Pointing in the Right Direction
Unraveling the mysteries of dowsing, in search of water, oil, health and ripe melons.
By Jeff Berg
Dowsing, as stated by Walt Woods in his mini-booklet about the craft called "Letter to Robin," is also known as "water witching," "divining," "questing" and even "doodlebugging." The latter term is most often associated with finding pockets of gas and oil, rather than seeking water, the most familiar dowsing application. Both would seem to come in pretty handy here in the desert Southwest.
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Las Cruces dowser Frank Geisel shows how it's done. |
Woods goes on to explain, in brief, his definition of dowsing: "the ancient art of finding water, minerals and other objects that seem to have a natural magnetic, electromagnetic, or perhaps unknown energy."
Dowser Tony Gehringer of Las Cruces claims that "anyone can dowse with the proper training."
What is the proper training?
Gehringer teaches by example. He has several small pendulums, obviously the important tool in the skill of pendulum dowsing, laid out on the table. Other tools that can be used by dowsers include a bobber, which kind of looks like a car antenna at the end of a spring, and either a plastic divining rod or the old standby that most people know about, a forked stick.
Woods suggests a quiet place, where one can be in a sort of meditative space, and Gehringer is concentrating on doing that now. "You can use anything (as a pendulum) that is tied to a rope or chain," Gehringer explains, "but it has to be free to swivel. If all else fails, you can even use your car keys."
Gehringer picks up one of the small pendulums and demonstrates how his "yes" answer is signified by a back-and-forth motion, as the device swings to and fro, toward and away from him. A "no," of course, goes back and forth, just like when you nod your head. It might be different for you, however. Nothing is absolute.
"This is your 'key' to get into the big library in the sky," Gehringer says. He concentrates on the small fob and asks it, "Am I tuned in?," to which the answer is a hearty "yes."
Gehringer uses a chart on the back of Woods' book to begin this session. He explains that when asking questions, it is important to ask very, very specific queries so that the answers come down to either a yes or no. The most successful dowsers know how to do this.
But before that, Gehringer shares, it is important to ask permission to see if it is "okay" to continue to do a dowsing program. "The first thing you need to ask is may I, can I, should I?"
Woods' book, which appears to be the best guidebook to dowsing available, and is used by any number of dowsers and hopefuls, tells us that "may I" is meant to ask, "Do I have appropriate permission to proceed and be involved?" "Can I?" equates to finding out if you have the capability to dowse in a particular area, and "should I?" asks whether "considering all aspects related to this situation, would it be appropriate, proper and suitable to dowse in this area?"
If permission is received, you are on your way. It is later explained that sometimes you will not get a "yes" answer, and you must obey that message.
Dowsing is said to be depicted as engravings on ancient Egyptian stonework, and also on the Chinese statue of an emperor, dating back to 2200 BC. A huge history gap comes next, and little is written about dowsing until the mid 1500s, when a mention of it is made in a report, with a sketch of a German dowser practicing the trade.
Not without controversy, of course, dowsing brought misfortune to a Martine de Bertereau and her husband in the 1600s when they were tossed into prison for practicing "'black arts." But before that, they allegedly discovered more than 150 deposits of iron ore, gold and silver, just during the time they dowsed in France.
And dowsers also face present-day skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll, the author of The Skeptics Dictionary, who dismisses the ancient art as a form of "magical thinking." Nonbelievers also can subscribe to the "ideomotor" effect. This theory, first presented by a gentleman named Carpenter in the 1850s, suggests that dowsing is the result of "the influence of suggestion or expectation on involuntary and unconscious motor behavior." Ouija boards, skeptics say, work on a similar principle.
But Gehringer has a much different explanation. "What makes this dowsing stuff work? The best answer is that it is intuition," he offers.
Gehringer started his dowsing career in 1980. He says that he knew almost immediately that he had the knack for dowsing. He's taught any number of people how to do it over the years, until recent health issues required him to slow down a bit.
He recalls a time that he and a fellow dowser were hired by a client in Texas. "He wanted to locate fresh water on his land, and only wanted the search to be made from 1,600 to 4,000 feet down. Why the restrictions? Gas wells! Everything else was leased, and that was the only space available."
Amazingly, this search was successful, but even Gehringer admits that dowsing is not a foolproof method. "But you'll know when you're successful (in a water dowsing expedition), as the phone will ring off the hook."
Another time, two women who wanted to find water on some property they owned hired Gehringer. "Their dad didn't believe in it. So, when I went out there I had a map, and 'X' marked the spot where they were to dig the well. It came in at seven gallons a minute, at 450 feet down. I'll bet he's taking a bath in that water right now."
Tony Gehringer's daughter, Jeanne, is also a dowser. Her skills tend to lean more toward the metaphysical uses of dowsing, such as clearing noxious energies from one's home.
"Anytime you have an undiagnosed illness, there is something that is upsetting your normal energies," she says. "I once had a woman call about a sick child. The child's bedroom was right behind the television, and it was the cathode ray tube that was causing the child's illness."
After a dowsing session, the family moved the deleterious energy area away from the bedroom wall, which helped the child get better, she says.
Jeanne Gehringer also finds that her dowsing work helps with such things as fine-tuning a person's need for a certain dietary supplement, such as vitamin C. She suggests, as an example, that anyone could take a pendulum and dowse a certain brand or potency of the supplement, and adjust their needs accordingly.
"You just need to ask the right question."
But again, she cautions, always ask permission.
Frank Geisel is another Las Cruces dowser, who has conducted classes and demonstrations at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum for the last several years. A flier from Geisel notes that dowsing is used to help locate things such as water lines, springs, dry caves and underground water lines. According to the flier, a dowser may know when he has found something by sometimes experiencing a tingling feeling or perhaps an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach.
On the other side of the handout, it is noted that a dowser can diagnose car trouble, choose a "modality" and even determine if a roast in your oven is done cooking. Lynn Reeves, a Canadian dowser and acupuncturist, compiled the long list.
Geisel is a former student of Gehringer's and has been "witching" for 65 years. It was not until he retired from the Army, 25 years ago, that he got into it seriously.
At a recent "Introduction to Dowsing" gathering at the museum in Las Cruces, Geisel sets out to train a handful of museum guests in Dowsing 101. He shares how the different tools and types of dowsing are done, using a bottle of water in a box as his "hidden well." He points out to his students that it is important to pare down your questions so they can be answered with a simple yes or no.
"Will it rain at the museum today before midnight?" Geisel asks. The two pieces of his favorite tool, the "L rod" device, which can be made out of coat hangers, cross one another, indicating "yes." (Sure enough, the biggest rain of the summer, a genuine toad strangler, will reign supreme on the east part of Las Cruces later that night.)
"Dowsing is finding things, and I don't know how it works. It's not magic, it is a gift that God gave us," he says. "The more I do it, the less I know."
He emphasizes that if one expects to dowse a lottery ticket, it won't work. "Dowse for need, not for greed."
| For more information on dowsing, plan on attending Geisel's afternoon workshop at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum on Saturday, Sept. 9. For time and details you can contact him at 382-1385. A good Web resource is www.dowsers.org. |
Geisel goes on to mention that dowsing is used by midwives to determine the gender of a baby. The military has used it to find explosives hidden underground and to locate water at a World War II site in Morocco for thirsty American soldiers, he says. The story goes that an Army captain approached Gen. George Patton and said he would find water for the troops, but he needed a forked willow stick to do it. Patton was able to arrange to have the captain's requested tool brought in the next day, which enabled him to find the spot where water could be found for the soldiers.
"Albert Einstein, Edison and Michelangelo were all dowsers," Geisel claims.
The class listens, perhaps with a touch of skepticism as he notes that he sometimes does pendulum dowsing at the grocery store to see whether a melon is ripe.
After demonstrating the various dowsing options, Geisel offers his class a chance to try it themselves. Each participant is given a pair of the wobbly L rods, and told to bring them to bear over the water bottle that Geisel has used as part of his demonstration. As they get closer to the bottle, two of the guests' L rods start to cross one another, which is the "yes" answer to "Where is the water?" The third, whom Geisel teases by saying she needs more training, does not have the same experience. Her L rods stay parallel and pointed straight ahead. After another pass or two, her training is "complete" and she "finds" the water bottle, too. The students leave, hopefully convinced of their new life skill.
After the class is dismissed, Geisel shares some additional information about dowsing, including how it is being used for DNA research, and sometimes for healing.
"It's legal to use it for healing in Arkansas," he says. "In New Mexico, it can be used to diagnose and talk about the status of healing, but not for actual healing."
Geisel, like the Gehringers, just feels it is a matter of asking the right questions.
Do you believe in dowsing?
May you? Can you? Should you?
Senior writer Jeff Berg finds water by turning on the faucet.