December 18, 2001: EVPs - Brendan Cook & Barbara McBeath
Cook and McBeath play recordings captured on brand-new, never-previously-recorded audio tapes at cemeteries, an abandoned mental hospital, a funeral parlor, and a historic hotel. Highlights include a voice responding "I'm not far" to a request directed at a ghost light nicknamed Parker, a child's voice asking "Do they talk good?" after an investigator's question, and a clear "Yes" responding to a comment about time having no meaning for spirits. At the haunted Ben Lomond Hotel in Ogden, Utah, a woman's voice declares "It's a white night," later identified as possibly referencing a discontinued Mary Kay perfume.
Cook explains that the spirits recorded through EVP appear stuck in this plane of existence rather than having moved on. He advises listeners that personality persists after death, urging people to resolve personal issues during life because mental troubles and unresolved conflicts carry over to the other side.
Key Moments
Why EVP voices respond in real time to the living: Art observes that EVP voices appear to respond directly to questions asked at the time of recording. McBeath agrees, arguing the spirits have a clearer view of our dimension than we have of theirs because they aren't inhibited by the physical body.
Personalities survive death intact: Art articulates and McBeath endorses the idea that EVP recordings show people don't fundamentally change when they die - warm loving people stay warm loving spirits, and 'miserable bastards' here remain miserable bastards on the other side.
Recorded voices are stuck in our plane: McBeath theorizes that the spirits captured on EVP have not 'gone on' - they remain stuck in our plane, unseen, often because they haven't resolved something or don't realize they're dead. Those who continue on come back only with purpose.
Parker, the cemetery ghost light, and 'I'm not far': Cook and McBeath describe filming a fluorescent globule of light they nicknamed Parker, which kept descending into a grave marked Parker. After Barbara called 'Parker, don't leave,' a voice on tape replies 'I'm not far' - played live on air.
Fear the living, not the dead: Asked if cemeteries at night creep them out, McBeath answers that the only thing that bothers her is the possibility of an actual living person hiding in the cemetery - she would much rather encounter any ghost than an unknown human.