Instrumental transcommunication (ITC) includes various types of two-way interaction between the Spirit World and the Physical World using instruments such as the radio, telephone, tape recorder, computer, fax, and so on. It can include storable video as well as audio recording. While ITC is a two-way communication, electronic voice phenomena (EVP) refers to capturing spirit voices on tape or hearing them on the radio, telephone, or a tape. Although EVP is a useful tool for ghost hunting, ITC lends itself more to the subject matter of this book.
In 1982, a man named Klaus Schreiber started experimenting and set up a number of tape recorders in his basement. At one point he asked his deceased friend to speak to him, and almost immediately received a recording of his friend’s voice greeting him. Schreiber went on to experiment with video cameras, simply focusing on one area of his basement and asking the spirits to show themselves. Fascinating videos taken from an inert television screen can be seen online, at YouTube, at the time of this writing. (Search “Klaus Schreiber.”)
It isn’t always easy to recognize a picture received in this way and it entails going painstakingly through tapes, frame by frame if necessary. One method is to connect a video camera to record a television screen that is tuned to a non-programmed channel—one that produces “snow” or pure blue screen. After about ten minutes of recording, go back and view the tape, examining it very slowly and carefully.
With both EVP and ITC, it is a slow and laborious process to get the spirit messages and/or images. Although it is possible to get responses to questions and comments, few people seem able to develop a regular two-way conversation, as such, with spirit. It is a far cry from the immediacy of such methods as talking boards, automatic writing, pendulums, and others we have covered. But instrumental transcommunication is a young science. The more people who become involved in it, the better the prospects for its development.
As mentioned in the sidebar in the chapter on runes, an old method of receiving messages was with two slates bound together. There is a modern version of this, using a computer, which I recommend trying. With either a desktop or laptop computer, open a new word-processing document file titled “Spirit Messages.” If you have any question(s) or wish to connect with a specific spirit, then type in a greeting and give your question(s). Save it and then close the file. Also turn off the computer (it might be good to do this last thing before shutting down the computer at the end of the day). Next time you start your computer, open the file and see if anything has been added. As with messages appearing on the slates, you may well find a message has appeared in your computer file.
Try this regularly. You may get nothing for a long time, but if you go through the process every night when you shut down, you may be surprised to find spirit accepting this method of contact and coming through to you.
When trying EVP with a tape recorder, if possible choose a recorder with two speeds. Record at the faster speed and play back at the slower speed. The spirit realm seems to operate on a higher frequency than does the physical world, and many times playing back at a slow speed allows you to hear things that are not picked up, or not obvious, when played back at the faster speed. It also helps to listen to the recording through headphones.
Digital recorders are the preferred type for EVP. The IC (integrated circuit) recorders are the best, and they do not need a microphone. If you are using a regular tape recorder, then make sure you have the best quality tape and a really good microphone. Use a plug-in microphone rather than just relying on a built-in one. Built-in microphones tend to pick up a slight hum from the machine.
There are a tremendous number of methods used for divination that can be adapted for spirit communication, as has been shown. It is not necessary to detail each and every one of them, since most rely on interpreting symbols or perceived images. They can all, therefore, be related to the symbols we have addressed earlier in this book for such things as dreams, tasseography, and the like.
Try any method that you feel drawn to. For example, ceromancy (also known as ceroscopy) is the observation of hot wax dropped into water. When the wax hits the water, it gradually hardens into a variety of shapes. These shapes can be studied, and you can see what images they bring to mind. If you have prepared by doing your meditation, protection building, and concentration on a particular spirit, then you can relate these shapes to that spirit and make a connection.
The main thing to remember—and this is what separates this practice from simple divination—is to focus on contacting the departed spirit and to know that what you “see” is coming from that spirit. Daphnomancy was dependent upon the way in which a branch of laurel burned; geomancy is very much akin to tasseography; labiomancy, lampadomancy, ouranomancy, psephomancy, stercomancy, stolisomancy, and a host of others all follow similar lines. You can find a complete listing in my book The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying, if you are interested. However, in this book I have focused on what I feel to be the most tangible methods, especially with regard to immediacy of response from spirit.