SCIENCE, BLACK MAGIC, OR WHAT?

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 15, 31 July 1944, Page 9

SCIENCE, BLACK MAGIC, OR WHAT?

What happened when a Sailor went Dowsing

By 297030

One day early this year, at a naval shore establishment north from Auckland, I finished my midday meal and walked from the messroom down to my hut. On my way along the path I noticed one of the ratings, a leading hand, walking slowly, rather peculiarly, along the cleared space in front of the barracks. He seemed to have something in his hands, and from his manner something on his mind, too. I didn’t take much notice. I thought vaguely that maybe he had had his oppo’s rum tot as well as his own, and, anyway, he was entitled to enjoy the warm sunshine as he wished. I said “ Hello,” but he didn’t answer. I thought no more about it. Half an hour or more later I left the hut to walk over the hill to my “ place of duty.” To my surprise there was now not one man behaving in this curious way, but about fifteen— of the personnel of the station. They were all walking slowly, eyes fixed on the ground, something tight in their outstretched hands, and all apparently with something on their minds. Back and forward, around each other, they moved, their attitudes never altering. Not a word was spoken. They didn’t look at each other. I was amazed. The whole place

seemed to have gone mad. The sun was hot, but it wasn’t as hot as all that. This is fantastic, I thought. All steady on their feet. I stayed to watch and wonder ; and I kept on wondering. No one would answer me. They took no notice of either my presence or my queries. For them I just wasn’t apparent it seemed. They were friendly enough as a rule. I

couldn’t understand it. It was more than ten minutes before I realized what was happening. Waterdivining. That was what had transformed them into the sleepwalkers that had perplexed me. Backing horses carrying the number 8 ; having your fortune told from tea-leaves in a cup or from the palms of your hands ; swinging a dead cat over your head in a cemetery at midnight to cure warts ; tablerapping ; winning a prize in an art union or raffle ; and water-divining. They are some of the things that are associated in my mind with the unknown. And unknown only because they are not possible. So I wasn’t very impressed when I found that it was water-divining that was taking all this serious attention. The sunshine was pleasant enough without a display of black magic. I prepared to go on my way.

It was fence wire they had in their hands. Certainly it seemed to be behaving in a way unlike most fence wire. Bending up, bending down, in some cases apparently with such a force that it could not be held. Black magic or not, I had better see what it was all about. I was there for an hour. Next time I would need a much better excuse,

they said, when I arrived over the hill. The Chief Witch-doc-tor, the person I had noticed first, laughed when I said there was no such thing, that waterdivining was looked on in much the same light as planting carrots by the moon to keep away slugs. I did as he suggested; I took one end of the forked wire with one hand and he held the other end. We walked slowly along,

eyes fixed steadily on the ground ahead. Nothing happened. I realized that now I looked the same as all the others at whose manner I had been so alarmed. Nothing happened. Still nothing . . . Something had happened. The wire was twisting. With all my strength I hung on, tightened my grip. The wire kept on twisting downwards, the end of it into my palm, until I had to let go with the pain of it. From the length of the wire and the

direction in which it turned I could see plainly that Chief Witch-doctor could have done nothing to cause that force. There was something I couldn’t understand. His wrists couldn’t have moved the wire in that direction ; it wasn’t physically possible. Also the wire was too long (about 2 ft.) to be moved by a man’s hand with that force. Nobody could have been more sceptical at the start; now I was beginning to wonder. It was only at certain spots that the wire reacted in this strange way. I tried by myself ; the force was not as great, but it was strong enough to be noticeable, at times to wrench the wire from my hands. It appeared that only some people had the “ gift ” ; Chief Witch-doctor had it unusually strongly ; I noticeably. I spent an hour trying to return to my former state of scepticism, but I went away convinced—of what I didn’t know. I had red, sore palms, the skin had been broken in places from trying to hold that wire. It was no use.

Later in the afternoon I tried again over the hill. The results were so strong that I judged we must be above a subterranean ocean. I asked the two physicists on the staff what they had to say. That morning I would have agreed with them, now I couldn’t. The one (M.Sc., Oxon) : “ It’s an old wives’ tale. There is no known physical explanation ; it just isn’t possible.” I wasn’t much impressed by that; I expected something more logical from

this man (M.Sc., Oxon). After all, there is no physical explanation for many things in this world, but you can’t just say they don’t happen. The other (two years at Victoria College) : “ It’s an old wives’ tale. There is no known phy ” “Yes, I know,” I interupted, “but how do you account for water-divin-ers earning their living if there’s nothing in it.” Viet. Coll. : “ They have a little knowledge of geol ogy, and the rest is just

natural shrewdness.” Al. Sc. Oxon and Viet. Coll, agreed patronizingly that my success was only self-deception. I had, in spite of my scepticism, willed the wire to twist. I had willed so strongly that my hands didn’t heal for several days. Previously I had always been told of my weakness of character. This was a new angle. The next time I went on leave I decided to read some books on the subject, to try to find out who “ had something there ” —the Chief Witchdoctor or the M.Sc., Oxon. It was interesting ; in parts it certainly was amusing. I read many pages. But I still know little more than I did before. At the public library three volumes on divining (or dowsing) were squeezed among books dealing with mental radiesthesie, hypnotism, and insanity. That didn’t impress me much. The reason, the books said, references to dowsing are few in the records from early times is probably that it was in such common use that no one bothered to write of it. The art can be traced back to before Mohammed, and in the fifteenth century German dowsers were imported into England to try to discover lost tin-mines in Cornwall. At that time it was used chiefly for finding minerals, and the use of it to discover water does not appear to have become general until much later. In 1518 Martin Luther condemned it as “ Black Magic,” and some of its exponents to death for witchcraft. In the seventeenth century Jacques Aymar caused a

stir at the French Court by divining neither mineral nor water, but a murderer. Aymar was given some of the murderer’s belongings, and using these as a sample, he tracked him half-way through France with his divining-rod. The murderer was so surprised that he confessed at once, and was promptly executed. According to these books, there have in the last fifty years been so many advances in the science that anything from ghosts to infected tonsils can now be divined and in all sorts of circumstances. It is reported that the modern diviner is a man who has started at the bottom and learned the trade thoroughly ; he still discovers metals and water, but he does it with far greater accuracy and much more comfort. He uses maps and photographs. So astonishing have been the results that some have earned the title of “ Super-Dowsers.” Moreover, they work not only in the present at any distance, but also in the past. A chair by the fire or a seat in an aero—the results are as startling and as accurate. Here is some of the work that diviners to-day claim to succeed with : complete diagnosis of serious illness, including cancer and different types of poisoning, (methods of operating or treatment are suggested). Find from any distance and in any country all rocks, ores, metals, and minerals. As with water, the depth and extent of the find can be accurately estimated. Analyse different kinds of water, chemicals, foods, and liquors. Pre-natal forecasts of sex. The writers mention that unfortunately they find it difficult to get the subjects over which to work. However, the sexing of eggs can be carried out without difficulty and with complete success (a

rooster’s feather on the end of a string is the “ rod ” used). Dental diagnosis, which is more successful than x-ray. The finding of hidden treasures, and underground entrances to castles and the like. Determining the fertility of soil and seeds, and whether certain areas of ground would be suitable for crops, and if so, what types. Missing persons, both dead and alive, can be located, and criminals apprehended without trouble. Animal tracks may be followed through any type of country and with no apparent traces (perhaps there is even the possibility of a master of foxhounds using not a pack of hounds but a dowser with two hairs of a fox’s brush). The sex of an artist can be determined from a picture. The claims, all apparently proved, are endless. Dowsers even admit to occasional failures (many of which have occurred when they have been put to the test by sceptical physicists), but these failures can be understood easily when it is explained by the diviners that the rays which emanate from the subjects on which they work sometimes become mixed with the rays from other nearby materials. However, a Super-Dowser always uses the necessary care. The methods are many, and the apparatus used by different dowsers ranges from the forked hazel-stick to “ a sensitive potentiometer with a free line and two impolarisable electrodes.” Some Super-Dowsers use nothing mechanical, relying solely on their reflex actions. The explanations of the rays and forces and things are as varied. The one that appealed to me most was that the Good Pixies guided the diviner’s rod to whatever, he wanted to find.