It`s not often that a scientifically oriented individual comes across something that truly defies scientific reasoning.

 

My story concerning the Alice Box– it`s conception, development and subsequent evolution, goes quite some way back.

 

Around 2012 I, like so many in the UK, was captivated by the Most Haunted paranormal tv concept, eager to tune in for each new spooky episode. I was hooked! Even the kids were interested and sat beside me for every instalment. The gradual evolution of the series did seem to lean forever further towards the showy and improbable, but the seed was sown.

 

The equipment used on the tv programme fascinated me. In particular, the Ovilus struck me as a remarkable way to potentially interact with spirit presence, but for me it was somewhat flawed. The display was so small and the audible announcement of the words as they appeared was just about incomprehensible.

As I was at the time beginning to attend a number of organised paranormal investigations, it struck me that having something that was more effective "in the field" (and in the dark!) would be a good idea.

I researched the origins and theories around ITC (Instrumental Trans Communication) and discovered that it was all about encouraging external, intelligent entities to purposefully interact with/influence electronic equipment and it`s circuitry in order for them to be able to, at least in part, communicate with our shivering little group of modern-day intrepid investigators.

My career has always been in the technical field, centred around energy production for a major global organisation. I felt that I had the needed skills to produce a PC based program that was capable of holding a very large pool of words and ran internal routines that took the processor along a somewhat torturous path of logic. This, I reasoned, would perhaps allow any external influence (if it was present) to swing the pendulum of probability towards a particular, purposefully chosen, entry in the pool and then clearly display it on the screen.
So off to work on the idea! The prototype Alice code was written during some extended downtime whilst I was posted overseas in my day job. And this three week period proved to be the strangest I`ve known. Each day I`d begin my work on the computer, steadily building and adjusting the routines within the code. Time slowly seemed to become detached, meaningless. Hours would whizz by in what felt like an instant. I hardly ate very much, preferring instead to get back to the job in hand. It was as if I was being driven, or possibly influenced, by someone, or something, to accomplish this. And things became stranger. I would look back at the lines and lines of data that I`d previously written just to check for any errors or inconsistencies. Some of it just seemed alien. I didn`t recognise it, and certainly didn`t fully understand it. This seemed like stuff that was ten levels above my own in terms of technical ability! I doubted that it would even compile and run, never mind perform as intended.

Back home to the UK, and it was time to really test the work out for the first time. I have to admit to being majorly skeptical at this point. I fully expected, if it indeed ran, to perhaps pick up some totally random gibberish, unconnected and irrelevant. But, I thought, that would really prove my assertion - ITC isn`t real, right?
Program launched on my laptop. So far so good. I had the idea of nipping in to see my daughter in her room, as she had shown interest in my "crazy new paranormal project". She started off the routine and the scan lights duly began to flash intermittently as expected. Nothing else happened. Hmmm. I encouraged her to call out to any spirit in order to invite some dialogue. She elected to ask, "What is your name? Please tell us". Within a second or two, the lights froze. There was a pause as the internal routines did their thing, hopeful of being guided by some unseen hand. And "BEEP!" as the first word appeared clearly on the display - ALICE.


This very first experience lead to the, at this point nameless new program, becoming self-christened.
If "Alice" is indeed somewhere out there - thank you!
A string of subsequent words were shown, many of which related to the house in which we then lived. Names came again, and a significant amount of these could be associated with family members passed into spirit. The test was both interesting and encouraging.

I decided to use the prototype on a number of investigations with a local paranormal group, who by this point had become good friends and were fascinated to see what Alice would perform like at alleged haunted locations. No-one had high expectations, but it would help me to at least put the project to bed if the anticipated jumble of irrelevant words were consistently coming through.
But it didn`t exactly happen that way. On many investigations, the output was seen to be highly relevant to the history of the building, and would sometimes reference names and events that were later verifiable with some online research. Things were moving along an unexpected and genuinely uncanny path.

Encouraged by the group, I began to offer the Alice ITC PC program to others online. Astonishingly, the feedback from the users was consistently positive. Some recounted instances of total relevance and even of holding intelligent conversations with spirit entities via Alice. Reports came in of sudden bursts of words - even whole phrases - rapidly seen in streams of activity, as if a multitude of spirits were trying to communicate simultaneously.

A user community was then established on Facebook, and remains very active to this day, where people can share their Alice stories and I have to say that many are incredibly poignant, even touching sometimes.
The community has grown and the original PC program has been updated with improved visuals over the years.

A couple of years ago I was contacted by the amazing Andy Bailey of infraready.co.uk, who agreed to offer the program in a pre-configured Windows tablet form, so providing a complete solution for new users who were without the requisite laptop. Shortly after, Andy asked if he could develop a full hardware version of Alice, and I worked closely with his developer to transfer the coding and routines onto the new platform. Extensive testing ensured absolutely identical performance technically, and again users report amazing experiences when using his Alice DNA hardware unit.

As time went on, and the mobile device (smart phone) massively increased in popularity and general usage, there came a steady request from the community for a mobile app version of Alice. I was initially dismissive of this. The very word "app" for me conjured up images of a toy, and certainly not a serious investigation aid. Indeed, what apps that I had seen were basically just that.

But the demand and requests kept building. I endeavoured to at least look at the possibility of porting the internals of the PC program onto this new platform, and contacted a local professional app developer, Mat Howlett. Incredibly, Mat was aware of the Alice program already, being a firm paranormal enthusiast himself. He was very keen to take the pilot project on, and so the path to mobile was tentatively trodden.

I repeatedly told myself that if the app version were to perform in any way inferior to the PC and hardware versions, I would shelve the idea and acknowledge that it was simply not the platform for Alice.
Mat and I released the pilot and subsequent beta test program in early 2022 to a small selected group around the world. And yet again, reports came back from these testers that "Alice Box" (her official mobile app name) was coming up with output that pretty much took their breath away. Seemingly, her results were on a par with earlier versions.

Alice was officially released on both the Apple Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) in late May, 2022. Within days she was charting at the top of both stores` paid (entertainment) app charts. (Entertainment has to be the category, since ITC/paranormal is not a recognised scientific concept).

Plans for the next update are ambitious. We intend to add an online user portal where people can share word banks, download these to the app on their device, and rate first-hand activity with their Alice Box at any geographic location. This would then form an activity "heat map" which could be visually represented on standard maps. Perhaps we will see commonalities in these pins - maybe they will align with the network of ley lines which run the length and breadth of the land?


I suspect that the Alice story possibly has much more to show us still. . .
The Alice Box mobile app can be downloaded at the following links:

Joanne Saul

July, 2022

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Barri Ghai, paranormal TV presenter and investigator 
(Help! My House Is Haunted / Celebrity HMHIH, Unexplained: Caught On Camera) using the hardware version of the Alice Box, with other equipment: