If you have ever examined an electronic voting phenomenon (EPP), then you may have encountered entries from the famous American inventor Thomas Edison and claim that he was working on a device that would enable him to communicate with the dead, but is there any evidence to support this claim?
EVPs are the mysterious sound of relieved human -like voices of unknown origin that are heard via electronic devices, and when it came to electronics in the 1920s, Edison was paramount in development. The productive inventor has contributed to technologies such as the electric light, the phonograph and the nickel-iron battery.
Many paranormal researchers and teams share messages on social media, including claims about Edison’s involvement in Early EVP research. They often say things in the style of “before his death, Edison worked on what was called” Edison’s phone after the dead, “but his work is never completed.”
Some go so far to say that this device was based on Edison’s ‘strong faith’ that our consciousness can live outside the body after death.
The most common quote, and the one who seems to circulate the most within the paranormal community: “If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that the memory retains, intellect, other faculties and knowledge that we can survive by our personality, as an instrum is, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, is like, as an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, like an instrument, Instrument, like such an instrument. “
The messages claim that these quotes are derived from an interview in the magazine, Scientific American. Some websites give a date of the interview as 1920, others say it is 1921.
Returning through editions of the magazine of 1920 and 1921, we find three interviews with Edison. The articles ‘The Romance of Invention’ and ‘What do you know?’ Contains no reference to life after death or a telephone to the dead, but in the publication of October 1920 we found an article entitled ‘Edison’s views on life and death’.
The interview indeed states the idea of the inventor about the possibility of building a machine that could communicate with human personalities that live on after death. However, the actual quotes in the interview differ from those often shared online. The publication date of the edition, October 30, and its proximity to Halloween can also shed some light why Edison was asked about things like life after death.
In the article, Edison said: “I have been thinking about a machine or device that can be managed by personalities passed on to another existence or sphere.”
He claimed that “it is possible to construct a device that is so delicate that if there are personalities in another existence or atmosphere who want to contact us in this existence or atmosphere, this device will at least give them a better chance to express themselves.”
Although Edison was clearly interested in the use of technology to communicate with spirits, a large part of the interview that he doubted other methods of spiritual communication – he gave unreliable examples such as table coloring, raps, Ouija boards and mediumship.
Edison ging verder met te zeggen: “In werkelijkheid is het de wreedheid van de huidige methoden die me doen twijfelen aan de authenticiteit van vermeende communicatie met overleden personen. Waarom zou persoonlijkheden in een ander bestaan of spel hun tijd verspillen aan het werken een klein driehoekig stukje hout over een bord met bepaalde letters. Echte vooruitgang in psychisch onderzoek, we moeten het doen met wetenschappelijk apparaat en op een wetenschappelijke manier, net zoals we doen in de geneeskunde, elektriciteit, chemie en andere areas. “
It seems that what Edison suggested to do, researchers a more scientific approach to paranormal research than the other more “raw methods” that were used at the time. He said, “What I am to do is psychological researchers with a device that will give a scientific aspect to their work.”
He described that device as a clapping device that is capable of even the slightest effort to en masse the influence. This would make it much easier for a mind to communicate with it than to slide a shelter over an Ouija board or tilt a table.
In the same publication, Edison is quoted as says: “If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical and scientific to assume that the memory, intellect and other faculties and knowledge retain that we acquire on this earth. Easy for them to open communication with us and then see what happens.”
Nevertheless, Edison admits in both articles that the supernatural was not a specialized subject of him. He says to Maclean’s: “I do not promise any results,” while he said in scientifically American: “Follow me carefully now; I do not claim that our personalities will continue on another existence or atmosphere. I do not claim anything because I know nothing about the subject. With regard to that matter, no one knows.”
Edison, however, remained hopeful and open -minded. Towards the end of the scientific American interview, he is quoted to say: “I hope that our personality will survive. If this is the case, then my device should be useful. That is why I am now working on the most sensitive device I have ever done to build, and I am waiting for the results with the sharpest interest.”
Although he also told Maclean’s: “I am working on the construction of such a device now, and I hope to be able to finish it before they go for a long time,” Edison died in 1931 after he never completed the device or given further information about the theory or the operation or the operation.
So, although Edison might have believed that the right technology could be used to talk to the dead, he also says that he did not believe in a different form of spiritual communication, and did not know for sure whether human consciousness lives after death or not.
In fact, scientific American wrote: “Mr Edison does not believe in current theories about life and death. Long ago he turned his back on the various old and accepted theories because he had the feeling that they were fundamentally uneven.”
That is why it seems a bit of a leap to credit Edison as an early pioneer in the field of EVP research, although his hope and open-minded attitude may have inspired other researchers to dive further into the subject.
