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Voice On Tape

 

When I was about 8 years old, my mother had bought one of those tape voice recorders, (this was in 2000 so younger people may not know that voice recorders required cassette tapes as there weren't really digital ones on market). It was around maybe 7:30 at night, me, my big sister, mom and my two younger twin siblings (1 at the time) were sitting in the living room. My dad had just gone to get a shower (this fact comes into play later). Being 8 years old, I grabbed the tape recorder wanting to play with it. You know how kids like playing with stuff like that. So I got the tape recorder to play with and start saying funny things and making noises into it like someone that age would.

After about my forth time recording myself being silly, I rewound to tape to listen to the play back. Everything sounded the way it was supposed to, me being silly, the twins making the noises of babies, the faint sound from the T.V in the back ground etc. Then near the end of the recording my sister being a typical big sister says to me "will you quit sounding so stupid?" If you have older siblings you know how it is.

But the thing that caught me so off guard about her saying that is right after she says it, there is a very deep, gruff older mans voice asking, "Who are you?". This voice was the clearest voice on the tape, what now would be classified as a grade A+ EVP.

Of course this spooked me. I told everyone in the room what I heard. Go figure, they didn't believe me. So I played it for my mom and sister. My sister said "that was you doing that." Remember I was 8, so if I had made that voice, we need to check the hormones in the food! My mom told me that was just my dad and to leave it alone! At the time I didn't realize the forceful nature of how she said it.

It was at that time, my dad came walking through the living room. Being the stubborn child I was and ignoring what my mom told me I ask him-

"Dad"

"what"

"Did you ask "who are you?" about five minutes ago?"

"Why the hell would I ask that? Besides, I just got out the shower."

That's when my mom got mad and told me to stop again.

Unfortunately, that tape is lost to time now. Being that young and not knowing much about the paranormal, it never occurred to me to keep it. It's this experience that I credit the most as to what got me so deeply interested in ghost and the paranormal in general.

[As a side note, years later I've learned of experiences she had in that house before I was born that left her traumatized and is the reason she told me to leave it alone. I'll ask her if its ok to share them.]

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, ScareTale, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

8-bitDemigod (8 stories) (38 posts)
+4
3 years ago (2021-06-12)
[at] Macknorton

I was thinking more along the lines of whenever a ghost "speaks", for lack of a better term, they emit a small burst of energy similar to an EMP. So like how our voices vibrate the air and in turn those vibrations are translated to the tape via the recorder, a ghost's "voice" would be directly recorded. It could explain why we can't hear them since our hearing is based on interpreting sound waves and not magnetic pulses, but they can be recorded.

Of course this is all just speculation. There's still so much we don't know about ghosts to draw any kind of conclusion to.
Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+4
3 years ago (2021-06-10)
Hi 8-bitDemigod

Quite possibly the method. But even if that was to be true, can you imagine the intricate process of imprinting recognisable "speech" onto that tape, which I assume would be moving at the time?

Maybe once you know how to do it, it could be a walk in the park, as the saying goes?

Regards

Mack
8-bitDemigod (8 stories) (38 posts)
+3
3 years ago (2021-06-10)
[at] Macknorton

From what I understand ghosts are considered to be residual elecromagnetic energies and since cassettes use magnetic tape to record maybe the ghosts don't have to produce an actual sound to record, just a direct imprint on the strip?
Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+4
3 years ago (2021-06-09)
Hi ScareTale

Thanks for sharing that experience. Well written.

I recall the days of tapes and tape recorders. Seems like a loooong time ago now, however I still vividly recall capturing the sounds of a couple of mating Brontosauruses. No I'm not THAT old, it was probably some sabre-tooth tigers getting frisky actually...

This idea that spirits can somehow "record" themselves onto tape and other, more recent innovations, such as EVP, is fascinating.

I mean, what are the mechanics in being able to do that? First of all, they would have to either produce a sound wave, or vibration in the atmosphere that our ears couldn't hear, but an old tape recorder mic and tape could pick up. Or, they somehow create and then transfer that "sound" directly onto the tape itself. I mean, really? It just seems so incredibly complex and therefore unlikely.

However, there seems to be a plethora of genuine voices captured by these devices. It kind of does my head in 😕. We know so little...

Again, thanks for sharing.

Oh, and big ups to LadyGlow's thorough investigations into the weird and wild world of out of control karma points up and down voting. Intriguing indeed...🤔

So, if anyone is thinking of voting me up, please don't, just donate my karma points to your favorite local charity.

Alternatively, just sit on them until after the next big plague that nearly devastates humanity when they can be used as currency.

Regards, and peace to all,

Mack.
ScareTale (8 stories) (14 posts)
+4
3 years ago (2021-06-09)
Hey [at] lady-glow
You asked if the tape was used and I can say that the tape was brand new. My mom had bought a 3 pack from Wal-Mart along side the recorder. I had even opened that tape my self. So no chance of cross contamination.

Hello [at] Rajine
I actually texted her and got permission to start sharing her experiences as well. Now that I'm older and she sees how serious I am about the paranormal, she's finally started to open up to me about some things. And a few of them are quite terrifying.
lady-glow (16 stories) (3149 posts)
+4
3 years ago (2021-06-09)
Welcome to YGS.

Hi ScareTale.

My first thought while reading the part with the voice was if the tape was new or if it had been used before and then "cleaned up" by recording silence. I remember doing exactly this!

But if there was some paranormal activity going on in the house, chances are that you got an EVP.

I think your mother's experiences are necessary to get a better idea of what was going on in your house.
Was she the target of the activity or did any other family member experience anything out of the ordinary?

Good read, thanks for sharing.
Rajine (14 stories) (734 posts)
+6
3 years ago (2021-06-09)
Hi ScareTale

Ahhh yes the good old days, I'm pretty sure that you weren't the only one who played around with cassette tapes and recording funny voices and having a good laugh about it, back then I remember taping songs and listening to them over and over again just to write down the lyrics, oh and not to mention the wait for your favorite song to play on the radio in order to tape it and also the radio Dj talking over the song whilst you are trying to record it 😆, how easy it is now to just download lyrics and music.

It's amazing that you managed to record a supernatural voice that clearly on a tape voice recorder considering that people use much more high tech stuff, judging by your mom's reaction I'm sure she knew what it was and just didn't want to scare you, but please ask mom if she would share her experiences I'm sure that everyone would love to read them.

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