User:Justin.pettit/Notes

Ghost Box (Frank's Box)



A Ghost Box (Frank's Box) is an electronic device that is specifically used to capture electronic voice phenomenon. It uses an adapted radio tuner and also involves the use of a white noise generator that is powered by a random voltage circuit. Frank Sumption invented the Ghost Box in 2002, after reading an article in a Popular Electronics magazine and experimenting with a program known as EVP Maker created by Stefan Bion. The original design used a method of voltage tuning where the AM radio receiver reacts to the voltage circuit by tuning to a specific spot on the radio dial. This voltage tuning allows a constant linear "sweeping" of radio frequency that ghosts supposedly use to communicate. Since the creation of the first Ghost Box, several modifications have been made in order to allow both AM radio and FM radio, faster sweeping through frequencies, and other adaptations.

Inspiration
Some claim that famous inventor Thomas Edison was one of the first to be inspired to create an instrumental transcommunication device. In the October 1920 issue of American Magazine, B.C. Forbes wrote an article titled "Edison Working on How to Communicate with the Next World." Scientific American shortly thereafter produced an article on Edison's paranormal interest which had a photo of Edison with a caption that read "Thomas A. Edison - the world’s foremost inventor who is now at work on an apparatus designed to place psychical research on a scientific basis.” A supposed diary entry of Edison's, found in Dagobert Runes' Philosophical Library publication, The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas A. Edison, shows Edison as saying "I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it is possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us...I am engaged in the construction of one such apparatus now, and I hope to be able to finish it before very many months pass.” However, evidence of Thomas Edison's experiments have been unproven and it is unclear of whether his interest was real or a hoax .

Frank Sumption's inspiration for the Ghost Box came from an article in an October 1995 Popular Electronics magazine that asked "Are the dead trying to communicate with us through electronic means? Try these experiments and see for yourself." . His first attempts to create the device were unsuccessful, so he began to look into instrumental transcommunication work done by a Danish researcher named Stein and a German researcher by the name of Stefan Bion. Efforts to create such a device were unfruitful until Sumption received what he claimed to be "spirit guidance" on its design which was conveyed to him telepathically.

Concept
In Frank Sumption's first generation of Ghost Boxes, a random voltage circuit system produces differing voltages that cause the frequencies on an AM tuner found within the machine to jump all around in turn. The rate at which the frequencies jumped were controllable by a knob which produced raw audio. This audio is then amplified and pumped into an internal echo chamber where it is recorded.It is theorized that the Ghost Box creates audio bits and white noise that ghosts and/or spirits manipulate into forming words; providing "real time two-way communication". 

Since 2007, a differing method has been used in the creation of Ghost Boxes that relies less on a random "sweep" of frequencies, but rather uses a linear sweep of either AM or FM frequencies. This method was discovered by Bill Chappell, who was interested in creating a Ghost Box that was both cost efficient and able to be built without an in-depth knowledge of radio electronics. Chappell's method, also known as a "Radio Shack Hack", is simple enough that it has several online tutorials exist, and was popularized due to the fact that it only requires the purchase of a Radio Shack hand-held AM/FM 12-469 radio.

Controversy
Many critics argue that the paranormal evidence produced by the Ghost Box is subjective and unable to be reproduced. Due to its use of noises from AM/FM radio frequencies, the snippets of words and sounds that create any meaningful response for a user is often times viewed as being purely coincidental and most likely caused by pareidolia. Michael Shermer, a writer for Scientific American, investigated the Ghost Box in order to write an article about its capabilities and deemed that the Ghost Box's only power was that of "patternicity" which deceives the human brain into hearing only what is wanted to be heard. Jason Hawes from Syfy's Ghost Hunters has stated that the Ghost Box's ability to validify paranormal existence is vulnerable to contamination from various sources, such as cell phones.