Up and Running!

Today will be a good one (barring any unforeseen events), as we finally got our DSL up and going. I know I already have a full-plate when it comes to topics I'm working on, but I got one of the sources I've used before back out of the library, so I'm going to try and get a few more stories and accounts out of it.

Of course, there's no way of knowing what will be useful and what isn't until it's needed, but so long as I have it, I'm going to go through and share whatever tickles my fancy. Having that book and reading the Bogey entry at the time that Ghost Hunters EVP was made was serendipitous to the point of fantastic. I guess it depends on how you feel about "coincidence." No matter how it came to pass, I am certain I correctly identified that EVP -- even though it's only one more clue as to what sort of entity they were dealing with.

Like I said in the post, given the nature of the Hell-Fire Caves, it is very possible the entity was malevolent -- whether or not you want to keep the Bogey as an entity or classification (which I would not suggest), as whatever communicated may have been Elemental or may have been some sort of once-human remnant -- but it is definitely controlled by some sort of intelligence.

Anyway, we'll get into all of it in just a few.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

The History of EVP

Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP, has increasingly received attention over the years, as it is seen as some kind of "scientific proof" of an intelligent presence trying to communicate -- whether with the living, or simply because it is compelled to do so. Recently, movies such as White Noise, and TV programs such as Sci-Fi's Ghost Hunters have made the acronym a household term.

But the history of the collection of these recordings is as fascinating as the phenomena itself:

Thomas Edison, American inventor of the lightbulb and the phonograph, was actually working on a device which would provide whatever sources create these sounds, "a better opportunity to express themselves than the... crude methods now purported to be the only means of communication." Many may have thought this the product of old age and senility, but Edison's device -- if it was ever finalized and built -- was never revealed. Edison died in 1931.¹

In 1959, a Russian artist named Friedrich Jürgenson took a tape recorder outside his Stockholm villa to record birds. Upon playing the tape back, he thought he heard voices discussing the songs in Swedish and Norwegian. At first, he thought he had simply intercepted radio transmissions, but upon further research and more recordings, became convinced that he had captured voices of dead friends and colleagues. In 1964, he published a book entitled Voices from the Universe.

Former psychology professor turned parapsychologist, Konstantin Raudive, was so impressed that he met with Jürgenson and declared his breakthroughs to be empirical scientific evidence of life after death. The two worked together closely until 1969, when differences caused them to part ways. Raudive continued his work on his own and pioneered the "white noise" concept, hooking his equipment up to radios, believing that voices could be heard in the static between stations. Some of his confidants included Adolf Hitler and Carl Jung. A book on his research was published in 1968.

Shortly thereafter, Raudive claimed he had been visited by envoys from NASA, who asked "unusually pertinent questions." Raudive continued his research until his death in September, 1974.

¹: Because it was stolen from Tesla, and suppressed by the FBI.

Ghost Hunters EVP Identified?

Now, you might not buy this, but earlier, when we heard the EVP on Ghost Hunters I said I did not think it said, "Hello." I offered some guesses (post immediately following), but I have to be honest, I couldn't make it out during the program and missed the recast. I originally thought it said something about "bones." I didn't mention that earlier because I couldn't make any sense of it and, out of context, I could only think of "my bones" or "I'm bones," or something.

Bogies are horrid, dangerous spirits thought to attack or frighten anyone who doesn't show them respect. They were thought to be short, squat, coal black and hairy, and have ugly, grinning faces. This is the basis of the Bogie-Man (Bogeyman, Boogieman) legend, which parents use to frighten their kids. Then I read this from a source I got from the Decaturville, TN Public Library about Bogies:

"It was once thought they were the most powerful among ghosts because they served as the assistants to the Devil during his evil-doing amongst mankind. They apparently have the ability to change their shape at will and sometimes make a wailing noise that sounds as if they are calling, 'I want my bones.'" - source, pg. 18 (italics mine)

How kick-ass is that shit?

Given the nature of the Hell-Fire Caves -- which most certainly were used by Satanic clubs (one of which Ben Franklin, along with several other Founding Fathers, was a member¹) - doesn't that EVP sound like it was saying, "I want my bones?"

And, before the skeptics get to hollering, remember that these cats were practicing their rituals -- whatever those may have been (this was long before the days of LaVey) -- in the days when Bogies were still a very popular legend. Today, they've taken the form of the Bogeyman, and the whole, "I want my bones," and Devil-worshipping / assisting aspects have been forgotten. But when these guys were doing whatever they were doing, this was a popular legend in its original, Satanic form.

I happen to know a bit about these clubs and the people who participated in them, as they've filtered down into such "secret societies" as the Skull & Bones and others (which are based directly on these original Hellfire Club sects), and they were "Satanic" in nature -- mainly because they openly-mocked the Puritanical practices and beliefs of the practicing Church. I put Satanic in quotes because their Pagan rituals were largely drunken romps -- yet they did invoke Satan in mockery.

This being said, it's not that these guys were necessarily worshipping Satan as we think of it today, but the basic idea was the same: some Dogmatic rituals were practiced more to mock Christianity -- or, more specifically, the dominant Christian doctrines and ideology of the times -- then they all got drunk, ate too much, did some drugs, and had "illicit" and "deviant" sex. Of course, they likely dipped into all sorts of religions and Occult practices as they heard about or learned of them, all of which would have been considered "Satanic" at the time, which is why I bother to make the division.

At any rate, whether truly Bogies or merely "Masters" taunting the investigators, the legend not only fits the time, it fits the locale, and sounds like what I heard in the Ghost Hunters EVP. If these are the recording of ethereal voices manifest from an independent intelligence that was alive during these times, then it would certainly be aware of the legend and may (or may not) have been taunting the investigators. Another theory is that the intelligence is not aware that the legend has since died, so it is not trying to test their intelligence, knowledge, or resources -- just trying to scare them away.

Maybe the legend of the bogie as a malevolent spirit is true and it deserves attention as a species(?) or independent type of haunting.

¹: Franklin visited the Hell-Fire Caves.

Tonight's Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth

Now, I won't say I'm not a sucker, because I can't say I haven't been fooled before, won't be fooled again, or whatever; I can't really judge that for myself, but I don't think that keeping an open mind automatically makes me a fool or prone to believing things others would deem "obvious" bullshit.

That being said, I will admit that I am prone to being skeptical of "trained professionals'" opinions on matters Unexplained and I'll tell you why -- and it's so basic that I find many of the so-called "skeptics" who forward their findings as indisputable "evidence" to be the real suckers: They have a vested interest in disputing the Unexplained.

1. Do you really think a professional Marine Biologist is going to go on record and admit that he thinks YOU, a professional jackass in his estimation (most likely), have discovered a new marine biological species?
2. Don't you think it more likely that if this professional consultant really thinks there is a new species, he will take that evidence and try to drum-up funding on his own to gather more evidence, then claim to have been the one to discover it?
3. Things simply aren't done this way in the scientific field(s), in general. Basically, when a new discovery is made, that intelligence is kept very, very quiet for a long, long time so that no one else molests the area, data, specimen, etc., while more data is gathered.

So, when that dude said tonight that he saw nothing on that tape that could be anything other than a giant catfish, I just don't buy it. Plus, I loved the EVP Josh and team caught in the sealed room of the crematorium! I was especially impressed when he took it to the translator who said (completely without provocation, insofar as we know) -- it sounded like it said, in the native tongue, "[Everybody] Get out of here!"

The evidence on Ghost Hunters tonight, caught in the infamous Hell-Fire Caves of London, was also impressive -- although I didn't find the visual evidence particularly impressive, even with the host's personal confirmation of the phenomena; I believe it is actual evidence, but deem it inadmissible as there's just no way to tell whether or not someone was down there with a flashlight. And it definitely looked like someone was down there shining a flashlight.

But, again, the EVP captured were definitely persuasive. In particular, I want to point-out that I didn't think the one "identifiable" EVP from Ghost Hunters was saying "Hello." I'm not sure what it was saying, but it kind of sounded more like "I'm/It's cold," or maybe, "Go home" -- or something along those lines. If I didn't live in an apartment, I could hook my TV up to all these speakers and computers and actually hear it, but, alas...

Good shows, both.