There is very widely accepted theory in the paranormal world, that of stone tape. Indeed there is another article on this very website about it. Put simply the theory states that when an event of high emotional content occurs it imprints itself on its surroundings i.e. the fabric of the buildings around it, hence Stone Tape.
This theory is periodically brought out, dusted down, and used to explain several types of haunting, usually the ones where an apparition is seen to challenge the laws of physics as we know them. By walking above the floor or indeed below it, or through a wall. It is also used to account for the repetitive hauntings, where a ghost will keep repeating the same actions over and over again and seems to have no intelligence or personal volition of any kind. In this way it works perfectly well, but I personally have a few problems with it and I will try to explain these below.
A ghost is seen walking in mid air and everyone immediately say it's a recording because the spectre is seen walking at a level where the floor used to be. Now here is my immediate problem. If the apparition is indeed recorded on its immediate surroundings like the fabric of the building then surely when the floor was removed the recording would be damaged or at the very least disrupted.
Several ghosts have been reported in fields that are ploughed over every year; again this disturbance of the media that the recording is captured on would surely in this case scramble the image being replayed to the observer. Very much as when replay a video tape at home, if you cut the tape into pieces and then mixed them up you would have very little chance of getting them back together with out messing up the continuity of the recorded image. I'm sure by now you can see my problem with the idea of images being recorded on the world around it.
The theory however remains a good one in principal, it's the recording media I have a problem with, not the idea of a recording per se. Another thing you will here being banded about in paranormal research is Electro Magnetic Fields, now it's my understanding the planet is covered with magnetic fields of all kinds and strengths, both natural and man made. Is it not more likely that these recorded images are being captured on these magnetic fields; after all video tape itself is a magnetic media? As these fields are known to move and fluctuate then its not to great a leap to get the point when you can accept that it would take these magnetic fields to realign in exactly the same way as when the recording was made to facilitate a replay.
The idea isn't perfect I know and I'm sure many people will be able find holes in it big enough to drive a bus through! Even so it still makes more sense to me than everything being recorded onto the stone around us.
There is of course one more outstanding problem with these recorded ghost's, and indeed many types of apparition and sighting. Why when a group of people are all looking in the same direction, will only part of the group see an apparition while the rest of those present see nothing? Easy answer I don't know. It could be that some people have a different set up in there brains to others which allow them to view the recording. It could even be, (this is my personal favourite), that it's the person themselves that are the catalyst that initiates the replay. Meaning that the replay wouldn't happen if they were not there witness it.
The above is all of course conjecture and theory, and should not be taken as absolute fact. I do not claim to be an expert in the paranormal, indeed anyone that claims to be such is talking out of the top of his head. How can anyone be an expert in an area that has only questions and no definite answers? It is by us all putting forward our thoughts and ideas that we will progress towards discovering the truth. As I have said the above is just a theory. I would like to point out that it's my theory and doesn't represent the whole of UK Paranormal, and I am in no way trying to say that the above is the correct way of thinking and that others are wrong, it's just my opinion.
Mike Driscoll.