How the two phenomena differ (and how they could be the same).
I believe one of my first paranormal experiences involved a disembodied voice which I heard as an 11 year old boy.
I’ve always loved the idea of ghosts. From ages 7 to 11 I lived on the west side of Indianapolis in a rental house with a detached garage.
One of my favorite pastimes was to create haunted houses in that garage. They were quite lame when I think back, owing mainly to the fact that I had no budget for decorations. But they were fun to make.
The Little Voice
I moved away from that house in the 5th grade, and I remember standing alone in front of the garage on the last day there. I was startled by a young voice that clearly said “goodbye!” It seemed to be coming from the garage.
Bewildered, I turned all around searching for the source of the voice. My first thought was it was a friend stopping by to say goodbye.
No friend was in sight.
I looked at the window of the house next door. It was closed. I even walked around the garage itself to see if someone was hiding from me.
Alas I could not determine the source, and finally I replied out loud, “goodbye!”
Disembodied Voice Phenomena
A disembodied voice is a well-known paranormal phenomenon. This is basically a voice which can be heard with human ears, without the aid of a recording device.
Differences From EVPs
Basically whenever if a phrase is recorded on a device, if it was also audible to an observer, it is classified as a disembodied voice, not an EVP. Disembodied voices differ from Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs) in that the EVP is only heard with the aid of an electronic device.
Rainbow Connection
Recently I was listening to the song Rainbow Connection by Paul Williams and Kenneth Arscher and was surprised at some of the lyrics:
Have you been fast asleep and have you heard voices,
Rainbow Connection
I’ve heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors
The voice might be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m supposed to be
It was jarring to hear such a mainstream reference to the disembodied voice phenomenon, and I feel sure one of the two songwriters must have drawn inspiration from a real-life experience.
Practical Speculations
I cover the basics of speech physiology in another post, but needless to say a spoken voice simply occurring at random in nature is highly unlikely due to the complexity of vocal sounds.
An amplified voice sounds like it is amplified and has directionality which makes it easily identifiable.
It is possible for a focused, soft-spoken sound to travel an unnatural distance, although this would require a large parabolic dish.
Paranormal Explanations
One possible explanation I thought of is a phenomenon I refer to as “micro portals.” These are basically little transient trans-dimensional “bubbles” which I believe can open up allowing a spirit to speak into our local dimension.
This would explain why some paranormal investigators have reported that one investigator has heard a voice while the investigator next to them hears nothing, or even in some cases hears something completely different.
If such a bubble opened in the vicinity of a recorder, the source could still be a disembodied voice while remaining unheard by those outside of that bubble.
Other paranormal sources reportedly involve ectoplasm and/or megaphones (commonly referred to as “trumpets”).