Description

This comprehensive volume on dowsing
and divining – from the twig and the pendulum to motorscopes and bare
hands – traces the story of these fascinating and enigmatic phenomena
from its origins in the world of fairy tales
and mythology to recent theories that the
enigma can be explained in terms of
present-day psychology.The force present in the act of dowsing
and divining can be compared to the
sensitivity of men and women suffering
from rheumatism who feel, in advance,
changes of weather. Theories that have
been brought forward to explain its
presence include suggestion, radiation,
colour, the existence of a sixth sense, and
changes in the earth’s magnetic field. As
there are many possible explanations there are also many types and applications of dowsing and divining: map dowsing;sexing eggs; radiesthesia; the diagnosis and cure of disease; locating missing persons; forces, fields and rays; and detecting thieves.
The author tells of dowsers past and
present: Robert Leftwich who located
abandoned tunnels and other underground hazards; Major Harold Spary who dowsed for the Royal Aircraft
Establishment and the Royal Engineers
during World War II; William Young who
charged £200 a day in 1971 for dowsing:
Tom Lethbridge who investigated Viking
graves on Lundy Island; Henry Gross
who discovered Bermuda’s first natural
wells. Even today large building and
contracting firms employ resident site
engineers who use sophisticated sets of
divining rods.The book introduces us, in lucid and readable style, to the fascinating world of dowsing and divining, and gives the reader full instructions on how to attempt
to become one of this international
community.A belief in the power and efficiency of the divining rod can be said to have existed from the earliest ages, if we accept the ‘wish-rods’ of the ancient Greeks and Romans whose writings contain numerous allusions to such objects, and especially the staff of Hermes, sometimes shown as a forked rod.Viewed from the position of a diviner many classical writers appear to have the divining rod in mind when writing certain passages. Flavius Arrianus, commonly
called Arrian, a Greek historian, philosopher and pupil and friend of Epictetus, is credited with writing, … He
had a bad father, but I have a good one, and that is the staff of Hermes.