Beyond Stone Tape :: Re-evaluating the theories behind Residual Hauntings



© Ghost & Girl

"We have to postulate that some very emotional scene has somehow become registered on the environment, almost like a sort of psychic video has been created. Someone who comes along who is sensitive enough acts as a sort of psychic video player and will actually play that “tape” and see the figures or perhaps even hear the voices." - Archie Roy, 'Roman Centurian Pining for Princess' in Malcolm Day, Ghosts (Amazing & Extraordinary Facts) , 2011

 

There's a general consensus within the paranormal community that hauntings can be separated into two overarching categories.

 

On one hand, there are the intelligent hauntings, considered the least common of the two and which tend to involve a certain degree of interaction, recognition and communication on the part of the "ghost" with its living counterparts.

On the other there is the more common haunting: The residual. Residual hauntings are believed to be non-spirit hauntings. That is, no ghost or spirit is responsible for the haunting per se, but rather, they come about as a result of an embedded memory or event being repeated via some kind of ethereal loop.

 

Residual hauntings are so common, it would seem, that the reasoning for their occurrence (and re-occurrence) is fairly well undisputed - and therefore, not investigated. Residual hauntings are said to be caused by the remnants of past events and/or memories, the energy from which having somehow been absorbed by the surroundings and then, when the conditions are right, released and replayed in the present.

It's not a new hypothesis. In fact, the idea that inanimate objects can absorb psychic energy or impressions goes as far back as the 19th Century, and to the early days of the Society for Psychical Research. Its founding member, Sir William Barrett, claimed that "some kind of local imprint, on material structures or places, has been left by some past events...[A]n echo or phantom of these events becoming perceptible to those now living".

 

The idea of a "local imprint" of a past event is commonly used today by paranormal investigators to explain the so-called residual haunting. It is also the principle idea behind what has become known as the Stone Tape Theory, wherein a location effectively "records" an event and then replays it inside the heads of certain, sensitive individuals. The theory itself is based on Nigel Kneale's work of fiction, The Stone Tape, a play that was adapted by the BBC in 1972.

It seems to be that most paranormal researchers and investigators refer to residual hauntings and the Stone Tape Theory interchangeably, with the latter quite often used as an explanation for the existence of the former. It would appear that Stone Tape has become accepted as a plausible conclusion, even though the theory itself remains entirely untested.

 

So, is there a scientific basis to the Stone Tape Theory?

The Law of Conservation of Energy stipulates that energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it can only be transferred, and it can only transfer from one type of energy to another; for example, from chemical energy to kinetic energy. But the energy in use here is physical energy, whilst residual hauntings and the Stone Tape Theory revolve around a concept of psychic or emotional energy, which isn't so neatly defined by the laws of science. For the theory to work, psychic energy would need to be transferred from a person to a location or object.

 

The problem with the unchallenged use of the Stone Tape Theory by paranormal investigators and researchers as an explanation for residual hauntings is that it creates an acceptance around a theory that is currently untestable. In particular:

• The existence of psychic and/or emotional energy and how they actually work is unknown. Therefore, the means by which it can be transferred from person to place is also unknown.
• What factors need to be present in a particular location for it to be able to "record" or store an impression of an event or memory is also open to debate. As the name Stone Tape suggests, is may be the presence of certain types of stone, whilst others suggest that metals, electro-magnetic fields, or water vapour may also be necessary factors. However, there is currently no way in which to investigate how an event or memory may be captured and stored, and then later released by using these (or other) elements.
• Exactly what is required for an event or memory to be released or "replayed" as either auditory or visual phenomena, or both, is unknown. The elusive, random nature of residual hauntings means that capturing evidence through repeated experiments is practically impossible.
• And finally, why is it that some people experience this phenomena whilst others do not? What qualities must a person possess in order to see the stored event when it is released? As there is no understanding of how an event, location and individual interact in order to create the residual haunt phenomena, there is no way to successfully investigate, and therefore categorically prove (or disprove) the theory.

Whilst there are hints of some kind of scientific basis to certain theories behind residual hauntings, as things currently stand, the Stone Tape Theory is not one of them. It has no "testable" parameters, making its validity as an explanation for the phenomena highly questionable. There's nothing that annoys me more than a paranormal investigator claiming that paranormal phenomena is "residual" and therefore "nothing to worry about". Without undertaking the research required to prove the theory, should its use within paranormal circles continue to be acceptable?



Note: Depending on whether one identifies as a "spiritual" or "scientific" paranormal investigator tends to determine how one understands, and therefore applies, the theories behind residual hauntings. Here are some prime examples:

What is a Residual Haunting?
Four basic types of haunting or Ghost
Stone Tape Theory
The Stone Tape Theory: Principles & Possibilities
Stone Tape Theory: An Exploration
Parascience: Some Musings on things Paranormal
Possible Explanation for some Residual Hauntings

 

 

 

Sarah  

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Time Slips :: Alternate realities, or something else entirely?

"…for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one." - Albert Einstein

 

Time slips have interested me for many years. The concept of “slipping” back into the past is simply fascinating and was more than enough reason to investigate the theory a little further, as it may provide some clue as to the cause of some "paranormal events".

Time slips are an inter-dimensional time displacement, in which a person (or persons), experience a slip in time; that is, they find themselves either forward, or as in most reported cases, back in time.  These “slips” can occur at any given moment, and in any given place. From my understanding, there is no defined set of “circumstances” that one needs to experience a time slip; however, those who claim to have experienced this phenomenon report a distinct change in the atmosphere around them immediately prior to the slip.

I have read many reported cases of time slips and the majority seem to involve the past, from tourists coming across quaint country hotels only to discover on their return journey that they have simply disappeared, to locals witnessing past battles upon fields where indeed such conflict had occurred many years prior.

It is difficult to come up with a rational explanation for this phenomenon. The protagonists are clearly shaken by their experience, and where the experience is shared with others, it is impossible to blame one's imagination. So, besides a collective hoax, have these people suffered a time slip? Or are these experiences something else entirely?

Another interesting thing to note about time slips, is that there is no fixed duration for them. Some can be relatively short-lived, lasting no more than a few minutes, whilst others are full-blown interactions with an alternate reality lasting several hours - or, in the case of travellers who have apparently found hospitality in mysterious, non-existent hotels, an entire night.

Yet the most remarkable thing about this phenomenon is that among physicists, there is a strong belief in the possibility of multiple (even infinite) alternate versions of reality, all occurring at the same time. The theory is that whenever time probability comes into play, reality splits: Toss a coin and you create two separate realities, one where the coin falls heads, and the other where it lands on tails.
 
Whilst accepted that time slips are theoretically possible, the theory rules out the possibility of being aware of these realities.  However, the personal accounts of possible time slips would seem to challenge this view.  
 
Here are a few of the more famous accounts of time slips for your consideration:

THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES:-

Painting of Marie Antoinette in the
Trianon Gardens by Antoine Vestier.

During the summer of 1901, two English women, Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, were visiting Versailles when they became lost whilst looking for the Petit Trianon. As they wandered the grounds, they passed a deserted farmhouse and noticed an old gardening plough. Then as they continued along the path the atmosphere around them seemed to change.

They came across two men dressed in period clothing wearing three-cornered hats, who directed them down a path when the women asked the direction to the Petit Trianon. As they continued on their way, they crossed over a small bridge to what they assumed to be the Petit Trianon, where they found a woman sketching on a stool dressed in eighteenth century clothing and a footman rushing out to speak with her.

 

As they rounded the side to enter, the atmosphere lifted and they found themselves alongside a present-day wedding group waiting to enter the Petit Trianon.

 

Months later, Moberly asked Jourdain about the lady they had seen, to which Jourdain replied that she hadn’t seen a woman, but agreed with other details. As they did further research they discovered that the day they had visited  the Petit Trianon was the anniversary of the massacre of the Swiss Guard at the Tuileries in 1792.

Jourdain returned to Versailles a year later to retrace their steps and noticed that the paths they had walked on that day in 1901 simply didn’t exist. Also, the door the footman had dashed out from was boarded up, and had been for many years.

The authenticity of this story has been questioned as the protagonists appeared to “add details” upon publishing their book, An Adventure.

Was it really Marie Antoinette’s ghost that the women stumbled across that day? A residual impression of the past?  I'd like to believe it was.

 

FIFTEENTH CENTURY PARIS IN HAITI:-

Another intriguing account of a possible time slip comes from the biologist Ivan T. Sanderson, who, whilst on a biological survey in Haiti, became bogged in mud forcing himself, his wife and assistant to walk down the muddy road in search of assistance. Sometime later, both Ivan and his wife looked up to discover they were walking down a street in Paris in the fifteenth century, complete with cobblestones, lanterns swaying in the breeze (a breeze they couldn’t feel), and even candles lit behind windows. Both Ivan and his wife were in agreement with every detail around them, his wife exclaiming: “How did we get to Paris five hundred years ago?”

 

 

BOLD STREET, LIVERPOOL:-

The final account of a possible time slip that I'd like to share with you today, comes from a retired police officer who was holidaying with his wife in Liverpool, England. The pair split up to look at different shops, but were to meet back at Dillon’s Bookshop. As the police officer started to head back towards Bold Street he noticed a strange quietness around him.

He continued along the path: An old 1950s van passed right in front of him, almost colliding with him, and he noticed the name on the side of the van said “Caplan’s”. He then looked down to discover he was no longer walking along a path but standing on the road. As he moved back towards the footpath, he looked up to see that Dillon’s Bookstore now had the name “Cripps” and was displaying women's shoes and handbags. The people around seemed to be dressed in 1940s fashion. He was absolutely baffled. He then noticed a young woman nearby that appeared to be dressed in  modern fashion, and decided to follow her into the shop. But upon entering, the shop was transformed back into Dillon’s Bookshop. Interestingly, the young woman corroborated the holidaying police officer's experience: She was expecting to look at shoes & handbags not books!

So, do you believe these stories to be true accounts of people experiencing a time slip, or something else? Could these events be evidence of residual haunts, or are you of the opinion that they are simply imaginative fancy, or even a clever, well-embellished hoax?

 

Further Reading:

An Adventure (Ghosts of Versailles) by Anne Moberly & Eleanor Jourdain

The Theory of Relativity and Einstein’s Universe

Time Slip Accounts Blog

Parallel Dimensions 

 



Laura  

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