Rorschach Audio

Joe Banks, Research Fellow

Just as our ancestors perceived thunder as "Theophany" - "The Voice of God", in much the same way, similarly anthropomorphic misperceptions of sounds of wind are probably the most primal manifestation of what is commonly perceived as the memetically archetypal sound of a ghost (the ghost of film and folklore, which drifts across rooms, clothed in transparent white sheets, moaning and wailing). It seems reasonable to speculate that relationships between anthropomorphism, religion, superstition and bereavement may be as old as human perception itself. In certain circumstances, the ability of people to project human-like characteristics onto sounds like wailing wind may be just as deeply embedded as the instinct for forming social groups around the warmth of a glowing fire, so perhaps it's not surprising that a direct equivalent to the former tendency still expresses itself in societies whose culture has only been influenced by scientific thought for a relatively short period.

The title of this article is derived from an earlier text called "Rorschach Audio", which was written in 1999 for the sleevenotes of a CD called "The Ghost Orchid", subtitled "An Introduction to Electronic Voice Phenomena" 2 (and "Rorschach Audio" articles and lectures etc have been continually revised, republished and demonstrated to the public ever since). For those who may not be aware, Electronic Voice Phenomena are a class of allegedly "mysterious" vocal recordings, and while several explanations have been proposed to explain the origin of these sounds, the majority of EVP researchers believe that their recordings constitute evidence of contact with the afterlife. In other words most EVP researchers believe that it is possible, using various radio and electrical engineering techniques, to literally record the voices of ghosts.