled personality by way of a physical medium was clearly a “sounds right” idea out of the medium’s worldview.

Psi studies science might need to be based on the agreement amongst many forms of Psi phenomena. Any one is inconclusive. Our rules of evidence include the idea that first person accouints are not useful evidence. They may be about actual principles but without collaborating phenomena, they can only be interesting. That makes OBE, NDE and mental mediumship supportive but not evidence in themselves.

The task of the parapsychologists is to stop collecting evidence and begin formulating models that can be tested via their predictive quality. If the community cannot agree on a model, then it is not ready to theorize.

[Tom Butler]

The Scole Diode is a novel technique for producing background noise suitable for EVP. From our studies, the active component in the recording process is a nonlinear stage found in the recorder circuitry. That is why we think stochastic resonance is one of the factors … not the source or cause, but part of the Psi-physical interface.

Consistent with what you said is Walter von Lucadou’s research as reported in ““Predictions of The Model of Pragmatic Information About RSPK”” That is also in agreement with the our studies indicating that the practitioner or an interested observer provides the conduit for the influence of intended order.

[Tom Butler]

We have noted for Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC)–sometimes Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)–that research should be conducted with practitioners who have an established ability to (more likely) record examples. It is common practice for such abilities as mental mediumship and remote viewing to seek “experts” for studies.

I explored this question in “Failure to Replicate Fallacy.” An example of how using students to collect examples of EVP is “Failure to Replicate Electronic Voice Phenomenon” Written by Imants Barušs, Department of Psychology, King’s College, University of Western Ontario. Published in Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 355–367, 2001. I discuss it here.

James Carpenter discusses a different kind of replication problem in his book, “First Sight Theory.” The practitioner’s temperament is a major determinant in the ability to consciously access Psi. I have experienced this with EVP in that my wife Lisa holds a BA in psychology and is a competent EVP practitioner. I am an engineer, and while I do record the occasional EVP, my Class A examples are seldom. She is a much better medium and is good with people. Me … not so much.

My point is that you are correct in questioning the replication standard of science. EVP is probably one of the most often conducted “experiments,” yet research into EVP has lagged, I think, because qualified researchers do not recognize the human factor.

To make my point, at a private gathering after speaking at a Forever Family Foundation conference, Lisa and I was asked to record for EVP. We did not succeed in even a Class C example. It is reasonable to think that all of those representatives of various parts of the paranormalist community left with the assumption that EVP is imaginary.

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