Chapters I, II, and III

Page XIX

Do not expect to find pro-Christian conclusions drawn in these first three chapters. We have attempted to tell a straight-forward account of dowsing as it was, as it is, and its implications (physical and non-physical) without moralizing. So, if the reader finds that we have not taken advantage of the opportunities to point out obvious conservative Christian explanations, just have patience. We have attempted to touch all bases in chapters IV and V.

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"History is the lie commonly agreed upon." —Voltaire

Why Bother With Its History?

Why, in 500 years of examination and research hasn't someone come up with a reasonable explanation of dowsing? In fact, what in common sense is dowsing? As one man said, "Certainly I know the meaning of the word! Dousing is to throw water on something, such as dousing a fire." We tried another word—witching. "Never heard of it," he replied. "Okay," we tried again, "How about divining?" "Oh yes, that's—" and he gestured as though holding a forked stick. This man was an attorney—a man whose chief professional tool was words!

Yet dowsing is practiced all over the world. There are British and American Societies of Dowsers, and dowsers to the last man and woman are an enthusiastic, proselyting lot that represents a cross section of every profession, trade, and interest in today's world.

But to read the dowsing literature is an exercise in futility. Even if all the writing were narrowed to the last fifty years, it would still be a collection of contradictions, omissions, and personal opinions that seem unworthy of the intelligent authors. How did it happen? Is there a reason behind it all? Is there a recognizable pattern? We believe there is, and this is why we want to examine it from a hopefully, intelligent onlooker's viewpoint.

As this is not written as an introduction to the art or a how-to-do book, we see no necessity to explain the rudiments, but it must be stated unequivocally, dowsing is not yet accepted by science—at least science as we understand it today. It is a very private act involving what a Christian calls "faith" and having such a wide variety of methods, there remains only one commonly shared aspect. The practitioner is endeavoring to tap a power source for personal use, or to seek answers to personal questions.

The methods vary from person to person and there is no language barrier. The questions asked of the device may be in any language under the sun, and the system of measurement necessary to determine the depth of underground water is up to the choosing of the dowser. Yet when all is said, it must be added that a force field is 'tapped' in the dowsing

act. This is not only detectable in the dowsing device, but in the entire body and clearly registers with the electrocardiograph.¹

Soviet, German, and Dutch researchers agree on this in their findings. Ostrander and Schroeder in their chapter on dowsing; "Wizard Rod" to "B.P.E." in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain write,

"The, many careful experiments by Russian geologists, biologists, physiologists, and mineralogists all pointed to a conclusion many Western researchers had also reached: force fields of an unknown nature exist."

There is no contradiction here. It just takes a lot of clarification.

It does seem, then, that everyone would be dowsing, yet we have found that nearly half of the people do not even know the meaning of the word. Of those who are knowledgeable, some are afraid of it, some are skeptical, and some use it enthusiastically. Some find it to be almost a religious ritual, while others believe it to be sorcery. Finally, there is a rapidly growing segment of dowsers who find it to be a useful tool, and refuse to inquire further. In any case there are many people who know about it, believe in it unalterably, use it, and spread the gospel of its use. Television and the press are helping with presentations which play up the advantages, whet the curiosity, and never mention the drawbacks. Modern dowsing writers also urge the teaching of

the art to children, commenting that children and women are the most sensitive, and learn more quickly. This is one of the few things about which they do agree. (Cameron says, "A child can become a dowser, often to an amazing degree, with only a few minutes' training."²) In general they disagree, as do the researchers, on the explanation, the procedures, and the results.

To understand dowsing it is necessary to take a good look at its history and maintain an open mind. It is also necessary to ascertain whether the history presented is complete. Almost everything written on dowsing today is actually slanted toward the author's preconceived opinions. A quite common ploy is to leave out those facts that are embarrassing. Both pro and con writers are guilty. This is maddeningly true in the history of dowsing. Only the part desired to make a point will be quoted, and the rest will only be found if one runs across the original statement. This may be history in the cynical view of Voltaire, but dishonesty in a historian renders everything he writes suspect and useless. Specifically, the dowsing writer who wishes to prove scientific validity leaves out all items suggesting the supernatural. The writer who wishes to prove sorcery, leaves out information that points to the physical aspect.

This Will Not be a Typical Look at Dowsing

The research behind this particular writing, we believe to be unique, for we have seen no reference

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to its type in any other article or book. Also, it was accidental. In 1975 three men, curious, yet in complete disagreement on the subject, along with reading everything they could find, started recording interviews with every dowser, well driller, and well owner they could find in their area, southern California. Eventually this included information that came from correspondence with people throughout the state and from several other states.

At the outset, this was inquiry into simple witching (the search for underground water only). It brought out one glaring fact. The pro-dowsing writing on the subject and the field interviews were in total disagreement on one important point. The books inferred (some stated positively) that the expert dowser enjoyed a success rate of 90 percent or more. Not so, according to our case histories, and for an odd reason. The dread of the expert dowser is not the loss of his ability. It is when he obtains a clear, complete picture of water present, the exact location, the depth, the amount, and sometimes the quality only to find there was no water there at all—the dry hole. This was true of hand-dug wells as well as those drilled.

As we read the bits of information that go to make up the history of dowsing we ran across the following quote from Paracelsus, a fifteenth century physician, alchemist, diviner, animist and astrologer. Writing about divination, particularly the use of the dowsing rod in locating ores for mining he advised, "Therefore care is to be sedulously taken that ye suffer not yourselves to be seduced by the divination of uncertain arts. For they are vain and frivolous,

especially the Divinitory Rods, which have deceived many miners. For if they show anything rightly, they on the contrary deceive ten times." Remember, this statement is not from a strait-laced churchman. This man was a practicing occultist. In our findings, what appeared to be deceit was clearly spelled out 500 years ago.

We found many well drillers reluctant to discuss dowsing, but after friendly conversation their reluctance changed to bitter denunciation of the dowsers and the financial havoc they create by their failures. Dowsers do offer explanations and we will discuss these and an interesting case in point later on.

Again, the books and articles against dowsing present it as a mysterious witchcraft type of happening without pointing out that it also has a very physical aspect. On the other hand, the pro-dowsing writers, since science came out of alchemy, have ignored or double talked the supernatural part of the act. Of course it is true that the actual force field has only been identified and tentatively measured in the last few years, but dowsers have always been aware of a physical force they could not control. The many unreal and nonscientific explanations dowsers have evolved in the past will not be enumerated in this writing because we do not feel they are pertinent.

Harvey Howells has written what we believe to be one of the best and most definitive books of instruction on dowsing. In Dowsing For Everyone³

which he subtitles Adventures and Instruction in the Art of Modern Dowsing he comes on as the perfect example of modern man who, finding dowsing a useful tool, ignores the source and any questioning about the supernatural aspect. He says, ". . . I have endeavored to avoid what some term the occult in order to give practical, down-to-earth instruction that will encourage the reader to try his or her hand at dowsing." Further on he states in the same context, "What matter as long as one gets the answer through the medium of the instrument?" After all the 'hedging' we have seen in book after book, we have to respect Howells for his honesty about telling only half of the story in his book.

When dowsers do refer to the source of this power their opinions vary widely. They run from, "What all of us are doing here at this convention is witchcraft; in another age we all could have been burned for it."⁴ to, "Radiesthesia is based firmly on Sensation, and is therefore within the classic domain of consciousness. Consequently it advances no claims at which the most meticulous scientist could take offense, provided he take the trouble to listen to reason and lay aside his prejudices."⁵ (We make no defense for the sense or logic of this last quote.)

Finally, there is a method of presentation becoming commonplace in everything from books to television. The scientific elements of dowsing are presented first, in a most logical manner. Then, when the stage is set, the non-scientific parts of the act are innocently introduced in a casual, yet authoritative manner, and without comment. The realist, faced with this bit of manipulation, finds it infuriating.

So far we have referred to simple witching only. This, however, is only the edge of the matter. Historically, dowsing included the search for anything; minerals, people, things lost, and any information that could be given with a yes or no answer. Today it is used for all that and more. Today we heal, make ill (cast spells?), rate friendships, test foods, and forecast the weather among other things. A few hundred years ago there were rigid rules as to how to dowse. Today we use innumerable methods, from a mental set, to reactions of the body, and almost every type of device imaginable. All this is part of the story and must be considered. It is illogical to consider one aspect only, (such as simple witching) and ignore the rest. What we are saying is that from ancient times to the present day the physical act never was, and never can be, separated from the occult aspect. We believe there is a reasonable explanation. With these things in mind, even the most uninformed reader should be ready for a full understanding of what follows.

Dowsing was Common and Worldwide at the Dawn of History

The history of dowsing goes back at least to the beginnings of written history and maybe further.

Marco Polo brought back detailed information on it from the Orient. Herodotus writes of its use by the Persians, Scythians, and Medes. There is record of its use by the Etruscans, Hindus, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. A cave drawing at Tassili, Algeria may be the oldest record of a dowser, although there are some who have seen it who feel that it takes a lively imagination to see a man dowsing in the depiction. Others note that he is carrying the same kind of device pictured in ancient Chinese dowsing illustrations.

The prophet Hosea of biblical times condemned it. His people had adopted the ways of their pagan captors, including the art of divination. He stated, "They consult their piece of wood and their wand makes pronouncements to them."⁶ Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into the Latin vulgate in the fourth century referred to the divining "staff" of Hosea's time and says it was cut from Myrtle wood. Saint Cyril, in the ninth century made the same reference.⁷

What is, perhaps, the oldest record of dowsing in written history happens to be about water witching. It predated the time of the prophecies of Hosea by about 1400 years. It is referred to as 'divination' and was done by the expert dowser, Emperor Ta Yu, the founder of the Hsia dynasty in China at about the year 2205 B.C. (Hosea prophesied from 745-739 B.C.) This is recorded in an inscription to be found on a Bas Relief in the Shantung province of China.⁸ The practice of divination was world-wide, and from this Chinese inscription, and Hosea's specific mention of the 'wand' (still a popular device used today), it is reasonable to conclude that water witching was one of the earliest divination practices of man.

It should also be noted that in all historical references to divination there is no indication that it was a part of any religious rite, but rather a tool of convenience to pierce the veil beyond which the five senses of man cannot go. However, the entire practice was specifically forbidden to both Jew and Christian under the condemnation that it was a pagan supernatural act. There is no doubt that it was so considered.

Because it is such a valuable tool for obtaining information from the unknown, modern man has almost refused to class it with other methods of divination such as interpreting the arrangement of a thrown pile of bones, sticks, arrows, or the arrangement of tea leaves in a cup. This may have been true

in Hosea's time also since he mentioned specifically only two of the many ways of practicing the divination of their pagan captors.

Of course, the biblical passage most often quoted by dowsers is the one telling of Moses striking the rock in the Sinai desert to bring forth water. This has to be discredited as a dowsing act, for according to the story Moses was not searching for water. He had been divinely instructed to go to that particular rock and verbally command water to come out of it. In his anger over another matter he disobeyed and struck the rock with his staff as he made the command. According to the account he suffered rather severe punishment for this disobedience, which implies there was some important meaning in the use of the staff, which he should not have made. Understanding that the staff was used to find water in the pagan act of divination, was this wrong implication to the witnesses of that act the very same as dowsers make today? In any case, striking the rock in a command for water to burst forth is certainly not dowsing practice.

It must be added that although the staff historically was a tool of witchcraft, magic, and sorcery, it was also a symbol of leadership, and in its most lowly use an aid to the foot traveller as well as his weapon of defense. Moses was a foot traveller, a leader, and according to your particular belief a prophet or magician, but the Sinai incident was not dowsing.

As unpleasant as it may be, the history of dowsing includes a strange association with Christianity,

most of it with the early and medieval Church. From this can be seen the important background of opinion that persists to the present day. The Church equated dowsing with sorcery, yet it occasionally condoned it and used it.

Present day writers are inclined to condemn or ridicule medieval Christianity's attitude. As one writer put it, "A paranoid fantasy which brought to life the diabolical conspiracies and sorceries of its own disordered imagination."⁹ What they seem to forget is that the reality of dowsing includes a factor that, even today, we class as nothing less than something outside the normal experience and knowledge of man. Because this factor was (and is) used for harm at the will of the dowser, the Church labelled it "evil." This factor, we presently label "the supernormal" element. The New Testament makes specific reference to divination and tells of its positive prohibition. Today, pro-dowsing Christians insist that the "divination" condemned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible has nothing to do with water witching or mineral dowsing. However, all Bible history research contradicts them. Dowsing is, and has been historically, a part of the divinatory arts. Some of the oldest references so state it. Whether we believe presently that this prohibition is correct, or a "paranoid fantasy," the beginnings of the controversy are ancient.

In fact, the early Church's proscription against divination was so strong, it is believed, as one writer

put it, the dowsers went underground. There is, at least, no mention of dowsing for hundreds of years. Then, in the tenth century coins struck to commemorate the discovery of a silver mine in Germany depicted a dowser at work. So, at least in that area, dowsing had become such a useful tool in mining it was worthy of commemoration.¹⁰

It is believed that dowsing in Germany originated in the Harz mountain area, and oddly enough, Webster's Geographical Dictionary describes that area as "long a stronghold of paganism."

In about 1275 there appeared in Spain what was reputedly a compilation of the ancient oral traditions of the paganistic Hebrews.¹¹ It was banned by the Church and its possession forbidden. It contained instructions for the ritual of preparing a dowsing rod it called "Solomon's Rod." It stated that by the use of the original rod, King Solomon became the most powerful and wealthy man in the world. (It must be remembered that King Solomon, at the a same time he confessed belief in "the one true God," was building temples to the pagan gods for their worship. If the above reference is true, Solomon's allegiance to paganism is more easily understood.) This book, the Cabbala (Cabala, or Kabbala) became the secret possession of only the alchemists, secret societies, and sorcerers.

In 1300 a Benedictine monk, Valentine, wrote about dowsing in a manner that indicated someone was experimenting with it seriously. He wrote of six

kinds of rods used for locating different metals underground. Christopher Bird in The Divining Hand remarked that this seemed strange. However, we interviewed a dowser here in California, an intelligent, well-educated, professional man and expert dowser who had a number of rods he claimed he had "calibrated" for accuracy in determining mineral and vitamin deficiencies in the ill.

In 1362 a Papal Bull against the "use of a ring to obtain answers in the manner of the Devil" (pendulum dowsing) was issued by Pope John XXII. We note here that the Church of that time suffered the difficulty (seen in a lesser degree today) of positive rule over its far-flung 'empire.' While a positive dictum might be issued by The Pope, a Cardinal or even a priest in a distant nation or area might act in disagreement. So we find this contradiction of Church attitude toward dowsing.

In 1518 Martin Luther had taken a positive stand against dowsing, declaring that its use broke the first commandment. Today, the Roman Catholic Church takes somewhat the same stand as reflected in its works on Moral Theology, stating that for anything except searching for water, dowsing is "practicing superstition" which is a serious sin. The Catholic Information Service of the Knights of Columbus classifies dowsing as "rank superstition" and breaking the first commandment only if using the power as supernatural.¹²

Twelve years after Martin Luther's condemnation of dowsing, a German physician and mining buff, Georgius Agricola, whose unlatinized name was Georg Bauer, wrote his first essay on mineralogy and mining lore, which by 1556 had become the greatest treatise on mining ever written. Because mining and dowsing were inseparable (at least in Germany), there was much in his work on the art of finding metals. There seems to be no evidence that the Church condemned him for his writing.

Early in the seventeenth century occurred the incomprehensible story of the Beausoleil family. The Baron de Beausoleil was a mining expert. His wife, Baroness Martine de Beausoleil was an expert dowser. The family was wealthy and of excellent standing.

Because of his expertise and her ability to find ore deposits, the Beausoleils had served as mining consultants in Germany, Switzerland, Moravia, Silesia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, England, and Scotland, as well as mining advisor to the Papal States for the Holy See. In 1626 he was commissioned by the Superintendent for Mines and Ore Deposits under Louis XIII to survey the entire area of France for its mineral wealth. Using a team of sixty mine workers they spent a year in southern France discovering more than forty mines. The written report of this work was full of references to astrological

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