Friedrich Jurgenson in his strange way was a Renaissance man; a portrait painter, an archaeologist, an opera singer, and the founder of the science (or pseudo-science, depending on who you ask) of EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena.

Pope Pius XII

By the 1950s, Jurgenson was an accomplished portrait painter with a growing fascination with archaeology, particularly Pompeii in Italy. To gain access to the buried city as a Swedish foreigner without proper archaeology credentials, Jurgenson went to the Vatican, where he showed officials some of his portraits of wealthy Swedish citizens. The Vatican officials were so impressed that they showed the portraits to Pope Pius XII, who hired Jurgenson to paint four portraits of him. As he had hoped, Jurgenson became friendly with the Pope and an ongoing relationship with the Vatican, who gave him written vouchers that enabled him to explore the ruins of Pompeii.

EVP

In 1959, as an avid birdwatcher, Jurgenson had a new fascination, birdsongs. When playing back his tape recordings of birds, these recording yielded unexpected results: what he believed to be alien voices from outer space. He then began tape recording more of these sounds in locations that he’d determined were receptors for alien contact.

After one particular taping session, Jurgenson made another startling discovery, a woman’s voice calling his name. The voice said, “Friedrich, you are being watched. Friedel, can you hear me? It’s mammy.“

“Friedel” was his mother’s nickname for him. At this moment, Jurgenson realized that that this was the voice of his dead mother; and that the voices he had been taping were the voices of life beyond death as opposed to outer space aliens. And thus began the so-called science of EVP.

Pope Paul VI

In 1969, Friedrich Jurgenson once again made contact with the Vatican as a portrait artist. This time he was summoned by Pope Paul VI. Jurgenson made three portraits of the Pope, and became even closer to this Pontiff than he was to Pius XII. Paul even hired Jurgenson to make a documentary for him. During the time of their relationship, Jurgenson claimed that he had told Pope Paul VI of his Electronic Voice Phenomena experiments and the Pope was supportive. After all, any evidence of life after death was very much in keeping with a strong faith in God.

The Seventies

Jurgenson’s methods of experimentation were to ask the spirits questions and wait for their answers by recording dead air. He especially favored recording hours of “voices” using radio oscillators. Jurgenson claimed to have received messages beyond the grave from Vincent Van Gogh and Heinrich Himmler’s masseur.

Like most things determined to be New Age in the 1970s, the science or pseudoscience of EVP grew, gathering more researchers.

In 1987, Friedrich Jurgenson died. Shortly thereafter, a psychic in the United States claimed to have received beyond-death messages from Jurgenson on her television set.