Stone Tape theory

The idea of materials holding information from emotional or traumatic events aligns with views of 19th-century intellectualists and psychic researchers, such as Charles Babbage, Eleanor Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney.

[1][2] Following the play's popularity, the idea and the term "stone tape" were retrospectively and inaccurately attributed to the British archaeologist turned parapsychologist T. C. Lethbridge, who believed that ghosts were not spirits of the deceased, but were simply non-interactive recordings similar to a movie[clarification needed].

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 the late 19th century, two of the SPR-involved investigators, Edmund Gurney and Eleanor 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.

[3] Following Price's ideas, an archaeologist 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.