Glastonbury Archive and Mid-Atlantic Geomancy present Spiritual Dowsing a noteworthy book by Sig Lonegren

1.  The Tools of the Trade


Dowsing: the word itself conjures up for most people visions of old men holding forked sticks of apple wood looking for underground streams of water. The search for this precious liquid is certainly a part of this ancient art. Incidentally, it was the only application of dowsing that was considered to be so valuable that it was allowed to survive relatively unscathed through the various persecutions of heretics and witches of the last thousand years. But, as we now live in a time when Western Man – the rational mind and the scientific method – reigns supreme, beliefs and actions that were punishable by death only several hundred years ago, are now tolerated. Consequently, other kinds of dowsing are beginning to surface once again.

Today, dowsing is utilized in many different areas. Diviners are using their skills to locate off-shore oil, to find lost children, to diagnose illness, to study subtle energy fields like the human aura, and even to rediscover the energies of the Earth herself. It seems that the dowser is limited only by her/his imagination. You can dowse for anything you can imagine. More on this later. But first, what about the tools?

While the forked stick, or Y rod, is perhaps the best known of the basic dowsing tools, it is not the easiest tool with which to begin. There are actually four basic kinds of dowsing tools. In addition to the Y rod, L rods, as the name implies, are L-shaped rods held in the manner of Wild Bill Hickcock with his six-guns out ready to fire. The third dowsing tool is the bobber, something like a fishing pole held at the wrong end so that the heavier end can bob up and down or from side to side. But let's use the final dowsing tool, the pendulum, for your first practical experience.

In order for you to decide for yourself if dowsing actually works, you must try it. For this reason, it is absolutely essential that you provide yourself with a few simple tools. If you do not already own a pendulum, please dear reader, put this book down and get some thread and a ring, a metal nut, or any other similarly weighted small object. Tie the thread securely to the weighted object, and voilà! You have a pendulum. Please put the book down, and get/make a pendulum.


The Pendulum

Any balanced stable weight on the end of a string makes a pendulum, a tool that in its simplest application is good for asking "yes" or "no" questions. Hold the string between your thumb and forefinger, with the fingers pointing down. The length of string between your fingers and the weight depends on how heavy the weight is. The heavier the weight, the longer the string. You'll eventually discover what is the best and most comfortable for you. For now, try a length of three or four inches.

One of the most important notions that one encounters in dowsing is that each dowser must discover her/his own code. You need to identify three distinct and discreet responses in your pendulum: "search position", "yes", and "no".

The Search Position

The search position indicates a state of readiness from the pendulum's point of view. (We'll get into ideas about how it works later.) For some dowsers the search position is one in which the pendulum remains motionless. With others the pendulum oscillates back and forth.

You need to find out what your search position is, and you find this out for yourself. Sit down in a comfortable chair. Look at the pendulum with the expectation of seeing some pattern of movement. Again, hold the pendulum (fingers pointing downward between your knees (a neutral area compared to directly over the right and left knees) and state, "Show me the search position." Feel which is better for you. What is your search position – stationary or back and forth? In either case, it says, "I'm ready. What's the question?"

Please try this now.

IF IT DIDN'T WORK. If your pendulum just hung there and did nothing, congratulations, your first dowsing experience was a total success! A motionless pendulum is your signal for the search position.

"Yes"

With that completely successful initial dowsing experience under your belt, let's try "yes". Not all dowsers have the same "yes" response.

Shift the position of the pendulum so that it is hanging directly over your right knee. Most dowsers find that the right knee is a source of yang (+) energy. How does your pendulum respond? For some, the pendulum indicates "yes" by oscillating back and forth, much as we nod our head up and down to indicate affirmation. For others, it goes from side to side, or rotates in either a clockwise or anticlockwise/widdershins (against the Sun) direction. It might even be something else.

With the pendulum over your right knee and in your search position, please find your "yes" response now by asking, "Show me 'yes'."

IF IT DIDN'T WORK THIS TIME EITHER. It's affirmation time! You can choose your "yes" response. The clockwise direction is used by many dowsers around the world as their signal for "yes", and is in resonance with many ancient traditions. So if your pendulum just hung there in what is your search position, teaching or programming it to move clockwise makes a good deal of sense. Dowsing is a tool that works for you. All you are setting up is the code.

Make the pendulum rotate in a clockwise direction. Say to yourself, "This is 'yes', this is yang, this is positive, this is clockwise, this is 'yes'. " You may find that you have to make it go clockwise for several sessions; however, with persistence, it will ultimately seem to go by itself.

"No"

Now for the "no" response. Hold the pendulum over your left knee, and say, "Show me 'no'." (Notice which hand you're holding the pendulum in. Is it your left or is it your right?

Whichever hand you've instinctively chosen, stay with it.) The left knee has been found to be a source of yin (-) energy on most people. From the search position, how does it move? Side to side? Anticlockwise? Some other way? As long as it is different from your "search" and "yes" positions, this is your "no" response.

IT STILL DOESN'T WORK!  Have no fear. If you were interested enough to read this far, you can learn to dowse. Even though your first dowsing experience, the search position, was totally successful, not everyone always immediately gets a response for "yes" and "no". Learning anything takes time. If you want to be a good horseback rider, you're going to fall off. The important thing is that you get back up and try it again. Keep on trying. Practice is the key to success. This helps you to program these basic responses into your various levels of consciousness so that they all learn that specific motions of the pendulum have specific meanings.

Hold the pendulum between your knees. Notice the response. Say, "This is the search position." Then over the right knee (making it go clockwise if necessary), "This is my response for 'yes', it is yang, (+), positive, the Sun, it is 'yes'." Then over the left knee (making it go anticlockwise if necessary), "This is my signal for 'no'. It is yin, (-), receptive, the Moon, it is 'no'." Please try this now.

Do this exercise several times a day for one week, and the pendulum will be yours. Remember, only force the pendulum to move in a clockwise direction for "yes" and widdershins for "no" if you're not getting any action. Try this exercise again.

Sooner or later you will notice that your pendulum seems to be acting on its own. That's exactly what you want. After awhile, as you get into it, the various directions might change. If, all of a sudden, you're getting answers that don't make any sense, simply ask, "Show me 'yes'. Show me 'no'." While this doesn't happen very often, you could find that your signals have changed.


Tuning In

One of the major differences between a beginning dowser and a competent one is in her/his ability to tune in very specifically to the target. One way to start this focusing process is to try the following process whenever you begin a quest with your pendulum:

1. State what you want to do.
2. Ask, "Can I do it?"
3. "May I do it?"
4. "Am I ready to do it?"

First of all, you state what you want to dowse. Your pendulum will give you an affirmative to indicate that it understands. "Can" means do I have the dowsing skills? Am I capable of doing this? "May" talks about permission. Am I allowed to do this? While most kinds of dowsing hold no danger for the dowser, a few of the areas could get you into trouble if you get in over your head. One of these has to do with "ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night." So "May I?" is a useful question. And finally, "Is there anything that I may have forgotten? Am I sufficiently tuned in? Am I ready to go?"

You will be able to tune in to your subject or target much better if you use these four questions at the beginning of any dowsing exercise. On the other hand, if you use these questions, and you get a "no" on any of the four, stop. Something's wrong. If you go on anyway, you can't trust the answer. So why go on? Try the four questions over again rephrasing your initial statement more carefully and accurately. If you still get a "no", wait 'till later to try again.


Chakras

Now let's try some dowsing on a physical target. While our bodies have many chakras, or vortices of power (one pair is located in the knees, for example), we normally think of the seven that are aligned with our spines. Perhaps you have seen people from India who have a dot of color in the center of their forehead. This marks the third eye, or brow chakra. Christ refers to this center in Matthew 6:22 when he says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if thine eye be single, your whole body will be full of light."

There are other chakras at the throat, the heart, and so on down the spine to the coccyx. But for this exercise, I'd like you to dowse the polarity of the crown chakra, which is found on the top of the head.

Find another human being – one who won't mind you dowsing around them. Once you have their permission, say something like, "I want to dowse the polarity of the crown chakra of this person. Can I? May I? Am I ready?" Assuming that you had all "yes" responses, hold your free hand just over the top of your friend's head. If your subject is a female, your pendulum will move into your yin (-), "no" pattern. If it's a male, it will go into your yang (+), "yes" response. Try it on another subject of the opposite sex. Notice the difference in swing. Please try this now.

Ask the person you are dowsing to move across the room. Point your free hand at their head, and ask to have an indication of the polarity of your friend's crown chakra. Notice your pendulum's reaction.


Map Dowsing

Now let's try the same exercise, but even one more step removed. Pick a picture of a man or a woman out of a magazine. "I want to dowse the polarity of the crown chakra of the person in this picture. Can I? May I? Am I ready?" Hold the fingertips of your free hand over their head. Once again, you will notice that your pendulum will define the yin or yang energy of that person even though s/he is in a photograph!  (Note: if the person in the picture you are using is dead, you might get a different reaction either none at all, or the exact opposite of what you would expect i.e., a man's crown chakra, at the top of the head, reading yin or minus. Try asking, "Show me the polarity of this chakra at the time this picture was taken.')

This is called map dowsing, and all competent dowsers, no matter what their area of interest, employ this kind of dowsing to save themselves time in the field. Why walk all over forty acres of some farmer's land looking for the best place to drill a water well when you can locate it rapidly and reasonably accurately on a hand-drawn map and then go out and quickly find and verify it in the field? It's not clear exactly how map dowsing works, but it does. And whether you are reading someone's crown chakra in a photograph, or looking for the best place to drill for water on a hand-drawn map, the process is still the same.

L Rods

As the name implies, L rods are L-shaped tools that are held by the shorter end of the L. They are usually used in pairs, one in each hand. These tools are most often made out of brazing rod, or other similar heavy-gauge wire. Some prefer to have sleeves on the shorter end so they can swing more easily. Beginners often make L rods out of two all-wire coat-hangers which are cut right next to the hook and at the other end of the bottom of the hanger. This bit can then be straightened out into an L. If you make a pair of L rods out of coat-hangers, you might want to bend over each of the ends of the wire to make sure that the rough ends don't injure anyone. While these coat-hanger L rods work reasonably well, the gauge of wire is light enough that out in the field the wind will blow them about more than you might like. This is why I prefer a heavier gauge of wire.

Let's try a different target for you to practice on with your L rods. Locate where the water-pipe enters your home (the main shut-off for your water is usually there). Then go outside and try to dowse for the pipe. Go to the point where you know that it leaves the house. Hold the L rods loosely in your hands with the longer ends of the wires pointing out in front of you – for me it has some of the feel of being a cowboy with my six-guns out and ready to shoot. This is the search position for L rods. Make sure that the longer end of the L isn't resting on your fingers. Say to yourself, "I am looking for the pipe that brings water into my home and I want the rods to cross when I get over that point." Walk confidently over your lawn with the expectation that your rods will cross.

If you have no idea where your water enters the house, put five or six feet of knitting yarn or string on your living room floor, and dowse for that instead (you can put it under the rug to make it a bit more authentic if you wish). The point here is to be dowsing for a known target. Please try at least one of these two exercises now.

THEY DIDN'T WORK. THEY DIDN'T CROSS!  Sometimes beginners get intimidated by these new tools. It's important to remember that dowsing rods are tools that work for you – not the other way around. In this sense, they are a bit like animals that need to be trained. Try loving firmness. They're working for you. Show them what you want.

Once again approach the water-pipe or string with the L rods in the search position. When your hands are over the target, twist your thumbs toward each other. That's right, make the rods cross. What you are doing is impressing your subconscious how you want the rods to respond. You may have to do this six or seven times to make the connection. You may even have to do this for several days or even a week but, sooner or later, the L rods will begin to seem to be crossing by themselves. When you get this sense, continue to walk over your target paying more and more attention to the fact that you are in no way consciously moving those rods. When you can walk over the target, and know that you didn't twist your thumbs towards each other, then you are ready for the next step.

Go to a friend who wouldn't mind your dowsing around their house. With your L rods in the search position, walk around the outside of their home. State what you are looking for as clearly as you can. "I want my rods to cross over the pipe that carries the water into this house."

As you are walking, it is important that you keep a clear image of your target in mind and that you remain focused on that target. I use a mantra (of sorts). Mantras are sounds, phrases, or brief prayers repeated over and over again that help the spiritual seeker to keep focused. Perhaps the best known mantra is "Ommmm". Another is done with the breath – breathing in, "My God", and exhaling, "My All". In the case of dowsing for a water-pipe, I would say over and over again with each step "water-pipe, water-pipe, water-pipe." This does not have to be said verbally, but that might help at first. It keeps you focused on the task at hand.

One of the major reasons for failure in dowsing is that between the asking of the question and the motion of the dowsing tool that indicates the answer, the dowser's need (conscious or unconscious) influences the answer. You will get what you want. As you are dowsing your friend's yard for the water-pipe, if you think to yourself, "it must be over there, where it's close to the main road," that's exactly where your rods will cross. You must not allow yourself to have expectations as a dowser. A mantra can help here as it not only keeps you focused, it also doesn't give you the time or opportunity to be thinking, "It must be over there."

When your rods cross, you can then go down into your friend's basement and see if you were right. If so, congratulations. If your rods crossed somewhere else other than where the water-pipe entered the house, perhaps they crossed over another pipe, maybe an older lead-pipe that used to bring the water in, or the pipe to the septic system. In any event, go outside again and pick up the water-pipe. You now know where it is. Feel that dowsing response. Can you think of any way to trace this pipe as it goes across the lawn or yard?

Again, if you are using yarn under a rug, have a friend hide a length under one of the rugs in your living room or a similar space. If you don't have rugs, use sheets of newspaper. Then you can use your L rods to look for the yarn in the same manner that you would look for a friend's water-pipe. When you have found the yarn, can you find out which direction it's running? This ability to trace the target is a skill that will come in handy later.

Up until now, your L rods have only crossed inwards. Stand near one of the water pipes or the piece of yarn, and say, "When I approach the target, I want my L rods to go out instead of in. When they are over the target, I want them to spread out so that when my hands are directly over the target, the arms of the L rods are spread so that they are directly opposite each other." No matter what direction you approach the pipe or yarn from, you will find that when your L rods are directly over the target, the arms will oppose each other in such a way that you can tell in which direction the pipe or yarn is going!

There are times when you will want the L rods to cross in and other times when you'll want them to go out. The important issue here is they seem to be going 'by themselves' and you are in no way consciously bending your wrists. Of course you can make the rods go either way by twisting your wrists, but who are you fooling?


The Y Rod

This is perhaps the best known of all the dowsing tools, and it is used by some of the hottest dowsers in the business. It is at its best when one is trying to pinpoint one specific target – a single point on the surface of the Earth. Before we discuss the forked stick in detail, it is important to remember that not all tools work equally well for all people. I found, for example, that after I had been dowsing for ten years or so, there was a period of two or three years when the Y rod didn't work for me. Without realizing it, I seemed to have convinced myself that the Y rod wouldn't work for me and indeed, it didn't. The L rods and pendulum worked fine, so it wasn't a big problem; however, in the late Seventies, when I was asked to head the Dowsing School with Ed Jastram for the American Society of Dowsers, I figured that it was time to get the Y rod to work for me again. So, I practised, and it came back. Need and intent are the critical factors here.

In dowsing, as in so many of the psycho/spiritual arts, need is very important. If you need to accomplish something – for example a friend doesn't have any water, and needs a well – dowsing works much better and more accurately than when you are showing off your dowsing skills at a party or in some trivial "scientific" experiment. I needed to have the Y rod work for me because I had to teach others ... so it worked. It really is as simple as that.

As a beginner, if you find that a certain tool doesn't seem to work for you, don't worry. Use the ones that do and improve your dowsing skills with them. When the time comes when you need to be able to use the one that hasn't worked for you, it will work. Don't worry about it.

Back now to the Y rod. There is an old story that only certain woods will work for Y rods. In northern Vermont, where I come from, some dowsers swear by apple wood. In other areas, some feel that "only willow will work." My feeling about this is that if you believe that, it's true. On the other hand, if the ultimate goal of the spiritual dowser is to get rid of the tools entirely, what possible difference can it make what any given tool is made of? If you choose to limit yourself that way, you can do it. I feel that any Y-shaped material, be it apple wood, willow, white pine needles, or black plastic all work equally well as long as they are stiff enough and have a spring to them.

Before I cut a Y rod from a tree, I ask permission. This may seem odd to you at first, but if you want to learn how to tune in to Nature better, it's a good way to begin.

Walk along looking for a Y-shaped branch with evenly-sized arms about the diameter of thick pencils. When you find a well-balanced branch, take out your pendulum and ask the tree if it is OK to cut that branch. (Remember: "This is what I want to do. Can I? May I? Am I ready?') When you get a "yes", say, "Thank you", and cut the branch. Trim off the excess twigs and leaves so that the two arms are about twelve to eighteen inches long.

Grasp both arms of the Y rod with your palms upward, and your thumbs pointing out. The tip of the rod should be pointing upward (see illustration). You will find with a bit of manoeuvring that there is a point of balance where if you were to move the stick just a bit forward, it would snap downward. Likewise, if you were to move it backward, it would snap you in the face! This "between the snaps" area is the Y rod's search position.


Animal

Now, what to look for. This time, let's try looking for underground water. Water dowsing is the one bit of divination that has survived those periods of time during which dowsers were actively persecuted by religious authorities. By some it's still called water-witching. Water is so important to life itself, but how to find it? Where to dig?

If we only had eyes to see, Mother Nature shows us clearly where veins of underground water are. This is true for the animal, vegetable and even mineral kingdoms. For example, cats love to spend time over crossings of underground veins of water. Do you have a cat? Is there someplace – not next to a heater – where your cat loves to sit? There could be veins of water there. If you have woodchucks (the American equivalent to the British badger) or foxes in your area, find the mouth of one of their tunnels or dens. These are always over a vein of water. Likewise ant hills are usually over a crossing of veins of water. Deer are very attracted to this elixir of life. Perhaps you can find a place in a pasture where they have bedded down for the night. The grass will be all matted down. This will also be over water. When bees leave a hive to go somewhere else, they first gather round their queen on the limb of a tree or some other object from which they can hang. This clump of bees is called a swarm, and it is always over underground veins of water.

Vegetable

If there aren't any of these animals in your area, maybe you can find a tree that has warty cancerous growths (in the U.S. we call these burls good tobacco pipes are made from them). There will be a vein of water under that burl. Maybe you can find an apple tree in the middle of a pasture that, instead of growing straight upwards, leans out in an exaggerated way in one direction or another. It is stretching out to be over water. (At the edge of a wood, if you find a tree that leans out into the field, this is something else. It's called positive phototropism and it's just trying to get a bigger share of the sunlight.) Cedar trees lean out to grow over underground veins of water. There is an example of this in the Chalice Well Garden in Glastonbury, England. At the point where the tree turns upwards again, you will find a vein of water. Sometimes, when certain trees are rooted directly over a crossing of veins of water, the trunk twists like a corkscrew. I have noticed this with both apple and maple trees.

Mineral

If for some reason there are no cooperative plants or animals in your area, perhaps there is a megalithic standing stone, stone row, stone circle or other ancient sacred place. If someone hasn't moved the stones to 'restore' them, they too will be over veins of underground water. Often there are two veins that cross directly underneath a standing stone, and they exit at the corners of the stone! The builders of these ancient sites must have been much cleverer than many scholars have realized.

In the sixth century C.E. Pope Gregory instructed his priests, who were then bringing Roman Christianity to the British Isles, to destroy the idols, but not the stones of the people, and to then build their churches on those same sites. This practice was continued by the Spaniards when they took over Central and South America. Most of their glorious cathedrals are built on Aztec, Mayan, Inca, etc. holy sites. But in the United States it was different. In their push westward, the settlers just wanted to get rid of the Indians. We wanted their land, so we tried our best to wipe them out. The European invasion of North America was probably the first invading culture that didn't find out where the indigenous people's holy sites were. Fortunately, Western Man wasn't totally successful in this venture and there are still some Native Americans who remember the old ways who are willing to share some of their knowledge with true seekers. There is more and more interest in these sacred places in the U.S. Ask around. When it is time for you to find one, it will be there. There is always water at these places.

Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, I'm sure that you can visualize at least one such place with an underground vein or veins of water near you. There are many ways Mother Nature speaks to those who will listen. These messages are found in the trees and plants, animals, and even in the mineral kingdom, in the Earth herself.

Using the clues suggested above, find a place where animals, the vegetation or a standing stone shows that there is at least one vein of water under it. Ask with your pendulum, ("Can/May/Ready?") "Is there a vein of water under this spot?" Then hold your Y rod in the search position, and say, "I want you to go down when I get over a vein of underground water." If possible, walk directly over the animal hole, crushed vegetation, or whatever your target is. You should feel a bit of a tug as you approach the target. When your hands are directly over the target the stick should pull sharply downward.

IT DIDN'T WORK.  I DIDN'T FEEL ANYTHING.  It's time to train your dowsing muscles again.

Walk over the target and make your Y rod go downwards. Say, "This is how I want you to react." It may feel odd to be talking to a stick of wood, but you need to program the expected response if it doesn't seem to work by itself. Walk over the target and make the stick go down several times. Then try it again with the expectation that it will work by itself. If it still doesn't work, and the L rods or pendulum did work for you, don't worry; put the Y rod aside for a while, and concentrate on the tools that do work for you. (This is true for any of the dowsing tools. If one doesn't seem to work, use the others that do and come back to the recalcitrant tool later.)


The Bobber

While some dowsers swear by this little device – especially oil and water dowsers – the bobber is probably the least used of the four basic dowsing tools. A good one can be made by holding a fishing rod at the wrong end – by the tip. Hold the rod/bobber with either one or both hands. Normally, the instrument will bob up and down to indicate "yes", and it will go side to side to indicate "no". Using the same method of "Show me 'yes' etc. ," determine "yes" and "no" for you on the bobber.

This tool can also be used to determine the depth of the target. Stand over a vein of underground water. Tell the device that each bob will be ten feet and start counting the bobs. For example, if the top of the vein were fifty-four feet down, it would go something like this, "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty." At sixty, the bobber will start to move from side to side, so you know that it is more than fifty, and less than sixty feet down. Now change the code so that each bob represents only one foot. "Fifty-one, two, three, four, five." At fifty-five, the bobber will once again stop its bobbing and start to go from side to side, so you know that the top of the vein of water is between fifty-four and fifty-five feet down. You can take it to the nearest inch if you want to using the same process.

For me, the bobber goes up and down for "yes", and from side to side for "no", much like one moves one's head to indicate the same responses.


OK, I've Felt at Least One of These Tools Move
But How Does It Work?

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one simple answer to this question. Some have suggested that it works like radar; the dowser sends out some kind of searching signal and it bounces back. Others feel that target itself emits some sort of signal which the dowser picks up when s/he is directly over the target. Either certainly could be the explanation for how it works when an on-site dowser is directly over the target. Dr. Zaboj Harvalik, a past Trustee of the American Society of Dowsers (ASD) reported in their Digest that he could block the ability of his friend, Willie De Boor, to dowse veins of water that were directly underneath him by placing copper shields over the solar plexus and the head at the temples. (Why do you think that those two points on your head are called temples?) Dr. Harvalik felt that field dowsers picked up magnetic field gradients, his term for the dowsing signal, as they walked over the surface of the Earth looking for veins of water, underground pipes, mineral deposits or other specific underground physical targets.

This test would seem to indicate that with on-site, over-the-target dowsing, the signal can somehow be interfered with by shielding the field-dowsing sensors in the solar plexus and, to a lesser extent, those in the temple area of the head. So dowsing works like radar.

Not always. How would radar account for map dowsing? How does it explain the ability of most of the readers of this book to dowse the crown chakra of someone's picture in a magazine? How does radar account for "yes/no" dowsing when there is no physical target as such? It can't. The field-dowsing/radar model doesn't always work. Apparently, dowsing doesn't always work the same way. With an on-site dowser, it appears to work something like radar, but with map dowsing, and informational ("yes/no") kinds of work, there must be some other kind of explanation.

Holograms

Have you ever seen a hologram? If you have, you know that it has a remarkable ability to make two dimensions look like three. This effect is even more striking when the "object" you are looking at results from lasers being projected through a holographic negative. This negative doesn't look like an ordinary photographic negative of, say, an apple. A holographic negative looks like someone took a handful of pebbles and threw them at a pond. It looks like a series of circular radiating interference patterns.

If you were to take a regular photographic negative of an apple and tear a corner of it off and print just that corner, you would get just a bit of the apple. But with the holographic negative, if you tear off a corner and send coherent, or laser, light through it, you get the whole apple! The little corner has the whole within it. Granted, it won't be as crystal clear as the entire negative would have been, but the apple will still be there, in its entirety, hanging in space before your eyes.

Perhaps remote and informational dowsing works like that. Perhaps each of us, being part of the cosmic hologram, have the whole picture within us. We don't have to go outside of ourselves to get the answer. It already exists within.


The Seven Levels of Dowsing

Level One
Another way to look at the question of how dowsing works was developed by Terry Ross, past President of The American Society of Dowsers. I was fortunate enough to have him for one of my Field Faculty when I did my Masters Degree. He talks about seven levels of dowsing ability. His first, and lowest level of dowsing, is on-site dowsing, where the dowser must be directly over the target. This would equate with Dr. Harvalik's field dowsing and it probably does work something like radar.

Level Two
With level number two, the dowser can stand at the edge of the field and ask, "What is the direction of the nearest source of potable water that flows year 'round and is less than twenty feet under the ground?" With an L rod, hold one rod in the search position and turn your body. The L rod will "stick" in the direction where that water source is. With a Y rod, again hold it in the search position, and turn slowly around in a circle. When you're facing your target, the rod will dip, or go down.

Try this with something near to you now like, "Where is the front door?" Holding your L rod or Y rod in the search position, turn slowly around in a circle. Notice that the rod seems to stick in that direction. The L rod will continue to point at the target even as you continue to turn, and the Y rod will dip as you pass that point. Obviously you know where the front door is, but this technique can be of benefit in many different situations. Can you think of a way to get your pendulum to indicate direction? With this second level, you're not over the target, but within sight of it, or at least close enough to walk to it. ("I'm lost in the woods, where's my car?')

Level Three
With level number three, the target is over the horizon. It is not within your field of vision. It's a different way of going there; it's called map dowsing. If you have been successful with all of the exercises in this book so far, this is the level that you can now operate on. You did it when you dowsed a photograph of someone to determine the polarity of their crown chakra. Somehow, for the purpose of the search, the symbol (in this case a photo) becomes reality. Many people who carry a cross or a medicine bundle, or some other kind of spiritual protection, don't feel that these objects are symbols of Christ, the Great Spirit or whomever their amulet represents. Christ actually is there. The Great Spirit is with them. The symbol is reality. They are one and the same. Map dowsers work on that level.

Level Four
Level four is called "deviceless". You throw away the dowsing tool, and just go inside and "know" the answer. Some people "see" a pendulum in their mind's eye. They first see it in the search position and, after asking the question, they see it move into their "yes" or "no" response. Why don't you try this now?

Say to yourself, "Can I do deviceless dowsing?" Relax. Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. Look at the screen that you dream on. You'll find it in the center of your forehead, just above your eyebrows. (It's the place where you go when someone says, "Look at your mother" and you "see" a clear picture of her.) Now go to that same place, and see your pendulum in your search position. See it move into your "yes" motion as it acknowledges your question and then it quickly goes back into your search position. "Can I do this?" "Yes." (At this point you already have your answer, don't you?) And so on. Give deviceless dowsing a try now.

IT DIDN'T WORK.  I suspect that this might very well be the case for some readers. But please remember, fourth level dowsing is getting into some pretty rarified areas. There are many excellent old-time water dowsers who never go above level two. So if it didn't work, but map dowsing did, you're still in very good company. Keep at it; it will come.

Perhaps visually is not the way you might pick up level four information. With your eyes closed, try to picture your mother or a close friend. If you can't see the person, can you smell them? Feel their presence? Hear their voice? While the examples in this book for deviceless dowsing are mostly visual, if one of your other senses works better, use that one. "Hearing" the answer is as accurate as "seeing" it.

The holographic paradigm seems to be a good one to explain how levels three and four work. Some people call this information source the Akashic Record. In any event, perhaps we have this Great Cosmic Library within us. At these levels we have access to all kinds of information and, indeed, the first four levels are solely informational in nature. We are the recipients of answers to our questions that apparently come from a source other than our conscious rational mind.

Level Five
With level number five, things begin to change. At this level, healing seems to be a good example of what happens. Not only can the dowser go to another person and find out what the problem is – say lung cancer
– but s/he can channel energy in such a way as to stop the cancerous growth. There are many examples of this throughout the dowsing community. And there is an important distinction here from the lower levels of dowsing. For the first time, the dowsers are not passive viewers. They can begin to effect someone or something outside themselves.


Spiritual House-cleaning

Another area where level five dowsing comes into play is with what dowsers refer to as "house-cleaning". While of course it is always beneficial to have your house cleaned on the physical level, this kind of cleaning has to do with spiritual levels of cleanliness. There are various types of energy that can make the environment of your home an unhealthy place to spend time in. Some people sense this immediately. Have you ever entered a house and just known that you wouldn't want to live there? You can't put your finger on exactly why, but it just doesn't feel right. There are several reasons why this might be so. The first one has to do with thought forms.

Thought has form. To prove this to yourself, draw an imaginary line in the air with your finger. Pull out the dowsing tool you work best with, and ask it to find that line. When you come to the point in the air where you drew the line, your tool will react indicating the edge of that "imaginary" line! Try it.

Feelings and emotions also have form. When you have an angry scene with your mate, that energy continues to hang around, interfering with those who are trying to live in peace long after the angry scene. These forms can be erased. When I create intentional thought forms, after I'm through with them, I erase them by rubbing my hand over the form as if I were erasing a blackboard.

Try this with the line you just created. Dowse it again to see that it is still there, and then erase it with your hand. As you do that, mentally make it your intent that the line be gone. Now dowse it again. See, it's gone! You can remove negative thought forms in the same manner from your home. It's all a matter of focusing your intent. You really don't need to do that rubbing action with your hand, but it helps you focus your intent.


Krebs Houses

In many homes, another kind of energy that negatively effects one's health comes from Mother Earth herself. Dowsers in Germany have known for years that there are certain houses where there is a much higher incidence of disease than in houses right next to them. This is true for family after family and generation after generation. They call these buildings krebs houses, the German word for cancer, because there is a particularly high incidence of that particular ailment in those homes. When dowsers were asked to look at these houses they found that there were a lot of veins of underground water crossing under them. The non-affected nearby houses didn't have this high incidence of veins of underground water. (Fault lines and mineral deposits are also sources of this kind of energy, but for the moment, let's stick to the water.) It is not actually the water itself that seems to cause the problem, although the flowing nature of the water seems to exaggerate it. The negative effect is more than twice as bad when one spends time over the crossing of several veins. Veins of flowing water seem to act as doors that allow certain energies to pass through the normally shielded mantle of the Earth's crust.

Muscle Testing

There is a way that you can feel this for yourself. It is called muscle testing or kinesiology. Your body can clearly tell you whether something is good for you or not. Find someone who will make a willing subject, and give the following a try. Locate a place where your dowsing rods tell you that there is a crossing of two or more underground veins of water. Once you have located them, ask the question, "Are these veins detrimental to human health?" (Some veins have been neutralized either by natural means or by the hand of wo/man. For this particular exercise, you must be working with veins that have not been neutralized.) Walk over the veins again. If you still get a dowsing reaction, continue with the test. If your rods remain in the search position, find another crossing of veins.

Have your friend stand near the crossing, but not over any vein of underground water. Tell her/him, "Hold out your right arm parallel to the ground." Put two fingers on the top of her/his wrist, and say, "I'm going to try to push your arm downward towards your waist, and I want you want you to resist." The technique is to say, "Resist", and then to exert the same downward pressure each time. Feel how much pressure it takes to move the arm downward towards her/his waist. Perhaps you won't be able to move her/his arm at all.

Now ask your friend to stand directly over the crossing of veins that you have previously dowsed as detrimental to human health. Try the same muscle testing exercise again, remembering how much pressure was necessary the first time. Your friend's arm will go down much more easily! This is a point on the surface of our Mother that will weaken us if we spend a lot of time over it.

Now comes the most important part of the test. Have your friend get off the crossing (back on to neutral turf) and test her/him a third time. You will find that her/his arm is strong again. Do not leave someone testing weak. Always make the last test a "strong" one. Have your friend try the same experiment with you, so you can feel how spots like these weaken you.

Incidentally, muscle testing can be used to test if certain foods or drugs are good for you. You might want to try the same procedure with sugar or tobacco. The person being tested can either hold the substance in their other hand, or they can put it on their tongue. It's a dynamite way to test for food allergies.


The Aura

Dowsing can also help you "see" the aura, that energy field that surrounds and permeates all living things. There are many ways of dividing up the human aura. Using inner vision, a form of deviceless dowsing, some see the health aura as a glowing band of shimmering colors extending about six to eight inches from the body. This band of color is a statement about the person's health and mental attitude. In addition to the health aura, others see an egg-shaped spheroid field extending many feet outwards.

As a dowser, I have found that the aura can be divided vibrationally into seven bodies starting with the lowest vibrational one, our physical body, and expanding outwards to the point where our seventh, or highest vibrational body, covers the entire cosmos. It is at that level that we are one with the Creator.

Obviously then, the outer edges of some of these bodies can not be dowsed here on Earth. But we can dowse the first three or four. The lowest vibrating body is the Physical. It can be experienced empirically. You can touch it with your finger. The first one beyond the Physical, and the one we shall use for this dowsing experiment, is called the Astral or Emotional body. It vibrates at a higher rate than our Physical body which it interpenetrates, and it extends some two or three feet out from the Physical body. Usually when I ask to dowse the edge of someone's Astral body, when I find it, and extend my arm out and touch their chest, the edge is somewhere between my elbow and my chest. The Astral/Emotional body will be the body that we will practice with. The next body out is the Mental body, and beyond that, the Spiritual. (See the Sevens Chart at the end of this chapter.)

For the next dowsing exercise you need a willing subject. I can't stress how important that word "willing" is. You must have the person's permission before you dowse for information about them. There are always some unaware sods at dowsing conventions who insist on jabbing their Y rods into people's auras without asking permission.

When it has happened to me, it feels like an invasion of privacy. And that's just what it is. You wouldn't go into someone's house without asking permission, so why go into their psychic space without doing the same?

In any event, ask your friend to stand at a point where you have determined that there are no underground veins of water. Dowse the edge of their Astral body. Notice where that edge is on your outstretched arm when you touch their chest.

Then ask your friend to stand over the spot where you have previously determined through dowsing and muscle testing that there is a crossing of underground veins detrimental to human health. Dowse the edge of the Astral or Emotional body again. Notice that it has shrunk to within several inches of the physical body. Then ask her/him to go back to the neutral space and notice how the aura expands again.

For me, this is evidence of psychic attack. If you were to walk naked outside into a winter storm, your body would go immediately into a series of contractions – shivering. The same is true on the higher levels of our auric bodies as well.

Level Six
The sixth and seventh levels of dowsing are rarefied indeed. The sixth level dowser can not only go there and, say, halt the cancer in the lung, but s/he can can be a channel for healing energies that will create new lung tissue in place of the old. It's one of those times when the doctor looking at before and after x-rays of a patient's lungs has trouble thinking it's the same person.

Level Seven
With the seventh level, the dowser and their Creator are One. "Thy will be done." And it is. Christ and the other Avatars function on this level. It is the highest level that one can operate on and still be in the physical body.

So the dowser seems to grow from level to level. As s/he completes one s/he is ready for the next. It begins with on-site dowsing. Level two is where the dowser takes the first step away from having to be directly on top of the target to being able to dowse from the edge of the field. The third and fourth levels take the dowser further and further away – first map dowsing, then doing away with the tools entirely. Fifth level dowsers can go someplace and change things – stop a cancer, move a vein. At the sixth level, new material can be created. The seventh, and highest level is called reflexive. The dowser's will and the Great Spirit's will are one.

Next: Dowsing the Earth Energies

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