Now that we have tried to examine the confusion that exists in the beliefs surrounding dowsing, the time has come to attempt to sort out the truths and untruths of one specific element—the physical aspect of dowsing. It must be apparent by now that there are four types of dowsing:

1. Terrestrial dowsing.
2. Dowsing of inanimate objects.

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3. Dowsing the animate or living.
4. Information dowsing.

It must also be apparent that the dowsing world refers to four different power sources; however they only discuss three. The fourth is dismissed with a farfetched theory or two, and dropped.

The general agreement seems to be that the dowsing power source or force field in terrestrial dowsing, is "emanations." In the fifteenth century it was "corpuscles." Then the theory of vital energy in everything began to form and the descriptive words were, "Od," "siderism," "dynamic activity," and "orgone." Finally in the twentieth century, the idea that there was a specific terrestrial energy was formed with the measuring of terrestrial magnetism. There were variations of the explanation that the green cut forked stick was pulled downward over water because of the "attraction of green things to water," or an intensification of the magnetism over water. There was difficulty with this theory because the forked stick also found ores and other things. However, there was difficulty in any of the ideas to date because terrestrial magnetism is "an incredibly weak" force and anything would work as a dowsing device—even a nonconductor. And finally it was noted that no device was necessary!

Along with the ongoing argument over the terrestrial dowsing force, dowsers were beginning to find other interesting 'facts,' (dowser findings, not

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recognized by the scientific community). The 'force' emanating from underground was exceptionally strong over the entire width of a "water vein," and if there were veins intersecting, the force seemed greatly intensified. This led to the discovery of something that had been suspected for many years and had been labelled "an old wives' tale." Houses known as "cancer houses" were located directly over these vein crossings. Obviously, a cancer house was one in which there was a phenomenally repeated incidence of cancer deaths. The medical world scoffed. However, there were a few logical minded individuals who began to gather statistics. One of the first was Gustav Freiherr von Pohl who, in 1929, documented a survey of the entire town of Vilsburg, Bavaria (8,300 inhabitants), and located the houses over discovered water veins and those only partially over a vein. Then he tabulated the 'cancer houses.' In the face of ridicule from the medical world, von Pohl chose another town in Bavaria—one with the lowest incidence of cancer. He located the cancer houses there and resurveyed in 18 months to find ten more cancer deaths in these same houses.

In 1964 a French physician, Dr. J. Picard started to keep records of what appeared to be cancer houses in Moulins. Each of the 282 cancer deaths recorded had occurred in houses directly over dowser-located water veins or some unidentifiable underground anomaly. The attitude of the scientific world had been reflected in a short acid article in Science magazine of May 5, 1933, telling of the work of two French statisticians. They surveyed the city of Lyon—23,258 houses. The time period was

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20 years. Omitting the few houses that had exceptionally high incidence of cancer deaths, they compared the cancer death rate to the birth and marriage rate there for the same period of time and found that generally, the distribution of all three "phenomena" were about equal. So, Dr. Picard was afraid to make his findings known.

In the 1970s Dr. Joseph Kopp, a consulting geologist and dowser in Switzerland, made an astonishing discovery when he was dowsing a water vein in Grabs, in the Sankt Gallen Canton. He noted that the vein ran directly under a new barn. The barn was empty. On inquiry he found that the owner of the barn had had so many of his animals fall ill, he had abandoned it. This led Kopp to a survey of 130 barns in which animals confined for long periods of time had developed illnesses running from severe rheumatism of the joints to repeated miscarriages, sickly calves, and uterine deterioration. He discovered one or more water veins running under every one of these barns.

In England, this phenomenon has been known since ancient times. These veins, generally containing water, have been known to be generally harmful to man and beast. They run in straight lines across the countryside, and they are known as "ley lines." However, there are spots along these lines of "noxious emanations" that have exactly the opposite effect on man and beast. These have been known for hundreds of years as "healing spots." In some cases the spot will be a spring of water, at others it will be a "menhir"—literally an upright stone—that the ancients erected. These were places

of worship. Sometimes the place of worship would have an arrangement of stones. The ley lines are to be found all over the world.

When the Roman Catholic Church "Christianized" an area, the pagan gods and worship customs would be absorbed, with names changed, etc. So, these healing spots were often used by the Church as the site for a church or cathedral. Chartres, Nimes and Sangres in France, and York Minster, Carlisle, and Glastonbury in England were cathedrals built directly over healing springs. Many country churches in England have been built around a menhir or megalith (the very large upright stones). These stones will be seen in a church yard, incorporated in the wall of the church or the church yard where they are easily seen. In a church in Arrichinaga, Spain there are two enormous upright stones in the church.

Two interesting phenomena are noticeable at these ley lines. There is intense UFO activity over them, and noticeable supernatural manifestations. The old churches of England are noted for their 'ghosts.' Psychics and dowsers agree that there is some sort of electrical charge to be felt on touching some of the menhirs. If the contact is maintained for several minutes, the person begins to lose the sense of reality, the stone "feels" as if it were moving, and the person is almost overcome by an urge to dance. (A part of the ancient worship at these stones is said to be a dance.) On the other hand, the average person can touch the stones without reaction. Some of the undamaged menhirs were tested with a Gauss meter and it was found that the charge "spiralled" up

the stone and was not always the same intensity. It was said to "wane" and then come back several days later spiralling in the opposite direction. The bands of the spiral measured ten times stronger than other places on the stone. Whether this first testing has ever been verified by repeat testing is not known.

The truly scientific examination of the ley lines began early in the 1930s in France. It had to do with cancer deaths. The instrument used was the electroscope, an instrument to check ionization intensity in the air. An engineer, Pierre Cody was the investigator. His method was to set up his electroscope in a basement or lower floor directly below the point of the cancer in the patient confined to bed. His Elster and Geitel electrometer showed a reading of as much as ten times the concentration of air ions above normal. This he did in more than 7000 cancer houses. He discovered from the placement of the instrument in different places, and reading it five times a day, repeatedly for more than a year, that a band of radiation exactly the width of the dowser-located water vein rose vertically and undiffused. To further check the radioactivity, he placed lead sheets under the instrument, and found that the time for instrument discharge rose from seven seconds to fortynine minutes. He left the lead sheets in place for more than a month, and found at the end of that time that the normal grey color of the lead had changed to a peacock blue and a canary yellow at the point of greatest intensity. The condition of the patient above had also changed. He wrote a book on his findings, Experimental Study of Air Ionization by Certain Radioactivity in the Soil and Its Influence on Human Health.

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A diagram illustrating engineer Pierre Cody's use of an Elster and Geiter electroscope in the basement of a "cancer house."

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He listed three interesting findings in 491 cases:

1.   When lead sheets were placed under a patient, there would be an increase of pain for the first several weeks, then a definite improvement.
2.   The lead sheets had to be renewed. If this was done often enough, the patient either improved markedly or recovered completely.
3.   If the sheet was not renewed, the patient became suddenly worse after several months had passed.

A Swiss nuclear physicist, Angelo Comunetti became interested in Cody's findings. Using a dowsing device, he checked this radiation in a multistoried building over a known water vein. The building was concrete with heavily reinforced concrete floors. He found the radiation to exist the width of the vein and sixty feet above ground through three concrete floors.

For almost fifteen years, these men and others who had joined the investigations begged the medical world to note their findings on cancer houses. They were either ignored or ridiculed. Then in 1955 several men began to find evidence of increased gamma radiation over earth fractures and water veins. This they did with the Geiger counter.

By 1973, Jacob Stängle, a German engineer, had built a scintillation counter that by amplifying millions of times the sensed gamma radiation from deep within the earth, would record the finding on a 'strip chart.' This gave a picture of the variations from normal. Suddenly what the dowsers had found

became a scientific fact. Any anomaly such as an earth fracture, an oil pool, or a vein of underground water could be "seen" by its variation from the normal gamma radiation, spread and concentration.

Unknown to Stängle, another German-born engineer, Dr. Armin Bickel, retired from research at the NASA Western Missile Test Range in Lompoc, California, was working on a scintillation counter more sophisticated than Stängle's. Bickel's instrument was small enough to be carried on his person and had an 1800 transistor computer built into it. (Stängle's instrument was wheeled along the ground) Bickel claims to be able to pinpoint accurately oil, mineral and water locations as well as tell the depth, width, and length of mineral deposits to 1000 feet deep and oil bearing strata as deep as 10,000 feet. This is what his instrument was invented for. He told us that his instrument was not a dowsing instrument, and that he had no secrets about it. He sent us a printed booklet he had had made up which gave a complete description of the instrument and the mathematics justifying it.

These instruments revealed two interesting bits of information on gamma radiation. While the radiation from an earth fracture or a water vein is intensified and is as the electrometer found, in a band the width of the anomaly, oil deflects gamma radiation. So the oil bearing strata is outlined by the intensified gamma radiation deflected to the edges of the pool.

Stängle was requested to check von Pohl's and Dr. Picard's claims of water veins under cancer, houses and he found them all correct. He referred to these areas a "pathenogenic stimulation zones."

Since dowsers have hailed the scintillation counter as the breakthrough to scientific or "machine dowsing" it might be worthwhile to consider a comparison.

The instruments identify and locate geological fractures. So do dowsers.




The instruments identify and locate water veins. So do dowsers.




The instruments identify radiation from both of these as intense and perpendicular to the earth's surface. So do dowsers.




The instruments pinpoint the depth of water, oil and minerals. So do the dowsers, by asking the device for it.




The instruments indicated the quantity of water, oil and minerals. So do the dowsers, by asking the device for it.




The instruments differentiate between water, oil and minerals. So do the dowsers, the device reacts to their decision or desire.




The instrument cannot locate water, oil and minerals from a great horizontal distance. The dowsers do, by map dowsing.




The instruments cannot determine the quality of water, oil and minerals. The dowsers do, by asking the device questions.

We point out that dowsing devices (wood, metal, plastic, etc.), or even the human body, are impossible to fit into the terrestrial dowsing situation. If it were conceivable that by some means the dowser and/or his device could be sensitive to gamma radiation (when the non-dowser is not), the fact that

this happens only at the time the dowser decides to dowse rules out any physical aspect. The fact that the dowsing device reacts forcefully (forked stick pulls down forcibly, the wires cross with a snap, the metal band held in an arc slaps back against the belly of the dowser, or the wand slaps back into the witcher's face) is just not explained by gamma ray emanations. It would seem idiotic to discuss it except that dowsers refuse to consider facts that interfere with their belief. For instance, we talked to a dowser who was delighted to learn that there was a strong radiation from water veins. He stated that undoubtedly this was the cause of the pull-down of his forked stick. We asked him about the incredibly weak gamma radiation readings from an oil deposit that the scintillation counter can ascertain but must magnify millions of times to make it discernable at the surface. This he would not discuss. Nor was he the least interested in inquiring about the physical properties of gamma radiation.

There are physicists who are following such a different line of reasoning about terrestrial dowsing that it is evident they have paid no attention to the gamma radiation findings. They have theorized that the variations in terrestrial magnetism caused by underground anomalies, form a chaotic, if weak, force field in which we are immersed. The dowser merely sorts out the correct "signal" to find what he wishes. The explaining of this is fascinating. It must be noted at the start that all of the unexplained items in their theory are thrown into a bag called "mental programming"! For instance, they make no explanation about how the mind of the dowser knows the

difference in the magnetism variations, and what each difference identifies (the many different ores, water, oil, etc.). It is thrown into Mental Programming. Map and remote dowsing are also included in Mental Programming.

Obviously the picking up of these signals must be done by a sensor, and the sorting out of the correct one desired must be done by a processing center. Since the sensor must fit the scientific frame of reference of these physicists, the dowsing device had to be abandoned, for it presented impossible problems. The fact of the many and varied styles and types of devices and the many different ways they react proved too great a barrier. So, they concluded, the dowser himself must be the sensor. Meticulous and imaginative experimentation ascertained that the adrenal glands and the pituitary glands must be the sensors. From this, they conjectured that there must be a processing center in the brain—which they proceeded to state as fact. However, there was the embarrassing device action to explain. They have stated as fact, that for the processing center to telegraph to the conscious mind the correctness of the find, the muscles of the dowser's arms are caused to "twitch" producing a movement in the dowsing device. This completely ignored the force of the dowsing rod, forked stick, or whatever, that once started in its movement cannot be controlled or stopped by the dowser. This is the witness of every experienced dowser. They describe it in such terms as, "almost frightening," "challenging," "exciting," and "my greatest experience." Dr. Bruce Copen of Sussex, England, in the introduction to his

book Dowsing For You¹ describes this vividly, "But what does the dowsing rod do? It moves up, down, or stays immobile according to the conditions at the time; it is held under tension in the hands—but one thing is very certain, that once the rod decides to move—it moves and nothing can stop it! Unlike the pendulum which can be stopped by thought alone. Strong men have tried all kinds of gadgets to retard the movement of the dowsing rod without avail—the best one can describe the movement of the rod is that the movement, being very sudden, is like a mysterious hand which grasps the end of the rod and either moves it up or down, even at times when one is practicing on something that is known to be present the shock of the movement is so sudden that one wonders where the power comes from." (Emphasis his.) It can be stated no more clearly, it is an outside force that moves the rod, not the slight muscle twitch of the dowser's arms.

We watched and interviewed an internationally known dowser who, at our request used two pairs of pliers to hold his forked stick. The pull downward by some external force was so great it stripped the bark off the stick held in the pliers. We tried to pull the stick up from its downward position and found it necessary to exert what we estimated to be more than a ten pound pull. How could a physicist ignore such a fact?

Returning to the comparison of the scintillation counter and the dowser, it should be noted that

three of the eight dowsing actions listed are dependent on a non-existent relationship between gamma radiation and the dowsing device. The other five are nothing more than asking the device questions—in any language—and getting answers. The fact that water, oil, or minerals can be located at the desire of the dowser demonstrates selectivity and intelligence—nothing more. Terrestrial dowsing is a demonstrable fact, but it is not physical in terms of the reality of this planet. It has to be a reality in some unknown, or extranormal manner yet to be discovered.

In dowsing for 'things'—inanimate objects—the scene changes drastically. (There is no more provable radiation as is found in terrestrial dowsing.) It is the theory that the dowser can tune in on the 'vibration,' 'emanation,' or 'signature' of an object. This idea may have grown out of the proposal of Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose a famous scientist of India, that even the inanimate things have life vibrations. This was more than seventy years ago, and now the dowsers believe inanimate objects 'broadcast' these vibrations, and that each object has its own peculiar, identifiable signature. Of course, this means we are immersed in a chaotic 'force field' of untold millions of these signatures. If it were found that this broadcasting distance were limited to the area around a person, and close by, it would seem less impossible. However, these object signatures are picked up thousands of miles away by map dowsing. The manner of recognizing the specific signature desired, or the method of singling it out is not even mentioned in this theory.

It is only a partial explanation, but the dowsers seem satisfied, most probably because it is possible to dowse inanimate objects, and that is enough.

However, that the variety of dowsing devices, or that the supposed pulsations of a non-living object could pull the rod down, or that either the rod or other sensor could pick out the desired item, is simply not possible by the physics of this planet. This dowsing has to be done by some power that overrides our physical laws.

Here, suddenly we are in another world. It used to be that this was just another type of information dowsing. It is still done with all of the more common dowsing devices, particularly the pendulum. However, after the turn of the century there began to be refinements that took it out of 'common dowsing' into a far more sophisticated method. It is called Radionics. Before radionics, dowsing life was simple. Questions asked for a yes or no answer supplied the diagnosis in medicine and the answers in horticulture and animal husbandry. Healing, and such things as the destruction of plant pests was done by the healer-dowser with a pendulum or other device. When radionics was introduced, the whole picture changed. Not only the dowsing method change but the answers became more sophisticated. To understand it, a careful look must be taken at the different types of radionics.

First, we realize that to the reader whose chief interest is dowsing with a hand-held device, radionics

may seem foreign to the whole idea of dowsing. Yet it is of such importance to an understanding of modern dowsing, we must take careful consideration of its methods and implications. First to explain the names used: Radionics is synonymous with Radiesthesia. Of course, both are coined words. Radiesthesia was coined in France in about 1919 as a word for general dowsing. It is taken from the Latin root for "radiation" and the Greek root for "perception." At the discovery of the radionics method of dowsing, it began to be used for that specifically—in the English speaking world. Radionics refers to 'rays' or 'radiation' and seems to be the favored of the two terms.

As mentioned above, this type of dowsing is done with an instrument (originally a black box with a front full of dials, hence the name "black box") or a system that gives the same answers and results as the dowsing rod, but appears to be more sophisticated and scientific. They are often intricately devised or designed to look like an electronic instrument. They were invented at about the turn of the century, which makes it important that they have scientific explanations. Without exception, these explanations are always prefaced by an attack on conventional science. This includes a demand that the unknowns of what used to be classed as the occult, must now be made a part of the "unknowns" of conventional science. If our presentation of Radionics seems to insult the intelligence of the reader who considers himself a realist, we are sorry, but we only tell it as we find it.

These instruments always perform "work" (in terms of physics), but they are not powered.

They operate, so we are told, on the radiating energy from a living body—generally human. The radiation is apparently a part of what is generally known among dowsers as "THE FORCE," emanating from every animate and inanimate thing. In this type of dowsing, THE FORCE is often referred to as "neutral energy."

The radiesthetic or radionic instruments are generally thought of as diagnostic instruments, but it has been discovered that healing by them can also be effected. This means they are most often used in medicine. However, it must be added that they will "diagnose" anything. In other words, they answer questions just like the pendulum, rod, or Ouija Board.

Our value judgement of these instruments is difficult, for even though we try assiduously to relate our reactions as an onlooker only, we have been educated to think in terms of conventional science. So, at first glance, we are tempted to discredit this particular piece of dowsing explanation as plain dishonesty. However, we have found that first hand acquaintance with these people reveals only intense credulity and belief. We do find that their reasoning is understandable only if one presumes that their desire to prove scientific validity is so great that their good judgement is destroyed.

At the very beginning these people recognized that they were tapping into a power source. In dowsing, generally, this power source has many names: psychotronic energy, bio-plasmic energy,

bio-physical effect, the fifth force field, and now, neutral energy. The sources of this energy are claimed to be the widely differing earth radiations, the signatures of inanimate objects, cellular radiations from the living, and UFOs. So far, none of these have been, or can be examined by any of the scientific methods. (It has been established that for a phenomenon to be considered physical, it must repeat in reaction consistently 19 times out of 20.) However, scientific respectability is always claimed for the dowsing phenomenon by association. This is clearly seen in all dowser-writer material. For instance, they refer casually to "radiology and radiesthesia"—radiology being a scientific fact, and radionics or radiesthesia being a complete unknown. Only because the two phenomena deal with energy sources, however unrelated, they are equated.

One of the acceptable mental activities of the scientific method is comparison (class likeness and analogy). However, there is a point beyond which comparison cannot be used in a rational manner. In logic it is a well known fallacy. (Fishes swim. I swim. Therefore, I am a fish.) When this fallacious comparison is made in a casual, yet authoritative manner, the uninformed reader tends to accept it without question.

Dowsing writers are clearly resentful of this non-acceptability. It is evident in J. Cecil Maby's introduction to Co-operative Healing.²

The book itself is a record of author Eeman's experiments with a type of this 'neutral energy,' and his struggle for acceptance by the medical profession. The introduction, however, takes up arms against those who will not accept the inclusion of the psychic, the metaphysical or supernormal in what we know as physical science. He states it plainly,

"We strongly protest against the tendency to call psychical, metaphysical or supernormal all those subtle or ill-defined phenomena in nature that happen, at present, to lie on the fringes or outside the fully explored domain of physical science. All natural phenomena are physical, if they are real, only they may be 'etheric' and non-material in many instances."

In contrast to Maby's protest, Wilson and Weldon in Occult Shock and Psychic Forces³ point up the contrast in the occult and science,

"Electricity, magnetism, and quantum physics were all discovered through scientific principles based on previous science, not through occult principles based on occult experiences. This is a crucial distinction. The fact that quantum physics is producing paradoxes does not give us the right to assume that it, therefore (1) scientifically validates the occult—it does not; or (2) because there are some similarities

between theoretical physics and the occult, we can therefore investigate the occult with impunity. The research purporting to connect the eastern-occult view and science (e.g. The Tao of Physics, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Stalking the Wild Pendulum, etc.) deals more with appearance than reality. Also, some, if not many, of the 'new consciousness' scientists who support a merger of science and eastern metaphysics are themselves involved in eastern occult philosophy and practice. They are, therefore only too happy to justify their activities by molding science into conformity with their world view. The issue is how much of the purported relationship is real and how much has been contrived or unnecessarily extrapolated. More conventional scientists are so far unimpressed with data purporting to show relationship."

An examination of radionic (or radiesthetic) devices should clarify matters. They are often referred to as "little black boxes," however, they are not all little, they are not all black, and they are not all box-like. They come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from the ridiculous to the, if not sublime, at least impressively professional appearing. The one Christopher Bird describes must qualify as the most ridiculous.⁴

It was a small black box with a front full of dials. An American traveler brought it back from New Zealand where it was alleged to have produced "fantastic results." On opening the box it was found to contain nothing but a note saying, "Ha, ha, there's nothing in this box."

We have personal knowledge of one from San Diego, California. This one caused its designer serious trouble. Its price was $700. These instruments were sold to fulfill several functions. The inventor claimed they would: (1) Keep gophers out of the garden, (2) clean orchard trees of pests, (3) restore trees to health, (4) revitalize garden and field soil, and finally, (5) cure the ills of man and beast. It was this last claim that got the designer into trouble. He instructed that placing the instrument under the bed was the method of healing. The authorities took a dim view of this and arrested, tried, and convicted him for practicing medicine without a license. It was found that when one of the instruments was taken apart and examined, it was full of nothing more than a "jumble of unrelated electronic parts."

Weldon and Levitt in Psychic Healing⁵ describe the original black box. It "was developed by Dr. Albert Abrams, an unconventional physician. The box consisted of several variable rheostats (devices for measuring electrical currents) and a sheet of rubber mounted over a metal plate.

A blood sample was placed in the box, itself connected with a metal plate attached to the forehead of a healthy person. By tapping the stomach of the healthy person and/or stroking the rubber, the 'doctor' determined the illness of the patient according to the dial readings on the apparatus."

After Dr. Abram's death, Dr. Ruth Drown in the U.S., took up his work and 'perfected' her own version of the radionics instrument.⁶ She designed two, the HVR (Homo Vibra Ray) and the Radio Vision Instrument. In her book she explains the techniques in detail, but not the instruments. In telling about the first, she states that the tissue of the human body "broadcasts radio-active energy" on which the HVR can tune in. This she likens to a commercial radio set tuning in on the "wave-lengths of sound energy sent out from the commercial broadcast station." Again, the scientific justification by analogy.

The instrument in the hands of a trained operator tunes in "to the various organs, glands, and tissues of the body" to receive each patient's specific wave length. "Then, by precise tuning, the degree of variation in that wave length reception from the normal point can be determined. . . ."

This, then, the doctor interprets. It must be added here that exactly this same tuning in can and is being done with the pendulum, or any other dowsing device, by asking it questions requiring either a yes or no answer. Continuing the Drown book explanation, it states positively that the energy of the body is the only force or current used by the "Drown method of diagnosis." It goes on to say that this energy is "an invisible white ray just above the white light in the spectrum. . . ." The method of diagnosis is as follows: Metal plates are placed against the bottom of the feet of the patient, with a tin block in place, generally over the solar plexus. These, of course, are connected to the instrument. There are nine dials on the instrument that can be set to tune in on the cell vibrations from any minute area of the body chosen. These cell vibrations course out of the body into the "radio-active carrier bands about the earth," much the same as radio sound energy from broadcast stations. "This same radio-active ether penetrates the body substance and carries off the energy in wave-lengths emanating from the tissues, returning it again after encircling the earth with the speed of light (seven and three-quarter times per second)." The method of using only nine dials to tune in on the many areas and parts of the body is done by instruction from an "atlas" provided each doctor.

If these cell or energy vibrations are interpreted by the instrument as being imperfect (from disease), they are changed by the instrument with a different dial setting, to normal vibrations as they re-enter the body to effect healing.

The Radio Vision Instrument is much more interesting. To understand the basis for this diagnostic "machine" (a term they will not accept), the book explains that "Each blood cell, each cell constituent of the urine, etc., has its own massform, and therefore its own frequency, and can be accurately measured." In using the "Invisible Light" (LIFE FORCE), "The photographs made with the Drown Radio-Vision Instrument, which 'prove' this theory, are obtained by touching either the patient or the blood with a wire. "This acts as an aerial, and carries the patient's energy into the instrument through the rate of vibration of the part desired, and its outline is placed upon the film in a natural, normal scanning process." This is followed by the modest understatement, "Some have felt this to be uncanny."

We should make two explanations at this point. These photographs are actually photographs as we would expect from a camera. Secondly, our reference to "the book says, or states" is because the contents of the book is a collection of talks and lectures given by four people, including Ruth Drown, and yet it is published under Ruth Drown authorship.

The explanation of this "uncanny" process is typical of the repeated justifications found throughout the book. A scientific fact is mentioned (in the case of the photographs, the fact that bacteria, also, can be seen only through a microscope) and then a casual comparison is made with the radionics phenomenon. "The first is so common it has become a normal activity; the second is uncommon, therefore not yet accepted as usual."

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The Drown Radio Vision instrument used to photograph internal organs and tissue in the human body. Using only the "LIFE FORCE" as power, these photographs were made by touching a drop of blood with the end of a wire from the instrument.

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In case this uncanny method of taking photographs of internal cells, tissue, and organs by touching a wire to a blood sample still remains questionable, the book also contains photographs for further proof. Facing page 64 [in the Ruth Drown book] is a "Radio-Vision Photograph of Duodenal Ulcer, taken from Blood Specimen." Facing page 96 is a "Radio-Vision Photograph of a Diseased Prostate Gland Lobule, Taken from Blood Specimen. . . ." Through this method, they claim, photographs of cellular structure are more realistic than those from dead tissue as seen under a microscope, and this is why they are not quite like the histological specimens we are used to seeing. Besides the photographs it produces, the blood sample in the instrument is claimed to give (1) a differential blood count, (2) a urinalysis, (3) the blood pressure of the patient, (4) the temperature of the patient, (5) locates impinged nerves along the spine, and (6) checks the diet of the patient! Perhaps the most uncanny fact of all is the disclosure made by Weldon and Levitt that, ". . . Dr. Drown has made accurate diagnoses even when she has forgotten to place blood samples in the machine."⁷

We wish to emphasize that we find no fault with the results obtained with the Ruth Drown radionics instruments, or the accuracy of the photographs taken of internal tissue. It is evident that miraculous healings have been effected by them. We have recounted this long description to illustrate the background for our conclusion that there has to be

some other explanation for the instruments' "revelations" than anything approaching the scientific. We would also add the non sequitur, that from our, perhaps, ignorant onlooker's standpoint, we found the reading of Ruth Drown's book fascinating as science fiction!

Since Dr. Drown states specifically that her instruments are not the source of the diagnostic pronouncements, and since by no stretch of imagination could "vibrations" from the blood cells give such far reaching information as claimed above, the only possible conclusion must be that the blood cells themselves are intelligent. Unless, of course, the whole thing is mediumistic!

Finally, when Ruth Drown was hailed into court and she attempted to demonstrate her instrument for the court, it failed to work. This reduced her to tears. Anyone acquainted with the other types of dowsing and/or occult manifestations will recognize this immediately as the modus operandi of the phenomenon. It was another case of failure at a most critical moment in the life of another devotee. One parapsychologist and doctor of psychology stated positively that this is an illustration of the "sense of humor" of the spirit entities involved. (Heaven deliver us from such a sadistic sense of humor!)

In 1947, L.E. Eeman published his, aforementioned, controversial book Co-operative Healing in which he used the dowsing principle to develop a somewhat different method of healing and diagnosis

than that of Abrams and Drown, but based on the same theory of The Force. Again, it was the theory that cells and tissue, broadcasting interpretable energy, could be used for the healing and diagnostic process. The introduction to his book states, "The main facts stated in this book fit the established radiesthetic framework."

In his early experiments in 1919, Eeman claimed to have located polarity points on the human body. By connecting these points by means of copper mesh and wires, he found that one connection produced tension, while another connection produced relaxation. He states, "The relaxation circuit automatically promotes relaxation of the voluntary muscles and stimulates functional activity. It fosters sleep, recovery from fatigue and disease, capacity for work and health in general. The tension circuit reverses these effects more or less. Both circuits effect not only organic but also nervous and mental health." He eventually found he could connect several people in tandem and obtain (generally) the same results in all of them.

His final experiments resulted in what he termed a type of telepathy. If one of the wire connections of a person in the relaxation circuit was broken and the wire ends inserted in a test tube containing a disease culture, the person experienced the mental impression of the disease symptoms. If a drug were substituted in the test tube, the person received the mental impression of the drug use symptoms. However it was evident neither he nor his colleague, J. Cecil Maby really understood what they were working with. Maby stated in the appendix of the book, it

was, "the hypothetical energy or rays." We wonder how these "hypothetical" cellular energy rays equate with the earth radiation, both of which activate the dowsing device, and both of which answer questions.

Yet another, and more up-to-date radionics instrument is the nanoray diagnostic instrument. It is 'discussed' in a booklet put out by Nanorayx titled Nanorayx Presents Pollution Reversal Systems for the World Ecology. In its 31 pages aimed at the obviously non-scientific person (judging by the pictured and written illustrations), there is a mind-numbing welter of scientific jargon not quite concealing the same resentment as the others, that their theory is not accepted by the scientific world. At the conclusion of the booklet they offer the rather pious hope, "Nanorayx is willing, is the scientific body to which this question is addressed ready to accept a 'truth' that 'electronics is the basis of all creation? ' " (emphasis theirs).

The text reveals that a very learned smoke screen of electronics discussion almost disguises the claim that the Nanoray instruments takes photographs (literally) of the interior body areas from the atomic radiation of those cells. They also claim this process to be analogous to the TV and radio station broadcasts, "In a similar way the picture emulsion acts as the tuning grids of the radio, and so remains tuned to the station to which it was originally fixed as the station broadcasts, so do the emitting atomic waves radiate." The healing process of the instrument is described, "Now, to reverse these radiating waves

back to the broadcaster atoms, a 'jamming project' is put into effect by using higher EMF (electromotive force) potential on the picture. The closer the subject in the picture is to the photo being treated, the more powerful the EMF of the reversing broadcaster unit potential is and the shorter time needed to 'blast off' the offending atoms into nothingness."

In an earlier paragraph they state, "At this stage of reasoning, a logical mind will have a fair grasp of the 'molecular biology' as it is applied to this new etiology of nanoray research." In other words, the person who cannot accept (swallow?) this verbal garbage does not have a logical mind. This is a new and, we suppose, logical use of that very old selling ploy of shaming the ignorant to silence. Is it possible that this presentation could be thought to render scientifically acceptable the process of using "a higher EMF potential on the picture" (a photograph of the diseased area!) to heal—specifically "to blast off the offending atoms into nothingness"? This is electronics? Again, we hasten to add that we do not doubt that this abracadabra does work. The question we, the onlooker, must pose is why and how? It cannot be science by the wildest flight of the imagination. In fact, it has all the earmarks of the abrogation of physical laws since it does work.

The most important claim made by every radionics speaker or writer is that since science has determined that everything in the universe is energy, or a specific state of energy, this psychotronic energy or neutral energy is a valid and acceptable part of reality. They admit it is "paraphysical" and that it cannot be adequately perceived by the five

physical senses. What they never point out is that it is anti-physical, disruptive of physics, and above all, intelligent. There is no way it can be considered a part of our universe. It has to be something external and alien. The claim that it is nothing more than an extension of the human mind is attractive only if one neglects to examine the impossibilities.

In 1976, John Wilcox, secretary of The Radionics Association in England, wrote an article, Alternative Medicine: Radionics published in Nursing Times, April 15. He explained the energy of "the cosmos" for the nonscientific reader, and stated, "Preceding physical energy and matter in the creative process is non physical energy which cannot be monitored by any kind of instrumentation and is perceptible only to a human being with powers of extrasensory perception." This statement, by itself, may be acceptable to some creationists. However, a creationist generally believes that the "creator" created within the confines of harmonious physical laws, else the creation would 'self-destruct.' The manifestation of this alien "science" is not compatible with a creation theory.

In further explanation of radionics, Wilcox admitted that the radionics instrument is "of secondary importance." He states that the operator consults the instruction book, creates a "force field," and is ready to diagnose or heal. "Then, using a pendulum or a stick pad, he proceeds to pose a series of mental questions, and according to the answers registered by the pendulum (or stick pad), he forms conclusions about the ultimate cause of the patient's trouble." (emphasis ours) It would appear that the

"instrument" is only window dressing! The 'stick pad' referred to is described as a metal plate over which is stretched a thin layer of latex rubber. When the layer of rubber is "stroked," and the rubber "sticks" to the metal, a "yes" answer is indicated. If the rubber slips free on the metal, the answer is "no" or "no answer." This is excellent dowsing practice and goes back into antiquity. On page 265 of Bird's book The Divining Hand there is a photograph of a Zande witch doctor using an "iwa." The iwa has the appearance of a miniature three-legged stool about four inches in diameter, with one leg curved outward so that the witch doctor can hold it firmly on the ground with his toes. Sitting before it, the witch doctor rubs the iwa with a flat piece of wood. If the two pieces of wood "stick," the answer is "yes"! The caption states ". . . may be one of the world's earliest 'radionics boxes.' " Were Abrams, Drown, and all their followers nothing more than witch doctors?

There is a curious reference to radionics in the writing of Vera Stanley Alder. In her book, The Fifth Dimension,⁸ in which she gives a blueprint of the New Age philosophy predating David Spangler by many years, she introduces her comments on the claims of Ruth Drown, and the significance of her methods in the coming Fifth Dimension (New Age) by stating that in this Fifth Dimension, scientists will be 'guided' by "occultists, mystics, and mediums" who will be known as "mind scientists." Now, someone has finally said it! In book after book of

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modern dowsing this aspect of the New Age intentions has been ignored, soft-pedaled, double-talked, and covered up. This is of particular significance, since the New Age is no longer a "kooky fringe group," but a world-wide, fast growing and powerful organization. We will examine this further in the chapter on 'Perspective.'

The mystery of information dowsing has been covered up in modern dowsing writings by alluding to its power source as "mind control," "psi," "Universal Mind," "latent mental ability," etc. However, it is agreed upon by all, that it is the tapping of a superior intelligence. That this intelligence is far superior to anything heretofore dreamed of in human mentality, must be admitted. It is frightening to find it also lying, contradictory, undependable, and often harmful.

Information dowsing includes remote dowsing, map dowsing, medical dowsing and every other kind in which questions are asked. It seems evident from a careful examination of the other three types, in which it is impossible to find scientific validity, that all dowsing is information-seeking except that kind causing an effect on something or someone. If terrestrial dowsing is non-physical, in terms of this planet's physics, then it is purely information dowsing. An exception would be the effort of the dowser to cause an effect such as their claim of being able to "move" the placement of an underground stream. If dowsing the inanimate is physically impossible, considering the factors of reception, interpretation,

distance, etc., then it, too, is information dowsing. If dowsing the animate is a scientific hoax as it is presented, then it must be information dowsing except when it is used to cause something to happen. Then, if information dowsing can be made to fit what is accepted as reality, it must exhibit recognizable consistency. It does not! As we have related, there are dowsers who are aware of a spirit entity who answers the questions and does their bidding. There are many explanations of information dowsing, none of them consistent.

As an ending to this chapter, we would like to look at the dilemma of modern, scientific man, ignorant of the complexities of this alien intrusion into our physics, and yet trying to correlate the two. It is illustrated in a lecture at an annual meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science in 1970. The lecturer was Robert Wood, then, Deputy Director of Research and Development in Advanced Systems and Technology of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics company in Huntington Beach, California. The lecture was Giant Discoveries of Future Science.⁹ Although it was a delightfully (and perhaps carefully) tongue-in-cheek look at the haunted world of the unexplained, it was definitely a serious attempt to warn scientists of what is on the horizon. Among such possible giant discoveries of the future as: extraterrestrial intelligent life, the origin of life, cosmic and planetary evolution, and united physical theory, he listed the confirmation and basis of ESP.

(He discussed all of these as paradigms—accepted scientific achievements that provide temporary model problems and solutions).

He introduced ESP cautiously as "a possible paradigm in the making." In this category he included dowsing. He stated that he would comment on dowsing only briefly, and added that dowsing might be related to ESP, and it might be related to antigravity. He told of its positive use and success by the U.S. Marines in Viet Nam in locating enemy bunkers, and of a controlled experiment in France in which dowsers located, fairly successfully, an artificially induced perturbation in a magnetic field. He said he would like to know if such a controlled experiment as "building a little dolly and putting a divining rod on it to see how many dynes of force result when you move over an underground stream" had ever been done. We must say that Mr. Wood's merciful ignorance of dowsing elicits a most interesting picture. If everything used for dowsing devices reacted automatically to underground water—even out of the hands of the dowser—one would see pieces of plastic, twigs, wires, blades of grass, and a variety of other items endlessly writhing and jerking on the ground above a water vein. Then, if the imagination went so far as to include all the other items dowsed for, it would conjure up a picture of the insane animation of all these dowsing device materials.

He concludes, "I think that this last possible paradigm in the making is a good example of the conflicts between logic and emotion. People tend to make rather a priori decisions on the basis of emotion rather than logical analysis of the 'data.'

The reason, in my opinion, is that people are much more afraid of being too gullible than they are of being too skeptical."

This is a perfect illustration of the curious dilemma in which the scientist is caught. If he is the type who has the 'nerve' to exercise his most treasured characteristic, curiosity, in the face of the rigid taboos of conservative science, he is a prime candidate for ESP. Once he makes the step of observing that dowsing, for instance, does work, he is faced with the irresistible need to find out why. At that moment he is in deep trouble, for every bit of his scientific training demands that this 'why' must be logically and physically explained. To do this, he has to break one of the most important commandments of science, that of objectivity. He cannot consider all of the observable facts and make them fit in a physical picture. He has crossed over into the emotional. Then if he has learned to dowse, himself, as most investigators do, he has entered the world of all-out subjectivity. He is lost to his peers. This is exactly the condition of the physicists writing in scientific journals on the subject of dowsing. A perfect example is Dr. Zaboj V. Harvalik, perhaps the foremost scientific investigator of dowsing in the western world. Quoting Christopher Bird again, on page 263 of The Divining Hand in an entire chapter devoted to Harvalik, Bird states, "During the ongoing process of his research, Harvalik himself has become so expert in remote, map, and information dowsing, the physics of which he cannot yet begin to explain . . ." Two paragraphs later Bird adds, "The persisting question of whether dowsing is a physical

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or psychic act continues to trouble Harvalik." However, one would never guess from the positive public statements made by Harvalik, that he has this reservation.

This is not a profound effort to psychoanalyze these men. It is simply what any curious onlooker will discover by observation, reading the material and asking questions. Mr. Wood sees solid evidence that dowsing works. He quite obviously feels that it will react in the predictably physical manner he is used to. It does not and it will not. If, then, he is one of those scientists who can shift gears and assume the stance of the parapsychologist who builds a theory on ifs, he can proceed. This is exactly where modern "scientific" dowsing is today.

References

1 Bruce Copen, DOWSING FOR YOU, p. 5. Academic Publications, Sussex, England.

2 L.E. Eeman, CO-OPERATIVE HEALING, The Curative Properties of Human Radiations. Frederick Muller Ltd. London, publisher.

3 Clifford Wilson, Ph.D. and John Weldon, OCCULT SHOCK AND PSYCHIC FORCES, pp. 152, 153. Master Books, P.O. Box 15666, San Diego, CA 92115.

4 Bird, THE DIVINING HAND, p. 264.

5 John Weldon and Zola Levitt, PSYCHIC HEALING, p. 55. Moody Press, Chicago.

6 Ruth B. Drown, THE THEORY OF THE DROWN H.V.R. AND RADIO-VISION INSTRUMENTS, Vol I. Hatchard & Co., London. Out of print.

7 Weldon and Levitt, PSYCHIC HEALING, p. 56.

8 Vera Stanley Alder, THE FIFTH DIMENSION, p. 134. 1940, Wiser, New York, publisher.

9 A reprint from Vol. 21 No. 4, 1970, VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE; Official publication of the Virginia Academy of Science.

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