This article by Enid Smithett is another from the same BSD journal of the mid-1970s, as that of the Scott-Elliott in the post of 08-04-2020. It is rather a long article, since it is a transcription of one of her talks, but her dowsing experiences demonstrate some remarkable aspects dowsing. It is easy to miss these on first reading, and so the article is well worth re-reading.
Her speciality is map dowsing, and the description she gives of her work only confirms that dowsing has a mental basis. For her, the map becomes a kind of doorway into a reality, which parallels the physical one in which we exist, but a reality that is amenable to her thoughts and intentions. In this mental reality, she can free herself from things which might otherwise interfere with here dowsing results, and thereby concentrate solely what she is seeking. She stresses that “the dowsing is always correct”, however, she speaks of the difficulty in transposing the results between mental and physical realities. This she says, can lead to mistakes of interpretation, something that also affects other map dowsers.
The list of confounding factors in map dowsing is diverse, involving other people, physical objects and even time. For example, in the same manner as the rémanence effect we have encountered in earlier posts, she finds that a map can retain information about those who have handled it previously. So, she uses a technique of map tracing to create a “clean” copy of the map, free from such contaminations. And if she personalises the map in some way, for example by writing a date on it, the map becomes a representation of the area covered, at that date, and consequently the subsequent dowsing results also relate to that to subjects existing at that date. As she says, “in dowsing we are separated from time, this is the whole point of it”.
She sees a map as a means of focussing, in the same way that dowsers use samples. When using samples, she is again wary of their contamination. For example, an item of clothing might belong to one person, but be contaminated by the presence of a hair belonging to another. Another example is a photograph taken from a newspaper, will have text on the rear, from the contents of the following page, and this can have an effect. It seems that the sample is not acting simply as a passive aide-memoir, the actual content of the sample is actively engaging with the dowser’s intention to seek. Therefore for better certainty, she tends to create her own sample by writing down on paper, as much information as she can about the subject sought.
She gives some examples of the results that she has obtained by map dowsing. For example, when dowsing for underground streams, she never detects the reaction bands parallel to the stream, which water diviners often detect while dowsing on the ground. And she can obtain the depth of the stream. She can trace the movements of people in real-time. And as already mentioned, can dowse back in time.
She recounts an incident that illustrates well the effect of a dowser’s preconceived ideas on their dowsing results. This is where she is engaged in finding underground streams on a property. She detects three streams while map dowsing, but only one when dowsing onsite at the property. The difference came down to how she defined the boundaries of the property. “The dowsing is always correct”, but the interpretation can go very wrong. The solution would seem to be to choose one’s dowsing questions with great care. Furthermore, she stresses the need to take responsibility for what you seek, without referring to others for advice, and to focus attention on what really matters.
About the dowser’s tools and techniques. Some dowsers like herself, set great store by correctly orientating their map. This might be important to some, but probably just depends on any preconceived ideas. She points out the problem depending too much on the tools, since the tool does not matter, it is better to use our hands. She and other map dowsers can get feelings in the hands when they run over the map, before dowsing proper begins. What is interesting here is that the hands can work in independent ways, each appears to contribute its own information into the dowsing mix.
The article, entitled “Map dowsing”, is here:
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No156_1972_p15.pdf