England 1971 - The rise and fall of the Voice Phenomenon.
The publishers wished to be sure of the real existence of the phenomenon which was the basic assertion of Dr. Raudive's work: The (apparent?) influence of human mind on electronic apparatus, a phenomenon which manifests itself as human voices. This definition is my own and was not used at that time by Raudive, who preferred the spiritualistic interpretation and was himself without any technical knowledge. The "apparatus" he used consisted of a radio receiver, a microphone and a tape recorder....
Raudive's work was as already mentioned totally based on Fredrich Jurgenson's experiences. A closer examination of Raudive's methods was therefore absolutely necessary. So now the question was first to find an institution or firm who was ready to undertake such an investigation and thereupon - who should pay the bill?
Both problems were managed. The examination would be made by two English firms of international repute: Pye Records Ltd. and Belling & Lee Ltd. The paper The Sunday Mirror took over the costs and at the same time ensured them the first right to publish the outcome of the investigations - what ever it may be. In March 1971 two independent investigations took place: As the most often used argument against Raudive's claims was that the voices originated from normal radio signals i.e. the "Luxembourg Effect" (reflections in the ionosphere), one of the investigations was performed in Enfield in the radio-frequency screened laboratory of Belling & Lee Ltd.
The second investigation took place in London where experts from Pye Records Ltd. build up a totally screened apparatus. That's not the place here for technical details but it is important to mention that in both investigations Raudive's role was limited to his passive personal presence and he also was placed totally isolated from any part of the used apparatus. And the results of these two investigations? Both of them proved the existence of the phenomenon - and absolute nothing else. (The last remark must be seen in the light the of the trend of the events during the following time.)
One of the scientists present from Belling & Lee Ltd., Peter Hale, C.Eng.M.I.E.E., at that time Britain's foremost expert in electro-magnetic screening, later wrote: " In view of the tests carried out in a screened laboratory at my firm, I can not explain what happened in normal physical terms."
Kenn Attwood, Chief Engineer of Pye Records Ltd. stated:"I have done everything in my power to break the mystery of the voices without success; the same applies to other experts. I suppose we must learn to accept them."
It also must be mentioned that the two highly professional firms were not the only ones which carried out an investigation of the voices. On perhaps somewhat lover level several persons got interested and made their own experiments. I find it worth to quote some remarks made during a television discussion by Mr. Ted Boner, an electronic expert with Decca and at that time a well known television (RTE, Ireland) personality:
"...it would seem to me that it is quite scientifically proved - or at least the problem of the scientific research to which this has been subjected - and it seems very very difficult to overcome. This is no trick and this is no gimmickry, this is something we have never dreamed of before."
Those March days in 1971 were the star hour of the Voice Phenomenon. Unfortunately they are of very short duration. Today, nearly thirty years later, these two investigations and the above mentioned highly interesting statements have never been re-examined and are seemingly forgotten. How could that happen?
The whole situation in the days following those investigations gave very little place for a serious discussion. Raudive's book "Breakthrough" was published shortly afterwards, and the publishers needed as much publicity as possible. Raudive himself was an honest man but unfortunately also a convinced and narrow-minded spiritualist, and throughout the whole book he interpreted every recorded voice in this manner. Here the subtitle of his book "An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead" tells more then many words. Contributory was also Raudive's (and seemingly also a dominating part of his surroundings) total lack of understanding of what was the real importance of two investigations: The first time a scientific acceptable documentation of the reality of the Voice Phenomenon had been given.
And so it came, that all the reviews of Raudive's book focused solely on the - in reality a both premature and entirely unproved - spiritualistic aspect and claims such as "proof of survival" naturally rouse the public curiosity. This unfavourable tendency was further strengthened when the press, radio and TV took up the theme and soon also different sides of the spiritualistic movement and the church were involved in - at last in my opinion - a totally unserious discussion. The interpretation completely overshadowed the only real problem: The emergence of human voices in a totally screened electronic apparatus. And unfortunately it also quelled any interest of the scientific establishment in a closer examination of the two investigations. Assuming that such an interest had existed at all - something I have my very doubt on.
For unknown reasons "The Sunday Mirror" never published the result of the investigations. Perhaps they had expected some kind of exposure, perhaps the strongly spiritualistic slant of the whole affair had contributed to their decision.
What today is on under names such as "EVP" is just a endless and uninteresting repetition of different variations Jurgenson's and Raudive's earlier experiments with microphones, radio-sets, several kinds of noise-generators and must at best be seen as a more or less fanciful part of the spiritualistic movement.
In Germany the "Verein fur Tonbandstimmenforschung" (Society for Tapevoice-Research) - when at its height in the late eighties had around 1800 mostly active members - gave at least a kind of statistical evidence for the existents of the phenomenon. In spite of its name it was and still is a purely spiritualistic society working with Jurgenson's and Raudive's old methods only.
But in fairness it also must be added that this society (especially through its former president Fidelio Koberle) had done a fine piece of work in bringing to light much of the swindle and charlatanism which during the last twenty years has ravaged and nearly spoiled the whole field of any occupation with this strange phenomenon. A good deal of a newer and very very imaginative American version called "Transcommunication", introduced 1982 by Mr.George Meek has very little, if anything at all, to do with what had been documented in London in 1971 - and that is also the reason for my consistent use of the name "Electronic Voice Phenomenon". (Bibliography 10,11,12,13)
But let us went back to the days short after the publishing of Raudive's book and have a look at some other interesting details - the reaction of the British parapsychologists.