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That's allbrds dot com. Welcomed Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClean smith. For the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the show. In last week's episode repeat Input until end, we looked at the bizarre story of how in the autumn of nineteen eighty four, one British couple currently found themselves exchanging letters through their BBC microcomputer
with people from the distant past and future. This type of apparent communication has been termed instrumental transcommunication, a phrase first coined by physicist professor Ernst Senkovsky in the nineteen seventies. ITC, as it is more commonly known, describes the process of supposed communication with the dead or discarnate through electronic devices.
Although it can take the form of images or indeed textual messages, ITC is most widely pursued through the process known as electronic voice phenomena, the apparent capture of the voices of the dead through radio or recording equipment. Senkovsky first heard about the alleged phenomena of ITTC after stumbling upon the end of a peculiar panel discussion on German TV involving parapsychologist professor Hans Bender and the fascinating artist
and singer Friedrich Jurgensen in nineteen fifty nine. Jurgenson, who as a young man was forced to flee from the Russian Revolution before eventually settling in Sweden, claimed to have been attempting to record birdsong when he inadvertently picked up the sound of human voices. After compiling hundreds of hours of similar recordings, Jurgensen became convinced that the sounds he
was picking up were the voices of the dead. Like any rational scientist, Ernst Senkovsky naturally balked at Jurgenson's outlandish claim, and, deciding he hadn't been sufficiently challenged during the TV discussion,
endeavored to test it out for himself. It wasn't long before an incredible Lesenkowski, using short wave radio transmitters recorded by a real to real tape player, was picking up voices of his own, some making statements such as we are the dead and that the dead were thinking and speaking.
Seven years previously, Latvian psychologist doctor Constantine Roudevai had also embarked on his own period of ITTC investigations, having been inspired by Friedrich Jurgensen, specifically his nineteen sixty seven book Radio Contact with the Dead. Roudevai, who would go on to create the term electronic voice phenomena also known as Raudevai voices recorded over seventy thousand vocal communications of unknown origin under what were claimed to have been strict laboratory conditions.
In nineteen seventy one, Roudevay was invited to demonstrate his findings at a special lab in Enfield, London, which had the facility to shield specific radio frequencies. The experiments that subsequently took place were carried out under the watchful eye of physicist Ralph Lovelock. And Peter Hale, one of the
UK's foremost experts on electrical screening at the time. Although it isn't clear exactly what occurred, the results of the experiments were enough for Hale to declare, something is happening that I cannot explain in normal physical terms. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you. You
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slash Unexplained Podcast. It was December seventh, eighteen seventy seven, when a thirty year old Thomas Edison walked into the offices of Scientific American Magazine carrying a bulky wooden box. After placing it on the editor's desk, he proceeded to open it and remove its peculiar contents, a strange looking contraption formed of two metal diaphragms pointing inward toward a large cylindrical object made of brass covered over with a
strip of tinfoil. As the small audience of journalists waited with bated breath, Edison plugged a crank into the end of the cylinder and began to turn it seemingly from nowhere. An ambiance of rustling and hissing was conjured into the air, followed by the disembodied voice of Edison inquiring as to everyone's health whether the people liked the phonograph, before bidding
everyone a cordial good night. The reaction on the faces of all those present was in keeping with what you might expect of anyone who had just borne witness to the first public demonstration of recorded sound. Though no evidence survives of Edison's first recording, it is believed to have been a short rendition of the popular nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, recorded sometime in August eighteen seventy seven.
A later recording, made on June twenty second, eighteen seventy eight, remains the oldest sound recording that was intended for being played back in existence. It was said that when in eighteen seventy eight, Edison's phonograph was first demonstrated at the Academy of Sciences in Paris, audience members were so stunned by the disembodied voice coming out of the device that
many believed it was a hoax. Jean Baptised Bullou, a senior academic of the day, was even said to have violently grabbed the coat of the demonstrator, demanding that he come clean about the magic trick. As journalist Philippe Boordoin remarks in the short documentary Thomas Edison and the Realms Beyond, such a reaction could be explained by a pervading Aristotelian ideal of the time that only something with a soul was capable of having a voice. In two thousand and fifteen,
Bordouin made an interesting discovery of his own. While perusing the shelves of a second hand bookshop in Paris, he came across a rare edition of The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison. The book, in itself, a well known collection of writings and ideas, originally published in nineteen forty eight, seventeen years after Edison's death, was not
a rare find. However, when Bourdomin flicked to the back, he discovered in this particular copy a chapter that he had never seen before, one that had not been published in the original nineteen forty eight edition. Edison was well known to be a committed atheist, described by writer and mathematician Martin Gardner as considering nature to be the one and only supreme intelligence, indifferent and merciless in its attitude
toward humanity. The missing chapter rediscovered by Boudouin, dedicated as it was, to theories involving the spirit world and how it might one day be contacted, revealed a somewhat different side to the Edison that most are familiar with, as
it happened. Edison had spoken openly on the subject as far back as nineteen twenty, speaking to BC Forbes in an interview later published in Scientific American, with the proviso that if it were possible for personalities to somehow survive after the death of the body, Edison stated, then it is strictly logical and scientific to assume that it would retain memory, intellect, and other faculties and knowledge that we acquire on Earth, going on later to suggest that again,
if such a thing were possible, it would surely also be possible that, through the careful application of science, we would one day be able to construct a device capable of communicating with those disembodied personalities. Some believe that Edison had even begun work on such a device, variously referred to as his spirit phone or necrophone. However, despite apparently alluding to the proposed invention in a number of interviews, no patent or plans for such a device were ever
found in Edison's papers. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support All donations no matter how large or small are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have
an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is
available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained Podcast Today to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast