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Stone Tape Theory

That's what I meant. << It always seems to be ... or something totally unemotional like a Roman legion marching along the Great North Road.>>

I live next to the A1 and I'm aware of stories about ghostly Roman legions seen marching. If a group of soldiers marching somehow imprinted an emotional energy on the local minerals, then surely there'd also be ghosts of "ancient" salesmen driving up and down in their Ford Cortinas trying to meet long-overdue deadlines.

Unless part of the mechanism has yet to be identified, even as a guess. After all, ghosts are rare, so there would need to be some rarely-occurring event to trigger the recording.
 
Unless part of the mechanism has yet to be identified, even as a guess. After all, ghosts are rare, so there would need to be some rarely-occurring event to trigger the recording.

Yes, a Druid could have cursed the legion ordering their souls to walk the same route forever. Sadly the power from the curse has faded over the years and we only get a glimpse of them now and again.
 
One fragment of a glimmer of a possibility is the 'fact' that any sufficiently large object with a lot of complex states can be considered to be implementing a particular complex computer program. This conceit is known as Searle's Wall,
https://alandix.com/blog/2009/02/21/searles-wall-computation-and-representation/
and to me this idea suggests that philosophers have too much time on their hands.

The great problem in this idea is not that walls, particularly stone walls, are complex enough entities, but that there is no way to 'read' the output of such a stone computer. To extract the results of these almost infinitely complex yet arbitrary processes, you would need to carefullly select the right atoms and molecules in the right order to get the right output. Choose a different set of atoms and molecules you'd get a completely different result. But if and only if we could somehow select the right elements imbedded in such a wall so that the input of past events might be processed and emitted at some later date, then maybe we could find a basis for the stone tape theory.
 
I remember watching a (UK) TV show years ago (late 80's, early 90's ?) that involved investigators who'd been loaned an old earthenware pot. They surmised that, because the pot had clearly been made on a potter's wheel, it could potentially play back sound in the same way that a vinyl LP does considering grooves were present on it created by the hands of the person who made it so they put it back on a modern turntable and used some kind of laser technology (laser I think?) to 'listen' to it .. obviously the process was a lot more complicated than that but they seemed to have been able to play back voices on presentation to the film crew on that show .. does this ring bells with anyone else ? ... it was part of a ghost documentary as I recall and also the first time I'd heard of stone tape theory.

I'm sure that "CSI Vagas" has a plot with a unfired pot (a murder in a pottery class?).
 
I think it is.
Wikipedia's entry on the use of the word theory :re stone tape theory :

A theory is a contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking often is associated with such processes like observational study, research. Theories may either be scientific or other than scientific (or scientific to less extent). Depending on the context, the results might, for example, include generalized explanations of how nature works. The word has its roots in ancient Greek, but in modern use it has taken on several related meanings.

In modern science, the term "theory" refers to scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way consistent with scientific method, and fulfilling the criteria required by modern science. Such theories are described in such a way that scientific tests should be able to provide empirical support for it, or empirical contradiction ("falsify") of it. Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and comprehensive form of scientific knowledge,[1] in contrast to more common uses of the word "theory" that imply that something is unproven or speculative (which in formal terms is better characterized by the word hypothesis).[2] Scientific theories are distinguished from hypotheses, which are individual empirically testable conjectures, and from scientific laws, which are descriptive accounts of the way nature behaves under certain conditions.
 
Hi @Sharon Hill.
I enjoyed your video about the Stone Tape "theory", which provided some fascinating historical context I was not aware of.
Regarding possible mechanisms underlying the alleged phenomenon, I would welcome your comments on the analogy of a struck tuning fork, as employed in the 1952 supernatural movie "Ghost Ship" (see my post on page 1 of this thread).
This is a decade before Lethbridge's work and, obviously, doesn't use the term coined by the great Nigel Kneale.
It does, however, appear to be a demonstration of the stone tape in all but name.
 
I reiterate what someone else asked earlier - if stones in a building somehow could record, why would they not be constantly recording? Anything played back would be a mish-mash of various snippets, like trying to listen to a radio stuck between stations or using an old magnetic tape that's been reused so often that it's just voices over voices over voices.
 
I reiterate what someone else asked earlier - if stones in a building somehow could record, why would they not be constantly recording? Anything played back would be a mish-mash of various snippets, like trying to listen to a radio stuck between stations or using an old magnetic tape that's been reused so often that it's just voices over voices over voices.
Yes, EVP and sounds should be from both dead and alive persons who has lived or visited the site/building. There's no reason why a building should record only traumatic events.
 
The traumatic events might be the only thing strong enough to be recorded. However I don't know if strong emotions can be said to be strong in an objective way. Do they look different on an EEG for example?
 
The traumatic events might be the only thing strong enough to be recorded. However I don't know if strong emotions can be said to be strong in an objective way. Do they look different on an EEG for example?
Again though, traumatic in whose eyes? I know when I was a teenager, EVERYTHING was so bloody traumatic; my parents not letting me have a pony was world ending, not being asked out by that guy I fancied at college was DISASTER! LIFE IS OVER!! I felt these things intensely and emotively. But, from the outside, were these objectively traumatic to make a recording? Or did it have to be death and disaster to impact on the stones?

Because I can think of nothing nastier than to be haunted by the ghost of teenage angst.
 
Again though, traumatic in whose eyes? I know when I was a teenager, EVERYTHING was so bloody traumatic; my parents not letting me have a pony was world ending, not being asked out by that guy I fancied at college was DISASTER! LIFE IS OVER!! I felt these things intensely and emotively. But, from the outside, were these objectively traumatic to make a recording? Or did it have to be death and disaster to impact on the stones?

Because I can think of nothing nastier than to be haunted by the ghost of teenage angst.
I remember from a ghost hunting show on TV where they recorded EVPs in a former bordello, now museum. Don't remember which show.
They EVPed someone talking about quitting a poker game. Another one was about drinking another glass of whiskey. These where probably stone tape recordings, not some entity in afterlife.
 
I remember from a ghost hunting show on TV where they recorded EVPs in a former bordello, now museum. Don't remember which show.
They EVPed someone talking about quitting a poker game. Another one was about drinking another glass of whiskey. These where probably stone tape recordings, not some entity in afterlife.

That rings a bell. Was that when the episode of Ghost Chasers visited the True Crime museum in Hastings and the associated hotel (ex-brothel and gambling den)?
Don't recall anything particularly stone-tapey though.
 
I’ve just spent two nights sleeping in an ecclesiastical building that was a quarter of a century old when the Black Death arrived. Although l’d have been wide open to any strangeness (settle!), results were zero.

(Does alcohol erase Stone Tapes? Asking for a friend.)

maximus otter
 
Been thinking alot recently about how we try to apply our scientific ideas and theories to how "the other" (whether that be ghosties, UFOs, sasquatch) behave and exist.

If all this stuff is real it is very concievable that we have absolutely no idea what it is, how it interacts with "our" world.

Stone-tape theory has always made a lot of sense to me. But I am concious that we are applying our knowledge of how things work to try to explain how something totally and utterly other works.

Makes me think of ant crawling over the complete works of Shakespeare. It can probably determine there is some kind of structure there but there is absolutely no hope ever that it can comprehend what is contained in that structure.

Stone-tape theory makes sense. To us.
 
Been thinking alot recently about how we try to apply our scientific ideas and theories to how "the other" (whether that be ghosties, UFOs, sasquatch) behave and exist.

If all this stuff is real it is very concievable that we have absolutely no idea what it is, how it interacts with "our" world.

Stone-tape theory has always made a lot of sense to me. But I am concious that we are applying our knowledge of how things work to try to explain how something totally and utterly other works.

Makes me think of ant crawling over the complete works of Shakespeare. It can probably determine there is some kind of structure there but there is absolutely no hope ever that it can comprehend what is contained in that structure.

Stone-tape theory makes sense. To us.
But there would be no need for an ant to try to make sense of Shakespeare, it would mean nothing to an ant. If there are Stone Tape recordings (or any other kind of 'leakage' from one world into another), then these leakages are using human language, and possibly emotion. We either should understand, or are required to understand, otherwise why would they be in a form that is possible for us to decode?
 
But there would be no need for an ant to try to make sense of Shakespeare, it would mean nothing to an ant. If there are Stone Tape recordings (or any other kind of 'leakage' from one world into another), then these leakages are using human language, and possibly emotion. We either should understand, or are required to understand, otherwise why would they be in a form that is possible for us to decode?
I suppose if human beings recorded them, then human beings can 'decode' them (and see a ghost)?? Like we are the needle on the wax cylinder.

I don't think poltergeists/wood knocks are the same thing as recordings? They're in the present. Kind of interactive. Like our energy (maan) is generating them here and now.
 
I'm literally just throwing ideas out but, I wonder if they are quite rare as there needs to be a rare set of events to 'record' something. For example, a strong solar flare from a certain direction and you need to be between the flare and the stone for it to record it. It might explain why only singular events seem to be repeated rather than, as was mentioned earlier, a mish mash of hundreds of years of people existing normally nearby.
 
I'm literally just throwing ideas out but, I wonder if they are quite rare as there needs to be a rare set of events to 'record' something. For example, a strong solar flare from a certain direction and you need to be between the flare and the stone for it to record it.

I genuinely admire the intelligence and imagination people put into things like this.


I just always end up believing - we just don't know. And can't.
 
I just always end up believing - we just don't know. And can't.
I'm more than happy to admit that I don't know, but I don't like can't lol. Maybe we'll never know but if we can work out a hypothesis and test it, maybe we can find out!
 
Maybe we'll never know but if we can work out a hypothesis and test it, maybe we can find out!

Everything we've tried in over a hundred years has proved...nada.


Certainly not mocking you my friend! I just think - this stuff happens, trying to prove it with our scientific knowledge and theories is like, well...my ant again, trying to understand the words in the Shakespeare book it's crawling over.

"Knock for Once" your podcast? Looking at the website now, great classy design. I'll definitely check it out, thanks!
 
Yeah but new discoveries are made all the time, and I don't think there's a massive amount of serious scientific investigation going on, at least not compared to other areas. Perhaps if we do the grunt work, maybe rule out some things, put enough anecdotal evidence together that there is something worth investigating, someone that knows what they're doing and has the ability to properly investigate will eventually work it out!

Ever the optimist!

Yes, Knock Once for Yes is my podcast with my partner. Hope you enjoy :)
 
Hi @Sharon Hill.
I enjoyed your video about the Stone Tape "theory", which provided some fascinating historical context I was not aware of.
Regarding possible mechanisms underlying the alleged phenomenon, I would welcome your comments on the analogy of a struck tuning fork, as employed in the 1952 supernatural movie "Ghost Ship" (see my post on page 1 of this thread).
This is a decade before Lethbridge's work and, obviously, doesn't use the term coined by the great Nigel Kneale.
It does, however, appear to be a demonstration of the stone tape in all but name.
As I note in the article, the idea of the environment recording sounds, events, etc. was not developed in the 70s with the name "stone tape" but was very old and goes back to the ideas of psychometry where an object held the essence or spirit of a person. Lots of fascinating reading about this if it piques interest.

Regarding emotional "vibrations" being analogous to sound vibrations from a tuning fork, they are not. Emotions don't generate measurable energy outside the body. They can cause other things to happen in the body - like high heart rates, sweating, brain waves, etc. But are those things measurable at any distance outside the body? Any energy transmitted would be minute and would attenuate quickly. If someone can point to a case where "emotion energy" was measured objectively with physical properties, please share. You have to have something that gets recorded, at least. That's just the first step, which is a huge one. (The rest of the steps are also more like giant leaps.)

Been thinking alot recently about how we try to apply our scientific ideas and theories to how "the other" (whether that be ghosties, UFOs, sasquatch) behave and exist.

If all this stuff is real it is very concievable that we have absolutely no idea what it is, how it interacts with "our" world.

Stone-tape theory has always made a lot of sense to me. But I am concious that we are applying our knowledge of how things work to try to explain how something totally and utterly other works.

Makes me think of ant crawling over the complete works of Shakespeare. It can probably determine there is some kind of structure there but there is absolutely no hope ever that it can comprehend what is contained in that structure.

Stone-tape theory makes sense. To us.

It makes no sense to a geologist or any other physical scientist. It does sound plausible to people who aren't familiar with how nature works. That's why I think it's so useful for paranormal causes.

Yeah but new discoveries are made all the time, and I don't think there's a massive amount of serious scientific investigation going on, at least not compared to other areas. Perhaps if we do the grunt work, maybe rule out some things, put enough anecdotal evidence together that there is something worth investigating, someone that knows what they're doing and has the ability to properly investigate will eventually work it out!

Ever the optimist!

We know quite a bit about how energy works. We apply natural laws successfully every day, around the world, for thousands of years without fail. It's highly unlikely that we would overturn established rules of physics at this point just to allow for emotion recording in the environment. If emotion/minerals really did work this way, we would see other evidence to support it besides the concept of hauntings. But perhaps the biggest problem with stone tape is that the evidence for which it is used to explain is very poor and can be accounted for by other explanations. We do not need to invent a groundbreaking, speculative idea to account for personal accounts of hauntings unless it suits another purpose (makes modern ghost hunting appear more sciencey and legitimate). No one is properly investigating it because it does not have any plausibility and does not seem to actually be anything mysterious going on.
 
Regarding emotional "vibrations" being analogous to sound vibrations from a tuning fork, they are not. Emotions don't generate measurable energy outside the body. They can cause other things to happen in the body - like high heart rates, sweating, brain waves, etc. But are those things measurable at any distance outside the body? Any energy transmitted would be minute and would attenuate quickly. If someone can point to a case where "emotion energy" was measured objectively with physical properties, please share. You have to have something that gets recorded, at least. That's just the first step, which is a huge one. (The rest of the steps are also more like giant leaps.) ...
This is all very true. And science can't find anything to measure, I agree. But we are emotional conscious creatures. We do pick up on other people's states of mind very easily. If a situation turns nasty, we get out of there. Or if you're in a group of people who are jolly and enthusiastic, you mirror that in your brain (and that has been shown, I think I was reading about MRI experiments in the context of setting the right mindset for learning, only the other day?) Admittedly that's reacting to people who are behaving in a certain way right in front of our faces, so not quite the same as picking up on things that might or might not have occurred in the past (that is quite a leap further). But these message boards are full of tales of 'places that feel awful'. And all that is pretty hard to measure empirically too. But it is a thing, surely. I've got a 'science education'. But there are things in the world that are hard to investigate scientifically, would you not agree? Consciousness being one of them. Just putting that out there.
 
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