What Is The Estes Method?
Ghost/Paranormal
Thursday 26th, October 2023
As part of our look into different methods, techniques and technology used on paranormal investigations we're going to look at what The Estes Method is from top to bottom and everything in between.
The Estes Method is used by many paranormal investigation teams, and seen on many paranormal television shows. It is claimed to be a method to communicate with spirits. The Estes Method falls into a category of research known as Instrumental Trans-Communication or ITC as it's commonly known in the paranormal community.
The Estes Method was first seen in 2016 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes, Colorado in the United States and was created by Karl Pfeiffer and Connor Randall both paranormal investigators themselves.
The method involves the use of a spirit box and headphones, preferable noise cancelling headphones to reduce any external noise tainting the experiment.
The spirit box, which is also known to some as a spirit phone. This use of the name spirit phone can be confusing as it was the name of an invention that Thomas Edison was reportedly working on but to date no one has ever publicly seen a version of Edison's spirit phone.
A little side track, the spirit phone was invented by Thomas Edison, the same Edison that brought humanity things like the light bulb, phonograph, motion picture etc.
Edison wanted to take the idea of the telephone that one step further and in October 1920 he announced that he was working on a way to communicate with the spirit world.
Edison, who was agnostic himself didn't know if the spirit world existed or not and spoke of his work on the spirit phone in many magazines at the time as well as talking to The New York Times about his work and described that the spirit phone would measure life units that scatter through the universe after death.
Edison is reported to have corresponded with Sir William Crookes, a British inventor of the time. Sir Crookes himself had claims that he had captured what he described as 'spirit photographs', which is reported to have pushed Edison on to continue with the work he was doing on the spirit phone.
There is some belief that Edison was playing a joke on reporters and wasn't working on a spirit phone. After Edison's death in 1931, no spirit phone device was ever found.
It was reported that at a séance in 1941 that Edison's spirit told the participants that three of his assistants had the plans for the spirit box, some say the machine was then built based off these plans but didn't work.
Then it was further reported at a later séance, that Edison's spirit suggested some improvements to the spirit phone with one of the individuals that was present being inventor J. Gilbert Wright who is reported to have worked on the spirit phone until his own death in 1959.
To this day it's not known where or if the plans to build the spirit phone existed or if Wright ever used what he was working on to try and contact the spirit world.
But it's worth mentioning that Edison didn't work on the spirit phone to talk to spirits, his intention was to communicate with what Edison described as the 'personalities' of the dead, Edison was looking to try and find the truth behind the physical nature of life.
Now, back on track, the Estes Method (at a very high level) uses a spirit box that runs through many different radio frequencies in real-time. While one team member listens to the spirit box another team member will ask questions out load to try and elicit a response on the audio device being listened to.
One of a couple of the key aspects is sensory deprivation. With the use of the headphones providing the only source of audio the person conducting the experiment can hear, this allows for a much clearer discernment of what words are being heard on the audio stream. Additionally some teams use a blindfold as well.
Another key aspect of The Estes Method is that it claims to use real-time electronic voice phenomena or EVP to elicit the response of a spirit to the questions asked by another team member.
To date there is no scientific evidence to verify the claims that a spirit box can be used to communicate with spirits or that electronic voice phenomena is a valid phenomena. With that said there have been some very convincing audio recordings captured by many teams around the world that warrant a closer look.
One other potential issue with The Estes Method is that as it is a human reporting the words heard, the doors are opened to bias creeping in, bias is an issue in all areas of life, personal, social, work etc., it's not just an issue in the paranormal world.
One possible way to minimise bias or influence is for the audio to be listened back by multiple people after the investigation, each individual on their own and write down their findings. Then all team members come together with what they heard and compare notes.
This would help reduce the affect of people just agreeing with what was heard in the moment so as it's the socially acceptable thing to do rather then voice their honest opinion.
Another might be to run two or three audio recorders at the same time, one that a human is listening to and another one or two left down in two other areas of the room.
The most common device used for The Estes Method is the PSB7, with a newer version of the PSB7-PRO having been released in August 2023 which has new features which are stated to allow for clearer communication.
The Estes Method is just one of the many methods used to try and communicate with the spirit world, investigators just need to be mindful of the potential for bias and influence on reporting findings and consider ways to validate the data collected.
The Estes Method is used by many paranormal investigation teams, and seen on many paranormal television shows. It is claimed to be a method to communicate with spirits. The Estes Method falls into a category of research known as Instrumental Trans-Communication or ITC as it's commonly known in the paranormal community.
The Estes Method was first seen in 2016 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes, Colorado in the United States and was created by Karl Pfeiffer and Connor Randall both paranormal investigators themselves.
The method involves the use of a spirit box and headphones, preferable noise cancelling headphones to reduce any external noise tainting the experiment.
The spirit box, which is also known to some as a spirit phone. This use of the name spirit phone can be confusing as it was the name of an invention that Thomas Edison was reportedly working on but to date no one has ever publicly seen a version of Edison's spirit phone.
A little side track, the spirit phone was invented by Thomas Edison, the same Edison that brought humanity things like the light bulb, phonograph, motion picture etc.
Edison wanted to take the idea of the telephone that one step further and in October 1920 he announced that he was working on a way to communicate with the spirit world.
Edison, who was agnostic himself didn't know if the spirit world existed or not and spoke of his work on the spirit phone in many magazines at the time as well as talking to The New York Times about his work and described that the spirit phone would measure life units that scatter through the universe after death.
Edison is reported to have corresponded with Sir William Crookes, a British inventor of the time. Sir Crookes himself had claims that he had captured what he described as 'spirit photographs', which is reported to have pushed Edison on to continue with the work he was doing on the spirit phone.
There is some belief that Edison was playing a joke on reporters and wasn't working on a spirit phone. After Edison's death in 1931, no spirit phone device was ever found.
It was reported that at a séance in 1941 that Edison's spirit told the participants that three of his assistants had the plans for the spirit box, some say the machine was then built based off these plans but didn't work.
Then it was further reported at a later séance, that Edison's spirit suggested some improvements to the spirit phone with one of the individuals that was present being inventor J. Gilbert Wright who is reported to have worked on the spirit phone until his own death in 1959.
To this day it's not known where or if the plans to build the spirit phone existed or if Wright ever used what he was working on to try and contact the spirit world.
But it's worth mentioning that Edison didn't work on the spirit phone to talk to spirits, his intention was to communicate with what Edison described as the 'personalities' of the dead, Edison was looking to try and find the truth behind the physical nature of life.
Now, back on track, the Estes Method (at a very high level) uses a spirit box that runs through many different radio frequencies in real-time. While one team member listens to the spirit box another team member will ask questions out load to try and elicit a response on the audio device being listened to.
One of a couple of the key aspects is sensory deprivation. With the use of the headphones providing the only source of audio the person conducting the experiment can hear, this allows for a much clearer discernment of what words are being heard on the audio stream. Additionally some teams use a blindfold as well.
Another key aspect of The Estes Method is that it claims to use real-time electronic voice phenomena or EVP to elicit the response of a spirit to the questions asked by another team member.
To date there is no scientific evidence to verify the claims that a spirit box can be used to communicate with spirits or that electronic voice phenomena is a valid phenomena. With that said there have been some very convincing audio recordings captured by many teams around the world that warrant a closer look.
One other potential issue with The Estes Method is that as it is a human reporting the words heard, the doors are opened to bias creeping in, bias is an issue in all areas of life, personal, social, work etc., it's not just an issue in the paranormal world.
One possible way to minimise bias or influence is for the audio to be listened back by multiple people after the investigation, each individual on their own and write down their findings. Then all team members come together with what they heard and compare notes.
This would help reduce the affect of people just agreeing with what was heard in the moment so as it's the socially acceptable thing to do rather then voice their honest opinion.
Another might be to run two or three audio recorders at the same time, one that a human is listening to and another one or two left down in two other areas of the room.
The most common device used for The Estes Method is the PSB7, with a newer version of the PSB7-PRO having been released in August 2023 which has new features which are stated to allow for clearer communication.
The Estes Method is just one of the many methods used to try and communicate with the spirit world, investigators just need to be mindful of the potential for bias and influence on reporting findings and consider ways to validate the data collected.
