As a young man videotapes his sister's wedding, he wanders throughout the home they've lived in for many years taking shots of friends and loved ones gathered there to celebrate the joyous occasion. Laughter, tears and best wishes are what he's captured for the bride and groom to remember always. But on playback of the tape, there are some very clear messages left in the audio that was not heard when the tape was rolling. The young man listens carefully, rewinding it over and over to make sure he's not mistaken. When he gets over the initial shock, he finally dares to share it with others, and everyone soon agrees that they can clearly hear congratulations and loving messages from a voice they're all familiar with, the bride's mother. The only surprise of that, is that the woman died 10 years prior to wedding.

Its instances like these that cause everyone to ask what exactly is Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)? What causes them, and where do they come from?

Some specialists think that the sound recordings are definite attempts from those who are deceased to communicate with the living. Sometimes the sounds heard on a recording that are attributable to EVP are something as simple as one word, or a very short phrase that is something familiar to those who are hearing the words as stated. Sometimes a series of knocks or thumps are interpreted as a viable communication from the other side, especially when the researcher has asked for a response in reply to a question.

In today's paranormal research studies, there are oftentimes several cameras and recorders set up in a room that is devoid of outside influence of sounds, in hopes of giving the departed spirits EVPs a chance to be truly accounted for either on audio or visual. After recording for a particular period of time, all of the data gleaned from each and every piece of equipment is meticulously gone through to see what has been captured separately, and then that information is compared as a whole, to ensure an accuracy of what was heard.