Contact with Spirits

Here is a picture of what is marketed as a “Premium Ghost Hunting Digital EVP Recorder” on Amazon. Upon closer inspection, this product is just an ordinary digital voice recorder. https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Ghost-Hunting-Digital-Recorder/dp/B0888V7B9H Axtell, Cassie C., "Assessing Electronic Voice Phenomena through Speech Science."       Honors Theses, Encompass, 2017, https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/415 Axtell explores some of the history behind EVPs and analyzes the reliability of using EVPs as a method for ghosts to communicate with humans. She mentions examples of different experiments that show how interpretations of EVPs vary significantly between people, which indicates that EVP interpretations may not be accurate at all. She also applies the possibilities of apophenia and priming to ghost hunting and EVPs. Axtell further laments the lack of speech scientists and speech analysis during EVP interpretations; thus, all that ghost hunters have are listeners’ un

This is my argument: The use of gadgets like EMF (electromagnetic frequency) readers and audio recorders to capture EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon) allows ghost hunters to falsely present their findings as scientific, and the prominence of paranormal media reinforces this misunderstanding. This representation of ghost-hunting technologies, as a result of the “naturalizing” effect, incorrectly legitimizes paranormal investigations and tricks people into trusting the flimsy evidence that such technologies provide. The general public’s lack of scientific understanding makes them susceptible to this misconception, thus perpetuating a belief in paranormal existence.  These are my research questions: In what ways do ghost hunting technologies falsely legitimize the scientific aspect of the paranormal? How does the media (i.e., paranormal programming) perpetuate these misunderstandings? Ghost hunting technologies make the paranormal seem scientific as a result of the “naturalizing” effect;

 The chief example I use to illustrate my argument and explain my frame is the episode of Ghost Hunters that I watched (season 8 episode 11, “The Princess and the EVP”).  In this episode, the Ghost Hunters visited a supposedly haunted hotel called the Omni Mount Washington Resort. The Ghost Hunters then proceeded to set up their ghost-hunting gadgets and jumped at every faint sound or movement out of the corner of their eyes, despite their logical explanations about why they might see movement due to the room designs or why they might hear sounds due to the weather and architecture. They even acknowledged that EMF meters are prone to false positives. However, the Ghost Hunters still used their gadgets to legitimize their investigation to themselves and their viewers. This illustrates my frame of the “naturalizing” effect, which asserts that the use of scientific jargon and complicated-looking technology falsely convinces people into confusing fake science with actual science. I only r

I am using the theory of the “naturalizing” effect and the academic concept of social influence to help me analyze and explain my project. My questions are: In what ways do ghost hunting technologies falsely legitimize the scientific aspect of the paranormal? How does the media (i.e., paranormal programming) perpetuate these misunderstandings? The theory of the “naturalizing” effect suggests that presenting inaccurate information in a convoluted scientific manner tricks people into thinking that the inaccurate information is actually correct and just scientific but difficult to understand. This theory can be applied to show that by presenting ghost hunting technologies as scientific, the media misleads viewers into believing that such technologies are actually scientific when they are not. The "naturalizing" effect was proposed by Dr. David Kirby, a professor of science communication from the University of Manchester. Kirby applies this theory to science fiction, but for my p

Fitch, Marc E.. Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs, and Bigfoot,   ABC-      CLIO, LLC, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rutgers-      ebooks/detail.action?docID=1183924.      I mainly focused on Chapter 7, “The Rise of Paranormal Television.” This chapter talks about the popularity of paranormal programming. In this chapter, Fitch suggests that people are drawn to paranormal programming because they are fascinated by the conflict and mystery between science and the paranormal. He talks about how the balance between science and the paranormal is essential in paranormal television because actually proving the existence of the paranormal would lead to an end in such programming, but only showing the scientific side (i.e., that the paranormal does not exist) would make television less entertaining. Fitch further argues that science does not stand a chance when faced with paranormal programming, as it is impossible to debunk everything withi

     This is a visual that I put together from How Stuff Works (Link: https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/evp.htm). This image shows the major steps of analyzing EVPs, according to the Ghost Investigators Society. The first screen shows the unedited voice pattern, the second screen shows the wave form statistics used to analyze the pattern, and the third screen shows the analysis graph, which helps the investigators determine whether or not the voice sample was actually EVP. This visual actually helps to illustrate the counterargument, as it shows the “scientific” part of EVPs. After discussing this visual and how recorded voice patterns are checked before being deemed as actual EVPs, I would like to discuss how all the actual interpretation of EVPs is still up to humans, who are very much fallible and are likely to hear words out of nonsense.