December 18, 2009: EVP with GIS - Brendan Cook & Barbara McBeath
Cook and McBeath share EVP recordings captured during their investigations, presenting voices that appear to respond directly to questions and join casual conversations among the team. Art notes that of all the ghost-related programs he has hosted, EVP research stands as the most credible because the GIS has never accepted money, written books for profit, or sought publicity beyond sharing their findings. The voices captured range from elderly to childlike, seeming to reflect the age and gender of the deceased at the time of death.
The discussion explores what it means for consciousness to survive bodily death and whether ghosts choose to remain in this realm. McBeath shares her belief that family grief and concern for loved ones can keep spirits tethered to the physical world, while Cook admits the work has raised far more questions than answers, driving him to investigate further with each new recording.
Key Moments
Ghosts Choose to Stay: Barbara McBeath argues that consciousness has agency in death the same way it does in life - the dead can choose to remain, often held back by family grief or concern for loved ones, and EVPs preserve them at the age and gender they died.
I'm Completely Dead: Cook recalls a cemetery EVP where an old woman they had been recording suddenly said I'm completely dead - sounding like a moment of self-realization - and was never heard from again, the only case suggesting a spirit may have moved on after recording.
Why EVP Is Safer Than Ouija: Cook and McBeath split on whether listening to EVP opens dangerous doors, but agree that ghosts and Ouija entities are categorically different - ghosts were once human and tied to a place, while Ouija invites in entities that never lived.
They're Coming Home: An EVP arrived not in a cemetery but on a man's home answering machine without any incoming call, recording itself with the words they're coming home, sourced from the lineage of the 1970s Phone Calls from the Dead phenomenon.
Crying Baby in an Empty Cemetery: GIS plays an unlooped recording from a cemetery at 1 AM with no investigators speaking - the wind is audible, then a small child or infant cries clearly into the silence. Bell and McBeath both confirm there were no living children present.