Dowsing 101

Whenever I attend a networking event or meet someone for the first time inevitably they ask me what I do for a living. When I answer they usually respond with, “Feng what?” And if they happen to know what feng shui is then the question becomes, “What is dowsing?”

So I thought I’d write an article that explained what dowsing is and how it works. If you’ve ever seen pictures of a person walking along the ground and holding a forked tree branch in his hand looking for water you have seen a dowser. In fact water dowsing, or water witching as some call it, can be traced back over 8,000 years to cave drawings. This is probably the most familiar form of dowsing that people know about.

But dowsing can actually be used to find anything. Geologists use dowsing to do preliminary searches for mineral deposits. Bee keepers use dowsing to find areas of geopathic stress (I’ll talk about this in a minute) and place bee hives there to increase honey production by up to five times. Dowsers are even hired by bottled water companies to look for pure spring water. A friend of mine used her dowsing skills to find a book she had misplaced several months ago. If you know how to dowse you can find just about anything you want.

How is this possible? Well, no one was really sure or could explain it exactly until quantum physics came along. This branch of science has been able to show us that everything has an energy field: your body, the chair you sit in at dinner time, your pillow, your desk and even this article. Literally everything has its own energy field. These energy fields radiate around the people, things, animals, plants, etc. they belong to. As a human being, your energy field radiates out from about 18 to 25 feet around you. The Earth’s energy field is much greater since it is a much bigger object. Something small, like a pen, would have a smaller energy field. When you dowse you are using your energy field to tap into these energy fields around you and that is what leads you to the object, stress point, person or whatever it is that you’re looking for.

If you think about it this isn’t really so unusual. German shepherds are used by police to track down criminals they’ve never seen. Mothers who are away from their children instinctively know when they’re in danger. If you’ve ever been in a situation that made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe you’ve tapped into the energy of that place or situation too. It’s not ‘woo-woo’ mumbo jumbo but rather something we’re all familiar with to different degrees.

The key to being really good at dowsing is balancing both hemispheres of your brain- the left and the right. Most people tend to be dominant on one side. If you are a linear, logical, pragmatic type person your left brain probably dominates your thinking. If you are creative, social, and personable then your right brain probably dominates. You can bring both hemispheres into balance a number of ways including centering exercises like meditating, yoga, tai chi or qi gong. You can also do brain exercises like Cook’s Hook-ups to balance the hemispheres. If you don’t balance both sides of your brain it’s going to be hard to get your dowsing tools to work for you.

There are a number of different tools you can use to dowse including a pendulum, forked tree branches, brass dowsing rods, and other dowsing devices. The key is to find the tool that works best for you. My friend who found her missing book prefers a pendulum. My preference is brass dowsing rods because they’re more sensitive and they don’t bounce around when you walk with them. There’s no ‘right’ tool you just have to find the right tool for you.

In my business as a feng shui and dowsing expert I use dowsing to find areas of geopathic stress (which means naturally occurring stress in the Earth), negative Hartmann and negative Curry lines (which relate to electricity), interference lines (created by cell phone and satellite towers), personal zones (areas of energy that affect you personally and no one else in your home or office) and Karma lines (okay, yes, I agree, this sounds ‘woo-woo’ and I can also tell you that I have seen relationships between people change for the better as a result of finding and curing these lines). You can read more about these lines in my article called Bad Vibes? Dowse Your House on SelfGrowth.com.

Once I find these lines I cure them using copper rods. These rods have a grounding effect on the energy and stop it from entering your home or your office. When you can block the negative energy with dowsing and create a positive flow of energy in your environment with classical feng shui you get a very powerful result. That’s why I always dowse before I give my clients their feng shui plans.

Like anything in life that’s worthwhile, your dowsing will require periodic maintenance. That’s because the Earth is constantly shifting and changing, new cell phone towers are going up every month and as long as we build houses and offices there will be more electricity going into our communities. I dowse my house using my dowsing rods once every four months or so. My clients are on a six-month check-up plan and it’s a lot more fun than going to the dentist!

The best part about dowsing (next to getting rid of the bad energy) is that it is fun! If you have kids they will enjoy learning along with you. I can tell you for a fact that when you show your friends your new dowsing skills you will become and instant celebrity. Everyone will want you to dowse their homes. Even friends who have known you for years will look at you with a new sense of mysticism and awe. I’ll let you decide whether to tell them anyone can do it or let them think you have new magic powers.