From Edison's  Telephone to the Dead to Frank's Box and More . . .

In a more romantic time such as Victorian America, those seeking to commune with the spirits found their way to a medium, who might utilize a veiled enclosure called a “ghost box” from which they offered thoughts from the dearly departed. Today, we find modern ghost hunters utilizing an array of electronic gadgets to do the same, but are we really any closer to a “person to person” call to the dead? Some think we are, but to understand the phenomenon, we first must look at from where this technology evolved.

Many point an accusing finger to none other than Thomas Alva Edison, the man credited with providing modern illumination to the world, as the inventor of the first electronic method to speak to the “other side.” Edison was a complicated individual, who was involved in any number of complex devices, from the electric light to voice recordings.  Among his more esoteric devices is one that we now know of as his “Telephone to the Dead.”  It is ironic that if you inquire about the device from the usual sources associated with all of Edison’s other great interests; you will most likely find a disengaging response. While Edison chroniclers do not deny the existence of the concept, they tend to dismiss it as a minor interest in the great inventor’s later career and of no importance. Some even go so far as to say it was a total failure, while others say it was never actually built, an odd claim when you take into account Mr. Edison was a very hands-on style inventor.

Remembering that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the concept suggested by Edison still exists in several reincarnations or more correctly permutations. These devices have been renamed, reshaped and reconsidered, but they are all aimed to one task, communications with the dead. Effectively, little is known of Edison’s thoughts on this subject, most will suggest there never was an operational prototype of the device, nor do they admit to the existence of a working diagram or blueprint by the master tinkerer, yet anecdotal information about the device would suggest just the opposite.

One note of interest might be of some importance, while Edison is though of as an electronics genius, his strongest talents were in the realm of chemistry. And in one researcher’s notebook you can find several references attributed to Editor about the use of “crystals” in a chemical solution being used in this device. This conjures up the image of the Wizard of Menlo Park hunkering down to his plan to talk to the dead, more like an alchemist than a mad scientist with brilliant flashes from a Tesla coil in the background.  That is, after all a common enough misconception; when Mary Shelly envisioned her Dr. Frankenstein, his attempts at reanimation was utilizing chemical reactions, not electric sparks, which later caught the public’s imagination in motion pictures, another Edison invention. Edison’s experiments in life-after-death communications may have survived in a similar mythic context; even though most “telephone to the dead” supporters are likely to disagree.

Whether based on chemical reactions or electronics, the original concept as envisioned by Edison is far from today’s reality and seems to have bypassed some rather obvious input from his colleagues, including the likes of John Hayes Hammond, Jr., the father of modern RF technology, FM communications and radar.  Biographer’s of Hammond admit that if Edison was tinkering with a communications device of any sort, it would be Hammond to whom he would have turned; Edison was not involved in radio detection, Hammond was the acknowledged expert in that field and was a close friend. Unfortunately, Hammond left strict instructions that upon his death, all of his experimental work was to be destroyed, while Edison’s work was meticulously achieved, even if heavily edited by his subordinates on his death. Therefore any collaboration on a “telephone to the dead,” was lost to future generations.  Or was it?

Fast forwarding a few generations, we enter the world of Frank Sumption, who with the assistance of “spirit” engineers created what is now called Frank’s Box, the modern equivalent of Edison’s device. Basically, Frank’s Box is a random broadcast sampling device, taking snippets of broadcast band “noise” and stringing them together, thus creating a cluttered version of “white noise,” that reportedly can be interpreted by those so selected with messages from beyond. Depending on who you speak to, this is either a very useful tool with reasonably clear messages coming across from the other side, or a useless generator of random broadcast junk, open to interpretation like so many other forms of electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) that proves virtually nothing of value. 

The problem with Frank’s Box is that it is hand made and the number of units is so limited and their distribution so tightly controlled, that there is virtually no independent testing. Sumpton decides, through feedback from the box, who will and will not have access to the device and has very definite ideas about who should have them and how they are used. 

An offshoot of Frank’s box is the latest version of the “Telephone to the Dead,” currently being used, for a fee, by psychic investigator Christopher Moon.  He claims that his device is a direct incarnation of the Edison box and that it can only be used by a gifted few.  He charges a fee to ask a limited number of questions in a half hour session for those wishing to question others who have died. Again the outcome of these sessions seems divided, depending on whom you ask, with some claiming that the information coming across is exceptional, while others fear just another parlor trick.

Limiting access to the devices is of course a control mechanism, but the fact is that at least in the case of Frank’s Box, detailed schematic diagrams have found their way onto the Internet, giving researchers a look at how it might work. As stated earlier, Frank’s box utilizes a simple AM broadcast radio signal and a system of sampling bits and pieces of many channels, producing a mash of noise that the listener interprets. In the case of Frank’s Box, the technology utilized is a mix of discarded radio pieces and over the counter Radio Shack parts, installed in whatever cabinet might be available. With a little work by well educated electrical engineers, a similar device without extraneous unused circuits can be produced in a small case and do the same thing. As to the success of the device, some will still say, “Garbage in, Garbage out!”  Others with a more open mind see it as an improvement over simple white noise generators, which EVP experimenters have been using for years.

To better understand the overall concept, you have to delve a little deeper, into the world of those experimenting in ITC (Instrumental Trans-Communication,) one step up from the common EVP collector who monitors random noise utilizing a tape recorder.  To best understand the history of this phenomenon, you might wish to read D. Scott Rogo’s book Phone Calls from the Dead, which explains the overall phenomenon in detail. Rogo is best known for his numerous works on the afterlife and penned this classic in 1977 with co-author Raymond Bayless.  You may also wish to do a little more reading on the subject of Spiritcom, the latest incarnation of that area of research into EVPs.

Spiricom reportedly allowed a wide range of communications between the living and the dead and was most popular through the year 2000, when according to one source, the bulk of such communication simply stopped abruptly at the turn of the millennium. Early research in this area of communications, utilized a random tone generation device that could reproduce the human voice range, but later experiences by the Spiricom group found that it was possible to communicate over fax machines, telephones and even computers.

Returning for a moment to Edison and Hammond, research shows that of the few remaining documents referring to spirit communications, Edison did have personal exchanges with colleagues indicating that he believed in the afterlife and claimed some knowledge of what “life” was like after death. Hammond left no such clues after his death, but a look at what he dedicated his later research towards might suggest a direction not commonly followed by modern devotees today, but not misdirected if he were following a Edison line of thought.

It is reasonable to suggest that all the “Spirit Boxes” commonly in use today utilize slices of the airwaves to create a “noise” that some can interpret as speech from those who have departed.  That requires an act of faith to accept at present, given the security surrounding those who have the boxes. That concept is diametrically opposed to the methods that someone like Edison and Hammond lived by in their day. They were inventors and scientists, moved by success, not faith.

Unfortunately, given the destruction of Hammond’s notes and the editing of Edison’s writings on the subject, we have precious little to go on today, but thanks again to science there may be a new avenue to consider.  Several years ago, NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) was involved in what is commonly referred to as “earth sounds” monitoring and a helpful NASA engineer manufactured a simple radio kit that was marketed to schools so that students could monitor the naturally produced sounds of the planet we live on.  Ironically, in the explanation of some of those sounds, it was noted that sometimes the listener can hear what sounds like human voices, to which NASA says, there must be a reasonable explanation, but one that is not readily available at the moment.  Because of the audience at hand, those involved in EVP research probably never heard that message!

The device available for the monitoring of “earth sounds” is not operating near broadcast bands or normal communications frequencies; in fact they are so far removed from those bands that it would be impossible to be hearing “voices” from common transmissions. The frequencies being utilized for these experiments are in fact listening on channels normally never used, in the Very Low and Ultra Low Frequencies of the radio spectrum. In fact the only transmissions relegated to that spectrum are for submarine communications!

All of this was pretty much overlooked until one enterprising electrical engineer, working with the Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomenon, (ASUP, Inc.) in Texas, found a reference to the VLF-ULF “noise” while working on a “ghost box” project for his organization. Ron Ricketts, is very interested in radio, as it relates to the “Spirit box” phenomenon. An active licensed ham radio operator for many years, as well as an electronics designer, he and the tech team of ASUP began to theorize just what implications the phenomenon might have in relationship to these little used frequencies and came to the conclusion that perhaps what Hammond was working on in the realm of spirit communications was much closer to his otherwise top-secret work with the military before his death.  A new project was undertaken, a method of communications on a much more sophisticated level than anything considered in the past.

While the ASUP team continues to research corresponding methods that involve the ULF range on a band that would theoretically require a wire antenna that would be miles in length, Rickett’s R&D team toil away in a small laboratory, filled with oscilloscopes and meters of every description, partially constructed boxes with stray wires and circuit boards, but without the sparking coils one might conjure up when being compared jokingly with Dr. Frankenstein’s workplace. Officially, the group will just say that their work to date is “encouraging,” but Rickett’s did note at a recent presentation that he expects a fully working prototype of a hand-held unit early in 2008.

It is the ASUP’s intention to produce a unit that would cost less than what is now being charged for a half-hour session by “Ghost Box” proponents; furthermore Rickett’s says, the device will be a tool that can be used by anyone, requiring no “psychic ability.” When asked if he expects the device to work, Rickett’s jokes, “It will work, but stealing a line often used by ASUP field investigators, ‘We know that the phenomenon exists, we just can’t explain what the phenomenon is!’ The unit will be capable of receiving voice messages, but we are still challenged to explain from where they are coming or why!”

“I look at this project in the same way I approached our recent work with the hand-held EMF (Electro-Magnetic Field) meters. We have worked to refine them to a point where our teams can now routinely gain much better feedback than with the normal K-II meter. These devices work and we continue to refine them to work even better, it was just a matter of building a better mouse trap, but why they work is a question better left up to experts who came up with the ideas to begin with and who have been chasing the ‘unexplained’ their entire lives. The ASUP is unique in that way, For example, we have a board of directors, all of whom are ham radio operators, just so they are up to speed with the electronics they use. They actively recruit professionals to be sure they are being objective. They develop new tools do the job better and spend a lot of time helping other groups as well. I’ve never seen them reject an idea out of hand.”

April Slaughter, Director of Operations for the ASUP, fields the tough questions for this 35-year old, non-profit organization. When asked about sharing their technology, she does not hesitate to say, “First, it has to work to our total satisfaction, then we will make it available to other groups, but it has to work well before that happens. We would not want anyone to say that our research is in any way faulty.” She adds, “We are a non-profit corporation, dedicated to education and research. None of this is being done to make money; we have never charged anyone for our services and never will.  If it comes to the point where we have a device that works well and can be helpful to other researchers, we will be happy to share it with them. That is the way we play the game. It’s the only way to keep a level playing field; otherwise the public will perceive us to be just another ‘900 psychic’ out to take their money. I guess what I am saying is that we will share our research as we always have, the only proviso is that whomever we share it with agrees it will never be used to make a profit. ”

Is this the key to unraveling the riddle of man’s survival of death? Before there was the written word, mankind has worked to solving that riddle and some today believe that the answer is tantalizingly close. Can a spirit box be the answer?

“No,” says ASUP’s Director of Research, Joy Maner. “People will believe what they want to believe. Granted, when something like this comes along, some of the ‘fence sitters’ come down to join one faction or another, but ultimately, no matter how good or how convincing the evidence, there will always be skeptics and nay-sayers who will tell you it isn’t verifiable. Of course, they were there saying that Marconi could not send a message across the Atlantic either, after all radio waves are invisible, so how can you be sure it is not just a trick.

“If you believe in the survival of the human spirit after death, you will always believe. If you do not, no one will ever be able to convince you otherwise. That is the nature of man. What I personally believe is immaterial. What a little black box can communicate is just as inconclusive to some. It is all in the eyes of the beholder!”

© 2007 ASUP, Inc.  The contents of this blog may be reproduced in whole as long as proper credit is given.