February 20, 2001: Electronic Voice Phenomena - Brendan Cook & Barbara McBeath

Art Bell welcomes Brendan Cook and Barbara McBeath of the Ghost Investigators Society to explore electronic voice phenomena, or EVP. The team uses brand-new microcassette tapes and external microphones to record anomalous voices at cemeteries, abandoned hospitals, historic hotels, and other locations with reported paranormal activity. They estimate voices appear on roughly 50 percent of their recordings.

Over 30 audio clips are played throughout the broadcast, capturing a striking range of personalities and emotions. A child's voice says "it's dark in here" at a former military barracks. A menacing voice at an abandoned military hospital growls "you little murdering tramps." At a cemetery, a spirit provides directions saying "Roger, back near the car" and another identifies himself clearly as "I'm Lewis." One recording captures a German-language voice at an old theater, while another says "near Mark Wood" at a gravesite Barbara has never been able to locate.

Barbara shares her theory that ghosts retain fragments of their living personality but gradually lose definition over time. She distinguishes ghosts from entities contacted through seances or Ouija boards, which she believes are non-human spirit beings that were never alive. The guests stress that their research is unfunded and they sell nothing, driven purely by a desire to document and understand what persists after death.