DOWSING – PART ONE
Dowsing has existed in various forms for thousands of years. Its original form was that of Divination and its purpose is thought to have been – to divine the will of the gods, to foretell the future and to divine guilt in trials.
The modern-day version of dowsing is believed to have originated in Germany in the 15th century.
In 1518, Martin Luther is said to have listed dowsing for metals as an act, which broke the first commandment.
Throughout the middle ages, dowsing was believed to be the work of the Devil. In 1662, the art of dowsing was said to be superstitious – even satanic, by Jesuit Gasper Schott…though he later claimed ‘he was not sure that the Devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod.’
In the 1960s during the Vietnam War, it is said that some US Marines used the dowsing rod to help in their search for weapons and tunnels.
The traditional dowsing rod used in Europe was a forked Hazel twig. In America however, the dowsing rod most favoured was made from Witch Hazel. Also popular, were willow branches and peach trees.
Although many modern dowsers prefered to use the L-shaped metal rods, even modified coat hangers sufficed.
In many cases of dowsing, the traditional dowsing rod has been superseded by the use of a ‘pendulum’. This can consist of a crystal or metal weight attached to the end of a chain or string. The person holding the pendulum firstly ascertains the respective movement of the weight – either swinging left to right, or up and down. By placing a cloth or paper mat beneath the apparatus, an interviewer can then ask specific questions to which the pendulum will answer.
The theory behind this… the dowser/diviner holds the pendulum as steadily as possible until minute, involuntary muscle movements cause the pendulum to rotate or swing – dependant on the individual’s choice of method.
In addition to the above methods, there is also ‘Radiesthesia’ (I mention this particular method of dowsing briefly here, but I will examine its extensive merits in more detail later). Radiasthesia is the process of dowsing used to detect radium in the human body with the ultimate aim to diagnose illness and disease.
Many dowsers claim that their ‘powers’ are paranormal. However, sceptics claim that dowsing is a result of the ideomotor effect where the body reacts with involuntary movements. The ideomotor effect is used by stage hypnotists, magicians, and illusionists to stimulate a psychological phenomena, which causes a subconscious reaction from the audience. By using this method, the performer can persuade the audience member to carry out some action without consciously deciding to do so. A similar phenomena is experienced by a sleep-walker, both share the common result of not remembering their actions as the decision to carry them out was made subconsciously.
Hence, sceptics proclaim that the ideomotor effect is a psychological, rather than, paranormal phenomena.
Throughout history, there have been many practitioners of dowsing all with varying degrees of success. Two modern day dowsers are Uri Geller and the late Thomas Charles Lethbridge. Uri Geller currently maintains a lavish lifestyle by contracting out his ability of dowsing with astounding results to diamond miners, oil prospectors, and many more multi-million dollar businesses. The latter (although he sadly died on 30th September 1971), and his theories and analyses of dowsing to explain countless aspects of paranormal phenomena, earned him the title, ‘The Einstein of Parapsychology’. In my opinion, an accolade well deserved, and I intend to discuss this further in part 2 of this article and include some of his ground-breaking discoveries, which are still considered ahead of time even now.
Read part two – click on this
A warning, here is what the Bible has to say about divination: click on this
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By Wayne Ridsdel, copyright 2009 @ World Mysteries And True Ghost Tales.
Pic by, Wayne Ridsdel, copyright 2009. (Copyright world mysteries and true ghost tales).
Wayne this is an excellent article and full of facts.
I had to re-do this post as I’d made an error, unfortunately this has meant that comments to this in the original post have been lost. Would whoever made comments mind re-doing them in this post
please. I apologise for this.
Great informative piece again. This is becoming more and more a place of reliable
reference.
I think i am agreeing with people much here…thankying you kindly.
I just posted on another forum about this particular method being used to find lost graves. I know that water must be trapped under graves….would it be possible that the dowser is locating the water underneath the bodies?