Spirit Box – Are they worth the time and money? By: Eric Haney, Munroe Falls Paranormal Society Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) The Spirit Box or Ghost Box is an ITC device (Instrumental Transcommunication). In its short form, this is usually a video or audio electronic device used to attempt communications with a spirit or other entity. The voice recorder is one of the most heavily used of these devices in the paranormal field. But over the past several years, there has been an explosion of ITC devices with some being plausible and others offering just ridiculous claims and results. We are going to talk briefly on the Spirit Box or (Modified AM/FM Radio receiver). Generally speaking, the Spirit Box is a standard AM/FM portable radio that is modified to scan through the AM or FM band from 87 MHz to 108 MHz for FM and 535 KHz to 1605 KHz for AM. These modifications are usually done by clipping a diode or resistor, adding a jumper or two which override the radios ability to mute the audio during the forced scan. The scan rate varies depending on the make of the radio and/or modifications made to the radio. The end result is a brief audible tuning lock on each available station within that frequency band for about 20ms or so. When scanned in a successive order, brief but audible words and short syllables can be heard by the operator. From a scientific point of view, the Spirit Box is no more than a broken/modified radio that allows random words or bits of words and syllables to be heard in a successive order that can make short sentences or words occasionally which are interpreted by the listener as answers to their questions. If we listen to it long enough and ask enough questions while in operation, patterns of words can be associated to what we are asking at the time. But does this mean we are communicating with the dead? No, it does not, It simply means we are hearing words and syllables strung together in a random pattern. I have done simple experiments with the Spirit Box in a lab environment with no questions or subjects interacting. Just recording the random word(s) and comparing them to typical radio broadcasts at the time. Considering that in radio, "Dead Air" is undesirable and is avoided as much as possible, this means that filling that space or air time as efficiently as possible is the goal of most radio stations. With that said. It then becomes easy to see how dozens or even hundreds of words per minute or hour can accumulate and be misinterpreted by the observer as answers to questions they are asking at the time. These sentences are combinations of words that act much like Pareidolia or Audio- Matrixing. The observer can easily find words or partial words and sounds that make up an answer to a question. I have examined hundreds of videos and recorded Spirit/Ghost Box sessions and have found very little evidence that these devices can be used as a valid investigation tool to study paranormal activity. In my lab experiments, the recorded Spirit Box Sessions easily make up a plethora of words and even short sentences that could have meaning and be applied to many situations. In fact, it is so easy to associate these words or mini sentences with likely events in a person’s life that just giving the non-sensible list of words and mini sentences to a random person and asking them to identify if they have meaning is quite surprising! Once the mental seed has been planted, the brain will then try an associate meaning to random patterns in words and sentences. This is how are brains are wired. Pareidolia is a perfect example of this type of phenomena in action. If we look at a random pattern in a painting, structures, photos, nature and etc., we start to see faces, animals, recognizable objects and other known items because the brain does not like chaos or random patterns. It tries to make sense of the pattern and starts to associate the closest recognizable person, place or thing it can. This process works equally as well with audible input