Dowsing

Dowsing is a type of divination that has been used to locate ground water, metals, ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites etc., and currents of earth radiation or Ley lines. Dowsing is also known as divining, doodlebugging (USA), or, when searching for water, water finding or water witching.  Dowsing appears to have originated in Germany during a 15th century Renaissance of magic when it was used to find metals.  In 1518 Martin Luther declared that dowsing for metals broke the first commandment, as he considered it to be practising occultism.  In 1662 Gaspar Schott, a Jesuit, decided dowsing was "superstitious, or rather satanic", later he stated that he wasn't sure that the devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod.  In early 19th century New England the use of divining rods was considered a branch of folk magic; nevertheless the early leaders of Mormonism used them for revelatory purposes.  This divine gift, a means in which to learn the "mysteries of God" was later known as "the gift of Aaron", for Moses' brother Aaron used a rod in the Old Testament.  More recently, United States Marines tried dowsing during the 1960’s Vietnam War in an attempt to locate weapon hoards and tunnels.

Originally a Y or L shaped twig or rod was used but nowadays a variety of materials including metal rods are used as a dowsing tool.  Dowsers have their own favourite wood, and some prefer freshly cut branches, Hazel is traditionally chosen in Europe and witch-hazel, willow or peach in the United States.  Some dowsers prefer rods made of particular metals, glass or plastic, even fashioned from wire coat hangers, others think the material is irrelevant as it is the human body that does the detecting consequently some practioners use nothing at all. 

When using a Y shaped twig, each hand holds one of the forked ends with the stem of the Y pointing ahead.  The dowser walks slowly over the search area and the dowsing rod supposedly dips, inclines or twitches when a discovery is made.  When using modern L-shaped metal rods, a rod is held in each hand with the long arm pointing forward.  When something is found, the rods cross over one another making an "X" over the found object.  If the object is long and straight, such as a water pipe, the rods will point in opposite directions, along its orientation.

When divining rods are used as revelatory devices; a rod is held up in the air, and the rodman asks a question.  If the rod moves, the answer is "yes", if not, the answer is "no".  The information acquired is believed to come from magical spirits or god.

A pendulum of crystal, metal or other materials suspended on a chain is sometimes used both in divination and dowsing.  One way of doing this is for the user, or another person, to determine which direction of movement will indicate "yes" and which "no" then the pendulum will be asked specific questions.  Alternatively the pendulum is held over a pad or cloth with “yes" and "no" written on it, sometimes other words are written in a circle.  The person holding the pendulum holds it as still as possible over the centre of the pad and its movements are believed to indicate answers to the questions.

In the practice of radiesthesia, a pendulum is used for medical diagnosis.

Attempts to scientifically explain dowsing range from emanations from substances of interest affecting the rod, to being explained by sensory cues, expectancy effects and probability, (Nature, 1986).  Sceptics believe that dowsing rods have no power but merely amplify slight movements of the hands caused by a phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect: where people's subconscious minds autonomically influence their bodies, thus making the dowsing rods a conduit for the diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception.

A 1948 study tested 58 dowsers' ability to detect water but none were proven to be more reliable than by chance.  A controlled experiment in 1979 into dowsing for water found that none of the practitioners showed better than chance results.  In 1987-1988 a study in Munich by Hans-Dieter Betz and other scientists tested the abilities of 500 dowsers then ran further tests on the 43 who performed the best.  On the ground floor of a two-storey barn they pumped water through a pipe which was moved before each test.  From the upper floor each dowser was asked locate the position of the pipe.  843 tests were performed over two years; of the 43 dowsers 37 showed no dowsing ability, the remaining 6 had results that were better than chance.  The conclusion was that when performing some particular tasks some dowsers showed an extraordinarily high rate of success that could not be explained as chance.  Some dowsers say that this is proof that dowsing works. 

Five years later Jim T. Enright, professor of physiology and sceptic, suggested that the study's results were merely consistent with statistical fluctuations and not significant.  Examining the results using his own method of data analysis he noted that the best dowser was on average 4 millimetres out of 10 meters closer to a mid-line guess, an advantage of 0.0004%.  The study's authors questioned his methods of analysis.  A paper by German psychologist Dr. S. Ertel confirmed the findings of the Munich study.

A more recent three-day study took place in Kassel, Germany under the direction of the Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) [Society for the Scientific Investigation of the Parasciences] where plastic pipes through which water flow could be controlled and directed were buried 50 centimetres under a level field, the position of each pipe was marked on the surface with a coloured strip.  The dowsers had to determine which pipes had water was running through them.  The results were no better than chance.

Some researchers have investigated possible physical or geophysical explanations for alleged dowsing abilities. One study concluded that dowsers "respond" to a 60 Hz electromagnetic field, but this response does not occur if the kidney area or head are shielded.

There is no scientific rationale for the concept of dowsing and no scientific evidence that it works.  In all cases, the device is in a state of unstable equilibrium from which slight movements may be amplified.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Paranormal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiesthesia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9ance

Castle Keep and The Black Gate, Newcastle. 25th May 2012.

Would you believe a folding table could walk around a room or try its hardest to climb some stairs?

I will hold my hands up right now and admit that while I have heard talk of tables moving either by rocking back and to or spinning around on one leg before but never having seen it happen for myself I have always been a little sceptical of this type of thing even when they have been reported by my fellow team mates whom I trust not to fake such things.  Until now.  Last night I saw it happen for myself and I caught it on camera.

This is called table tipping, one of the Victorians’ favourite ways of communicating with the dead.  We used a folding ‘TV dinner’ table in the Garrison Room, the lowest level of the medieval Castle Keep where it is said prisoners were chained to the walls while awaiting trial.  Indeed the metal hoops that the chains passed through are still in the stone walls.   We set the table up so all four feet were on the same, level, floor flagstone then, while resting our finger tips on the edge of the table, requested if there was a spirit there who wished to communicate with us to move the table for us so we would know they were there.  The rocking became, rather gently at first, but rapidly built up from making the table creak to visibly moving then to rocking back and to onto two legs.  The table changed the direction of the rocking when requested to then it balanced on one leg.  As crazy as this may seem, the table even remained balanced so when asked to so I could photograph it!

The table then made the people on the table walk around it by spinning on one leg, then it took them for a walk around the room and back to its starting point.  In the Garrison Room there is a wide flight of wooden then stone steps that lead up to the condemned man’s cell.  Not really believing it could be possible we requested the spirit to ‘walk’ the table up the stairs, but the table ‘walked’ over to the stairs and managed to get onto the bottom step.  Perhaps if the stairs had been wider it would have managed to get higher, it certainly tried to.  No body picked the table up and at this point most of the people on the table only had one or two fingers resting on its top.

Later that night, or earlier the following morning, we tried table tipping in the chapel.  Again the table rocked from side to side, slamming its feet onto the stone floor so hard it could be heard by the people on the floor above.  Likewise, at a different point in the night, we could hear their table, a much heavier one, doing the same thing.  We learnt from the rocking, or the stopping dead for negative answers, that there was a Catholic spirit in the chapel who wasn’t too happy with us doing table tipping there. 

This is the first time I have ever witnessed table tipping to such an extent.   Previously I have felt the table vibrate as something knocked on its underside at Grace Dieu Priory, again with people I trust not to fake results, now I want to witness the phenomenon of the ‘walking’ table again.   Perhaps one day I will see all four table legs lift off the floor, it didn’t happen this time but who knows…

There was one other occurrence I wish to report from last night.  Again it concerns the chapel.  During the first session of the night I went into the chapel alone.  I was very nice, I asked permission to entre, after all it was not my place of worship, but from the moment I entered I was aware that my presence was not welcome, indeed when I walked into the section where there are some grave stones on display the very air seemed to change consistency to a thicker more resistance density.  I took a few photos, then feeling quite sick, left the chapel.  As is my habit I noted this in my notebook, one of my most used tools, and showed it to my fellow team leader without saying a word to anyone else.  On the following break I mentioned not being welcome in the chapel to the organiser, it is apparently a feeling he, and quite a few others, are familiar with.  This night the Team Leaders stayed in the same area while the teams of ’investigators’ moved between different locations, or floors of the Keep, and between different Team Leaders so they could experience how different Leaders conducted investigations.  While working with a different group of ‘investigators’ my fellow Team Leader took some of our new group into the chapel, I stayed in the Garrison Room with the rest of the group as we tried the Talking Board without success.  Upon their return to the garrison Room he showed a lady in that smaller group the notation I had made; in an aside he then informed me she had experienced exactly the same thing.  We do not announce things like this aloud to a group so no one can become affected by suggestion.

Castle Keep; it is an interesting place to hold an investigation and I am sure I will be going back.

Orbs, what are they?

Possible cause one: modern photographic equipment and retroreflection.

Orbs are common with compact cameras, where the short distance between the lens and the built-in flash decreases the angle of light reflection to the lens so directly illuminating the aspect of any particles facing the lens and increasing the camera's ability to capture the light reflected off normally sub-visible particles.

In this manner retroreflection can create orbs when light from the flash returns to the lens with a limited scattering of light off a solid particle (e.g., dust, pollen), liquid particles (water droplets, especially rain) or other foreign material within the camera lens.

Such images usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though they may also occur with whole or partial colour spectrums, purple fringing or other chromatic aberrations.  With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.

A hypothetical underwater instance with two conditions in which orbs are (A) likely or (B) unlikely

Possible cause two: ghosts, spirits and life forms

Some ghost hunters believe orbs are ghosts in the form of balls of light or that they are the life forms now taken on by the human soul or life force of those that once inhabited a physical body here on earth.  Such orbs are encountered with relative frequency and some psychics claim to be able to talk to them. 

Some people believe these orbs to be spirits who have willingly decided not to move to the next level of existence because they feel bound to their previous life or location for some reason and can, consequently become similar to a psychotic human being.  Some people also believe that the longer these spirits stay behind, the harder it is for them to find their way to the next level.

                                    

Possible cause three: visible energy transference

Another theory considers orbs to be energy transferring from a source (i.e. power lines, heat energy, batteries, people, etc) to the spirit so they can manifest.  It is possible that this is simply a natural way for them to get their energy. 

Why this shape? 

Orbs are the most photographed anomalies caught by ghost hunters and can be quite photogenic; ranging from completely transparent to a bright solid form. 

The ‘energy transference’ theory would, according to the laws of Physics, explain why these ‘spirits’ appear as round balls; while in the process of transferring, energy would assume its natural shape of a sphere.    This theory can also be tied into the EMF readings obtained during spirit activity.

Another theory is that ghosts prefer the form of an orb because this shape uses the least energy with small orbs requiring far less energy than apparitions and other fuller shapes.  Some believe that in the colder parts of the year ghosts can find it easier to take on shapes other than orbs as this is when static electricity most commonly occurs in the atmosphere particularly in the months from October to February.  It is also believed that they are able to draw on our own energy when needed. 

But how do we explain…?

Orbs appear in photographs taken in grave yards, alleged haunted locations and before important life changing events.  While some people believe these orbs to be spirits and paranormal energies, some skeptics believe them to be caused by insects, moisture, dust particles or malfunctioning camera diodes and while some ‘orbs’ can be accredited to natural phenomena, there are some that simply just cannot.  

For example; photographs taken of the hands of healers showing orbs as the healer is projecting their spiritual powers, or orbs that can appear in photos around the heads of mediums when they are communicating with the dead.  So what are the orbs that appear on photographs taken at spiritually significantly times?  As of yet no one can say for certain so it is down to individual belief.

http://ghoststudy.com/a_what_are_orbs.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb_(optics)

http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/orbs.htm

http://www.psychics.co.uk/orbs/index.html

            http://www.psychics.co.uk/ghosts/what-are-orbs.html