{"id":206,"date":"2020-05-25T23:08:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T22:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/?p=206"},"modified":"2020-05-25T23:08:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T22:08:43","slug":"a-sketched-history-of-the-pendulum-part-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/2020\/05\/25\/a-sketched-history-of-the-pendulum-part-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A sketched history of the pendulum \u2013 Part 1\/2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pendulum is probably the principle tool of the\nmodern dowser. Therefore, it might be of some interest to provide a sketch of\nthe history of this device. Here I provide several extracts covering its early\nhistory up until the early part of the 20th<\/sup> century. This early period\nsees dowsers using mostly the dowsing \u201crod\u201d, which was typically the Y-rod, but\ncould also take other forms (even a German sausage). There appears to be little\nwritten about the use of the pendulum by run of the mill dowsers. However, we\ndo have accounts by several intellectuals of their day, who took an interest in\nthe working of the pendulum. This was possibly related to the recent discovery\nof electricity and magnetism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the greatest reviews of dowsing was undertaken\nby Sir William Barrett, founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and\npublished together with Theodore Besterman, in the early part of the 20th<\/sup>\nCentury, in their book \u201cThe Divining Rod\u201d. In his review of the history of dowsing,\nhe mentions the first written<\/em> account\nof dowsing practice by Agricola in his treatise \u201cDe Re Metallica\u201d, published in\n1556. In this, Agricola \u201c\u2026points out that very cogently that as the [dowsing]\nrod does not move in the hands of all men there cannot be any specific affinity\nbetween the object of the search and the rod : the phenomenon (which Agricola\nhimself observed) must be due to some quality of the dowser himself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it was another who discovered what might\nactually activate the dowsing rod, or pendulum. A Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, working\nin the middle of the 17th<\/sup> Century, performed many dowsing\nexperiments. He connected the movement of the dowsing rod with that of the\npendulum. Furthermore, he concluded that the action of any dowsing device was due\nto unconscious muscular actions on the art of the dowser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cDivining\u201d by Christopher Bird, \u00a0an encyclopaedic account of dowsing, by a former Vice-President of the American Association of Dowsers, he covers the early history of pendulum use, which he suggests may extend back to Roman times. You can read an excerpt here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog_extracts\/Bird_Divining_p123.pdf<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his historical sweep, he focusses on Johann Ritter, who appears to be the first true scientist to study the dowsing pendulum, around the end of the 18th<\/sup> Century. By careful study of the motion of the pendulum when used by an experienced dowser, Ritter noted that different substances produced different signature movements in the pendulum. He became convinced that the pendulum was acted on by some yet unknown force, derived from living organisms, including the dowser, and from inanimate objects. The action arose as a result of the dowser\u2019s intention. This intention could be in the form of a question, and the pendulum would provide the answer by an interpretation of is movement. It seems that Ritter made good use of this in his research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that at this time, in France, a certain\nProfessor Gerboin, had also been making a long and in depth study concerning\nthe action of the pendulum, the results of which suggested that the user could illicit\nor handicap the pendulum\u2019s movements, substantiating Ritter\u2019s work. The French\nscientist Michel-Eugene Chevreul, followed up on Gerboin\u2019s conclusions, working\nfrom the early to mid-19th<\/sup> Century, was considered at the time, the standard\ntreatise on dowsing, \u201cDe la baguette divinatoire\u201d (1854). Bird states that\nChevreul had effectively discovered what we now refer to as psychokinesis (PK),\nthe effect of mental intention over matter, but stopped short of concluding\nsuch. It seems instead, he attributed all of the movements of the pendulum to auto-suggestion,\nand ruled out any supernatural, spiritistic, electrical or magnetic force\nexplanation for the phenomena. Rather than advancing dowsing, he had hindered\nits understanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, also working in the mid-19th<\/sup>\nCentury, was an English scientist, J. Rutter. He did conduct some interesting research\non the PK effect on pendulums. Using an experimental rig named the \u201cmagnetoscope,\u201d\nRutter seems to have demonstrated PK effects, and also demonstrated ways in\nwhich the pendulum could be used as a dowsing instrument, for example with the\nuse of samples. This is briefly covered in the Bird article, but a fuller\naccount is given in the BSD journal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly experiments with the pendulum\u201d,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog_extracts\/BSD_No88_1955_p195.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 19th<\/sup> Century the idea of \u201cAnimal\nmagnetism\u201d, proposed by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, was an influential belief;\nthe idea of an invisible force arising from all living things, which could have\nphysical effects. It inspired much research, such as that of Rutter\u2019s. Another\nexample that Bird mentions is Baron Karl von Reichenbach, who built on Rutter\u2019s\nwork. Reichenbach was an impressive researcher, working with many psi-gifted\nsubjects. He was convinced of the existence of a PK like force, which he named \u201cod\u201d,\nor \u201codic\u201d force. His work was sometimes referred to by members of the BSD, but\nnow he is largely forgotten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

See: \u201cReichenbach\u201d, in : <\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog_extracts\/BSD_No48_1945_p173.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Bird describes the work of Johann Karl Bahr,\nwho he says essentially laid down the basis for all dowsing practice that followed.\nBahr contended that things had \u201cinner values\u201d, which were only<\/em> recognised by the particular effect they have on the movement of\nthe dowser\u2019s pendulum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the latter half of the 19th<\/sup> Century,\nthere seems to be less scientific interest in the pendulum, but in France, there\nbegan in interest in dowsing by a series of priest (Abbe) dowsers, whose work influenced\nmuch of the dowsing practice of the 20th<\/sup> Century. More in part 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pendulum is probably the principle tool of the modern dowser. Therefore, it might be of some interest to provide a sketch of the history of this device. Here I provide several extracts covering its early history up until the early part of the 20th century. This early period sees dowsers using mostly the dowsing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dowsing-research.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}