The ITC Evolution
1901-2002
By M. D. Jackson
This timeline serves as a historical database, charting the development and trends within Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) phenomena. It advocates for the recognition of ITC as a discipline worthy of earnest research, investigation, and critical examination. The timeline of ITC's progression is broad and occasionally elusive. We do not purport this timeline to be comprehensive; it does not encompass every contributor to ITC history, past and present. Rather, it is intended as an evolving work that will be augmented with new findings, spotlighting both notable pioneers and modern researchers and developers who have made significant and, upon occasion, controversial contributions to the field. The aim of presenting this information is to maintain transparency and impartiality.
1901: Serbian-American inventor/engineer and futurist Nikola Tesla published an article in Collier’s Weekly titled Talking With The Planets. In this piece, Tesla hypothesized about the possibility of interplanetary communication, reflecting on the idea of communicating with other planets, including Mars. He discussed the transmission of signals without wires and his experiments in Colorado, which led him to believe in the feasibility of interplanetary communication. Tesla's observations of unusual electrical signals initially led him to suspect they might be from intelligent extraterrestrial sources. This article positioned Tesla as an early pioneer in the concept of ITC, although his ideas about interplanetary communication were speculative and not universally accepted at the time.
1901: US ethnologist Waldemar Bogoras traveled to Siberia and interacted with a shaman of the Tchouktchi tribe. During a spirit conjuring ritual, the shaman beat a drum increasingly rapidly to enter a trance state, during which Bogoras heard strange voices. This experience is considered one of the earliest recordings of "conjured spirits" on an electrical device. The interpretation of these recordings is a subject of debate in the paranormal research community.
1910: In Brazil, priest Roberto Landell de Moura was seen communicating with spirits through a small box, and they would speak back to him. Landell was an early pioneer in long-range radio broadcast and voice transmission technologies, but he kept the inner workings of his box a secret, possibly due to the church's disapproval of such forms of spirit communication. However, historical records about Landell's experiments are sparse and largely anecdotal.
1919: Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio, theorized about the possibility of communication with other stars based on anomalous radio transmissions received at the Marconi Company Wireless Station in Cornwall. It's important to note that Marconi's work focused on long-distance radio communication, and his comments on extraterrestrial intelligence were speculative.
1920s: The legacy of Thomas Edison, famed American inventor, includes a intriguing intersection with the paranormal — the concept of a device designed to communicate with the beyond. Dubbed "Edison's telephone to the dead," this idea stems from Edison's own musings: “If our personality survives,” he posited, “then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties and knowledge that we acquire on this earth. Therefore, if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something.” Though Edison reportedly never realized this invention, the very notion positions him as an intriguing figure in the chronicles of ITC, sparking imagination and theoretical debate long after his passing.
1925: Oscar d’Argonell, a Brazilian researcher, published Voices from Beyond by Telephone, describing his detailed case of long telephone dialogues with spirit friends. He provided many verifications and explanations of how the spirit collaborators made the calls.
1936: American photographer Attila von Szalay began experimenting with a record cutter and had moderate success capturing spirit voices on phonograph records. In the 1940s he had better success with a wire recorder. In the 1950s writer Raymond Bayless began a collaboration with von Szalay, and the two men documented von Szalay’s results in an article for the American Society for Psychical Research in 1959. Neither the society nor the authors received a single response from readers.
1940s: The recording of a spirit voice by Reverend Drayton Thomas, during a session with the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard, is indeed a notable event in the history of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). As Leonard produced a spirit manifestation, Thomas captured an audible, disembodied voice on tape, which he later identified as that of his own father. This event is significant as it is considered one of the first instances of a “verifiable” spirit voice being recorded.
1949: Marcello Bacci attended a mediumistic sitting in London that forever changed his life. In the 1960s, he began recording the voices of spirits through his radio in Grosseto, Italy. He used an old vacuum tube radio (eventually even removing the tubes) and held free public sessions at his home until 2013. Bacci took the technique of inter-frequency stalling, developed by Friedrich Jürgenson (see below), a method Bacci later coined as Direct Radio Voice (DRV), where he claimed a spirit team communicated through the radio, allowing visitors to receive messages from the deceased. His methods and findings are recognized as significant contributions to the field of ITC and gave DRV worldwide attention.
1952: In Italy, two Catholic priests, Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli, were collaborating on music research. Ernetti was an internationally respected scientist, a physicist and philosopher, and also a music lover. Gemelli was president of the Papal Academy. On September 15, 1952, while Gemelli and Ernetti were recording a Gregorian chant, a wire on their magnetophone kept breaking. Exasperated, Gemelli looked up and asked his deceased father for help. To the two men's amazement, his father's voice, recorded on the magnetophone, answered, “Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you.” They repeated the experiment, and this time a very clear voice filled with humor said, “But Zucchini, it is clear, don't you know it is I?” Father Gemelli stared at the tape. No one knew the nickname his father had teased him with when he was a boy. He realized then that he was truly speaking with his father — though his joy at his father's apparent survival was mixed with fear. Did he have any right to speak with the dead? Eventually the two men visited Pope Pius XII in Rome. Gemelli, deeply troubled, told the Pope of the experience. To his surprise the Pope patted his shoulder and said, “Dear Father Gemelli, you really need not worry about this. The existence of this voice is strictly a scientific fact and has nothing whatsoever to do with spiritism. The recorder is totally objective. It receives and records only sound waves from wherever they come. This experiment may perhaps become the cornerstone for a building for scientific studies which will strengthen people's faith in a hereafter.” The good priest was somewhat reassured. But he made certain that the experiment did not go public until the last years of his life. It wasn't until 1990 that the results were published.
1959: The Swedish father of electronic voice phenomenon/projections (EVP) and inter-frequency stalling (DRV), Friedrich Jürgenson, a Russian-born painter and film producer, discovered the paranormal voice phenomenon in July 1959. He recorded the song of a Swedish finch and, upon playback, heard what seemed to be human voices, including a message that appeared to be from his deceased mother. This event marked the beginning of his extensive research into EVP. Jürgenson initially used a microphone and a tape recorder for his experiments. He set up the microphone, started the recorder, and left space for voices to respond. His method involved setting the radio reception between frequencies, where he would hear a variety of noises. He later fixed the receiving frequencies to around 1445–1500 kHz, with 1485.0 kHz recognized as the Jürgenson frequency. His technique, termed the “inter-frequency method,” later named by Marcello Bacci as Direct Radio Voice (DRV), was a cornerstone in developing EVP and ITC. Jürgenson published his book Voices from Space, sharing his discoveries and methodologies and significantly impacting the field of ITC. Jürgenson further documented his work in the book Sprechfunk mit Verstorbenen, published in Germany in 1967. In 1968, he released his third book, Radio- and Microphone Contacts with the Dead, elaborating on his techniques and findings.
1961: In September 1961, Stella Lansing, a housewife from Massachusetts, began experiencing bizarre phenomena, including UFO sightings and encounters with strange creatures and Men In Black. By 1967, she was capturing paranormal phenomena using a silent 8mm film camera. In 1971, her claims gained credibility when Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz witnessed and documented her experiences. She continued to record events and maintained detailed records of her encounters. Notably, in 1991, TV show "Sightings" transferred her 8mm film to VHS, capturing unexplainable voices, suggesting the presence of EVPs.
1965: After reading Jürgenson's book Voices from Space in 1964, Konstantin Raudive met Jürgenson in 1965 and began his own EVP research. He recorded over 100,000 tapes under strict conditions and published Unhörbares wird hörbar" (What is inaudible becomes audible) in 1968, and its English translation, Breakthrough, in 1971. Raudive developed multiple methods for recording EVP, including using microphones, radios, and diodes. His work indicated rapid, rhythmic speech in multiple languages in the EVPs.
1967: Franz Seidel, an Austrian engineer born in 1912, developed a device known as the "psychophon." This device was intended to improve ITC by using three different methods simultaneously: a broadband receiver, a self-sender radio transceiver, and a high impedance microphone input. It was developed specifically for EVP research between 1972 and 1974.
1967: Theodore Rudolph, a high-frequency engineer working for the Telefunken firm, collaborated with Raudive and developed his own recording device called a goniometer.
1968: Father Leo Schmid, a Swiss theologist, conducted EVP experiments and collected more than 10,000 EVPs. His work was published in the book When the Dead Speak in 1976, shortly after his death.
1970s: Carol Mayes, a notable but often underappreciated psychic photographer of the 1970s, was celebrated for her unique ability to capture distinct images of the deceased. Far from ordinary, her photographs showcased what many believed to be the clear likenesses of people who had passed on, offering more than just ambiguous shapes but rather detailed portraits of the afterlife. While skeptics debated, enthusiasts in the paranormal community embraced her work as powerful evidence of an existence beyond this life. Mayes’ pioneering techniques continue to intrigue and inspire, as they probe the mysterious overlap of spirituality and photography.
1971: Hans Heckmann played a crucial role in the progression of spirit communication and ITC research throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He was a consultant of the Metascience Foundation and a close colleague of retired industrialist George Meek. Heckmann was instrumental in engineering many of George's spirit communication systems during the 1970s and 1980s while working in labs. He participated in various noteworthy ITC research projects, such as Project Saint Peter, and translated important ITC contacts from German to English, significantly aiding in the dissemination of ITC knowledge in the United States. He partnered with psychic engineer Gene Kantor and, purportedly, Tesla (via Gene’s mediumship gifts) to create a “disc antenna” with 82,000 feet of glass ribbon for ITC communication.
1971: Pye Records blocked out all radio and television communication frequencies and recorded Konstantin Raudive in studio by tape recorder. It was reported that over 200 voices were recorded during the 18-minute session, none of which were heard until playback.
1972: Peter Bander, a British psychologist and lecturer on religious education and ethics, wrote Carry on Talking, which was published in the U.S. as Voices From the Tapes: Recordings from the Other World in 1973. Bander, who had joined British publisher Colin Smythe Ltd in 1966, was asked by Smythe in 1969 to evaluate Raudive’s research for English publication. His work represents early research into the phenomenon of EVP, exploring the controversial voice phenomena of Raudive and Jurgenson.
1974: Hans-Otto König, a German physicist, psychologist, and electroacoustic engineer, began his work in ITC in 1974. His goal was to understand how acoustic and visual manifestations in ITC occur and the parameters that affect these contacts. From 1982 to 1988, König developed new spirit communication technologies, employing extremely low-frequency oscillators and lights in the ultraviolet and infrared range. In 1983, he appeared on Radio Luxembourg, demonstrating his equipment for live spirit communication. König has devoted 45 years to technical research in his laboratory, continuously developing new, advanced devices for communicating with spirit entities.
1975: The German Association For Transcommunication Research (VTF) was founded in 1975. Its primary aim is to support the research of the EVP by facilitating experiments, providing information and advice, and promoting the exchange of thoughts among researchers. VTF has been publishing a quarterly journal, VTF-Post, since 1975, which reports on new developments in EVP and ITC both domestically and internationally.
1979: George Meek, along with his colleague Bill O'Neil, developed the Spiricom device in 1979. This device, which comprised 13 tone generators spanning the range of the adult male voice, was used for two-way communication with the deceased, including the voice of deceased NASA scientist Dr. George Jeffries Mueller. While the Spiricom's results have been subject to skepticism, the development and the claims around it were significant in the history of ITC research. Meek also founded the METAscience Foundation in 1979. The foundation focused on the development of EVP as a means of facilitating two-way communication between the living and the spirit world. This foundation played a pivotal role in the Spiricom experiments and ITC research during that era.
1980s: Dr. William Thorner was a retired electrical engineer and homeopathic physician. He had a lifelong interest in paranormal/psychic phenomena pioneering research into energies in the thought process.
1982: American EVP researcher Sarah Estep founded the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP), which later became the Association TransCommunication (ATransC). Her objective was to provide objective evidence that we survive physical death in our individual conscious state. The Association published a quarterly newsletter and garnered membership from several hundred people across 27 states and 12 countries. Her book Voices of Eternity was published in 1988.
1982: Meek founded the Life Beyond Death Foundation in 1982. This foundation was an offshoot of the MetaScience Foundation, highlighting Meek’s continued exploration into the mysteries surrounding life after death. The Life Beyond Death Foundation represented Meek’s commitment to investigating and understanding the nature of existence beyond the physical realm, furthering research in the field of ITC and the possibility of communication with other planes of existence
1984: Bob Kesselring, in collaboration with Meek, played a pivotal role in the Life Beyond Death Foundation during the 1980s. In 1984, he was instrumental in developing the presentation “Hearing the Inaudible and Seeing the Invisible,” an initiative aimed at exploring and presenting groundbreaking concepts in the realm of ITC. This presentation reflected the Foundation’s commitment to researching and understanding communication with non-physical realms of existence.
1984: Ken Webster received 200 messages on a borrowed home computer in 1984 from a spirit claiming to be Thomas Harden, a former resident of his house from the 1500s. The messages continued to appear for over 18 months, between 1985 and 1986. Webster later published the book Vertical Plane about this experience, with a second edition released in February 2022.
1985: Klaus Schreiber was an ITC researcher who received clear images from the other side in 1985. He introduced the technique of video looping ITC, known as transvideo. Schreiber recorded spirit images on his TV by aiming a video camera at the TV screen to form a feedback loop, effectively creating Video ITC.
1986: Erland Babcock, an MIT engineer and electronics specialist, played a key role in the METAscience Foundation's Project Saint Peter, where he compiled detailed notes, illustrations, and photos into 26 journals. He was involved in building a "Celestial Broadcast System" for advanced communications between spirits and researchers on Earth. The project aimed to assist mankind's search for solutions to Earth's problems.
1989: Dr. Ernst Senkowski, a professor of physics and electrical engineering, published the book Instrumentelle TransKommunikation, coining the term "Instrumental Trans-Communication" (ITC). He was a pioneer in EVP and DRV research. His book was a scientifically based monograph discussing the psychic-technical realization of audio-visual contacts with intelligent structures from unknown realms of consciousness.
1992: Mark H. Macy, a leading ITC researcher, has been active since 1992. He has published three ITC journals, written the book Conversations Beyond the Light, and delivered many addresses on his work. In 1995, Macy and his colleagues from eight countries founded INIT (the International Network for Instrumental Transcommunication). In 2001, Macy received the Dr. A. Hedri Prize for Epipsychology for his contributions to ITC and founding INIT.
1997: Dr. Anabela Cardoso, a retired senior career diplomat, began her ITC experiments in 1997, focusing on DRV methodology. In 2000, she founded the ITC Journal, serving as Editor/Director. Cardoso is the author of several books on the subject, including Electronic Voices: Contact with Another Dimension? and Glimpses of Another World, Impressions and Reflections of an EVP Operator.
2000: Stefan Bion released EVPmaker, a free software program for generating acoustic raw material for paranormal tape voices or EVP. The software uses random controlled phoneme synthesis to create the communication.
2002: In the summer of 2002, Frank Sumption had a vision for how the first “Frank’s Box” would be designed and work. Frank's Boxes were designed to use audio bits and white noise for aliens and interdimensional beings to formulate words through the device. He is the forefather of modern day sweeping radio-based ITC devices. With extensive experience with Bion’s EVPmaker freeware, Sumption set up the first voltage-tuned receiver to sweep via a random voltage generator. The Box (Ghost Box, Sweeping Radio, Scanning Radio) was created to supply raw audio samples for ITC to occur. The raw audio samples produced by the radio via radio signals directly provide frequencies, tones, musical notes, human speech, and noise samples to help phonetical and mathematical communication to be produced. The random voltage sweep circuit, responsible for scanning radio stations via a desired band and given speed, allows the raw audio samples to be combined and manipulated into phonetical words, phrases, and sentences (known as fragmentation communication). The electronic sweeping mechanism also allows words, phrases, and sentences to literally break through and surface to the maximum decibel threshold set by the radio operator (known as breakthrough communication). Other communication observed through the ghost box includes EVP and disembodied voices, both of which are created and seem to exist outside the known supplied radio frequency audio source coming directly from the radio. The first sweep circuit scanned AM/FM/DX randomly, with the Basic Box Block diagram linear sweep circuit following close behind allowing the radio to sweep forward or reverse consecutively and uninterrupted.
From Jürgenson, who conceptualized and recorded direct radio responses via inter-frequency recording, to Raudive and Bacci, who experimented with the radio and utilized his methods to engage in communication, and to Frank Sumption, who added a sweep generator to this technique, the radio has and continues to prove it is a preeminent medium for instrumental trans-communication — which is also referred to by some as spirit communication.
2002: Bruce Halliday, a pivotal figure in ITC research, began his journey in traditional EVP research in 2002. He is recognized for his significant contributions to the development of live spirit/ghost box communication, a field he has dedicated over 20 years of research to. Halliday’s work is foundational to many of the working theories and protocols in ghost box communication. His book When Spirits Speak: Live Spirit Ghost Box Communication details his extensive research and findings. Additionally, Halliday is known for sharing his knowledge and experiences on various platforms, including radio shows, podcasts, and his YouTube channel, “Halliday Paranormal,” where he engages in discussions about live spirit/ghost box communication and ITC.
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