Post by Lauraakafoxy on Mar 16, 2005 9:05:40 GMT
Reports of dowsing date back approximately 7000 years, but its origins are still unknown. It is accepted that the Egyptians used images of forked rods in some of their artwork as did the Ancient Chinese kings. In Europe, it was known for dowsing to be used in the Middle Ages to find coal deposits. Since this time people have dowsed for everything from lost objects to missing people.
Around 1630 or thereabouts there was a famous case in Lyon where a dowser was called by the police to help find a murderer . Using his rods he walked through the streets of Lyon, crossing a bridge over the Rhone River. Constantly guided by his rod's indications, he eventually found a man who played a significant role in the murder of the vintner and his wife.
The various branches of the military has trained select servicemen in the art of dowsing. The credit for introducing dowsing to the military goes to Louis Matacia, a dowser and professional land surveyor who demonstrated to the top brass what could be done by utilizing dowsers on the field of battle. During the Vietnamese war, the U.S. marines were able to find the Viet Cong underground tunnels with the help of dowsing marines. The men in the field came to rely on the dowsers more so than on the sophisticated instrumentation because of their high rate of accuracy. Even today, the various branches of the military continue to train some men in the art of dowsing. Little did the Viet Cong know that the "secret weapon" they felt the U.S. military had to locate and destroy their system of underground tunnels were men in the field with dowsing rods ! The US Army trained soldiers in Vietnam to dowse for unexploded bombs and landmines. It is not known how many lives (both military and civilian) this simple technique has saved in its use for clearing minefields.
The Christian Church at one time generated a lot of superstitious nonsense with their witching laws because religious leaders believed that dowsing was a form of witchcraft. Thankfully that is no longer the case, and there have been many studies of dowsing since that time.
Even the British Army's Royal Electrician and Mechanical Engineer regiment (or sappers) used to train their regiment on how to dowse for water.
Whether a scientific or a psychic phenomenon, from whatever viewpoint, started by miners looking for metals, developed by civil engineers looking for water sources, condemned by the Church as evil, used by armies and medicinal personnel worldwide to save lives — dowsing is a phenomenon in itself that has many applications far and above those from which it first started to cater for.
Around 1630 or thereabouts there was a famous case in Lyon where a dowser was called by the police to help find a murderer . Using his rods he walked through the streets of Lyon, crossing a bridge over the Rhone River. Constantly guided by his rod's indications, he eventually found a man who played a significant role in the murder of the vintner and his wife.
The various branches of the military has trained select servicemen in the art of dowsing. The credit for introducing dowsing to the military goes to Louis Matacia, a dowser and professional land surveyor who demonstrated to the top brass what could be done by utilizing dowsers on the field of battle. During the Vietnamese war, the U.S. marines were able to find the Viet Cong underground tunnels with the help of dowsing marines. The men in the field came to rely on the dowsers more so than on the sophisticated instrumentation because of their high rate of accuracy. Even today, the various branches of the military continue to train some men in the art of dowsing. Little did the Viet Cong know that the "secret weapon" they felt the U.S. military had to locate and destroy their system of underground tunnels were men in the field with dowsing rods ! The US Army trained soldiers in Vietnam to dowse for unexploded bombs and landmines. It is not known how many lives (both military and civilian) this simple technique has saved in its use for clearing minefields.
The Christian Church at one time generated a lot of superstitious nonsense with their witching laws because religious leaders believed that dowsing was a form of witchcraft. Thankfully that is no longer the case, and there have been many studies of dowsing since that time.
Even the British Army's Royal Electrician and Mechanical Engineer regiment (or sappers) used to train their regiment on how to dowse for water.
Whether a scientific or a psychic phenomenon, from whatever viewpoint, started by miners looking for metals, developed by civil engineers looking for water sources, condemned by the Church as evil, used by armies and medicinal personnel worldwide to save lives — dowsing is a phenomenon in itself that has many applications far and above those from which it first started to cater for.
