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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for October 28, 2006: Voices from the Other Side - Barbara McBeath

October 28, 2006: Voices from the Other Side - Barbara McBeath

Oct 28, 2006
2h 34m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes Barbara McBeath of the Ghost Investigators Society for an evening dedicated to electronic voice phenomena. Broadcasting from Manila as Super Typhoon Cimarron bears down on Luzon, Art opens with storm updates before turning to the night's unsettling recordings. Barbara, appearing solo while partner Brendan Cook battles the flu, brings a fresh collection of EVP captures from recent investigations.

The recordings span multiple locations, including a private residence where two women practicing Wicca have unwittingly invited a hostile presence into their home. One chilling voice threatens physical harm, while another explains its motive with disturbing clarity. The investigation moves to a mausoleum where a disembodied voice echoes through marble halls, and a concerned female spirit asks Brendan if he is okay after he falls down the stairs. At a pioneer cemetery in northern Utah, a child's voice claims responsibility for tugging on a blanket.

Barbara shares her theory that most ghosts are unhappy consciousnesses who have not moved on, and that a person's mental state in life carries into death. She and Art discuss the disproportionate number of children's voices in their recordings. Additional captures from a prison and a mortician's haunted home round out the evening.

Key Moments

  1. How you die isn't who you become: McBeath argues most ghosts she records are unhappy because attitude and mental state carry over from life into death.

  2. 'To cause her pain' EVP: Brendan asks an entity in a Wiccan-practicing home why it scratched a woman; the recorded response sounds like 'to cause her pain.'

  3. Ghosts who don't know they're dead: McBeath suggests many EVP voices belong to people stuck because they don't realize they died or had unfinished business.

  4. Mausoleum voice asks 'Are you okay?': Brendan falls down stairs alone in a mausoleum; a clear, concerned woman's voice is captured asking if he is okay.

  5. 'Help me find my dad' child voice: In a Utah pioneer cemetery, GIS captures a sad young voice saying 'help me find my dad,' one of many disproportionately child EVPs.