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."