The two wires I held loosely in my hands quivered. As I walked slowly forward, they began to sway back and forth. In a flash they crossed and stayed crossed. I stopped and backed up a few steps. They uncrossed. A few steps forward and again they crossed. A palpable sense of energy was there, but was it?
I had to get to the bottom of it if I could.
Here’s how it started: Our new friends Frank and Sharon came over for dinner. It was a lovely night, mild and clear. We had lemonade, grilled rib eye, baked potatoes, and green salad. To finish, we had homemade apple pie that I made from scratch and vanilla ice cream that I didn’t. It was one of those wonderful traditional American meals and it was good. After dinner and before the pie, we sat out back under the covered patio and talked. Marty and Frank are horsemen and go nonstop talking about horses and the “good ol’ days.” Sharon and I, well, we just like to talk. After a bit, I brought out my cork “magic” trick, which nobody ever understands even when I show them. I admit, it’s pretty hard to understand. You have to be good spatially. How did the corks get from in between my thumb and forefingers into my opposite thumb and middle finger? You have to be there to see it.
Then Frank said to Marty, “Do you have some wire?” Marty said yes. We all trooped out to the barn and got a couple lengths of baling wire about 16 inches long each. Frank bent each one into an “L” shape.
Then we went out by the hot walker where Marty had been wondering where to dig to find the waterline that had been lost to history (A hot walker is a contraption that is used to walk horses that have been worked and are sweaty and need to cool down.).
Frank loosely held the two wires in his hands and started to circumnavigate the hot walker. As he approached the section where the spigot was, I’ll be darned if those two wires he had in his hand did not slowly start to move and cross! Then he backed away and they uncrossed! I was flabbergasted.
I have never seen anyone dowse first hand. I asked if I could do it. He gave me the wires and I went to a different area in the yard. Nothing happened. Then I went to the front yard where I know there’s the septic tank. As I approached the area where I know the tank is, the wires started to move toward each other. When I was right on top of it, they were completely crossed. I backed off, they uncrossed. I went back, they crossed.
Holey moley. Can someone tell me how this works? I would have said hogwash before.
So we decided to do an experiment. This time I would hold the wires same as before, but this time I promised to keep my eyes shut as Marty steered me here and there so I wouldn’t know where I was. Here’s my report on what happened: Eyes shut, I was steered to the area of the septic tank. Folks, the wires did not cross. So I opened my eyes and backed up a few steps. Then I went back again with my eyes open. This time they crossed. I absolutely did not make the wires move.
So what’s the answer, folks? It seems that some subconscious effort is getting the wires to move when the operator wants them to.
Here’s my video of our experiment: https://youtu.be/k0Y_FnlYCIM
I went looking for the history of dowsing. Here is an excerpt from an essay written by Lloyd Youngblood of the American Society of Dowsers: “The ancient art of dowsing has been practiced throughout millennia and although what it was called has changed in different cultures and eras, the techniques have not. In the Atlas Mts. of North Africa, pre-historic paintings have shown what appears to be a painting of a dowser, holding a forked branch in his hand, surrounded by a group of tribesmen. These wall murals were found to be a least 8000 years old.”
From E.S. Cumbie’s book The Psychometric Pendulum and the Pendulum Board: “In ancient times, the priesthood felt that the layman did not have the belief, knowledge or training to contact the cosmic mind for enlightenment. So the poor people were forced to rely upon the priests to gain the guidance they sought from a higher source and the priests used dowsing devices to make this contact.”
It still seems to be practiced this way today.
Why is it called dowsing? According to Christopher Bird, author of the book The Divining Hand, no one is certain of the origin of the verb “dowse.” It made its first appearance in 1650 in an essay written by the English Philosopher John Locke. In his essay, Locke wrote that by the use of the dowsing rod, one could discover water. Locke appropriated his phrase from the English west country language — where in Cornish “Dewsys” meant “Goddess,” and “Rhod” meant tree branch — from which he coined the phrase “Dowsing Rod (OK, it’s a “Goddess Rod”).”
So how does dowsing work? Countless theories abound, even today, yet, I am not absolutely certain that any one, or even a combination of such theories, discloses the whole story.
Yes, I agree with Mr. Bird. It’s hard to explain but it seems that somehow the holder of the dowsing rods, unbeknownst to them, is influencing the rods on a very, very subtle level. That is what my experiment showed me. What do you think?
