Chapter 1 WHAT IS DOWSING?
It was one of those picture book Vermont sunny days when the lawn is greener than green and a few beautiful white clouds, like big balls of cotton, framed Stannard Mountain to the east. We were sitting out on our front lawn just enjoying the day with some friends. For some reason my wife, Kathy, had been playing with her engagement ring, that had been my grandmother's, and suddenly she realized that she had lost it. Where to look? We divided up the lawn into small squares and began to frantically paw through the grass trying to feel the ring with our fingers.
Suddenly, I remembered that I had my pendulum in my pocket. I use what's called (rather unfortunately) a bullet pendulum -- it's a steel weight, about the thickness of a writing pen, about 1 1/4 inches long (3 cm), and pointed at one end. Attached to the other end is about 6 inches ( 15 cm) of one of those chains that you find connected to plugs in old sinks.
As I held the chain in my hand with the weight dangling below my fingers, all kinds of thoughts were rushing through my mind, "This ring was Nana's, and now it's important to Kathy...The rock alone is worth a good piece of change...Maybe it's lost forever...Wait a minute! This is really important to me. Focus in. In what direction is Kathy's engagement ring?'
The pendulum started swinging back and forth, pointing in line slightly to my left. 'Is it in front of me?' My pendulum swung into a clockwise direction, which for me means yes. The hair on the back of my neck began to tingle. This is my body's way of telling me that I'm on the right track.
I made a mental note of the direction of that line, and moved about a yard to the left and slightly forward. Again I asked, 'In what direction is Kathy's engagement ring?' This time, the pendulum started to oscillate back and forth, pointing almost right in front of me. In my mind, I could 'see' the first line my pendulum had showed me. Then I noted the direction it was now indicating. The ring should be where the two lines crossed. I reached out my hand to that point on the lawn, and grasped at the blades of grass. I felt the ring between my fingers. How had I done this? How could a swinging steel pendulum indicate to me the position of a valued mislaid object? What is this phenomenon called dowsing and how does it work?
Let me begin by saying that in addition to being a fine tool for finding lost objects, dowsing is a way of balancing the rational aspect of our being with our intuitive. It is a tool for exploring the unconscious, a way of finding answers to questions that cannot be answered by the rational thought process or through the use of scientific methodology. And yet, the rational thought process is an integral part of the dowsing process!
So let's get into this business of dowsing, or divining, as some people call it. First of all, there is no difference between the word 'dowsing' and 'divining'. They mean the same thing. Both the British and the American Society of Dowsers are dedicated to exploring the entire spectrum of dowsing/divining possibilities. In this book, I have used 'dowsing' as it is the word most often employed to describe the method of using a pendulum (or other device). You can just as easily insert the word 'divining'.
We'll start dowsing immediately by learning two pendulum signals, or answers (yes and no), that your intuition can use to communicate with you. In trying to explore what this phenomenon of dowsing is all about, we'll look at the issues of left brain versus right brain, and ways of 'knowing' with a discussion, about an early Christian heretical group called the Gnostics, whose philosophy can help us to better understand the dowsing process. I believe that intuition and dowsing are one and the same, and dowsing will certainly cause you to exercise your intuitive faculties. We'll look at several possible ways of explaining dowsing, including an analogy with radar and comparison with the hologram.
The Exercises
Throughout this book we will be doing dowsing exercises.
These exercises will be printed in italics, like this sentence, to remind you that you need to do more than just read that passage.
To really get anything out of this book requires your active participation. You can't learn how to dowse by just reading about it, you actually have to dowse. This package comes with a dowsing tool called a pendulum, a conical brass weight on the end of a flexible cord.
Let's get right into the first dowsing exercise, and use this amazing little tool. We want to begin by finding out three different responses that can be made. The first is the search position. This is the, 'I'm ready to go' position.
Hold your hand with your thumb and forefinger pointing down, and the cord of the pendulum between them. Allow about 2 inches (5 cm) of cord between your hand and the brass weight. You can rest your elbow on a table if you feel this is more comfortable.
The search position is the place from which you will begin all of the other dowsing operations that you will learn in this book. In the use of the pendulum, there are no universal reactions. Not everybody's search position is the same. Usually, it is one of two reactions. Either there is no movement at all (the pendulum just hangs there as if the weight were dead), or goes back and forth, directly towards you and then away. Both of these are acceptable search positions. For several years, I co-headed the annual dowsing school for the American Society of Dowsers with Edward Jastram. Ed's search position was dead still, mine was, and still is, back and forth. Here's your first exercise.
Hold your pendulum as shown in the illustration. Say to your pendulum, 'Show me my search position. I want to see my search position.'
The best thing about this is that your first attempt at dowsing will be totally successful, even if your pendulum doesn't move at all!
Now for yes. Again, there is no universal yes response; however, most dowsers find that it is one of two reactions. If the search position is totally still, some dowsers find that their yes response is back and forth -- as when you nod your head, yes. Many dowsers find that their yes is a clockwise circle. Either response is fine.
Hold your pendulum in your search position, and ask the following question, 'In the Spring, when the grass first comes up, is it green?' Of course, you know that the answer to this question is yes, so watch your pendulum closely for any deviation from the search position. You might also try, 'Show me yes, show me yes.'
If your pendulum doesn't seem to want to move of its own accord, make it move! I recommend that you make it go in a clockwise direction. As you do, say to yourself (or out loud if you're not too self-conscious),"This is yes, this is positive, this is yang, this is yes.'
Now let's find no. If your yes response was back and forth, perhaps you will find that your no is from side to side -- just like you move your head to indicate no. On the other hand, if your yes was clockwise, perhaps you will find that your no response is counterclockwise. Try to find your no response by working through the next exercise.
Hold your pendulum in your search position, and ask the following question, 'Is snow green?' Again, you know the answer, so watch your pendulum for any deviation from the search position that isn't your yes response. This is your no response.
So it didn't work. That's ok. Lots of beginners have a hard time getting the pendulum to work on its own (at least that's the feeling one has when it works for the first time). So I suggest that you make it move counterclockwise, and say to yourself, "This is no, this is receptive, this is yin, this is no.'
If you do these exercises several times a day for the next week, your pendulum dowsing skills will be established. What is happening is that you are communicating with your unconscious, and setting up a code. It really doesn't matter what the code is, the important thing is that you have one, up to this point, with three different recognizable signals for search, yes and no. Promise yourself you will do these three exercises daily this week. It will really help you to develop as a dowser.
Left Brain And Right Brain
We live in a world today that emphasizes rational thought. When we went to school, we struggled with questions like, 'What were the five steps leading up to the American Civil War?', or, 'If the radius of a circle is four, what is the circumference?' While the question of who discovered Mexico was important, no one seemed interested in how the Aztec people felt when they realized what Cortez and his conquistadors were up to. We tend to see history as a series of outcomes and events. We have been taught to be analytical, to follow orders, and to regurgitate the 'right' answer, but it can be argued that few teachers seemed interested in strengthening our intuitive, feeling side.
Over the past ten or fifteen years there has been a lot written about the left and right sides of the brain. The left brain seems to govern the right side of our body, and our analytical, or linear, capabilities. If you have a stroke, and your right side is paralyzed, you might not be able to speak -- speech is a linear activity, the subject has to come before the verb, which in turn comes before the direct object. The right brain governs the left side of our body, and seems to be the seat of more subjective, intuitive abilities as well as the ability to function wholistically. It is this aspect of our being that recognizes other people. We don't look at someone's nose, their lips, eyes, and hair and' then say, 'Oh, that's you Jack!' It isn't a linear function, we take the person's face in all at once, and know who it is. It is also said that the right side of our brain governs o...
