There appears to have been a lively dowsing fraternity
in France at the beginning of the 20th Century. The dowsing society
“society of friends of radiesthesie” was established early on, by the Abbé
Bouly, one of a line of priest dowsers, who had made significant advances in
the application of the dowsing pendulum. In effect, there was a French school
of dowsing, which was to influence dowsing practice for a goof part of the
century.
For instance, the Abbé Mermet, the son of a dowser,
also worked as a dowser for more than 40 years, and was active in the first half
of the 20th Century. He developed an exceptional degree of skill in the use of
the pendulum. He made a number of “discoveries”, including dowsing at
a distance (Téléradiesthésie), the use of “samples” and the presence
of certain “rays”. A record of his methods and experiences is contained
in his book “Comment j’opère “.
He also wrote “Principles & Practice of Radiesthesia. A
Textbook for Practitioners and Students”.
He may have been the first to use “serial
numbers” in dowsing. A given object has a kind of signature, involving the
movement of a pendulum. The dowser holds the pendulum in one hand, between thumb
and index finger, and then holds his other hand near or above the object. When
this is done, the pendulum performs a certain number of oscillations (swings
backwards and forwards), followed by the same number of rotations (also known a
gyrations), together these movements form the first “series”. This
series then ends mand the pendulum hesitates for a moment, then repeats the
same number in a new direction (perhaps also in the same direction), and continues
to do so indefinitely, as long as the operator holds his hand near or above the
body under observation.
The number of oscillations, or rotations, in a series
is the “serial number” of the object. He gives the example of silver,
for which he observed six oscillations, followed by six rotations. Then it
starts again. The figure six is the characteristic “serial number” of
silver. He considered the serial numbers to be an objective measure, citing the
fact that some experienced dowsers, if they had learned to hold the pendulum
correctly, had obtained the same numbers. But he admits that some sensitive beginners
tended to get higher numbers.
Another important method in his dowsing work was the
use of various “rays”. While reading the following explanation, it
might help to refer to the diagram in :
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/rays.jpg
The most important of his ray discoveries was the
“fundamental ray”. He claimed that every body has a fundamental ray,
emanating from it, directed at a fixed angle with respect to the North-South direction. It may also be inclined
with a constant angle to the horizontal. The direction of the fundamental ray
is always away from the object. The ray has a length which is proportional to
the mass of the body, and given the same weight of various bodies, to their
power of “radiation”.
He gives an example of a silver coin, of weight 10
grams. The direction of fundamental ray is towards the East and has a length of
10 cm. Contrast this with a copper coin of weight 10 grams. The direction of fundamental
ray is 45° South-West and has a length of 5 cm.
For an example of its use see the following article
from the BSD journal. Here the fundamental ray is used in the tanning of
leather.
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No55_1947_p144.pdf
A second ray which Mermet discovered was the
“mental ray”. This links an object to the dowser and to any other
person. It appears to come directly from the object to the brain of the
observer. He considered it to be the second most important ray, after that of
the fundamental ray.
A third ray he discovered was the “witness
ray”. He claimed that every type of body sends out a ray towards another
fragment of the same kind as itself. For example, if there are two silver coins
and two copper coins in a room, a ray will link up the silver coins together,
and another ray will do the same with the copper coins, but no ray will go from
silver to copper. He considered this to be extraordinarily useful. For example,
consider the case of a gold coin hidden, or lost, in a room. Another gold coin
(the witness) can be placed on a table and the dowser then walks round the
table. As soon as they pass between it and the searched for coin, the witness
ray will be intercepted, and the pendulum, held in the right hand, will give
the serial number for gold.
Finally, there is another ray, which was first
discovered by another eminent dowser, named Abbé Bouly, who named it the
“solar ray”. However, Mermet discovered that it had more properties than
Bouly had ascribed to it and renamed it the “luminous ray”. It seemed
to Mermet that the ray constantly linked an object either to the sun (even when
masked by clouds), or to any artificial light source. (Bouly had thought this
ray was only associated with the sun and that it only existed during daylight.)
The works of Mermet and Bouly proved influential in
the use of the pendulum, and its use was further promoted by another dowser
named, the Vicomte Henry de France. He wrote an influential book entitled “The
Modern Dowser”, published in 1930. As with the Abbé Mermet, his method of
pendulum dowsing was to identify an object through its “series”, which was the
unique manner in which the pendulum gyrated over a sample of that object. His pendulum
comprised a hemp string pone metre long, rolled on a little stick with notches
at the end. The pendulum was suspended over the sample and the string unwound
until a length is reached at which gyration begins; this could be either
clockwise or anti-clockwise. The string length was fixed using the notches on
the stick. Over different objects the pendulum would exhibit a number of
periods of gyrations, taking place one after the other. For example, the
pendulum gyrates in a certain direction. The dowser then stops the pendulum.
Next the pendulum is set oscillating and it starts gyrating again in the same
direction. Then it is stopped and
restarted and again starts to gyrate. After N such periods, the pendulum stops
gyrating and simply oscillates, or it gyrates in the opposite direction. The
value of N is said to be the “serial number” of the object. For example, he
gives some examples of serial number: Chalk,3; diamond, 6; coal, 18=3×6. A
refinement of the system was to make to make the pendulum bob a sample of the
object sought, or the sample was held in the hand that held the pendulum. Each dowser had to work out their own list of
series
Another contribution to pendulum dowsing was made by
an English dowser, T.C. Lethbridge, an archaeologist and Anglo-Saxon expert. Lethbridge
devised his own method of pendulum dowsing, although it shared some
similarities to those methods mentioned previously. By adjusting the length of
string, his oscillating pendulum, would gyrate in a circular motion, indicating
that the object, was detected. This process aided by holding a sample, or a
picture, or simply imaging the object/thought. Every object had a detection
length, which could result in a pendulum length exceeding well over a metre. Through his experiments, he was able to compile
a table of string lengths corresponding to various objects, eg 22 inches for
lead, 17 inches for truffles. Objects
having the same pendulum length, could be distinguished by counting the number
of oscillations that occurred over an object, before returning to oscillation,
sometimes referred to as the “series”. For example, the metal silver and colour
grey both caused gyrations for length 22inches, but silver caused 22 oscillations
and grey caused only seven.
He even discovered that the pendulum could respond to
abstract ideas, thoughts and emotions, eg death was 40 inches. In summary everything
that he could detect could be done so with a pendulum length between zero and
40 inches. If the length of the string was increased then the sequence was repeated with 40 inches
added, for example silver would be detected at 62 inches and the sequence repeated
again after 80 inches. Lethbridge
concluded, that the pendulum was not only reacting to the properties of the
object sought, but was also acting as an extension of the dowser’s own mind.
In practice, this system has some fundamental problems.
For many dowses, the length and series numbers they experience for a given item
do not match with any other dowser’s. Furthermore, some items have identical
length and series vales. These are apart from the facts that such a system
takes time to calibrate and, given the length of the pendulum, can prove very
unwieldly.
Ideas from the French school pervaded the early and mid-part
of 20th Century dowsing practice. Ideas in general were pretty fixed,
there was a bigger emphasis on the physical side of dowsing, including the type
and composition of the dowsing instrument. By the 1960s, practice was becoming more
personal, with a recognition that dowsers should find their own way of
practicing. There was also a growing recognition, that there was a mental
underpinning to dowsing and this caused much tension between the mentalists and
the physicalists, as to what indeed caused the dowsing reaction. In effect though,
dowsing practice is perhaps best understood as a kind of ritual, which the dowser
follows to get the results they seek.
The following is a nice example of a lady who takes up
dowsing. Se is initially bewildered by the methods she reads about, but finally
discovers her own way and goes on to apply her new skills as a healer.
See “Let’s keep it simple”:
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No199_1993_p13.pdf
This is merely a brief sketch of the recent historical
development of the dowsing pendulum. Much has been omitted, but hopefully this
missing practice will be covered by future postings.