I guess it is time I followed up on my last dowsing article.
Most people who do not believe in dowsing (whether the dowser is looking for water , minerals, or ghosts or whatever) believe that the movements of the rods are nothing more than a function of involuntary muscle movements at best or in many cases outright fakery.
But those of us that believe in dowsing liken the rods or pendulum to a radio antenna. They are believed to receive information from the vibrations and energy waves emitted by people, places, thoughts and the earth itself.
Even Albert Einstein was said to have played with dowsing rods. He believed their function was based on electromagnetic energy. He believed that dowsers were reacting to unseen energies much as birds know which direction they should fly.
Now whether dowsing tools create a “bridge” between our minds and the available energies around us or whether their function is more direct and independent is still debated. The point is that there seem to be sound if difficult to quantify principles behind them, limited only by the ability of the dowser to find and harness the energies that he seeking.
When we use the dowsing rods to contact spirits, basically we ask them to move the rods. I usually ask a yes-or-no or multiple choice question and instruct the spirits to either cross or move apart the rods depending on the answer. Sometimes we will ask the spirits to use the rods to point us in a direction that they would like us to move.
We seem to have some really amazing results.
But the question remains: Who or what is moving the rods when we use them for spirit communication?
If a ghost is moving the rods directly, then why does someone need to hold them?
If a ghost is using us to move them, is that safe? Aren’t we opening up ourselves to possible attachment or even possession?
Here is what I have put together from my own experience and what research I have done.
Since it is “obvious” to the dowser that no spirit needs to present for the rods to work for their other uses, then there is no reason to assume that what we are experiencing is direct manipulation or even that spirits are taking any control over the dowser. After all, no one is claiming that ghosts are helping a dowser find water, so why would we think that their direct interaction is necessary otherwise.
Instead, I think we need to see the rods as a form of meter. The dowser’s intention sets the range of the meter, just as the dial on a Trifield meter sets that’s device’s range. In the case of spirit communication the dowser “sets” the rods to react to spirit energy by his concentrated intentions. The spirits can then manipulate that energy in a way that allows the rods to react and measure. The dowser also seems to provide the kinetic energy (many believe as a higher brain function), acting as the batteries and mechanics as it where, required to make this happen, but that is very different from being “possessed“. No one claims that a microwave oven possesses an EMF meter’s batteries when the meter detects the microwave.
Because I have yet to hear of any “horror stories” where the dowser was overcome by a spirit despite their widespread use in the field, I personally believe that either the rods themselves or at least their mechanism of function may insulate us to some degree from such attachments and problems. Despite that belief, my suggestion , as with all paranormal communication methods is to use appropriate precautions (i.e. prayers, protective stones, amulets), and I can’t help but feel that such interactive and direct communication methods should not be used around known or suspected “bad” entities - especially by the novice ghost hunter.
In closing I still must stress that dowsing in general does NOT reach a level of reliability where we can call it proof. To call the results of a dowsing session proof of anything they must result in information that can be validated through real world research.
This post was edited by Wes Forsythe at March 7, 2011 8:02:50 PM EST
