Is dowsing an art or a gift?

2018-07-12

A rod that suddenly starts moving in certain places or a pendulum that starts going round in circles, dowsing manifestations are quite amazing. But what is dowsing, the art that is often disputed, really all about and is it reliable?

Dowsing: from sticks to pendulums

Dowsing is a detection process based on the ability to perceive radiations emitted by certain bodies or objects.

The word comes from the Latin term "radius" (which means "ray") and the Greek "aesthesis" ("sensitivity" or "sensation"). It was created by a clergyman named Bouly and was definitively made official in 1930.

The word “dowsing” may be quite recent, but the practice of this art is ancestral. In Antiquity already, the Romans, the Greeks, and the Scythians used rods to practice this divination.

Later on, in the 15^th century, the rod started to be used when looking for metals that were buried in the ground or for sources of groundwater. You have certainly already heard of "sorcerers" who were nothing other than seekers of sources of water.

Back then, the practice was called rhabdomancy (from the Greek word "rhabdos" - rod and "mancy"- divination). Miners were used to wearing a rod around their belt or on their hat to help them in their quest for metals.

For centuries, dowsing mainly confined itself to the search for water and metals.

But at the end of the 17^th century, it started to be used again for divinatory purposes: to retrieve objects or people who had disappeared and even to find the answer to a specific question.

It is at this time that a second dowsing tool started being used: the pendulum. Thanks to it, dowsing experiments quickly multiplied and this art became increasingly used.

How to explain dowsing?

According to experts, all objects, whether animate or inanimate, emit electromagnetic rays. Matter – whether liquid or solid – is a source of radiance. Therefore, invisible emanations and gigantic electromagnetic fields permanently surround us wherever we may be.

But, most of the time, we are simply unable to perceive them. Our "internal captures" are not adapted to receiving their signals.

These rays can only be perceived when dowsing tools or a supernatural gift are used.
Dowsing, by the way, is often considered to be an extrasensory perception. Indeed, being dowsing-sensitive, i.e. being able to perceive radiance is not something everybody can do.

Today, dowsers use this practice to identify a source of water that could be found in an unchartered ground, to retrieve objects, to find people who have disappeared and, in some cases, to make a medical diagnosis.

However, it must be acknowledged that even the most renowned experts haven’t been able to entirely explain this phenomenon and dowsing practices are still shrouded in mystery.