ADS Admin Dowsing Basics, L-Rods, News

Dowsing for facts: can a sceptic find science in water witchery?

Linda Geddes, writer for The Guardian website, poses this question in her article dated February 11, 2023.

To find an answer, she explores dowsing with her Mom, a geologist and amateur dowser.

““I was a sceptic too. But dowsing just works,…”

Quote from Isobel, Linda Geddes’ Mom

Linda interviews John Baker, a professional water diviner and archaeological dowser, and Prof Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London for their opinions.

To find out what she discovered, read her article.

ADS Admin News

The Dowser

This article by Earl Carter, Empire Press correspondent, dated December 29, 2022, memorializes Richard Viebrock.

I found it a brief but touching look at a dowser’s life. Earl explains how Richard got started, and highlights the importance dowsing played in his life.

The article also has pictures of a statue that stands outside of the Douglas County Museum, in Waterville, Washington.

“Dick Viebrock dowsed and located wells for people all over the Waterville Plateau. In a two-year period, from 1994-1996, his notebook indicates he dowsed 128 wells. And this is not land with an abundance of water.

His notoriety commissioned the memorial statue designed by sculptor Richard Beyer of Pateros. The statue stands on the edge of the Douglas County Museum property. It announces the importance of water to Douglas County residents, but it doesn’t tell the rich story behind the hundreds of wells dug because a dowser said, “Dig it here!””

Earl Carter, Empire Press correspondent

You can find the full article here.

ADS Admin Earth Energy, Ley Lines, News

Ley lines: The UK’s mysterious ancient pathways

I came across this interesting article by Bel Jacobs on the BBC website, dated November 2, 2022. The author explores the six day journey, and resulting art, of artist and performer bones tan jones, along some of these ancient roads.

“I’ve always been interested in the opposition between the natural and the artificial, the sacred and the un-sacred,” explains tan jones. “So I decided to walk from the entrance of the Silvertown tunnel… to the monumental stone circle at Stonehenge, and see how I could connect them.”

bones tan jones, Artist and Performer

Bel also explores some of the history of ley lines through the writings of several authors.

“Ley lines? Energy lines? Surely the preserve of myth makers and fairy followers? Not to start with. The term was originally posited, just three years after the end of World War One, by Alfred Watkins, a councillor in rural Herefordshire in the UK. Born in 1855 into a well-to-do farming family, Watkins was also an amateur archaeologist; it was while out riding in 1921 that he looked out over the landscape and noticed what he later described as a grid of straight lines that stood out like “glowing wires all over the surface of the county”, in which churches and standing stones, crossroads and burial mounds, moats and beacon hills, holy wells and old stone crosses, appeared to fall into perfect alignment.”

Author Bel Jacobs

If this has piqued your curiosity, you can find the whole article here.

ADS Admin Conference, News

Awakening to Divining by Kathleen Kevany

Some people are introduced to dowsing through looking for water or “divining or witching” for water. But as I have come to learn it is so much more than that. I was introduced some years ago to divining and our human ability to recognize and utilize subtle energies to better understand and interact with what is within and all around us. But I attended my first dowsing conference in the Fall of 2014, it was with the very hospitable and inspiring Atlantic Dowsers Society (ADS). The ADS holds an annual conference and already is planning the October 2015 conference in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.

What I learned at this first conference with dowsers is their generous spirit of sharing with newbies and their genuine commitment to the art and science of dowsing. Dowsing, they would tell me, is simply our right to tap into energy that is accessible to anyone who is willing and attentive to harness it. I was not a quick convert. Years ago I had read the superb book by David Hawkins, Power vs Force. This book educated me more about the practice of “muscle testing” and the manner in which we can find answers to important questions through the energies revealed in our bodies. Dowsing or divining is the same. When we go into an Alpha state we are then able to tap into higher consciousness and universal energies for answers within and around us. I am not writing to explain the science or the art of the practice of dowsing. I am totally unqualified. But I am happy to share the power of trust in higher consciousness.

I teach at a university and I research about factors that meditate well-being. I introduce my students to the art and science of mindfulness and meditation as one of many possible pathways for mindful practice. I have found the science compelling for practicing mindfulness, as I suspect it would be for practicing divining. By developing a regular practice of meditation, practitioners have found improvements in a number of areas. Regular spiritual practice, like meditation can serve to increase attentiveness and awareness and strengthen higher cognitive functions and increase compassion for self and others.[1] That is a lot of good from rather small efforts.

I recommend being mindful but I also strive to practice it more consistently and regularly myself. I am learning about the value of dowsing and divining. And I too can see the merit of this spiritual practice. I am open to the learning and discoveries ahead.

Contact:  Kathleen Kevany
[1] Kass, J. 2007 Spiritual maturation: A developmental resource for resilience, well-being, and peace. Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, 12, Summer 2007