An exploration of The Stone Tape Theory

Speaker A: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Haunted History Chronicles. Today we're going to be exploring the question why do some buildings move brick by brick, retain their paranormal activity? In 1972, a BBC drama first aired called The Stone Tape. It is to this that most wrongly accredit the theory we know in the paranormal field as the Stone Tape theory. The Stone Tape theory is something we have briefly explored in past podcast episodes. It's the belief that events, particularly traumatic ones, can be stored in the fabric of the surroundings and that these can replay under the right circumstances. Whilst the BBC drama may have given a name to this theory, it is in fact a theory that no one person can be reliably credited with. Thomas Charles Lethbridge, an archaeologist at Cambridge University and later parapsychologist in his book Ghost and Ghoul, published in 1961, drew references to memories and inanimate objects. He argued in his book that the mind and the brain are separate, believing that the mind was in fact connected to an ancestral collective mind and something we all inherit. His theories and ideas were supported by others working in different fields, such as Richard Wolfgang Simon, a German zoologist and evolutionary biologist who believed in inherited acquired characteristics and memories. Other notable and prominent figures with similar theories which supported Lethbridge were Carl Jung and Amy Warburg. Lethbridge himself cited work done by Oxford professor, philosopher and former president of the Society for Physical Research, Henry Habili Price. Price wrote various publications on parapsychology in which he advocated new theories. Price believed and wrote about his beliefs that after death, a self would find itself in a dream world of memories and mental images from their life. Price invented the concept of place memories. He suggested that hauntings could be explained by memories becoming lost from an individual's mind and then somehow attaching themselves to the environment, which could then be picked up on by others in the forms of hallucinations. He believed that place memories could also explain psychometry, a person's ability to touch an object and pick up things about it in the people attached to that object. The truth is, place memories and Stone tape theory, whatever we wish to call detached memories attaching to the environment is something we can trace back to the early days of the Society of Physical Research, or SBR, which was formed in 1882. Can this theory explain why, in locations like the Black Country Living Museum near Dudley, we see a number of paranormal activity, a place where the majority of buildings have been moved from their original locations, brick by brick, piece by piece? Does this theory explain why buildings that should be free of paranormal activity that are no longer in their original location have staff and visitors reporting a plethora of paranormal activity ranging from women in Victorian dress seen stood by the chemists who then disappear, or the sightings of sleeping children in empty rooms at the Toll House. Sounds of movement heard in locations like the Bottle and Glass public house. Two faces also seen at windows. Staff here regularly feel taps on their shoulders or tugs on their dresses. Something attributed to that of a child named Isaac Male, who lost his life miles away in Brockmore when on a foggy night working the canal, his horse lost its footing, dragging him into the water. His body was taken to the Bottle and Glass Public House and it was there that an inquest and verdict of accidental death was delivered. It was also there that heavy criticism was leveled at others who'd been with young Isaac at the time of his death. They had unfortunately been more concerned in rescuing the valuable horse and leaving a young child to drown. There are numerous examples of similar hauntings like this in buildings and bridges in some cases where they have in fact been moved to other sides of the world. Does the Stone tape theory explain this? Whilst theory is not proven, in fact many have worked to discredit it. It is probably the most widely accepted influential theory out there. Certainly makes sense and could explain residual hauntings. What about residual hauntings in buildings when there is no traumatic event though? Or what about in cases where the residual haunting is of someone very much still alive? Some of these have been explored by Andrew Green, the author and paranormal investigator of 60 years. What if the residual hauntings were less about the geology or location and more about something else? Maybe the location is merely a trigger to allow our unconscious minds to connect with memories stored in the dreamlike worlds imagined by Price. Maybe this is less about location and simply telepathic interaction, unconscious minds tapping into the same energies. Whatever people think, the fact we can question and look beyond what is known or believed is a good thing. Investigating the paranormal is not a one size fits all and that is the beauty of the field that it can be approached through spirituality, science, philosophy, history and so much more. Thank you as always for listening. I'll see you next time.

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