During the 20th century, the idea of dowsing over maps began to slowly catch on, although not all dowsers considered it possible. Here Evelyn Penrose, a remarkably talented dowser who we have met in an earlier post, writes about a surprise she had while map dowsing for water in Australia. She had previously map dowsed on many occasions, but as is often the case in dowsing, the practitioner will often discover something new about their art.
She had always considered, that it essential that the map she was using, should have sufficient detail of the actual land it represented, so that it could not be confused with another similar area of land. That is the map acted rather like a finger print. It is a method very much in keeping with the vogue at that time to use a sample of the object sought, when dowsing. The idea being that somehow, the dowser and sample worked together. However, on one occasion, much to her surprise, she discovered that she had successfully dowsed for underground water, using a map that represented not the actual layout, but the future layout of the land.
It is as if the real dowsing was purely mental, with the map only acting as mental prop, to help focus it and thereby shut out all distractions.
The article is “The Phantom Map”:
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No83_1954_p285.pdf