Conference hydra::dejavu

    Re .0

    >I saw a magazine article recently which was about a man who
    >communicated with spirits via a tape recorder. He would set
    >the microphone up and call them. After many months he claims
    >to have received voices speaking to him. ...
    >.... Has anyone ever heard of communicating via radio waves etc.?
    
    The "classic," if that's the appropriate way to speak of something that
    was impossible to do at least until the development of magnetic
    recording (yes, Virginia, there were pre-tape magnetic recorders; they
    used wire), is to take a portable unit to a graveyard, ask that spirits
    say something, turn it on, and wait.  The reports I've read of the
    technique indicate that when the tape is played back at high volume,
    under the thermal hiss of the tape, usually _multiple_ voices can be
    heard.

    The question is, of course, are what's being heard really spirits? 
    Since there are many voices overlapping, it could be anything.  But if
    not spirits, what?

    One hypothesis: something in the tape recorder _might_ be acting as a
    rectifier, and, if early in the amplification chain, might be acting as
    a primitive form of broadband crystal set -- enabling the listener to
    hear faintly amplified signals from radio broadcasts, possibly in the
    amateur radio or CB bands.

    > ..........................................  They told him to
    >set the video up and he'd get a picture! He did this and
    >the magazine showed one of those fuzzy photos which doesn't
    >actually look like anything but I suppose if you look hard
    >enough you could make something out - vaguely.
    
    Any VCR acts as a television receiver, up to the point of detecting a
    signal, hedterodyning it to a precise video/audio frequency, and then
    recording that on tape.  It's possible, for instance, to record a
    program on one's favorite channel with the TV set off.  "The spirits"
    might have specified an "empty channel"; i.e., a channel where no local
    stations are broadcasting.  But distant stations sometimes can be
    vaguely detected (when I was 14 years old and living in San Antonio,
    Texas, I once got a beautiful skip signal of the Kate Smith show, from
    a station in Rock Island, Illinois.  And in the daytime); except for
    exceptional skips, the usual "at the edge of its range" signal will be
    almost lost in the snow (thermal static).

    >Sounds like a classic con to me. But the idea is interesting.
    
    If there's a con, it's in the claim that spirits told the person to set
    up the VCR.

    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    In parapsychological circles this is known as "Raudive Phenomena" after
    the person who popularized several versions of the technique in books
    and articles.  It is not generally thought of very highly.

    This is the first time I've heard of video Raudive but I suppose it was
    inevitable.

    As near as I can remember there are three major variants that Raudive
    recommended: microphone in a quiet room, microphone in front of a
    radio tuned between stations and no microphone.  He recommended
    listening to the resulting tapes over and over until the voices become
    clear to you.

    Parapsychologists generally suggest three explanations for the voices,
    all of which probably operate at times:

	1) Projection.  The mind "projects" a coherent message on random
	noise.  This may occur spontaneously (the mind is very good at
	finding patterns -- even when there aren't any), with suggestion
	helping ("listen to this part where it says 'Mary Jane killed me'")
	or with auto-suggestion helping.  Raudive's suggestions to play
	the tapes over and over play into this.  First because listening
	to hissing for hours on end is likely to induce an altered state
	of consciousness where projection is more likely -- a form of
	mild sensory deprivation hallucination.  Second because a faint
	spontaneous projection on one playing may become more distinct
	on the next through autosuggestion and still more distinct on the
	next, etc.

	2) Picking up faintly radio broadcasts.  Fairly obvious when using
	a radio tuned between stations, but quite applicable even without
	it.  Its rather hard to build a taperecorder which does not act
	a bit as a radio.  This can interact with projection, since a few
	faint words can be strung together and reinterpretted quite
	effectively by projection into something sounding more like a
	ghostly message and less like a DJ.

	3) Picking up messages "erased" from the tape.  It is, in fact,
	rather hard to erase a tape in such a way as to not leave faint
	remains of the previous contents.  If you are going to tape
	hundreds of hours of tape, and don't know any better, you are
	likely to try to find cheap (used) tape.  Same comments as for
	radio broadcasts.

    Off hand, I don't know of any clear-cut cases of "veridical" (proven
    to be true) information from Raudive phenomena which could not have
    been known by conventional means.  It would not surprise me, however
    if it exists.  First of all, you collect enough material and some
    coincidences will inevitably come up.  Second, projection is an
    excellent technique for getting stuff out of the subconscious --
    including paranormally acquired information.  The technique which
    seems to be the most effective and reliable method for obtaining ESP
    results in experiments is called the Ganzfeld.  It consists of inducing
    a relaxed state of mind through simple suggestions, white noise and
    a plain white visual field ("ganzfeld" -- using half Ping-Pong balls
    taped over the eyes), and letting the percipient describe the resulting
    dream-like/semi-projective images that generally form.

    As for being "a con", it could be, but it is at least as likely that
    the proponent is quite sincere.

					Topher

    Re .2 (Topher):

    >This is the first time I've heard of video Raudive but I suppose it was
    >inevitable.
    
    As noted in my previous reply, it _might_ be the result of getting the
    very edge of a fringe signal.  U.S. television uses a "negative"
    process in its image: i.e., the fainter the signal, the brighter the
    screen.  The further away (or, equivalently, the weaker the signal),
    the more "snowy" it becomes, too.  This is because past a certain
    level of amplification, the random thermal effects in the circuits are
    amplified, along with whatever signal might be getting through (even
    very powerful signals have a "noise amplification" factor; however, the 
    signal is so much stronger that it "swamps out" the noise.  When the
    signal is weak, the noise becomes more noticeable (this is why radio
    engineers frequently discuss the "signal to noise ratio": the higher it
    is, the better the resulting output).  When the signal and noise are
    about equal in a video environment, all the viewer will be able to see
    is a very faint pattern (moving, to be sure) among the snow.  Again: a
    VCR's input end works exactly like the tuning stage of a TV set; if you
    choose, it's possible to hook an antenna up directly to a VCR, and
    without hooking the VCR to a TV set, to receive and record programs.
    If the VCR is tuned to a nearby broadcast station, what will be
    recorded will be a standard program; the only way one could get
    "spirits," then, would be to tune the VCR to a channel where there is
    no geographically close TV station.

    However, there are other possible ways one could get an image:

    1) from an adjacent channel.  If you're tuned to the "empty" Channel 8,
       and Channel 7 is fairly close, Channel 8 can sometimes pick up the
       image from Channel 7.

    2) from a distant channel.  I touched upon the "skip" phenomenon
       before; it's nothing to just shrug off.  Occasionally, atmospheric
       effects will refract a TV signal far beyond where it normally would
       be received.  If it's also weak and snowy, it would be hard to
       distinguish from a "spirit video."
      
    3) from a "leak" from a cable TV amplifier.  In our neighborhood, there
       was a classic case of this: apparently enough signal was getting
       past the shielding to affect some of our VHF channels.  The cable
       company didn't want to admit it, abut they checked it out (after
       I suggested, very politely, that I might want the FCC to do so),
       made a repair, and the troubles disappeared.

    The point is that the images need not be either spirits or projections
    of internalizations.  Sometimes prosaic old nature can be most
    effective, anyway.

    Steve Kallis, Jr.

RE: .3 (Steve)

    There's a 4, or maybe a 3a.

	3a/4: Leakage from a remodulator.  If you have tuned your VCR to
	an unused station -- especially channel 3 or 4 -- then you may pick
	up leaky signals from nearby VCR, computer, electronic games etc.
	These remodulate their signals to an "unused channel" to come in
	to the TV set via its antenna leads.  They are not *supposed* to
	leak -- but frequently do, particularly with older equipment.

    Of course, as you mention, there is no need for there to actually be
    any coherent image on the screen at all.  People are quite capable of
    putting one there -- especially faces.  Various kinds of electronic
    interference can create a certain amount of structure to the "snow"
    increasing the illusion.

						Topher

    
    The language was strange, although it was supposed to be someone
    of the same race that he used to know. A bit like baby talk, "me
    give some talk" etc. This would tie in with a previous idea that
    stray signals were being picked up, perhaps odd words from a
    broadcast which if you were really looking for it could perhaps
    make sense when put together. 
    
     

    	The human mind is very keen on picking out voices from sound. An
    example I have experienced on several occasions is listening to an
    underground stream in a cave. After only a few minutes you can pick out
    what could be words and snatches of half understood converstion on the
    sound of the water. This is a very well known phenomena in the caving
    world (spelunking in American English). It could have something to do
    with the partial sensory deprivation. If you are sitting still in semi
    darkness and there isn't much to see your mind will find something 
    'interesting' in what you are hearing. People who have been trapped
    underground by flooding have reported that one of the most maddening
    things is to keep on hearing what could be the voices of approaching 
    rescuers on the sound of the water. There could be a similar effect 
    with the faint voices on the sound of radio static. 
    
    		Jeremy