sound and fury, signifying nothing

My wife and I love to rent stinkers from Albertsons whenever we're between Netflix; on weekdays, any movie is only 99 cents. Our latest masochistic viewing: White Noise, a godawful mess of a movie starring a very old Michael Keaton. The premise: folks on the "Other Side" can communicate with us through static on radio or television. The film is pathetic enough, but more pathetic are the bonus features, the interviews and sessions with "Electronic Voice Phenomena" experts, where they stumble around "haunted" locations, asking the spirits questions and generally getting no response. Except for every now and then, when their digital recorder picks up words. Or, I should say, "words."

Now, the "words" from these voices are jumbled, incoherent, blurred, and otherwise unintelligible. But that doesn't stop the desperate researcher. According to the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena,

In EVP, research has shown that the voice is formed of a fortuitous collection of available sounds and that there is seldom a Formant 0. In effect, the words are being pronounced by someone from an unfamiliar culture. This is true even if it is a loved one because that person is obliged to use whatever sounds are available. That is why we talk about people needing to train themselves to hear the words in EVP, and why a perfectly clear Class A to you might sound like loud noise to someone else. However, once you tell the listener what to look for, that noise will often become obviously the words you said they were. Then later, you or that other listener listen to the EVP again and do not hear the same utterance. It has not changed, but your reference has [emphasis added].

You hear only what you want to hear. I have never seen a clearer statement of confirmation bias and ad hoc reasoning. If we can hear the Other Side, they're probably laughing at us.