Can the Dead Really Speak Through Spirit Boxes?

Spirit boxes are devices that are supposed to allow the dead to communicate with the living by using radio frequencies or static noise. They were invented by Tesla and Thomas Edison. Tesla named his the spirit radio and the ghost phone was Thomas Edison's. Edison decided to make his for two reasons:

1.  He was skeptical of the existing methods of contacting the dead through mediumship. 

2. He did not want Tesla to get a leg up on him and at this point they were rivals.

However, there is no scientific evidence that spirit boxes actually work, and they may pose some risks to the users ¹.

People in nearly every culture have long believed that communication with the dead is possible, and throughout the ages many people have claimed to be able to speak with the dearly departed. Ghosts and spirit communication often show up in classic literature, including mythology, the Bible, and Shakespeare’s plays ².

In Victorian England, it was fashionable in many circles to conduct séances; Ouija boards, three-legged tables, candles, and other accoutrements were used to try to contact the dead. In the U.S., belief in communication with the dead rose dramatically in the 1800s along with the rise of Spiritualism, a religion founded on hoaxed spirit communication by two young sisters in Hydesville, N.Y ².

Despite the fact that the sisters later admitted they had only been pretending to get messages from the dead, the religion they helped start flourished, claiming more than 8 million adherents by 1900. For well over a century, many mediums have been caught faking spirit communication ².

If spirit communication is real, one might think that countless unsolved homicides and disappearances could be easily solved simply by contacting the dead and getting specific, incriminating evidence about the circumstances of their deaths ².

While many people believe in the ability of spirit boxes to allow communication with the dead, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The use of spirit boxes remains a topic of debate and personal belief.