AI Summary
5 min read"His grandmother passed away two days before. So why are you getting a phone call from your grandmother?" That question, posed by co-host Sabrina, captures the unsettling premise of this episode of Two Girls One Ghost. The hosts, Sabrina and Kryn, revisit a topic they first covered in episode 281: phone calls from the dead. The episode traces the history of this phenomenon, outlines the consistent patterns researchers have identified, and shares a handful of modern stories from listeners and historical records.
The History of the Spirit Phone
The idea of the dead using telephones to reach the living is nearly as old as the telephone itself. Alexander Graham Bell patented the device in 1876, and it didn't take long for spiritualists to claim spirits could manipulate the new technology. In the 1920s, a medium named Francis Grierson claimed to use a "psychophone" to hold conversations with famous spirits like Abraham Lincoln. Another researcher, F.R. Milton, designed a "psychic telephone" that, according to some accounts, included a balloon filled with the breath of a psychic medium. Even Thomas Edison announced he was working on a "spirit phone" or "necrophone," theorizing that a special valve could detect the surviving remnants of a human personality. The device never came to fruition, but the public was receptive, especially in the wake of World War I, when many were de
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What you'll learn
- 1 (07:01) **Topic Introduction: Phone Calls from the Dead** - Sabrina introduces the episode's theme, noting that they previously covered this in episode 281 and are now sharing new stories.
- 2 (08:16) **History of the Telephone & Paranormal Communication** - A brief history of the telephone's invention and the early spiritualist claims of spirits using technology to communicate.
- 3 (13:34) **Early "Spirit Phones" and Thomas Edison** - A look at early attempts to build devices specifically for communicating with the dead, including Thomas Edison's failed "necrophone."
- 4 (16:29) **Public Recognition: The 1970s and Fate Magazine** - The phenomenon gains public traction after a letter is published in Fate magazine, leading to formal research by parapsychologists.
- 5 (20:26) **Modern Research by Dr. Callum Cooper** - A psychologist at the University of Northampton revisited the topic in 2012, collecting over 100 new cases and identifying clear patterns.
- 6 (24:50) **The Four Patterns of Phantom Calls** - Kryn details the consistent characteristics of phone calls from the dead, including voice quality, duration, message type, and caller ID anomalies.
- 7 (29:07) **Story: Carl Uff's Grandmother (1969, New Jersey)** - A teenage rock musician receives multiple calls from his deaf grandmother, who had passed away two days prior.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
We’re answering the phone, but this time, the call might be coming from the other side. We’re diving into the eerie history of phone calls from the dead, including early attempts to build devices that could communicate with spirits, Thomas Edison’s mysterious “spirit phone,” and the strange patterns researchers have found in reported phantom calls.
Then we get into the truly creepy stuff: personal experiences of voicemails from loved ones who have already died, calls from disconnected numbers, and messages that seem to arrive with a warning or final goodbye.
Watch the video version here.
Have ghost stories of your own? E-mail them to us at [email protected]
New Episodes are released every Thursday and Sunday at 12am PST/3am EST (the witching hour, of course). Corinne and Sabrina hand select a couple of paranormal encounters from our inbox to read in each episode, from demons, to cryptids, to aliens, to creepy kids... the list goes on and on. If you have a story of your own that you'd like us to share on an upcoming episode, we invite you to email them to us!
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Edited and produced by Jaimi Ryan. Original music by Arms Akimbo!
Disclaimer: the use of white sage and smudging is a closed practice. If you’re looking to cleanse your space, here are some great alternatives!
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