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Stone Tape versus the Soul

  • 17-08-2006 04:51AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,369 ✭✭✭✭


    So, it would appear from previous conversations that most here subscribe to the stone tape theory, that a ghost is merely a recording, playing out for the right observers.

    How then do you rationalise this with the notion of respecting ghosts, of treating them like people? And what about if you say you saw your beloved family member and now you feel like they visited to say hello/goodbye?

    If both the stone tape and the spirit theories are right, then how do you know which is which? Can they both exist at the same place? Can a spirit perceive its own recording? When I'm dead and revisit my family, might I just happen to pop in when my recording is scaring the crap out of my descendents?

    6th, I'll use you as an example if you don't mind. Lets take that little girl that is said to haunt the stairs at Charleville castle. Is she an example of what we have previously termed to be a recording? I distinctly recall you being quite nice to her, even going so far as to leave a toy on the stairs. Is she an exception, she is a spirit and other ghosts are recordings? If shes a spirit, then what about the recordings of what happened? Does this sentient entity that was once a little girl see herself fall down those stairs occasionally as the recording plays back?

    (I've been pondering much tonight...)


Comments

  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭stevenmu


    Another interesting one, you must have been doing some late night 'soul' searching :)

    I've been thinking about that too recently. In ross castle I felt what I thought was a presence of entity as opposed to a pure recording of an event, and yet he seemed to be replaying some past event, pacing around the room, leaning against the bed, sitting in a rocking chair. I also felt that he was aware of us, but in a funny way. I think I described it has him being aware of us but not in any way interested, he just carried on about his business. In that sense, it was almost like a cross between a recording and an aware entity.

    The thread we had recently on 'fragments' ( which I can't seem to find at the moment) offered a good possible compromise. A small part of the person can get left behind. It wouldn't be a fully sentient entity in it's own right, but would behave in some ways like one. It would also be 'stuck in a moment' and in a way replaying the events which caused it to seperate over and over again. An analogy might be to cut of someones hand and for it to start wiggling across the table on it's fingers, not in any way aware of what it's doing, just the fingers are moving and pulling it around. You could poke it with a knife and it would coil up and then carry on wiggling. I don't really have enough of an understanding of it myself to try and explain any better than that.


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