Tuning in the Dead

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Rich Newman, author of The Ghost Hunter’s Field Guide.

When Nikola Tesla first created the device that’s now known to paranormal investigators as the “Tesla Radio,” he stated, “The sounds I am listening to every night at first appear to be human voices conversing back and forth in a language I cannot understand. I find it difficult to imagine that I am actually hearing real voices from people not of this planet. There must be a more simple explanation that has so far eluded me.”

Much like his fellow scientist Thomas Edison, Tesla fully believed in the validity of conversing with the dead—to him, it was simply a matter of discovering and utilizing the correct technology. Though neither of the inventors would construct such a device (Tesla Radio aside), modern ghost hunters have taken great strides toward communicating with spirits.

One of the more interesting is the use of an AM radio. I’m not referring to the now infamous “Radio Shack Hack” (this technique produces more stray radio signals than it does ghostly voices), but the use of an AM radio to directly tune in the voices of the dead. To use this technique, simply dial down the radio to its lowest frequency (520 kHz for most American radios, though if you can purchase some European models, they can go as low as 148 kHz) and start talking. Of course, it helps to actually be in a place that’s known to be haunted…

Does it work? According to many investigators, yes. Why? Is there anything that suggests that ghosts can even speak in AM frequencies? Consider the Germanium Diode Microphone that famed EVP practitioner Dr. Konstantin Raudive created for his work. He claimed this microphone was especially suited for picking up spirit voices—though it would often have to be isolated within a sterile “Faraday Cage” to block out stray AM radio signals. This suggests that spirit voices and AM radio signals may be quite close to each other. But don’t take my word for it…

Building your own Tesla Radio, Germanium Diode Microphone, and Faraday Cage are as easy as a quick Google search (and a not-so-quick day in the workshop)—and, certainly, getting an AM radio and audio recorder (to document your experiments) is no problem. Just be sure you have something good to talk about!