The comment on matching rods to types of material reminds me of a dowsing
experience I had while interviewing an old Italian farmer in California a
number of years ago while I was working on a book project. He was a water
dowser, and said willow wands were the best for that line of work. Indeed,
in his living room he proceeded to pull out his favorite stick and wave it
over the floor. Suddenly it began to vibrate and dip. He told me that some
time before he had discovered a water stream deep under his house, and he
wanted to show me how dowsing worked. Then he invited me to try finding the
stream. I waved the stick around to no avail; then he took the stick and
had me hold onto his arm while he worked. Sure enough, the rod begin to
vibrate as it approached the spot, and then dipped sharply over it. We
tried it again from another angle, with the same result. But I could never
find it without the help of his guiding hand. I kept a straight face and
remained wide-eyed through all this, but came away thinking surely I'd been
conned. However, as some have testified on this listserve, there are those
who can dowse, and those who can't. I don't know what it takes to be a
successful dowser, but surely it requires an open mind, and perhaps the
proper cultural preparatoin as well. As my doctor suggested when I asked
him if he thought acupuncture would work for me; "well," he said, "it would
probably help if you were Chinese."
Ron Limbaugh
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Dickie Bird" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 5:22 AM
Subject: Dowsing
> I discovered that I could dowse during an interesting session, run by Peak
> District Mines, at Magpie Mine, many years ago. What does not seem to have
> been touched upon in the recent interesting discussion on the subject is
> that there appears to be a rough guide as to what the bent coat hangers,
> twigs, &c are responding to. Or at least, so we were informed at the time.
> >From memory, it was stated that if one puts a small item in one of one's
> hands which is of the same material as the suspect subject matter - for
> example a bit of galena, if you are traversing a suspected lead vein -
then
> the rods will not respond. In other words "like material" cancels out the
> reaction. For water, a little bottle of this in one's hand will cancel out
> the reaction over a subterranean water source. I have tried this out by
> putting copper and "silver" coins in a match box and asking someone to put
> them on the ground, suitably spaced out - without my seeing which was
which.
> And, sure enough, the rods do not respond when over the match box
containing
> the copper coin, if one has such a coin in one's hand. Ditto the silver.
> Not 100% infallible but I found it curiously effective most of the time,
> much to the amazement of my work colleagues. Obviously this experiment
needs
> to be done over a "sterile" piece of ground. Just how one goes about
> "detecting" voids is a moot point however. I would be interested to hear
if
> anyone else who can dowse has tried this and what results they may have
> had. And no, this is NOT a send up!
>
> Dickie Bird.
>
>
>
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