The real mystery of dowsing
IAN H MACHELL argues that the ‘ideomotor effect’ can’t explain dowsing – and suggests you try it out for yourself...
The letter from David Hambling [ FT366:75] refers to the ‘ideomotor effect’, more correctly called the ideomotor response (IMR), or Carpenter effect, in which tiny, unconscious, reflex, muscular responses to previously obtained knowledge might cause dowsing reactions. It’s a common misconception that’s even appeared in the journal of the British Society of Dowsers several times. Incidentally, I prefer the term ‘subconscious’ to ‘unconscious’ in this context, since I’ve never known of anyone being able to dowse when they’re unconscious!
There are many reasons why IMR cannot explain dowsing. For example, it doesn’t account for entirely different muscle groups reacting differently to the huge variety of dowsing implements held in different ways. Some are held loosely between finger and thumb; some are lightly balanced in the palm of a hand; some are gripped tightly under tension; and some are designed to work without being in contact with the dowser at all. The most common implements are rightangled L-rods, forked Y-rods and pendulums.
Everyone who’s actually tried dowsing knows that an external, as-yet unidentified, force or energy causes dowsing reactions. That’s the real mystery of dowsing. This force can be felt tugging pendulums from side to side and often making Y-rods flip up or down so strongly that the dowser can’t stop them moving. Even if you don’t think you can dowse, you can easily prove that the force exists. Try this:
Place a non-magnetic object like a pen, pencil, knife, fork, stick, etc., on a clear table. Make a pendulum from something small, light and non-magnetic with a hole in the middle, like a ring (a plain gold one works well for most people), or a washer, etc., by passing a 10in (25cm) or so length of thin cotton (or a single hair, if you have one long enough!) through the hole in the middle. Hold the cotton/hair lightly, near both ends, between the index finger and thumb of one hand and dangle the pendulum over the object. Sit on a chair so you can rest the elbow of that arm on the table about 12in (30cm) from the object. Keep your other hand well away.
Some trial and error may be needed for the strongest reaction, since it varies from person to person. I suggest starting with a gap of about 1in (2.5cm) between the pendulum and the object and about 4in (10cm) for the length of the cotton/hair from the pendulum to your finger and thumb. Make sure the pendulum hangs slightly nearer to one end of the object than the other.
After a short while, the pendulum should start to swing to and fro along the length of the object. The swing will gradually increase to a couple of inches each side of the vertical. You will actually be able to feel the pendulum being gently tugged, alternately towards one end of the object and then to the other, by some external force.
It’s important not to hold the pendulum exactly over the middle of the object, or the tug to one end will be as strong as the tug to the other – so they’ll cancel out and your pendulum won’t move at all. And relax, so your arm, wrist and fingers are not tensed. Otherwise, you’ll be more likely, instinctively or subconsciously, to counteract any movement the pendulum tries to make and, again, fail to get a reaction. For the same reason, don’t attempt to hold the pendulum still; just let it dangle and ‘do its own thing’.
Once you’ve felt for yourself these forces tugging at your pendulum, you’ll know for certain that they exist and that IMR definitely does not explain dowsing reactions. And you will also have mastered one of the basic steps of physical dowsing! By the way, your pendulum should circle clockwise over one end of the object and anticlockwise over the other end, as if the object is polarised. Now try holding your pendulum over the upturned palm of your free hand. You’ll feel it being tugged around faster and faster in everincreasing circles until, for many people, the cotton/hair is almost horizontal.
IMR cannot explain the mental aspects of dowsing either. Experienced dowsers can determine the depths, directions, flow rates and potability of underground streams, as well as the depths, directions and any faults in buried pipes, cables, etc., which have never been mapped and never been visited previously by the dowsers. Hence they can’t have any subconscious knowledge of the target objects.
I urge readers to try some pendulum experiments
And IMR doesn’t explain map dowsing (‘dowsing-at-a-distance’). That’s holding a pendulum over a map, or even free-hand sketch, of the area involved which has been provided by someone else, sometimes on the other side of the world, in order to locate missing objects, people, pets, vehicles, buried ruins, artefacts, precious metals, oil, minerals, etc. Again, good dowsers can do this without ever having had any previous contact with either their target or its location or the provider of the map/sketch; so they cannot possibly have gained any prior knowledge which they could have retained subconsciously.
Some more examples of the mental aspects of dowsing are: healing; detecting Earth’s natural energies; question and answer techniques; reacting to images visualised and projected by other people; and detecting objects’ residual dowsable energy (‘ghosts’?) left behind long after they’ve moved elsewhere.
In my experience, tiny muscular twitches can occur – but they happen when the dowsing implement starts to move. They’re just a slight tensing; an involuntary, autonomic, reflex reaction to the implement’s movements. Indeed, some people are so sensitive to – and initially so surprised by – these movements that they instinctively counteract them to try to keep their implement still – and then they wonder why they can’t dowse!
The IMR explanation is therefore back-to-front. Involuntary twitches don’t cause dowsing reactions; it’s the dowsing implement’s movement that can cause a reflex response in the dowser. It’s no different to your leg twitching when a rubber hammer strikes your knee to check your reflexes. And reflex responses do not rely on subconscious information, which contradicts the IMR explanation yet again. (This could apply to people using Ouija boards, too; as also mentioned in David Hambling’s letter.)
Dowsing is a fascinating subject. It encompasses far more than water divining. Forteans should try it; it could open up a whole new outlook on life. It’s easy enough for most people to learn the basics, too. Eighty per cent of those I’ve taught to dowse (including the late Dr Lyall Watson of Supernature fame) have obtained correct physical reactions with one or two implements after only a few minutes’ instruction. Admittedly, though, the mental aspects of dowsing take longer to master, since they need concentration and practice.
I’ve mentioned ghosts, so try this with your pendulum. After the object has been in the same place for a while, move it well away from the table. Then dangle your pendulum over the table where it used to be and you should see it swing to and fro – as well as circulating clockwise over where one end was and anticlockwise over where the other end was – as if it’s still there.
Congratulations: you’ve just found a ghost! It gradually fades away, even though the memory of its previous location on the table can remain in the dowser’s subconscious for ages! This is yet another argument against IMR: if muscles do twitch in response to subconscious information, then the dowsing reaction should occur for as long as the memory exists in the dowser and should not fade after a few minutes. And absolutely everything not only emits and absorbs this dowsable energy (whatever it is) but also leaves ghosts behind: objects, people, animals, plants, stones, etc. Think about the implications!
Dowsers can also detect the affinity between things, even of different materials, which have been in contact for a long time. Try this, too: if your object was something like a ballpoint pen, dismantle it and place its components into two groups about a foot apart. Hold your pendulum over anywhere along a line between them. It should start to swing back and forth from one group to the other as if they’re still linked to each other. Then move one group farther away – to the far side of the room, then into the next room, and so on. Your pendulum should continue to swing along a line between the two groups. You’ll be surprised by how far apart, and for how long, they remain apparently interconnected by their dowsable energy.
Dowsing seems to transcend space and time. Information can be gained virtually instantly from target objects, irrespective of how far away they are. It’s as if dowsers somehow ‘tune in’ to an ‘energy field’ of some kind being emitted by their targets, a bit like a radio receiver tuning in to a broadcast. Yet the strength of this dowsable energy decays far less with increasing distance than the inverse square law decay rate of electromagnetism or gravity, so it can’t be related to either of those two basic forces of Nature, or ‘fundamental interactions’. However, it could be similar in principle to the equally mysterious ‘quantum entanglement’ of subatomic particles and clouds of thousands of rubidium atoms – so it might explain telepathy, too.
Give dowsing a go, forteans! I urge readers to try the pendulum experiments described above and provide some feedback if you ‘feel the force’.