THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

NOVEMBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 44, NO.2 – SPRING 2004

OUR DOWSING SENSES

By VERONIKA STRONG

Life's solutions are usually simple and so it seems is dowsing. We pick up energies, but we can't quite explain where the information is coming from and how to interpret it. The information is relayed by our senses. Our senses make us aware of what is going on around us. We see, hear, feel, taste or smell. However, the awareness of what we sense is limited. Our awareness is the level at which we perceive and understand everything that is going on around us, but our senses may limit our awareness. 

The eyes, although our sight may be good, can only perceive the color spectrum from red to violet. If we want to see more, we either need X-ray machines or special infrared equipment. Animals like birds, insects and nocturnal creatures have much better sight than we have. 

Some animals have extraordinary eyesight. Birds can see from high above the ground when a small animal, like a mouse, or even an insect, moves on the ground. The night animals in the jungle, such as possums, see little insects in complete darkness, which is far beyond our awareness. We need special equipment to see what the animals can see naturally. It would be easy to say it does not exist, but we do know it exists, we are just not aware. Our senses limit us. 

Although our hearing is quite good, it is again limited. An elderly corgi can hear a hot-air balloon miles away when it is hardly visible and she will let us know. We all know about bats and their extraordinary hearing.

Elephants communicate at great distances with a very low rumble between different herds, yet we can't hear it; we can only detect it with special computer-enhanced equipment. It is also said that the elephants pick up sensory information from one herd to the other through their feet. We are not aware of the sound or the vibration.

It's the same for the sense of smell. Dogs are used for tracking, from drugs to humans - yet our sense of smell isn't good enough to keep us on a track. Insects smell the tiniest fraction of a scent miles away. Again, we realize it exists, but our awareness is limited.

So here we are, multi-sensory beings with only limited awareness. We can't say that nothing exists beyond our awareness, as we do know it is all there. So, what is happening?

If we were aware of every piece of sensory information that is going on around us it would cause an information overload. There are many thousands of sensory messages every second of our lives, and if we had to process each and every one of them, we would simply go mad. All the information gets lodged in the subconscious mind, which after all, runs our body. If we were aware of every breath every heartbeat, and, for that matter, every function of our body, we would have no time to do anything else. The subconscious mind only releases information to the conscious mind when it is of benefit. In other words, we don't notice our body temperature unless when we are too hot or too cold, or we notice our breath when we are out of breath, and our heartbeat when it is too fast.

I am sure you will all remember the story of the fire chief yelling at all his firefighting men when they were in the middle of a burning building. They were ordered to stop immediately and get out quick. This is usually not what fire chiefs do! In this case, as the last one got out, the whole building collapsed. Something in the chief's mind had alerted him to danger, and as a consequence he managed to save all the men's lives. There is another example of a mother with a new baby. If the mother was to sleep in another room away from the baby, surrounded by all sorts of noise, with children playing somewhere else in the house, music going, and traffic noise outside, this mother would sleep through it all. But if the baby next door would as much as make a little noise (without a baby monitor), the mother would be awake and alert in an instant. How can we explain that?

She sleeps through all the loud noise but the tiniest noise from the baby and she is wide awake. There is no impending danger in this case.

Our awareness is in a constant state of flux; however, at the moment of any action or decision, something seems to change. We can only do what our awareness allows us to do. To stop us from going mad with the thousands of sensory messages bombarding us all the time, our brain has a protection in place. This system protects us from a brain overload; it is called reticular formation or reticular activated system. A network of nerve cells are scattered throughout the brainstem and the base of our brain. The brainstem is the so-called highway of messages and controls several of our subconscious automatic functions such as breathing, eye reflexes, etc. The work of the brainstem is below our consciousness and operates largely on an automatic basis. This reticular activated system is acting as the watchdog for sensory information, alerting the higher brain centers to either new or important sensory stimuli that need a conscious response.

These reticular formation cells will allow information to get through which is either of benefit (mother and baby) or a warning of danger (firemen). How often do we get a sudden 'message' to change direction or stop what we are doing. Our subconscious mind has all the information, but we only let through to the conscious mind what we need to know.

So what has that got to do with dowsing?

Most dowsers, I am sure, are aware of deviceless dowsing which means we use body signals to get a 'yes' or 'no'. The main sense we use for nonverbal communication (see, feel, taste, smell or hear) will be the easiest to use for deviceless dowsing.

How many dowsers feel geopathic stress with their hands, or in my case, get instant cold feet? There are people who clearly hear a warning in a dangerous situation, or see an aura, taste danger, or smell a change in life.

We pick up with our bodies all the energies around us, even though we may not be aware of doing so. When people get ill in a geopathically stressed house, their body is simply giving them a message.

Nearly everyone with geopathic stress in the house will confirm that they don't know why, but they usually don't like the house, or they have a 'feeling' in a particular room, or they don't sleep well. All messages from the body alert the person to some kind of danger.

So as dowsers we are asking the question for which we need to know the answer. For the answer, we need to extend our awareness; all the information and knowledge is in our subconscious.

Have you ever wondered that you never noticed something before, and when it becomes of benefit or of value, you see it everywhere! Take a car for instance. You want to buy a new car. As soon as you make up your mind what you want, from that moment on you see that car everywhere. That car hasn't come out of nowhere; it is only your awareness that has changed. Dowsing is an extension of our awareness to get the answer on a need-to-know basis. The answer will be released from the subconscious mind as soon as it is of benefit to us.

Does that not make sense?

Veronika Stone, author, dowser, and healer with her husband Christopher, give lectures, classes and professional dowsing help to a varied clientele. steppingstones8@btopenworld.com. Telephone: #01386833899. They live in Evesham, England.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

NOVEMBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 51, NO. 2-3 – SPRING/SUMMER 2011-2012

THE LOST WALLET

By Rachel Ferrell

I got off from work early and planned to meet my friend to do some shopping at a local department store, then go out for dinner. That February night was bitter cold; so, after dinner, we drove back to my car which I left in the department store’s parking lot. I jumped out of her car to start mine, then back into hers to stay warm while waiting for mine to warm up.

The next day, after I left my house, I realized that my wallet was missing. I was sure I’d put it into my coat pocket the night before, but it wasn’t there. I searched everywhere, then I tried to dowse for it. Because I had a strong attachment to the object and I was so sure that I’d put it into my pocket, I thought I was influencing the pendulum to give me incorrect answers. I proceeded to return home and search everywhere, to no avail. Next, I went to my friend’s house, where I searched her car, her front yard, and even her house. My parents searched for it, too. I became convinced that it had fallen from my pocket between jumping in and out of our cars at the store’s parking lot.

Frustrated, I racked my brain for a solution, and that’s when I thought about calling Louis to ask him to dowse for me. We asked if it fell out of my pocket–no; then if it was in the parking lot–no; then if someone had turned it in at the department store–again a no.

“Where was the last place you remember having it?” Louis asked me.

“At the restaurant,” I replied.

He continued dowsing and told me that his dowsing indicated I had left it at the restaurant when I paid.

 “Did you sit at a table or a booth?” he asked. 

I told him that it was a booth, and he said I needed to go back there to look because he was getting, it had fallen down into the booth.

“Is there something green there?” he asked.

“Well, I remember that the booth itself was red.” I told him.

I returned to the restaurant and, after explaining to the hostess that I’d lost my wallet, asked if I could search around the booth where we’d had dinner. Luckily no one was sitting there. I looked all around but didn’t see it, then noticed that the booth bench was about three inches out from the wall. I leaned in but couldn’t see anything in the dark space, so I kneeled on the floor and tried to fit my arm into the crack along the wall. I couldn’t get in very far and only retrieved an old receipt.

By this time, the restaurant staff and a few customers were very curious about my odd behavior, but I believed in Louis and wasn’t leaving without turning every stone! I looked back as far as I could into the crack and thought I could faintly see something back in the corner. I asked for a broom so I could reach all the way in and scoot out whatever was there, and the hostess told me that she could actually move the booth bench out.

When she did, my wallet appeared in the far depths of the corner. The hostess looked surprised, but I wasn’t because I had fully expected to find it there based on Louis’ dowsing. And it turned out that the wall and floor where the wallet had dropped were both green!

It would have lain there for years if I hadn’t had an unbiased dowser’s help. Thank you, Louis.

Have your own Dowsing stories submit them HERE.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

OCTOBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 58, NO.3 – AUTUMN 2018

ALL IS ENERGY

By Angela Burr Madsen

An amazing discovery occurred at the beginning of February 2016, Einstein’s theory of relativity E=MC2 is no longer considered to be a theory but has now been proven to be true. This occurred when a cosmic event provided the information or the happening that confirmed the validity of the equation. Simply put; everything is energy, what appears to be form to the naked eye is not an object or form but an energy field, it is not ‘matter’ separate and apart from energy. It is the energy field that produces the material form.

That being said, how does this affect us, how does this truth make our lives different or easier to comprehend? Let us look at what we call form, matter or material substance, a hard copy in other words, a visible appearance of something. Matter appears to be fixed, stuck, immutable and difficult to change. Energy on the other hand is constantly in motion, is always active and energy never stops, nor is it destroyed; it merely transforms. So, when we are looking at something, an object or a body, and would like the appearance of the body or the object to change and show up differently in appearance, changing it seems to be such a massive job involving a great deal of work, time, or effort. The appearance of form, matter or the body is imprinted in our subconscious mind as something that is solid and hard, so we think the problem that we are looking at will not change easily if at all.

Knowing that the appearance is bundle of energy rather than a fixed object makes it easier to see that it can be changed with ease. This is important when you are looking at an illness a deformity, or a state of failure or loss. Recognizing that the state is energy in motion and is not fixed or stuck, we can instantly seek to take charge, to direct the motion and change the course, instead of resigning ourselves to the fixed state. The truth of the equation that everything is energy makes life easier to comprehend, as it is easier to align with the energy in motion instead of being stuck with a hard-immovable object.

When we see things as fixed, we tend to make judgments of good/bad/right/wrong and then proceed to act out according to the judgement. When we see things as energy moving, we tend to be curious as to how it is going to unfold, we are in the mode of wonderment instead of determining or controlling. A moveable object is so much easier to work with than an immoveable object. The state of withholding judgment or opinion automatically puts us in the frequency of non-resistance which in turn brings us to acceptance, an energy frequency that vibrates at 70-79 on the scale of 0-100.

Being in acceptance with the energy that is moving and active is of such a great benefit as we no longer are at war or in judgment with what is going on in life, we become an observer, a witness, rather than a controller. We become at one with the experience rather than at odds with it and this way we can be taught or guided toward our purpose through the experience. The experience is the road on the journey to finding purpose, and purpose is found in the energy we are conscious of, align with, use or choose as we move through the experience.

The immovable object tends to bring us into the linear mind and cuts us off from the whole picture. The linear mind sees things in bits and pieces separate and apart from each other. Seeing things as energy in motion tends to bring us instantly to the conscious awareness of the whole composition that is before us, rather than the single linear pieces of information. Seeing the whole picture broadens us to vision rather than simply seeing what is going on.

An example might be when we experience the loss of someone we love. When we see the person as an appearance or body only, when they die, we see the absence of the body as the actual loss of the loved one; we see them as gone, as not being with us any more, as being out of our lives completely and forever. When we see each other as energy fields, we know that energy cannot be lost or destroyed; it can only be changed or transformed. Consciousness and energy are interchangeable, so all we must do is to be conscious of the person in question and we are instantly in the essence or energy of the person through our consciousness. We can commune with them through consciousness; the hard copy is not necessary for this close communication experience. We can have a conversation, we can experience signs of contact, and we can feel the love that we never lost when they left the material vehicle or body. Consciousness is all that is necessary to experience the relationship in the present moment.

With the knowledge “all is energy,” especially matter or material objects, this information will have incredible implications in future. Energy medicine as an example will become the primary medicine available, and free energy will be used for powering our vehicles and appliances. Chemistry will take a back seat to energy; we will be looking at the energy in medicine and foods, not the chemical components. The material will become secondary to the energy behind the material form. Let us look at GMO foods as another example. The corn is modified with insecticide to kill off insects that can infect the corn. So now included in the nourishing energy that is withing the corn is also the energy of killing. Instead of eating foods that are supposed to sustain life, we are now eating foods that are infused with the energy of killing a different expression of life. Materially it appears to make sense, we are modifying the corn to stop or kill the insect that hurts the corn, but energetically does it make sense? We are changing the corn and modifying it to kill an insect or a micro life-force. We also know that the intestines where the corn will eventually end up, is full of healthy microorganisms. What is going to happen to those organisms? These are questions that only get asked when we know that energy is the primary component of life, of everything, and not the material. There is no denying it anymore. Everything is energy in motion.

Angela Burr-Madsen wrote this article for West Coast Dowsers in 2016. Angela was a speaker at the Sierra Dowsers several times, with topics: health & Vitality, Using Lifeforce for Transformation, and Celestial Calendar. She was known for creating her own brand of Burren Flower essences.

Angela Burr-Madsen passed on January 23rd, 2018, after a ten-month battle with cancer. She had been a traditional naturopathic practitioner in the Placerville/shingle springs area since 1984. As President of the California Naturopathic Association, Angela was a leader in the passing of legislation legalizing naturopathic practice in the state of California. Angela’s enthusiasm and caring nature for self-healing will be missed. 

Article reprinted courtesy of the West Coast Dowsers

2016 © Angela Burr-Madsen

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

OCTOBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 48, NO.1 – WINTER 2007-2008

CONNECTING WITH THE ENERGIES WE DOWSE

By Sue Miller

Who are you? How do you interpret yourself – your moods, your reactions in different situations, your ups and downs? How do you interpret the energies that constantly move through you and around you? Who are you in relation to all other beings in the cosmos? Where do you fit within the circle of life?

We all are beings of energy – slowly swirling masses of light held together by an invisible force. The energies that inform our beings are the same energies which motivate the creation and movement of all things. All emotions, all thoughts, the minutest aspects of out lives – breathing, laughing, crying twitching a muscle – involve continual shifts and movements of energy. Our day-to-day existence happens within constantly shifting energy fields.

When we dowse, we stand in the middle of these energy fields. We ask questions that assist us in understanding what we are experiencing. As dowsers, we can glean large amounts of information by asking an infinite number of yes and no questions. But what systems do we use to interpret the information provided by our yes and no questions? We can quantify out information, but what about the deeper levels of meaning, the qualitative information that can be provided when interpreting what the energies mean to us?

Our ancestors believed that all aspects of the outer world provided a reflection of what was happening in their inner worlds. They believed that there was no separation between them and all other beings. The alchemists reflected that same thinking in different words: “As without, so within; as above, so below.” This experience of an energetic unity to all of life has been lost, and its recovery is essential to reclaiming that connection. As people who consciously work with energy in a variety of ways, how can we use and increase our knowledge of energy movement to recover this lost link?

Interpreting Through Nature

Oriental Medicine provides us with a system for interpreting our experience of the movements of energy. The Law of the Five Elements, or Five Transformative Processes, was formulated over 5,000 years ago. In the ancient world, it was understood that the energies that one saw and experienced in the external landscape were the same energies that informed an individual’s inner landscape. They observed the cyclical movements of the seasons and the events that occurred within each season. Based on these studies, they began to assign different characteristics and qualities to each season: spring was associated with the element of wood, summer with fire, late summer with earth, fall with metal and winter with water. Each of these elements was further associated with a color, sound, emotion, organ system and various other characteristics, forming a picture of the inner workings of the human being based on what was being observed in the natural word. These ancient sages also came to understand that for an individual to maintain health and wellness on both the internal and external levels required living consciously and harmoniously with all the energies of nature. Not only were the elements recognized by their activities and functions in nature, but they were utilized metaphorically to explain the inner workings of the human psyche. The various characteristics were used to define patterns of balance and imbalance, harmony and disharmony.

The energy represented by the five elements is the energy of all creation, all manifestation. Nothing can be created, manifested, or maintained or sustained without the constant interplay of these elements. Likewise, nothing can be broken down, destroyed, changed, or transformed without them. The degree to which we operate in harmony with nature, both internal and external, determines the level of health and well-being we can enjoy on both personal and planetary levels.

How might an understanding of this ancient system help us today? What information could it provide about the movement of energy to further clarify our dowsing? There are many different ways of interpreting and working with energies, and the following information only scratches the surface of what is available in the study of the five elements.

What the Elements Can Teach Us

Wood = Creation

Fire = Growth

Earth = Nurturing (the Mother)

Metal = Inspiration (the Father)

Water = Introspection (the Unknown)

The energy of spring and wood moves upward and outward from our core, bringing our deepest aspirations toward the surface for manifestation. Wood represents the seed, the creative drive – expectant, energetic, desiring to move up and out and become. Spring evokes possibilities and planning and encourages the freedom to move with flexibility. If the push to become encounters difficulties and roadblocks which may seem to thwart its progress, frustration and anger may result. Theis anger is akin to a spring thunderstorm, arising suddenly, blowing ferociously and then quickly moving on and leaving behind clear, sunny skies and freshness in the air.

Summer and fire represent the warmth of the sun wrapping its arms around the young seedling and encouraging it to grow ever upward to fruition. There is joy and excitement in this season as we experience the full flowering of the seed we planted in spring, the manifestation of our deepest aspirations. Energy is at its peak, like the sun blazing overhead at noonday. Fire is symbolic of our inner sun, our hearts the center form which we experience love and compassions. If the sun becomes clouded for too long a time, our joy and excitement can be dimmed and turn to loneliness.

Late summer and the element of earth teach us about transitions as we begin the downward cycle form the high of summer towards the depths of winter. We are reminded of the importance of coming back to center, of grounding ourselves so that we may remain in touch with all that nourishes and sustains us. Losing our center potentially spins us into worry as we disconnect from our source.

Autumn is the season of harvesting and storing, cutting back and composting. Just as trees let go of their leaves in fall, we also must learn to release anything that no longer serves us. This season is represented by the element of metal, which models the process wherein the minerals of the earth condense inward to form precious metals, allowing manifestation of all that is precious and of value. Often this is a time of grief as we may deeply feel the sense of loss and longing. This grief may be associated with people, events or other aspects of our lives.

Winter is the closing season in the cycle of a year. It is represented by the element of water which reminds us of the importance of flow and stillness, the necessity to go deep within to renew and restore so that adequate energy will be available when spring arrives and new seeds need to be planted. This time is akin to entering the unknown and so may be accompanied by fear. it is important to remember that this season also begins a return of light and the promise of coming spring.

Reestablishing The Connection

Energy moves back and forth on a continuum; each element also operates on a continuum from balance to imbalance. In a balanced state, all energies dance in harmony, interdependent, yet creating an integrated whole, while states of imbalance tend to move into the realm of chaos.

If we look at the interplay of the five elements as a metaphor for our lives, we can recognize how our own energies slide back and forth on a continuum. Working with the five elements we have a tool that allows us to learn about our own balance/imbalance continuum, and thus to observe our own actions and reactions in order to identify and thus move toward the balanced end. We want to be a balanced and clear as possible when dowsing. Having an awareness of our individual place on the continuum at any given time can guide us, as dowsers, to a deeper connection with the infinite gradations of information that exist between the yes and no answers. This is because we stand in a constantly shifting field of energies and there is no separation between the dowser and the energy being dowsed. Thus, the more finely attuned dowsers are to their own energetic movement, the more readily they can tune in to the subtle levels of the shifting energies around them.

Our dowsing teachers emphasize the importance of recognizing that the dowsing tools do not “give” us answers; rather the tools offer visual verification of what we already know within ourselves. The more we learn about how we operate in and connect with the energies in the natural world, the better developed our innate dowsing skills become, and with that, the better the questions we ask and the clearer the answers we receive. As this connection is nurtured, so is trust in our instincts and inner knowing.

Each of us presents a multifaceted picture of experiences and responses. Familiarity with the movement of energies as viewed from the five-element theory enhances our ability to interpret this picture. Observing ourselves in the flow of life and discovering more tools to better understand our dowsing information. As without, so within; as above, so below. The better we connect with – know our oneness with – the natural energies, the more in tune our dowsing will be with that oneness.

One of the greatest values in learning this system lies in helping us understand the movements of our won energy, so that we may become clearer channels for the energy that we work with and ultimately reestablish our connection to – and place in – that great circle of energy we call life.

© Sue Miller 2007

Susan R. Miller L.Ac., is a practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, as well as a professional gardener. Working with both the inner and outer landscapes, she combines her love of energy medicine with her love of nature. A presenter at the ASD convention, her workshops explore the importance of reconnecting with the energies of the natural world and using these energies as a means of coming to know ourselves. She can be reached at sraem@earthlink.net.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

SEPTEMBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 43, NO.3 SUMMER  2004

THE SECRET OF MAP-RUBBING REVEALED

By Robert Thomason

"How can you possibly gather information by rubbing your hand on a map? Show me that, somewhere in writing!"

After hearing these questions asked by skeptics and novices repeatedly, I was thrilled and delighted to discover the answer, in writing in the book "Alchemical Healing" by Nicki Scully.

The chapter titled "Accessing the Universal Life Force," the section "Seeing with the Eyes in the Hands" tells the secret. 

Accessing the universal life force opens the “eye” Of each hand's palm. The hands “read” the information as would an information sensor. The first intuitive knowing you receive before you have time to think about it is the most accurate. The fingertips and palm of the hands send and receive vibrational energy. Ms. Scully even uses her palms’ “eye” to receive “X-ray vision” layer by layer of a person's body. Awesome!

In my personal map dowsing, I prayed for a quick, easy, “idiot-proof” method to gather information. After considerable soul searching, I finally asked for my index finger to stick to the spot sought on the map. By practice over the years, I learned to “get in touch with the map.”

Take your hand and rub it with the flat of your palm down on the map. Rub it across the map several times. Get a “feel for it.” Then ask, “Where is the greatest quantity of _____ in the area of this map?” Do not be surprised if your hand jumps completely off the map. 

My personal reaction using this simplified technique is that my hand will make tighter and smaller circles on the map until my right index fingertip stands straight down, tightly pressing on the requested target. Following that, I We'll approach the target from all four corners of the map and points in between until I am satisfied that all directions lead to the same spot. Then I ask for my pencil point to stick to the exact precise location on my state Gazetteer Map which I have been using for this exercise.

Also, when you are out dowsing in the field, ask that your foot stick to the exact spot you are seeking. It is an odd and pleasant confirmation to have your foot feel glued to Mother Earth. The sole of your foot is also a “seeing eye” sensor.

I encourage you to just relax and let requested information flow to you. KEEP IT SIMPLE. It is always better to humbly ask in love and respect for your answers.

 I look forward to receiving comments and questions on map-rubbing. Please contact Robert Thomason at 8830 4th Avenue No., Birmingham, Alabama 35206, or telephone (205) 836-9895 or (205) 566-9988.

Ed: Robert Thomason is past President of the Alabama Chapter of the ASD

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 43, NO.3 SUMMER 2004

Other Titles From This Edition Are: 

weird lines and weird finds by Wallace G. heath

Dairy farmer versus stray electricity and cell phone, TV towers, etc. By biggie hunt

Historical roots from "A History of Dowsing and Energy Relationships," by Erwin E. Stark

Recognizing your abundance by Sue Trumpfheller

Find a dowsing buddy by Sue Trumpfheller

Morals and ethics in dowsing by Carl Bracy

Gnowing wise Water by Raven LittleOne (Previous Blog Post)

Jim & Carol Kuebelbeck by Jim Kuebelbeck

Locating the Best Well-Site by Carl Bracy

Bringing safe and potable water to the world by Steven O. Herbert

Who's afraid of the energy vampire by Sandra Cowling

Locating oil prospects in Kansas by Joe Smith

Treasure hunting participator by Louis J. Matacia

Dowsing and how it works by ton vanderleeden 

Dowsing for salmon buy G. A. Cox

10 commandments of human relations by anonymous

Find these and more in the Member's Only Section of the ASD Digest Archives or Sign Up today to Become A Member.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

SEPTEMBER '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 48, NO.2 SPRING  2008

SCIENCE CORNER

By Ronald F. Blackburn, Ph.D

• How do you become a great dowser? What does it take to be great? Research shows that the lack of natural talent may be irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work. Geoffrey Colvin, senior editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine recently asked the following questions: "What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? Conventional wisdom would say: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was 'wired at birth to allocate capital.' It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't. However, this may not be a complete answer to the secret to success."

  Let's consider recent comments by Chuck Stevens, M.D., Ph.D, Professor, The Salk Institute and External Professor, Santa Fe Institute. “We All have the same brain in the sense that we all have the same body: every normal human has the same parts with the same general design, but there is a lot of variability from one individual to the next. About 100 distinct regions are recognized in the human cortex, and each of these regions specializes for a specific function (like hearing or recognizing faces). Furthermore, neural circuits have the special property of being scalable, which means that bigger regions perform better. The limits of human performance for any given set of abilities, then, are set by the size of the brain regions available for those abilities, and this limitation is especially obvious in those situations where we operate at the edge of what is possible for a human to do.”

   Below are some additional thoughts from Robert May, a member of MENSA, and an adjunct professor at the University of Louisville.

  The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

  The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition. 

  Evidence crosses A remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists, the best group (judged by Conservatory teachers) average 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.

  The real question then, why should it take so much time and effort to learn key skills? Are additional attributes required beyond: 1. a burning desire, 2. disciplined approach, 3. decisive attitude, and 4. specialized knowledge? Possible insights on how to be great at anything comes from Play, a sports magazine published by the New York Times. The secret melee in the nerve fibers and the myelin sheathing that covers the nerves.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  The myelin provides the insulation between nerves. The greater the insulation (myelin sheathing), the less likely that the nerve impulse will leak out. Think of the myelin sheathing as electrical insulation – the thicker the insulation, the stronger the signal to the nerve fibers. Therefore, if we could thicken the myelin surrounding the nerve fibers used in dowsing, we would likely increase our accuracy. How do we thicken the myelin sheathing?

  Here's the great secret. The only known method to thicken the myelin sheathing is through repetition – practice, practice and more practice. It is thought that by repetition and practice, we can build up the insulation covering the nerve fibers. Increased myelin covering the nerves results in less noise and translates into higher signal fidelity. Each time we practice, we generate a little bit more myelin which will increase our dowsing skill level. The following practice plan is suggested. Practice dowsing 4 times per day for 30 days. This practice will structure a great learning tool. This will provide a powerful way to build up the thickness of the myelin layers on the dowsing nerve fibers. Why not demonstrate dowsing rather than just talking or thinking about dowsing?

  It is suggested that track record of the dowsing be maintained. This will help develop good dowsing discipline and will provide a record that will lead to greater dowsing skill and competence. Let's all demonstrate more dowsing instead of simply reading or talking about it. Remember to become great dowsers, we need to practice, practice, and practice. Let's make dowsing an everyday activity. Why just read about dowsing when you can experience the real phenomenon of dowsing?

  A Suggested Dowsing Plan

• 1.    Write out a dowsing road map for success.
• 2.    Make daily, weekly, and monthly dowsing goals.
• 3.    Be a decisive dowser; i.e., just dowse it.
• 4.    Be disciplined; i.e., practice dowsing every day.
• 5.    Become an ASD member and surround yourself with successful dowsers; i.e., join or form a local ASD dowsing club
• 6.    have a long-term perspective of continually building up a thicker and thicker layer of myelin over the dowsing nerve fibers.
• 7.    Know that you are becoming a great dowser!

There will be a great opportunity to practice dowsing skills under controlled conditions at the ASD National Conference. Everyone is invited to actively participate (anonymously if you wish) in five or more simple but revealing dowsing experiments developed by Shelley Higgins that will include qualitative and quantitative measurements of the dowser response. These fund trials will involve using L-rods and pendulums and include recording various shielding and magnetic flux observations. Experiments will take place throughout the day on Saturday, August 9th as well as on Sunday morning, August 10th.

Preliminary results will be presented at the ASD Science Panel later Sunday afternoon. Shelly will be available to answer our questions and address comments related to the experimental protocol. All guests, including non-laboratory participants, are welcome to join the “Science Panel” discussions. Remember: becoming a successful, highly accurate and consistent dowser is a choice we all can make. All we have to do is practice, practice, and practice some more!

Ron Blackburn, Ph.D. is the ASD National Science Advisor and an ASD Sustaining Life Member. He has served as Vice President of The American Society of Dowsers and was founder and past President of the Veterans Chapter located in Pleasanton, CA. Ron is working to establish a dialogue with the research community to foster increased interest in dowsing including ways to apply the scientific method and techniques that would enhance global acceptance of the dowsing phenomena.

ASD DIGEST

VOLUME 48, NO.2 SPRING  2008

Other Titles From This Edition Are: 

How Lucky We Are! By Jim Harvey

Healing The Alphabet– How You Can Effectively Ask For Help By Mary “Mo” Wheeler, Ph.D

Bull’s-Eye! By Jim Kuebelbeck

Unlimit Yourself By Josh Wakefield

Geomancy By Sig Lonegren M.A.

Healing Giardia And Shame With Burdock Essence By Fearn Litchfield

Lost Object Found- Dowsing By Telephone By Jason Light

The Perfect Solution For Low-Volume Wells By Porky Cuter

Shamanism, 3 Worlds, One System-Part 1 By Frank Jordan

Thousands Of Wells For Villages In South India- A Report On My Work By Brother James Kimpton

Longevity And Weight Loss Resistance By Dr. Indrani Maity

Brain Waves By John Living

Find these and more in the Member's Only Section of the ASD Digest Archives or Sign Up today to Become A Member.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

AUGUST '26 NEWSLETTER DOWSING SKILL BUILDER

ANSWERS ARE LINKED AT THE END OF POST

Click Picture to download

For the purposes of this skill builder it is presumed that the participant is familiar with some form of dowsing tool and random field dowsing.

This is a condensed exercise with the goal of finding "LOST" items. In this case you will be finding four "Lost Eisenhower Silver Dollar Coins." (pictured)

Click Picture to download

The movements of dowsing devices are simple at its very foundation. The difficult part of dowsing and more importantly remote dowsing comes from within the dowser. We would like to highlight two key ingredients for the success of this Skill builder. The first of which we will address is belief. A belief in one's potential to prompt a dowsing response with your chosen tool. The second part of remote dowsing is similarly abstract it is need. Try to prompt a feeling of necessity for the coins in this exercise, because as we have all heard:

"Necessity is the mother of all invention."

ANSWERS LINK

Send in your success stories/results Here.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

AUGUST '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

DOWSER PETER HARMON – IN THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER– AUGUST 19, 1975

DOWSER Peter Harmon with one of his Y-Rods

PARCHED TOWN SPENDS $180,000 TRYING TO FIND WATER –

THEN DOWSER DOES THE TRICK FOR $500

BY JOHN BLACKBURN

After pouring $180,000 down the drain to find water, a parched Maine community finally turned the tide for $500 by shipping in an old-fashioned water dowser. 

"I can smell water," boasted the water dowser, 33-year-old Peter Harmon, " I can feel it tugging at me like a bobber on a fishing pole."

"Harmon saved us from becoming a dry town," beamed a grateful Arland Fitz, director of the New Sharon, Me., water district.

"To conserve what water we had, we banned lawn sprinkling and car washing," Fitz continued. " We even restricted people to one bath a week and encouraged families to take their weekly baths together."

To save its problem, New Sharon – population 725 – twice hired engineering firms and spent $180,00 in federal loans over a 5-year period to find water.

"All they did was dig holes all over town," Fitz explained.

"We kept hoping but nothing happened – except the town got to looking like the surface of the moon with so many holes in the ground.

"We're patient folk – but not that patient. So we called Harmon. And for a $500 fee he found water at five different cites in one day. Now we can take all the baths we want."

Harmon told the ENQUIRER he dowses with a "Y-rod– a long piece of plastic."

Then he confided: "But I only do that when people are watching me. If nobody's watching, I just use my hand to find the water."

"Some people think that it's just a barroom trick but it really isn't. I can actually smell and feel the water."

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

AUGUST '26 NEWSLETTER FEATURED ARTICLE

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM AUGUST 6,1995

Gordon Barton, center, president of the American Society of Dowsers (at the time), dowse for water with a group at the society's convention at Lyndon State College in Vermont.

DOWSERS TUNE INTO THE EARTH AND THEIR UNCONSCIOUS

Associated Press

Lyndonville, VT. – Dowsing is a quiet quest, usually for water or minerals in the ground. And even though it involves tapping into the world's vast well of collective understanding, its practitioners say it's a simple task that is achievable by all.

Dowsing's mixture of art, science, mysticism and philosophy is often misunderstood, a fact dowsers are used to. Even their friends – and sometimes their spouses – think it's kind of wacky.

That's OK with Gordon Barton, 70, a dowser from Winter Harbor, Maine. Barton said dowsing – the art of using a pendulum or stick and your own unconscious, to find anything from a vein of water to a set of lost keys – doesn't only attract doubt and weird comments. It also helps its practitioner cope with the world's naysayers.

"I'm far more open than I used to be," Barton said. Criticism "really doesn't matter. We don't try to force it on people."

Barton, the outgoing president of the American Society of Dowsers, got his start as a seeker of the hidden 40 years ago because his skepticism led him to try it. "I really didn't believe; I felt they really could not do those things," Barton said. "I've been seeking it ever since."

Since he began, the peace of mind that dowsing brings has improved his health, Barton said.

As president of the society, he has traveled all over the country lecturing on his craft. This past week, he attended the ASD's 35th annual school and convention for dowsers at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville.

Vermont is the nation's seat of dowsing. The ASD said the first dowsing contest was held in Danville in 1958, and its national head quarters is now in that town. This year's event attracted about 500 people from all over the United States.

Dowsers both novice and experienced traveled to Lyndonville for the conference. With some work, anyone can be a dowser, although the ASD says in its brochure that some have more aptitude for it than others.

To be successful, a dowser must be able to tap into a collective understanding shared by everyone on earth and the earth itself, dowsers said. Your unconscious is already part of this; if you allow it, it can instruct your conscious about things that aren't visible, or even about things that haven't happened yet.

Your unconscious, dowers said, already knows where the water is; where the oil is; or what's going to happen next week. It knows what in your body is making you ill. Dowsing helps your unconscious communicate that information to you – as long as you ask for it correctly.

And dowsing works just as well in a field as on a map a thousand miles away from the site.

" There's something out there we're all connected to outside of ourselves," said Bob Sird, a dowsing instructor teaching a seminar at the conference. "We all have the talent."

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS

MAY '26 NEWSLETTER SKILL BUILDER

With Optional Raffle Entry (5/1/26-5/31/26)

Download Compass With Numbers.pdf

DIRECTIONS FOR DIRECTION

Let’s be creative! Let’s be Innovative! Let’s be Open to Explore Possibilities!

The purpose of a compass is to find the direction of the Earths Poles.

BUT What else could it be used for! Dowsing of Course.

I have thought of a couple of ways you could use this as a dowsing tool. Remember to center or ground yourself first before you start.

1. The degrees around the compass could be used to represent percentages.

FOR EXAMPLE: 0 degrees represented by the “North” or . “N” symbol to 100 degrees represented by the “South” or “S” symbol.

You can ask question (dowse) from 0-100%:

What percentage is this (FILL IN THE BLANK) for my highest and best good?

2. You could use the “North, South, East, and West” directions for questions that involve direction.

FOR EXAMPLE: What direction should I go in to find a Great Mexican Restaurant that I will love?

These are two ways to use it. 

Can you think of any others?

Create a new way or try the above ways to use the Compass for dowsing questions. 

Fill Out The Form and submit your findings/results and be entered to win (See Below).

ALSO SEE Ginette Matania's Use of the Compass Diagram in the Video Archives. 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR SKILL BUILDER:

To get an entry into our Raffle.

Fill out answer these question on the form

• What was your question?

• What were your results?

• Would you use it again?