- HUDSON -- After her 22-year-old
son died, Karen Mossey wanted to still be able to hear his voice.
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- Through a ghost-hunting technique called EVP - electronic
voice phenomenon - Mossey believes she has found a way to hear her son
and her father, who died two years ago.
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- About four years ago, Mossey's son Robert Browning died
after having a seizure while fishing. He suffered from a seizure disorder
after a car accident when he was 16.
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- "I always believed life continues after death,"
Mossey said.
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- When people ask her how many children she has, Mossey
still replies four.
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- "Rob is always with me," she said. "He's
just in another room."
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- After her son's death, Mossey was looking for confirmation
of her beliefs. She turned to a friend who had been capturing EVP since
the 1970s. She heard some of his recordings and started working with him.
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- The two found the American Association of Electronic
Voice Phenomena, a group dedication to the research and practice of EVP.
She's now a member.
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- When she first started EVP, Mossey said it was a bit
scary and she was a little jumpy.
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- She now participates regularly in recording sessions,
known as "Bridge to the Afterlife." Members discuss and learn
how to use EVP to make contact with family members and friends who have
died.
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- She also participates in investigations with the New
England Ghost Project and is the organization's EVP specialist.
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- While many see ghosts as caricatures or joke about them
at Halloween with its parties and haunted houses and hayrides, communicating
with ghosts is a serious subject for Mossey. She says it has provided her
comfort to be able to hear her son's voice after he died.
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- Mossey's work in EVP will be featured in an upcoming
trailer for "White Noise," a Hollywood movie featuring Michael
Keaton.
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- Sarah Estep, the founder of the American Association
of Electronic Voice Phenomena, defined it as "the appearance of intelligible
voices on recording tape which have no known physical explanation."
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- "Certain equipment, which is easily obtained and
need not be expensive, and a good deal of patience and persistence is necessary,"
Estep said. "It is not necessary to be a psychic superstar or gifted
medium to communicate with unseen worlds."
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- When Mossey started, she began looking for her son. She
thinks other spirits were trying to help her find him. She said she once
heard her son's last name, which she said she hadn't told the spirits from
which she had heard.
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- She said she eventually heard "ease up," which
is something Rob always said.
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- "I knew the inflection in his voice," she said.
"I knew his voice."
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- In one of the advertisements for "White Noise,"
Browning can be heard saying "Yup. It's Rob."
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- She says she has also heard her father, Stanley Searles,
a well-known local politician.
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- Several members of the AAEVP also have deceased children
with whom they say they communicate.
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- "I know the comfort it has brought to me,"
Browning said. "The one thing a parent would want to know (is) my
child is OK."
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- In her bedroom, along with angel figurines, a picture
of Jesus and a prayer to angels, is her computer that's filled with voice
clips she has recorded.
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- "I pretty much taught myself," she said of
EVP.
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- She said voices could be captured from the white noise
a television or radio emits. Sometimes she leaves her old-fashioned radio
running at night, tuned to white noise, with a tape recorder running.
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- There's no special place she has to be to capture EVP.
Mossey has taped at home, in friends' homes, at haunted locations, cemeteries
and even her car.
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- One summer day, when she was having difficulty breathing
because of the humidity, Mossey turned on her tape recorder during the
ride home. Later when she listened, she says she heard, "Having trouble
breathing?"
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- There are different classes of EVP based on the quality
of the sound. Some that can be heard very clearly are Class A. Others may
need some editing to be more audible.
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- She has a variety of software that can be used for editing
sounds - for example, by filtering out background noise.
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- The question most people have is "What is this?"
They feel there has to be a rational explanation for what she and they
hear.
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- She hopes the upcoming movie helps people gain more awareness
and knowledge about EVP.
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- Mossey became involved in the trailers after attending
an AAEVP conference. Members of Universal Studio doing research for "White
Noise" were there and noticed Mossey, who spoke at two workshops,
including one about grief management.
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- She was interviewed for a trailer and provided sound
clips.
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- In the beginning, Mossey faced a lot of skepticism, even
from some family members. One relative has told her he doesn't believe
in EVP.
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- "It takes a lot of strength, a lot of courage to
do this," she said.
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- © 2004, Telegraph Publishing Company
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