Stone Tape theory

History

The idea that environmental elements are capable of storing traces of human thoughts or emotions was introduced by multiple 19th-century scholars and philosophers as an attempt to provide natural explanations for supernatural phenomena. In 1837 the polymath Charles Babbage published a work on natural theology called the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. Babbage speculated that spoken words leave permanent impressions in the air, even though they become inaudible after a time. He suggested that it is possible due to transfer of motion between particles.

The "Stone tape theory" could also be derived from the concept of "place memory". In the early days of the Society for Psychical Research, place memory was considered an explanation for ghostly apparitions - seemingly connected with certain places. In the late 19th century, two of the SPR-involved investigators, Edmund Gurney and Eleonor Sidgwick, presented views about certain buildings or materials being capable of storing records of past events, which can be later played back by gifted individuals.

Another 19th-century idea associated with the "Stone Tape Theory" is psychometry: a belief that it is possible to obtain knowledge about the history associated with an object through physical contact with it.

In the 20th century, the idea that objects are able to store and play back past events was re-introduced in 1939 and 1940 by then-SPR president H. H. Price. Price speculated about "psychic ether" as an intermediate medium between spiritual and physical reality, enabling objects to carry memory traces of emotions or experiences from the past. In his works, he stated that the existence of such traces should be proveable by means of scientific methods and yet they remain unproven hypotheses.

Following Price's ideas, an archeologist turned paranormal researcher, T. C. Lethbridge, claimed that past events can be stored in objects thanks to fields of energy, which he believed to surround streams, forests or mountains. His 1961 book Ghost and Ghoul popularized these ideas, which allegedly inspired the creators of the 1972 BBC play The Stone Tape.