The Saturday 6/27 show concluded with yet another simultaneous Ouija board-EVP session that gave us all plenty to talk about. Audience volunteers JOY and JOE (not the same Joe who sat at the board in the previous show) personed the board while the audience and I gathered round to watch. Joy and Joe contacted someone named V I V (short for Vivian, or perhaps it’s 3 initials) who was 7 8 years old and standing to my R I G H T. What did she think of the show? S U B T L E. (That was a first, and a particularly eloquent response that made me blush underneath my sadhu ocher, ash and dirt). Did she know anyone in the audience? YES. J O E. How did she know Joe? H O M E. Joe and I didn’t like where this was headed so I quickly changed the subject: would Viv like to speak with us electrically? YES.
I took a few steps away and fired up my trusty P-SB7 “spirit box” and connected it to a loudspeaker as usual. Somewhere between the hiss of the spirit box and my ad libbed one-liners Viv’s seemingly jovial mood changed and she suddenly got annoyed with us. When I asked if she could say my name, a voice indeed eventually said “Jeffrey” (see below) but at the same time the Ouija board spelled out J E R K, which gave us all a good laugh. When I said something about the spirit box being kind of quiet tonight as compared to my other two Art Church EVP sessions the Ouija board spelled out D E A D as if to reiterate that the radio waves were dead tonight, and then shot down to GOODBYE after which it refused to move. Jerk…dead…goodbye. Sheesh.
I asked if there was anyone else who’d like to speak with us and we only got static so I shut if off and concluded the show with my final song, my own original “Toby Keith Goes to India,” before having a post-show chat with the mingling audience.
The EVP recording and transcript with my comments are below. The raw audio footage is about 4 minutes and the image is just a blurry closeup of the spirit box speaker. I’m only including here the most audible parts which I have slowed down and to which I’ve applied a little noise reduction and boosted volume. If anyone would like the complete raw audio to do your own interpreting just post a request below, I’m happy to share it.
ME: Okay, uh, Viv, are you there?
ED FRANKLIN. (Another presence stepping up to the mic. I usually ask the spirit if it’s alone or if there are others in the room; usually the answer is yes. I didn’t even get to ask before Ed here made his presence known anyway. If anyone wants to research this name — or for that matter anyone deceased named Vivian or with initials VIV — in relation to the Art Church building, Webster Street or the immediate neighborhood please do so and report back).
SITTING ON THE WALL. (In past sessions when I’ve asked the spirit where in the room they are, aside from typical answers like LEFT or RIGHT I’ve gotten answers like CEILING, so perhaps Ed’s wafting ghost is indeed “sitting on the wall.”)
ME: Viv, we’re gonna —
GOODBYE. (Yep, this is where Viv took an abrupt turn from talkative to hostile; we couldn’t decide what I had done to turn her off so suddenly. At the same time it was saying this the planchette moved down to GOODBYE on the Ouija board, as described above, seemingly to drive the point home).
ME: Is there anyone else there who–
JEFFREY.
ME: — before we shut it off who would like to say hello before we stop the board?
Nope. The rest is silence.
Keep your third eye open and have a terrific summer,
Jeff
Nobody knows whether our personalities pass on to another existence or sphere but it is possible to construct an apparatus which will be so delicate that if there are personalities in another existence or sphere who wish to get in touch with us in this existence or sphere, this apparatus will at least give them a better opportunity to express themselves than the tilting tables and raps and ouija boards and mediums and the other crude methods now purported to be the only means of communication. – Thomas Edison