Here is a talk given by Sir Charles Jessel, Baronet, farmer and dowser, “At home and abroad with the pendulum”,
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No205_1984_p289.pdf
He splits his talk into two parts. The first part deals with his experiences dowsing in the UK. He mentions many practical applications of dowsing, particularly related to his work as a farmer. He also mentions his observations on Earth energies, having been influenced by the work of the classic dowser Guy Underwood. During this part of the talk, he highlights six mistakes he made while dowsing and what he learned from them. In the second part talks about his experiences dowsing while travelling in Greece and Turkey.
Amongst the applications he mentions, (many being farming related) are the following:.
Dating (archaeological) objects.
Selecting job applicants.
Locating leaking pipes.
Using a proxy to dowse for items about which the dowser has insufficient knowledge.
Making optimal settings on farming machinery.
Determining a price to sell something.
Finding lost (garden) tools.
How and where to plant trees.
Sexing shrubs and trees.
Finding mushrooms
He relates six dowsing mistakes he has made, which subsequently improved his dowsing:
1/ His dowsing question was poorly formed leading to the wrong answer. Here he refers to what is known as a ‘witness ray’, or a line connecting two objects that share some similarity, over which the dowser will obtain a reaction. This line he believes can be mis-interptrted for a physical object.
2/ This onw was specific to his interest in dating buildings. When dating a building, date the mortar rather than the stone (which would be formed in another age). It seems that this approach could be generalised to dating other composite objects.
3/ When depthing underground water. It is important to go down carefully from the ground surface though each layer.
4/ When dowsing to pick out a suitable employee. The application letter might not be written by the actual applicant, so care should be taken if using it as a witness.
5/ Dowsing answers might appear to be wrong, but this might be because one has forgotten to specify the time when the answer should apply, ie generally this is ‘now’. Otherwise the answer might be correct but applies to the past, or future.
6/ When searching for objects, be accurate in formulating clearly the object sought and where you seek it.
In addition to these mistakes, he makes an interesting comment about the need for the dowser to know something about the subject they are dowsing. But if this knowledge is not present, then it is possible to use another person’s knowledge, or gain the required know how from books etc. He gives the example of formulating a particular pottery glaze with his son, who could provide the necessary information.
The second part of the talk refers to his experiences dowsing ancient temples Greece and Turkey. This work refers back to the work of Underwood on Earth energies. The results seem highly personal and the reader must make of this what they will. However, I particularly like his concluding remark about dowsers working under Hermes, and to be aware of the latter as a trickster figure. The seventh mistake would then be to mix intellect with intuition!