Residual Hauntings: An Overview
The longer I’ve worked for Astonishing Legends, the more I realize that nothing in the paranormal world is as simple as it seems. For example, ‘haunting’ can stand for a whole host of different situations. So, I’d like to do some overviews on the blog of different kinds of hauntings so we can further understand the overarching term. In this post, we’ll be taking a closer look at residual hauntings.
Residual hauntings are very common and stories of residual hauntings likely populate your favorite hotels, castles, and bars. Typically, these kind of hauntings can be seen and heard, however they often repeat the same action and/or sounds over-and-over again. Things like disembodied footsteps, singing, crying, laughing, and even seeing a ghostly image of a person doing the same thing are all activity that would be indicative of a residual haunting.
Some researchers believe that these hauntings are not ‘intelligent’, but rather the after image or imprint left by repeated action. Sometimes residual hauntings are also tied to horrific and/or traumatic events and the actions and/or sounds heard during that event created so much negative energy it keeps replaying it.
Even if you ‘chase’ the sound or image you see, you will never be able to interact with a residual haunting. It is unlikely that a residual haunting would ever deviate from repetition or be able to do something ‘new.’
Some people wonder why ghosts walk through walls in homes...well, if they’re residual hauntings that may be the reason. Perhaps the residual haunting inhabits a home that has been renovated so, when the living person walked the halls, there were no walls or obstruction there. Thus, these ghosts aren’t walking through walls, they’re simply not able to ‘update’ their patterns.
Residual Hauntings are sometimes related to ‘Stone Tape Theory.’ First popularized by the 1972 television special, The Stone Tape, this theory posits that hauntings are analogous to tape recordings - that mental impressions during emotional and/or traumatic events are projected in the form of energy are recorded and replayed under certain conditions. Thus, hauntings are actually interactive but almost like watching a movie being projected.
Think of residual hauntings like, well, the ghost of what-once-was. Something stuck in the past and unable to interact with.
The blog image depicts the Queen mary, a place with numerous reported residual hauntings. The image specifically depicts a Postcard of the Cunard White Star RMS "Queen Mary". It is in the public domain.