A Short History of EVP & ITC

The following are extracts from the History of ITC, which is available at Mark Macy’s web site: www.worlditc.org

In the 1920s, Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the electric light, the motion picture camera, and phonograph, was busily at work in his laboratory building a machine to achieve spirit communication with the dead. His assistant, Dr Miller Hutchinson, wrote, “Edison and I are convinced that in the fields of psychic research will yet be discovered facts that will prove of greater significance to the thinking of the human race than all the inventions we have ever made in the field of electricity.”

Edison himself wrote, “If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore … if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something.” 

Unfortunately, Edison died before he could complete his invention. Yet, as he lay dying, he remarked to his physician, "It is very beautiful over there." Edison was a scientist, very factual, and as a scientist would never have reported "It is very beautiful over there," unless he believed it to be true

In 1936, American photographer Attila von Szalay began experimenting with a record cutter and had moderate success capturing spirit voices on phonograph records. In the 1940s he had better success with a wire recorder. In the 1950s writer Raymond Bayless began a collaboration with von Szalay, and the two men documented von Szalay’s results in an article for the American Society for Psychical Research in 1959. Neither the Society nor the authors received a single response from readers.

In 1949, Marcello Bacci of Grosseto, Italy, began experimenting in the paranormal. Soon he began recording voices using an old vacuum tube radio. A spirit team developed around his work, and they spoke to him through the radio sounds. People would visit him in his lab at home, and very often their departed loved ones would talk to them through Mr Bacci’s radio. Today, Marcello Bacci still uses the vacuum tube radio.

In the early 1950s in Italy, two Catholic priests, Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli, were collaborating on music research. Ernetti was an internationally respected scientist, a physicist and philosopher, and also a music lover. Gemelli was President of the Papal Academy. On September 15, 1952, while Gemelli and Ernetti were recording a Gregorian chant, a wire on their magnetophone kept breaking. Exasperated, Father Gemelli looked up and asked his father for help. To the two men's amazement, his father's voice, recorded on the magnetophone, answered, “Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you.” 

They repeated the experiment, and this time a very clear voice filled with humor said, “But Zucchini, it is clear, don't you know it is I?”  Father Gemelli stared at the tape. No one knew the nickname his father had teased him with when he was a boy. He realized then that he was truly speaking with his father. Though his joy at his father's apparent survival was mixed with fear. Did he have any right to speak with the dead? Eventually the two men visited Pope Pius XII in Rome. Father Gemelli, deeply troubled, told the Pope of the experience. To his surprise the Pope patted his shoulder and said, “Dear Father Gemelli, you really need not worry about this. The existence of this voice is strictly a scientific fact and has nothing whatsoever to do with spiritism. The recorder is totally objective. It receives and records only sound waves from wherever they come. This experiment may perhaps become the cornerstone for a building for scientific studies which will strengthen people's faith in a hereafter.” 

The good father was somewhat reassured. But he made certain that the experiment did not go public until the last years of his life. It wasn't until 1990 that the results were published. In 1959, the man who was to become a great pioneer in the recording of voice phenomena, Swedish film producer Friedrich Juergenson, captured voices on audiotape while taping bird songs. He was startled when he played the tape back and heard a male voice say something about "bird voices in the night." Listening more intently to his tapes, he heard his mother's voice say in German, “Friedrich, you are being watched. Friedel, my little Friedel, can you hear me?” Juergenson said that when he heard his mother's voice, he was convinced, he had made "an important discovery." During the next four years, Juergenson continued to tape hundreds of paranormal voices. He played the tapes at an international press conference and in 1964 published a book in Swedish: Voices from the Universe and then another entitled Radio Contact with the Dead.

In 1967, Juergenson's Radio Contact with the Dead was translated into German, and Latvian psychologist Dr Konstantin Raudive read it skeptically. He visited Juergenson to learn his methodology, decided to experiment on his own, and soon began developing his own experimental techniques. Like Juergenson, Raudive too heard the voice of his own deceased mother, who called him by his boyhood name: "Kostulit, this is your mother." Eventually he catalogued tens of thousands of voices, many under strict laboratory conditions.

In 1971, the chief engineers of Pye Records Ltd. decided to do a controlled experiment with Konstantin Raudive. They invited him to their sound lab and installed special equipment to block out any radio and television signals. They would not allow Raudive to touch any of the equipment.  

Raudive used one tape recorder which was monitored by a control tape recorder. All he could do was speak into a microphone. They taped Raudive's voice for eighteen minutes and none of the experimenters heard any other sounds. But when the scientists played back the tape, to their amazement, they heard over two hundred voices on it. 

Experimenting in the electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) became very popular in Europe in the 60's and 70's. Many individuals and groups collected voices over their home tape recorders. In 1971, Paul Jones, G.W. Meek and Hans Heckman, Americans, opened a laboratory. First serious research to create a two-way voice communication system far more sophisticated that the equipment used in EVP approach. Then the late 1970s brought a significant breakthrough. Ironically, it occurred in the US where EVP had been virtually ignored. In 1973, spiritual researchers George and Jeannette Meek met a psychically gifted man, William O'Neil, who could see and hear spirits. The Meeks provided funding and direction for a ground-breaking project of advanced spirit communication, and O'Neil provided the necessary psychic skills and electronics know-how. O'Neil recruited several of his spirit friends into the project. One of his invisible colleagues was the spirit of Dr George Jeffries Mueller, a deceased university professor and NASA (National Aeronautic and Space Administration) scientist who simply appeared in O'Neil's living room one day as a semi-materialized spirit, and announced that he was there to assist in the project of Meek and O'Neil. It became a rather astonishing collaboration between dimensions: Doc Mueller in spirit helping Bill O'Neil on Earth design a new piece of electromagnetic equipment that would convert spirit voices into audible voices. Appropriately christened Spiricom, the new device was a set of tone generators and frequency generators that emitted 13 tones spanning the range of the adult male voice.

By the fall of 1980 Spiricom had advanced to the point where Doc Mueller's spirit voice, although quite buzzy, was loud and easily understandable, and Meek and O'Neil soon catalogued more than 20 hours of dialog with their spirit colleague Doc Mueller. These are reported in some detail in the book After We Die, What Then? by George Meek. In 1982, G. W. Meek made a trip around the world to distribute tape recordings of 16 excerpts of communications between William J. O'Neil and an American scientist who died 14 years earlier. He also distributed a 100-page technical report giving wiring diagrams, photos, technical data and guidelines for research by others.

The pioneering efforts of George Meek and Bill O'Neil planted seeds and fueled minds all around the world. Sarah Estep started the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (AAEVP) in 1982 and quickly assembled a list of hundreds of EVP experimenters to receive her newsletter. Her book, Voices of Eternity, became very popular. In Europe, thousands of people were already following up on the EVP experiments of people like Friedrich Juergenson and Konstantin Raudive, and they became very excited and inspired by the news from the States. 

Reports of spirit telephone calls were becoming widespread, and D. Scott Rogo catalogued them in his book, "Telephone Calls from the Dead,” in 1979.

ITC flourished since Spiricom. Most notable among the new generation of ITC researchers were Ken Webster of England, Maggy and Jules Harsch-Fischbach of Luxembourg, and researchers Klaus Schreiber, Manfred Boden, Hans Otto Koenig, Friedrich Malkhoff, and Adolf Homes all of Germany. Manfred Boden (West-Germany) obtains 1980-81 unsolicited computer print-outs from "spirit" comunicators. Before that he received telephone calls. Until 1983 he has also unsolicited contacts with communicators of non-human evolution. Hans Otto Koenig developed new spirit communication technologies from 1982 to 1988, employing extremely low frequency oscillators, as well as lights in the ultraviolet and infrared range. In 1983 he appeared on a popular radio program on Europe’s largest radio station, Radio Luxembourg. The host, Rainer Holbe, had Koenig set up his equipment under close supervision of the station engineers. One of the engineers asked if a voice could come through in direct reply to a question, and a voice quickly replied, “We hear your voice. Otto Koenig makes wireless contact with the dead.” Stunned, Rainer Holbe addressed the millions of listeners across Europe, “I tell you, dear Listeners of Radio Luxembourg, and I swear by the life of my children, that nothing has been manipulated. There are no tricks. It is a voice, and we do not know from where it comes.” The Station issued an Official Statement Afterwards. Every Step of the Program was Carefully Supervised. Staff and Engineers were Convinced that the Voices were Paranormal. Other later Radio Luxembourg Experiments Carried Out - Similar Success

Ken Webster received some 250 spirit messages in his computers (1984-5) from a 16^th-Century Englishman named Thomas Harden who was apparently “haunting” Webster’s house. Harden claimed that he had owned the same house some four centuries earlier. Harden in spirit was apparently rather stuck in time, referring to Webster’s computer as a “light box” and typing a message to Webster onto the screen on one occasion, “What strange words you are speaking, although I must admit that I had only a poor school education myself. You are a good person and you have a fantastic wife. But you live in my house. It was a big crime to steal my home.” The many messages from Harden were in Olde English dialect and contained extensive details of Harden’s personal life, as well as life of that era, which were later confirmed through research at Oxford Library. Webster’s book, The Vertical Plane, documents those ITC contacts. Klaus Schreiber began to receive spirit images on his TV set in 1985, including the faces of scientist Albert Einstein, Austrian actress Romy Schneider, and various departed family members, especially his two deceased wives and daughter Karin, with whom he was particularly close. His technique, set up by his colleague Martin Wenzel, involved aiming a videocamera at the television and feeding the output of the camera back into the TV, in order to achieve a feedback loop. The result was a churning mist on the screen out of which the spirit faces would slowly form over a period of many frames. Schreiber’s spectacular results were the subject of a TV documentary and book by popular radio-television commentator Rainer Holbe in nearby Luxembourg, in 1985. Maggy Harsch-Fischbach and her husband Jules Harsch of Luxembourg began to get spectacular voice contacts through radio systems early in their experiments in 1985. A high-pitched, computer-like voice came through their radios with growing frequency to announce the beginning and end of experiments and to share amazing insights with the couple. The entity producing the voice identified himself (or herself) as an ethereal being who was never human, never animal, and never in a physical body. “I am not energy and I am not a light being. You are familiar with the picture of two children walking across a bridge, and behind them is a being who protects them. That’s what I am to you, but without the wings. You can call me Technician, since that is my role in opening up this communication bridge. I am assigned to Planet Earth.” The small flat inhabited by the Harsch-Fischbach couple became a place of miracles, as visiting scientists and reporters saw spirit-world images flash across the TV screen and heard long discourses by various deceased personalities through radio sounds. The spirit of Nelson D. Rockefeller told German physicist Ernst Senkowski, “The Mahatmas are a reality.” Nineteenth-Century chemist Henri Ste. Claire de Ville told American and German researchers, “It is our job as well as your job to set fire to minds—to set fire to minds in your world, and in that moment to try to master time.”  When I visited the couple in 1994, spirit friend Konstantin Raudive told us in English, through the radios, “It can only work when the vibrations of those present are in complete harmony and when their aims and intentions are pure.” He then went on to address the five of us individually, with a very personal message for each of us. Fritz Malkhoff and Adolf Homes began ITC experiments independently in 1987, and each began to get spirit voices on tape rather quickly. In a few months, they learned of each other’s work, and they became colleagues and friends. During their experiments, small voices on radio quickly developed long, clear voices. Then they began to receive phone calls from their spirit friends, and in 1988 they set up Malkhoff’s computer in the house of Adolf Homes, where they did most of their experiments. They posed a short question, and two days later a short answer appeared miraculously on their computer screen. As years passed, Malkhoff received many phone calls from spirit friends, including nature spirits. Homes received spirit images on his television and messages on his computer screen rather routinely. One morning in 1994, Homes climbed out of bed in a trance, aimed a video camera at his television, and received the first color picture from the spirit worlds. It was a picture of deceased EVP pioneer Friedrich Juergenson. At the same time, a message from Juergenson printed out of Homes’s computer, stating, “This is Friedel from Sweden. I am sending you a self-portrait… The projection since January 17, 1991, has been in the quantum of spacelessness and timelessness. All your and our thoughts have their own electromagnetic reality which does not get lost outside the space-time structure… Consciousness creates all form….”

In 1995, ITC entered a new phase. I (Mark Macy) worked closely with ITC colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic to plan a meeting among scientists and researchers from different countries. Sixteen of us met in England to discuss this modern-day miracle, its tremendous possibilities for our world, and the obstacles that stood in the way. We formed new friendships, and by the end of a long weekend we also formed INIT, the International Network for Instrumental Transcommunication. In the coming months, ethereal beings told us they were observing our efforts closely and would provide guidance and support. We began to experience unprecedented miracles in our research. Many of us received phone calls, usually from spirit friend Konstantin Raudive, and the Harsch-Fischbachs received astounding pictures and messages through their computer, all as a result of resonance among INIT members. It was clear that a new phase of ITC research on Earth had begun. Our ethereal friends told us that the greatest strides would be made by individuals from different countries who committed to work together in harmony with pure intentions. As aging researchers died—Konstantin Raudive in 1974, Friedrich Juergenson in 1987, Klaus Schreiber in 1988, Bill O’Neil in 1991, and George Meek in 1999—they began to get in touch with their colleagues on Earth through ITC systems. Raudive told several earthside colleagues that since his death it has been his calling to continue the development of ITC systems from the other side of the veil. He called me by phone seven times after his death, and on one occasion we chatted for nearly 15 minutes before the contact ended. On another occasion he told me to purchase a “VLF converter” for my radio system; it would improve contacts. Friedrich Juergenson told eagerly watching ITC experimenters in Germany, through the television of Adolf Homes, “Every being is a unity of spirit and body that cannot be separated on earth or in spirit. The only difference is the fact that the physical body disintegrates and in its place comes the astral body. Our message is to tell you that your life goes on. Any speculations on how an individual will experience it are bound to be limited in accuracy. All your scientific, medical or biological speculations miss the mark of these realities. What serves as ‘real’ to science is not close to reality in the broad picture. It is no more than a word in a book.”

The most inspiring and helpful information came to us from a group of timeless beings who said they had never been in physical bodies, but had observed human development over many thousands of years. These ethereal beings addressed our group in 1996: “This is the seventh time that we accompany and guide you on your progress toward a free, wealthy, and sane future in which humanity would have stripped off the chains of intolerance and cruelty—a future in which it will be able to establish a fruitful, endurable relationship with the light, ethereal realms of existence.” Ethereal beings told INIT on more than one occasion that simply opening the door to the spirit worlds can be dangerous, but researchers who work together and dedicate their efforts to higher human principles will receive ethereal guidance and protection. As years passed, Technician and his six ethereal friends, along with a team of more than 1,000 spirit beings who had once lived on Earth, shared vast and astonishing information with INIT members through computers, telephones, radios, and other technical media. The ethereal beings said they had accompanied our world for many thousands of years and had come close six times when the Earth had reached a crossroads leading either to a dark age or to a period of enlightenment. This, they said, was the seventh time, and they wished to establish a lasting bridge between Earth and their formless realm of wise, loving consciousness. ITC research would be the means by which to establish that bridge. Through the work of INIT, it became evident that the more miraculous forms of ITC contacts were made possible by such ethereal beings, who provided protection and guidance for ITC researchers and their spirit colleagues. 

Our spirit friends suggested to us INIT members that the collective wisdom and knowledge of all the INIT members allowed the information in ITC contacts to contain unprecedented depth of substance. Thanks to our collective understanding, we were told about the distant past of our world, long before recorded history, and we were given hints about future possibilities, depending on the critical decisions of humans in the near future. The ethereal beings also told us what it’s like from their perspective when they come to “take us home” at the end of our earthly lives. These are just a few general examples of the types of information delivered to us through ITC systems. 

We were told that ITC contacts are made possible by a contact field, which is a pool of thoughts and attitudes of all researchers collaborating on an ITC project, as well as the thoughts and attitudes of their spirit team. When the thoughts and attitudes of all those entities on both sides of the veil are in harmony, our spirit friends told us the contact field was clear. They could then see into our world and work with our equipment. When doubts, fears, envy, resentment, and other troubled feelings created dissonance, the contact field became cloudy, and our spirit friends told us they could not see easily into our world or work with our equipment.  

That’s what happened to INIT. After several years, troubles developed. Most of us were a little insecure about the miraculous contacts we were receiving. We had no way to understand what was making them possible. So many of us believed that we would not make major strides in ITC research until science became involved and discovered the secrets behind ITC contacts. Some members began working with scientists in their home country, who took one look at the results of our research and told the INIT researchers that the miracles we’d been receiving were scientifically impossible. The scientists told the INIT members they should be more skeptical of the contacts their colleagues were reporting. So some members began to express doubts publicly about the legitimacy of other members’ contacts. The researchers who had received those contacts felt betrayed, as though a friend had accused them of fraud, and a division developed within our association. Some members felt we should indeed work with science, even if it meant being more skeptical. Others believed that our miraculous contacts were most important, and we should forget scientists who were not ready, willing, or able to accept the legitimacy of our work. The division grew quickly, fueled by intense animosity, conflict, and hurt feelings on both sides of the Atlantic, and probably on both sides of the veil as well.  

As a result of the dissonance, the contact field became cloudy, our spirit friends were unable to come through into our world and work with our equipment, and the miracles of ITC virtually dried up. Phone calls, FAXes, detailed computer images and texts from spirit friends with messages of great depth and import have not been reported from any researchers since the year 2000, to the best of my knowledge.  

I believe those miracles and many more will return when we have learned from our mistakes—when we realize that the doubts, the fears, and the insecurities…the envy, the resentment, and the other dark feelings which we humans experience almost everyday and which we take for granted as a normal part of living here on Earth, must all be kept under control when we are involved in any form of spiritual work, especially ITC research. It is easy for us to say that we are in harmony with others, but our hidden doubts, fears, and insecurities say otherwise. We have to find those dark feelings inside us and bring them into the light to heal.

After all, we humans are spirit magnets, attracting into our lives spiritual influences that resonate with our attitudes. If we are in doubt or in fear, we will attract spirits into our lives who stir up our doubts and fears. If we love and trust the people around us, then we will attract spirits into our lives who will support that love and trust.  

The ITC networks that enjoy miracles in the future are those which grow today upon a foundation of harmony. Ethereal beings told INIT on more than one occasion that simply opening the door to the spirit worlds can be dangerous, but researchers who work together and dedicate their efforts to higher human principles will receive ethereal guidance and protection. As years passed, Technician and his six ethereal friends, along with a team of more than 1,000 spirit beings who had once lived on Earth, shared vast and astonishing information with INIT members through computers, telephones, radios, and other technical media. The ethereal beings said they had accompanied our world for many thousands of years and had come close six times when the Earth had reached a crossroads leading either to a dark age or to a period of enlightenment. This, they said, was the seventh time, and they wished to establish a lasting bridge between Earth and their formless realm of wise, loving consciousness. ITC research would be the means by which to establish that bridge. Through the work of INIT, it became evident that the more miraculous forms of ITC contacts were made possible by such ethereal beings, who provided protection and guidance for ITC researchers and their spirit colleagues.