The Stone Tape Theory

The Stone Tape Theory derivatives date back to 1837 when a polymath (someone whose knowledge spans a great number of subjects) named Charles Babbage, who spent his life living in London, England speculated that spoken word left permanent impressions in the air, even if falling silent over a long period of time. He believed that this had to do with the transfer of motion between various particles. This falls back on the science that you can’t destroy energy, and it can only be converted and transferred. In the 19th century the Society for Psychical Research, which is a non-profit organization in London, England that studies events and abilities related to psychic abilities and the paranormal, had two investigators named Edmund Gurney and Eleonor Sidgwick. Their views were that some materials and buildings were capable of storing records of past events, which could then later be played back by people with certain psychic abilities. During the same time period there was the belief referred to as psychometry, a psychic related ability, that would allow someone with the ability to learn the history associated to the object simply by having physical contact with it. In 1940 Henry Habberley Price, then President of the Society of Psychical Research, would speak of a phenomenon he referred to at “psychic ether” which would act as a medium between a physical and spiritual reality. He believed that psychic ether could empower objects to carry traces of past experiences and emotions. In 1961 a book was published named “Ghost and Ghoul” by an archeologist named Thomas Charles Lethbridge who claimed that “past events can be stored in objects thanks to fields of energy, that he believed to surround streams, forests or mountains.”

Believers of the Stone Tape Theory claim that crystalline rock such as quartz, basalt, limestone, soapstone, marble, sandstone, and granite are predominantly the stones that can, due to their properties, absorb electromagnetic energy and reradiate that energy over a long period of time. This is believed by some to cause a phenomenon that acts synonymously like a tape recorder that replays the same song time and time again until the tape wears out. Since the molecules in a stone can remain in place for many millennia and bedrock and remain in place for eons, some believe that the Stone Tape Theory is feasible. Many paranormal investigators report that residual hauntings seem to be more prevalent when these stones are in the vacinity.

What properties of the stone could theoretically make this possible? It is well known that rocks can absorb and reradiate heat. Stones have been used to aid in home heating through the mechanism known as passive solar, to keep bread warm, or used in the material in the building of an oven to cook food for centuries. While the heat capacity of stones vary (marble always feels cool and others such as brick can retain heat longer) there isn’t any argument in their ability to absorb and reradiate energy over a period of time. Heat is something that requires a constant source to maintain a level of temperature and can bleed away quickly. Heat falls into the infrared section of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is known that stone can absorb radioactive energy from nuclear bombs and reradiate that energy over many decades. With the same science principle it is believed that the stones mentioned above can absorb energy from living beings and slowly bleed it over a long period of time. Our nervous systems are large antennas that pick up and radiate electromagnetic energy. The mechanisms related to this theory include energy fields, inductive electromagnetism (voltage), resonant frequencies, quantum entanglement, and the molecular architecture of the stone.

While there is no scientific certitude that this is realistically possible, it is believed that through empirical investigating paranormal researchers have linked increased likelihood of paranormal activity around the associated crystalline stones. Some believe that bodies of water, such as rivers, ponds, and lakes, can have the same effect. However water is in a constant state of motion at the molecular level and is frequently changing due to evaporation and condensation. While I can, to some extent, understand and be open minded about the Stone Tape theory as it has some science backing it up, I don’t see how water, being that is constantly in movement molecularly, could have the same effect as the Stone Tape Theory suggests unless said water contained copious amounts of the stones discussed earlier on. I would love to see more scientific study on how stones have the ability to absorb and reradiate the energy that emenates from humans and animals.