It's certainly a most difficult task to write in a short-sized paper about Dr. Konstantin Raudive, the giant pioneer of classical EVP whose name will be engraved forever in majuscules upon our field's history.
His contribution to EVP research is such a tremendous one, that its analysis might fill entire bookshelves without the topic being exhausted.
Therefore, I will bring my modest homage to his name in the conceivably most abbreviated form, fitting the editorial constraints of this Journal - by trying at least to enlist a few of the fundamental components of the historic "BREAKTHROUGH" related to K.Raudive's name (to use the title of his masterpiece, meaningfully chosen by himself).
For the above mentioned restrictive reasons, the present most concise presentation will be almost exclusivelly centered upon Dr. K.Raudive's work - the interested readers being kindly requested to complete the biographical aspects of Dr. Raudive's life from alternative sources of documentary reference.
As professor of Philosophy, Psychology and writer (former student of C.Jung and later teacher at the Uppsala University in Sweden), Raudive's intellectual build-up was perhaps the conceivably most fertile background for his late almost exclusive interest in EVP phenomena, so it's quite natural that he devoted the last ten years of his life to them.
His brilliant predecessor and early collaborator F.Jurgenson, whom he met by the very beginning of 1965, awakened Dr. K.Raudive's interest in EVP research. Raudive spent endless hours for the thorough study of Jurgenson's books ("Voices from Space", 1964 and "Radio-Link with the Dead", 1967), thus finding himself confronted with mankind's greatest mystery and the endless unanswered questions related to it. In June 1965, a close friendly cooperation started between Jurgenson and Raudive, who decided to share experimental efforts and their early analysis in Jurgenson's estate, Nysund.
Only three months after his first contact with Jurgenson (spending 12 hours per day for fruitless efforts of detecting faint audio-signals on his tapes), Raudive succeeded to achieve first concrete results and enthusiastically gave a first introductory lecture for a parapsychologically oriented audience. His claims were by that time hard to be conceptually accepted and Raudive grasped that a very hard work begins for him in order to get the required persuasiveness in such a sensitive and almost brand- new field of investigation.
Jurgenson was the first to draw public attention to the voices of transcendental origin, but Raudive had to overtake their thorough analysis and documentation under scientifically accepted standards.
Still from his first recording experiments by the "Microphone method", Raudive wonders about the wide quality range the voices were scattered upon. This first discovery led to his methodologically useful categories which nowadays still hold descriptive validity: "Group A" (no special training of the ear needed for their detection and identification), "Group B" (voices speaking more rapidly and softly, still quite plainly audible to a trained and attentive ear) - and "group C" (giving a great deal of information and much paranormal data, unfortunately lying beyond the mean range hearing acuity).
Raudive's first attempts in Radio-Recording techniques were performed according to Jurgenson's suggestion by relying on a transcendental "mediator's help (in Raudive's case, Spidola) - but very soon this prerequisite turned out to be futile if using interfrequency noise background. Raudive easily identified EVP voices against their background by their paranormal features. The radio-voices are of a clearer pronunciation quality then the "microphone" ones, at the same time conveying longer messages.
Soon, Raudive succeeds to work out a mixed "Radio-Microphone Recording technique". By this time, he found many similar peculiarities between various recording methods: Compressed sentences of a usually obscure meaning, expressed in different languages ignoring grammatical rules and abounding in neologisms.
The Radio-Microphone technique provided the opportunity for the first dialogue patterns, as evidence for the independent character of the recorded voices from the experimenter's own personality.
Since April 1968, Raudive develops (together with Prof. Alex Schneider, Switzerland) the "Frequency-Transmitter Recording technique", which excludes freak radio/microphone noises, supplying the asomal agents with useful carrier frequencies allowing their freedom from disturbing interference.
A further step was very soon achieved toward a quality improvement in EVP reception, by testing the "Diode Recording" procedure, a "direct contact" with the unseen world according to Raudive's first enthusiastic remarks.
Referring to his first findings regarding the statistically significant language patterns of the voices, Raudive pointed to their particular velocity, their mixture of languages used (sometimes 5 or 6 in the same sentence, strongly suggesting their paranormal consistency), a definite rhythm resulting in shortened, telegram-like sentences, disobeying grammatical rules and frequently using neologisms.
Readers more familiar with EVP/ITC's development after K.Raudive's pioneering work might find these peculiarities of a limited historic value, nevertheless one should keep in mind the period-related parameters of his work, as well as the paramount importance of such early features in drawing the attention of serious investigators toward the paranormality of the - by then young - investigation field and its genuine results.
The voice parameters in Raudive's overwhelming database seem to keep valid wherever he conducts his experiments: in Bad Krozingen or Oeschgen, in London or Molnbo, in Sigtuna or Madrid. They pile up in tens of thousands of samples, forcing an increasingly widening community of serious researchers and collaborators to accept the tremendous impact Raudive's work has to exert upon their conventional world-view. Besides some close friends and relatives (Dr. Zenta Maurina, F. Jurgenson, Dr. Hans Naegeli, Dr. A. Reincke, Prof. A.Teichmanis, Prof. Hans Bender, Prof.Dr. Werner Brunner etc), most serious investigation bodies (as the Parapsychological Society of Switzerland's team) are supplied with mind-boggling evidence of Raudive's contacts with well-known "deceased" personalities of various fields from the past.
Just for exemplification purpose and for a rough estimation of some peculiarities related to Raudive's experimental data, a very few samples were selected here:
From an overwhelming database (ranging about 72000 samples!), Raudive's mother seems to be statistically the most frequently reported contact personality. She usually addressed her son in the Latgalian dialect of the Latvian language; nevertheless she seemed to have no difficulties to use terms in languages unknown to her during lifetime (Spanish, Swedish and German).
She seems to be pretty aware of Dr. Raudive's hard work and its related adversities as far as acceptance is concerned, and clearly warns him in this regard:
"Konstantin, tava mate. Firchtbare, firchtbare Krafte mot dej. Turies bei mej! Deine Mutter"
(Latv,Germ,Swed: "Konstantin, your mother. Terrible, terrible forces against you. Hold on to me! Your mother")
Other members of his family were frequently present eagerly waiting to communicate with Raudive, too.
Raudive's aunt, e.g., seems eager to stress her own asomal condition while speaking to him:
" Ta tava Tante, tote, tote Tante, tu bezdievis dzied" (Latv, Germ: this is your aunt, dead, dead aunt. You godless, sing!")

Margarete Petrautzki, Dr. Zenta Maurina's secretary (who left the Earthy plane of manifesatation as a result of a cencer after some 10 years of close work with the Raudive couple, was introduces at her first contact to the experimenter by a voice:

"Margarete tev seko" (Latvian: "Margarete follows you").

Differently oriented environmental influences seem to control M.P.'s eagerness to communicate with her former friends:

" Margarete....., runa, runa, runa" (Speak!) - contrasting with attempts to create emotional discord "Margarete untreu mit eigenem Vater" (Germ: Margarete unfaithful with own father), while at the same recording instance, a human voice asks for prayer in Margarete's behalf: " Bete fur Maragaretes Seele, Par Margaretes ligavi" (Germ, Latv: "Pray for Margarete's soul. For Margarete's fiance")

Unseen self-conscious entities seem always to closely monitor Raudive's experimental room. While working late in the night with a glass of wine on his table, a friend's (from beyond) kind intervention, consistent with the circumstances and spoken in the usual polyglot pattern was recorded:

" Guten Abend med dej. I whishy your bebi Wein" (Germ, Swed, Engl, Spanish: " Good evening to you. I whish to drink your wine")
.
The unseen friends from beyond seem to highly appreciate Dr. Raudive's pioneering work:

" Koste var darbus pabeigt" - "Vaga niemand" (Latv, Swed, Germ: "Koste can finish the works" - "Nobody dares")

Giants of the Universal literature (F.M.Dostojevsky, Lev Tolstoi, Vladimir Majakowski, Boris Pasternak, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Federico Garcia Lorca, Joh. Wolfgang v. Goethe, James Joyce etc.) express their appreciating comments regarding Raudive's tireless work:

" Te Tostoj! Te Kosti slave" (Here are the Tolstojs! Kosti is praised here")

" Lieber Kostja, Dostojevsky muns admirals. Te velna katolis. Tas nav velns. Dostojewskijs, dela cies" (Russ, Latv: Dear Kostja, Dostojewskij, my admiral, Here the catholic is a devil" - "He is not a devil" - "Dostojewski, the cause suffers").

"Glaube - te Goethe hilft" (Germ: "Glaube, there helps Goethe!")

Similar encouragement is received by the experimenter from Ortega y Gasset: " Entro jas muchas cuestionas" (Sp: "You will solve many questions") and Garcia Lorca (killed in Malaga during the Spanish civil war): " Garcia Lorca. Sei ruhig, Kostja. Vi bundna kopa" (Germ, Swed, Latv: " Be calm, Kostja. We are linked together")

Raudive gets repeatedly his former illustrious teacher's, C. Jung's encouragement, too, who sometimes acknowledges his presence together with S. Freud, Sir Oliver Lodge etc.- as in the following sample recorded July 19, 1967 during the experimenter's attempt to reach his former teacher:

" Put your call through, we will wait. Here is Kosta, Lodge. Raudive, here Jung. Give me Raudive, particularly you. You only sleep here" - and
" Bitt Raudive. Runat Radio? Kosti, du varti" (Germ, Latv: "Ask Raudive. Talk via radio? Kosti, you are the door").

Great man of science and philosophy (Galileo Galilei, Isaak Newton, Michael Faraday, Max Planck) are present in Dr. Raudive's wide experimental database, as well as well-know political leaders: Winston Churchill, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, Thomas Masaryk, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Rommel etc:

"Te Kennedy - Dabus Kennedy" (Here Kennedy, one will get Kennedy")

".............,Mits, Kostja, Begestri dali. Rossija vcera segodnia da. Na zemlju radio blattno"
(Russ, Latv,Germ: " Lenin - There is no transmission. Amess here. Myth, Kostja. Continue to be impressed. Russia is there yesterday and today. Radio on earth is scandalous")

" Stalins te. Furchtbar karsts. Furchtbar Eile. Ko tu teici? Mes pazinojam, ka Izrika ir Kosta"
(Germ, Swed, Latv: " Stalin is here. Terribly hot. Terrible hurry. What do you say? We report that Kosta is in Izrika")

A.Hitler's transcendental features show the same traits that characterized him on Earth" - megalomania and spiritual depravity - often sharply rejected by other voice entities:

" Kosti, te Hitler baigs" ("Kosti, here is Hitler uncanny").
" Greetings, first you must have a sense of humor. Here is major Hitler. Honor Hitler a little!"
" Ondoms liels. Kosti Hitlers braucht" (Swed, Germ, Latv: " The evil is great. Hitler needs Kosti")
"Hitlera padoms: Kosta, heil Hitler" (Latv, Germ: Hitler's advice: Kosta, heil Hitler!")

Relying upon such tremendous experimental evidence, Raudive remarks that when addressed, deceased persons make their presence known either by giving their name or by exhibiting some characteristic that had typified them in life. The person spoken to reacts directly to questions often giving a spontaneous opinion. The voice-entities call the experimenter and his collaborators by their names, often giving valuable information concerning post-mortal conditions. Coincidence in semantic range is efficiently ruled out especially in "Partnership-voices": each personality called upon at intervals answers in the same voice retaining the same characteristic features in his pronouncements.
Dr. Konstantin Raudive never spared any effort to submit his results to wide listening verification tests. Between Feb 1966 and June 1968 a series of 43 such opportunities were offered to hundreds of participants, these tests including 150 to 200 "voices" each.
One of the most valuable components of my personal documentary database is the live record of K.Raudive's second lecture/listening-in test which took place in Munich (Germany) on 21st March 1968 (kindly offered to me by Prof. Alex Schneider during a visit of mine in St. Gallen, Switzerland).
By the time of this lecture, Dr. Raudive's database included 25000 selected samples (from a near 80000 total one) closely analyzed by scientists of various fields of research. 40 percent of the wide audience (some 300 people, including psychiatrists, physicists, radio-experts, tone-experts etc) could perceive and understand 95-100% of the voices demonstrated. Dr. Raudive's explanations were highly appreciated, especially the ones concerning the four "paradata" of his results: the polyglot formal delivery of the texts, their frequently referring to post-mortal conditions, the importance of an acceptable sensory training for best interpretative results (especially seen the paranormal velocity and key parameters) and the paramount significance of EVP experiments' ability to be replicated objectively, with deep consequences in psychoacustic requests when poli-sinusoidal patterns of high complexity are concerned.
Various hypothetical connections to still poorly understood ambient conditions were mentioned by the lecturer by this opportunity, triggering future research (e.g. the moon's phasic behavior as affecting experimental results etc).
In March 1971, Raudive participated in a public authentication protocol with highly successful results, according to the "Sunday Mirror's report. This session, which run under severe scientific control conditions as vouched by Attwood & Pricket from Pye-Records Ltd., lasted not more then 18 minutes - but provided over 200 clearly detectable and intelligible samples!
It would be far beyond this paper's aim and ability, to deepen any more the titanic work of Dr. Konstantin Raudive, the giant pioneer of early EVP research. Readers are strongly advised to widen their knowledge related to his outstanding contribution by addressing the comprehensive literature written BY and ABOUT him.
We really hope, that this very concise report will suffice to awaken serious interest in Dr. Konstantin Raudive's life and tireless work, which will provide an excellent example for modern ITC researchers, as reflected in the comments of late Prof. Walter H.Uphoff (Colorado University), after his uplifting experience to witness K.Raudive's work:
" I hope, that Raudive's minute work triggered parapsychologists, physicists, electronists and others to look for explanation regarding this perplexing development which requires justified acceptance. People should be encouraged to deepen research in this field or to grant financial help for systematic research - in order to push further away the limits of the unknown in our time ".
This is the real message we want to forward to all our readers by this summary attempt, too.
Let's hope that W.Uphoff's pathetic appeal will be correctly grasped, and that Dr. Konstantin Raudive's mind-boggling pioneering work will inspire all our friends for their serious, peaceful cooperation in their present efforts done for ITC's further development, as dreamed by Dr. Konstantin Raudive during his life and reportedly supported by him in several instances from his new existential plane in a most active way, topic which obviously lies far beyond this paper's limited descriptive and analytic concern.

Published on the issue number 5 of ITC Journal.