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Spirit Box

How to do the Estes Method on your phone with Ghost Box

To do the Estes Method on your phone: one person wears headphones and listens to the Ghost Box module while a partner asks questions and the app records. The listener says out loud every word they think they hear, no filtering, and you compare those words against the questions once it is over. The app has an Estes Method protocol built in that walks you through the order of it.

3 min read · Updated 2026-09-16

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What the Estes Method is

The Estes Method is a two-person session. The listener is cut off from the room with headphones, often with a blindfold, and hears a stream of broken sound. The questioner asks questions and notes what the listener reports. Because the listener cannot hear the questions clearly, a match between question and answer is what the session is looking for.

The traditional setup uses a radio sweep, but Spirit Box does not tune a radio. Its Ghost Box plays short synthesized fragments from 9 sound banks instead, a new one every 0.1 to 0.8 seconds, run through reverb and echo. Nothing in those banks is a prerecorded word, so whatever the listener hears is their own perception doing the work — which happens to be exactly the kind of raw input the method was built around. A dead-quiet room tends to produce the most striking matches out of pure static.

What you need

  • Two people: a listener and a questioner.
  • Headphones for the listener (noise-cancelling help).
  • The Ghost Box module, which is PRO. Without PRO, tap Watch an ad to try a full PRO session on the home screen for one full visit.
  • Optional: a blindfold, and a second phone or notebook for the questioner to write down questions with times.

Steps in the app

  1. Open the home menu, tap Protocols and choose Estes Method (10-15 min) to keep its checklist handy.
  2. Plug in the headphones. From the home screen open PRO ITC Modules and tap Ghost Box.
  3. Tap the gear to open Bank Settings if you want to change the mix: turn banks on or off, set each one's Volume, and adjust Reverb, Delay Time, Delay Feedback and Delay Mix.
  4. Turn the screen away from the listener and tap Start.
  5. Tap the record button. A red Recording bar appears with a timer.
  6. The questioner asks one question at a time and notes the time. The listener says every word they perceive, straight away, without filtering.
  7. When something stands out, tap the bookmark button in the Recording bar to mark the moment.
  8. Tap the stop button to finish recording, then Stop to end the Ghost Box.
  9. Tap the folder icon to open Recordings, play the file back and check the Bookmarked Moments against the questioner's list.

Worked example of a question timeline

Keep a table like this going during the session. The recording settles the real timing question afterwards: did the listener's words land right after the question, or minutes later when nobody was tracking it closely.

Example log kept by the questioner (times from the recording timer)
TimeQuestion askedListener saidBookmark
00:40Is anyone here with us?"here"Yes
01:30What is your name?(nothing)No
02:15How old are you?"cold", "out"Yes

Only the first answer actually fits its question in that example. Writing the misses down too, not just the hits, is what keeps a session honest instead of flattering.

Tips and common mistakes

  • The recording is what the microphone hears. It captures the room, the questions and any Ghost Box sound that reaches the microphone, so the listener's spoken words end up on the file too.
  • Agree before you start that the listener repeats every word, including ones that make no sense. Picking only good words later is the most common bias.
  • Keep sessions short. The protocol suggests 10 to 15 minutes; long sessions tire the listener.
  • Swap roles and repeat the same questions. A repeated match is more interesting than a single one.

Questions and answers

Is there an Estes Method app?
Spirit Box includes an Estes Method protocol with the steps, and the Ghost Box module provides the sound and the recording. Ghost Box is PRO, with one free visit available after a rewarded ad.
Can you do the Estes Method alone?
It is designed for two people, because the listener must not hear the questions clearly. Alone you can still listen and record, but you lose the check that makes the method work.
Does the Ghost Box play real radio or real voices?
No. It plays synthesized fragments from 9 banks (phonemes, syllables, whispers, tones, static and more). No prerecorded words are used.
Where are the recordings saved?
As audio files on the device, listed under Recordings in Ghost Box. You can play them, see the bookmarks, use Share Recording or delete them.

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