By Will Barber

November 2010

My Understanding of Traditional Dowsing

For quite a long time, L-shaped metal dowsing rods and other dowsing “tools,” such as weighted pendulum strings and Y-shaped wooden branches, have been used by numbers of people in different ways for diverse reasons (e.g., used by some for locating water, minerals, metal, or specified or lost objects).  Some of the metal L-rods are “homemade” (e.g., from “coat hanger” or comparable rod-like metal).  Various metal L-rods are manufactured with the shorter legs encased in metal sleeves that freely allows the longer legs to rotate at right angles to and within the sleeves.  Examples of a few of these traditional tools are pictured below.

There are a number of dowsing organizations, such as the American, Canadian, and English Societies of Dowsers.  Much information, including a number of books and articles, regarding various aspects of dowsing is accessible online and otherwise, some supportive, some skeptical, about the dowsing phenomenon.  Among relatively recent books regarding traditional dowsing are:

• The Diving Mind by T. Edward Ross and Richard D. Wright (1990)

• The Definitive Wee Book on Dowsing: A Journey Beyond Our Five Senses by Hamish Miller (2008)

• Dowsing as a Daily Tool by Robert Gandrup (2008)

Some but not many of these materials address spiritual aspects of dowsing, including;

• The Divining Heart: Dowsing and Spiritual Unfoldment by Patricia C. and Richard D. Wright (1994)

• Spiritual Dowsing: Tools for Exploring the Intangible Realms by Sig Lonegren (2007)

• http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Divination/Dowsing

The basics of traditional dowsing are covered in these books and other materials that are readily available online and otherwise.

My First Experience of Traditional Dowsing

My experience of traditional dowsing is even more limited than my understanding of this phenomenon.  In the early or mid-1970s, Pat (my wife) and I were with a Colorado neighbor who was using a Y-shaped willow branch as a dowsing tool to locate where to drill a water well on his mountain property (commonly called “water witching”).  Where to drill a water well in the Colorado Rockies can be problematic.  He walked around his property, holding the Y-branch parallel to the ground, with one of the upper prongs of the Y-branch in each hand and the lower prong pointed horizontally away from him.

As our neighbor walked over a particular area, Pat and I saw the lower part of the Y-branch angle down toward the ground.  Curious concerning this seemingly weird happening, Pat asked our neighbor to let her try to do what he did.  He did and she did.  And, the Y-branch in her hands likewise pointed downward as she walked over the same area.  Pat, a relatively strong person, later told me that she had tried hard to keep the Y-branch parallel to the ground as she walked over that area, but whatever force was pulling it downward overcame her efforts.  Subsequently, our friend successfully drilled a water well in that area of his property.

My Second Experience of Traditional Dowsing

In the late 1970s, wanting to have a water well on our family’s Colorado mountain property, I contracted with a Colorado driller (Alpine Drilling Service, Milt Tillerson), who had a good reputation regarding water wells in our area, to do the job after Pat and I returned that year to our Texas home.  Before leaving, I flag-staked what I thought would be a desirable location for the well head relative to our cabin and driveway.  When Milt and his crew arrived on-site, he telephoned to ask my permission to relocate by “water witching” where to drill the well.  Despite my previous “eyes on” experience of my neighbor having so located his water well, and Pat’s “hands on” experience of that event, I asked Milt:  “Are you, as a professional water-well driller, recommending to me that the location to drill on this mountain ridge property be determined by water witching”?  He responded:  “Mr. Barber, I’ll drill wherever you say, but our experience over the years is that we’re more successful when we do that than when we don’t.”  I said:  “OK, do it that way.”  He did and got an excellent water well for us at less than half the anticipated depth.

My Next Experience of Dowsing

More than 25 years later I had my next experience of traditional dowsing.  In 2005, a lifelong special friend of both Pat and me shared with us about some extraordinary experiences he was having through his dowsing rods, some spiritually oriented and some otherwise.  Our longtime trust in this friend and his integrity underpinned our confidence in the authenticity of this type of spiritual rodding.  Intrigued by what we were hearing, especially the spiritual aspects, at one point I encouraged him to see if his L-rods would work in Pat’s hands.  Graciously agreeing to do so, he put a row of small wooden blocks on the floor across the room from her.  Then, inasmuch as the shorter legs of his L-rods had no sleeves around them, our friend placed those legs into straws to assure that the longer legs could freely rotate horizontally in Pat’s hands.  As soon as the rods were in Pat’s hands, they moved responsively.  Our friend then led her through some introductory dowsing exercises, including having her walk toward the wooden blocks on the floor with the rods in a traditional “open” position ( ↑  ↑ ).  With the rods still in this position parallel to each other, Pat approached the wooden blocks.  When the rods were directly above the line of wooden blocks, they spontaneously moved and pointed toward each other at right angles (in a traditional “found” or “located” position).  Based on what I saw, together with all our trusted friend had shared with us about his spiritually oriented and other rodding experiences, I asked him if he would arrange for Pat to have a set of her own rods, which he generously did. 

Differentiating Spiritual Rodding from Traditional Dowsing

Other than that I use L-shaped metal rods, commonly called dowsing rods, my own experiences of spiritual rodding do not bear much resemblance to traditional dowsing.  I do not use my rods for typical dowsing purposes (such as locating water, minerals, metal, or objects).  I did not learn rodding as a technique or skill by progressing through typical stages.  I have no “hands on” dowsing expertise or knowledge as such and do not consider myself a dowser per se.   What I have to share with all who are genuinely interested are my extraordinary experiences in the spiritual rodding realm  ─  experiences that began for me quite suddenly, spontaneously, and unexpectedly, experiences that at the outset I considered myself an unlikely person to have, experiences I did not and could not have anticipated or imagined.  Yet, these spiritual experiences, spanning now almost five years, are real to me , truly real.

I experience spiritual rodding as essentially personal.  I am more comfortable describing my experiences of spiritual rodding as an unfolding personal practice that is a process or journey for me as distinguished from learning a method, technique, or skill  ─  a personal spiritual practice that is not susceptible to “how to” instructions.  The essence of my experiences of spiritual rodding is akin to, albeit not the same as, some forms of meditation or prayer.  I do not set forth the following basics of my experiences of spiritual rodding as an “I do it this way, so you do it the same way.”  I do share my authentic spiritual rodding experiences as a means to encourage those who have already had a spiritual rodding experience to continue to unfold their own journey and those who are interested in having such an experience to embark upon theirs.

My Experiences Beginning a Spiritual Rodding Engagement

Holding My Rods

 In my spiritual rodding engagements, I use L-shaped metal rods with metal sleeves encasing only the shorter legs and with the longer legs free to move rotationally within the sleeves.  I hold these rods as shown below, holding one sleeve vertically in each hand with the shorter leg of each L-rod upright inside a sleeve, with the longer leg of each rod at right angles to the sleeve and parallel to the surface below my feet, and with each L-rod thereby free to move rotationally within its sleeve.

Unprompted Start-Up Movements of My Rods

 Almost always as soon as I pick up my rods for a spiritual engagement, and without any initiating from me, one or both rods will immediately begin rotating round and round and often continue doing so for varying lengths of time  ─  sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other, occasionally reversing directions, often with both rods moving in sync with each other in the same or opposite direction, sometimes stopping in a random position, other times stopping in one of a number of positions that over time have come to have certain meanings for me in my spiritual rodding.

Typically, the rods come to rest as I start, or during, a personal meditative-type mantra that I have formulated to begin my spiritual rodding engagements.  From time to time, I have modified the content and wording of this personal mantra. 

Beginning Spiritual Rodding with a Personal Mantra

Silently to myself if alone, and aloud if someone is present, I usually begin my spiritual rodding with a full or abbreviated personal mantra.  Based on my spiritual rodding experiences, I am following these self-formulated mantra guidelines:

• A personal mantra at the outset of my spiritual rodding engagement enables me to be more open, clear minded, transparent with my ego surrendered, focused, and fitting for the engagement.

• My personal mantra unfolds over time and may be changed from time to time.

• No particular mantra wording is essential.

• No particular mantra fits all spiritual rodding engagements.

An illustrative mantra that I have at times used for my spiritual rodding engagements is set forth below under  An Illustrative Mantra for Spiritual Rodding.  In this and other personal mantras with which I begin spiritual rodding engagements is included a threshold readiness question, such as:

Q.  Am I ready here and now for this engagement?

or simply:

Q.  Am I ready?

When the response through the rods is negative, as occasionally occurs, I examine whether there is some distraction in my head, or heart, or space, or otherwise that may be interfering with the integrity of my spiritual rodding practice.  I self-examine to determine whether I am being:

§  open,

§  clear minded,

§  transparent with my ego surrendered,

§  focused

§  fitting

More often than not for me, the source of the distraction turns out to be insufficient focus (for example, when I fall too much into merely “going through the motion” of spiritual rodding).  In these instances, by concentrating more on the particular spiritual rodding engagement I am starting, I am then able to re-focus and re-ask the readiness question, receive an affirmative answer, and proceed.  Sometimes, the distraction is rooted in my ego and difficult to recognize (for example, when for a personal purpose I am unconsciously rushing, or taking a shortcut, relative to a particular engagement, or I am in some other way disrespecting my spiritual rodding practice).  Once I recognize where I am “off” and get my underlying ego out of the way, then I can re-ask the readiness question, receive an affirmative answer, and proceed.  Although each of these five facets of readiness is important, my experience over time is that especially so to the whole of being truly “ready” to engage in a spiritual rodding engagement is to be OPEN, OPEN, OPEN . . .

Pointing to People, Places, and Things

During some spiritual rodding experiences that I and a family member have had, our rods at times spontaneously point to a particular:

• individual in a room or even in the surrounding area;

• mountain, waterfall, or specific place;

• animal or bird;

• tangible object.

On occasion, through follow-on Yes or No responses to questions, we are able to determine whether the particular such movement may be meaningful in our spiritual rodding; and if so, what meaning such movement may have. 

Associating  Rods and  Positions with Individual Spirits

My wife’s maternal grandmother (Grandma), who died in 1951, and our only grandson (Baby William), who was stillborn in 1997, hold very special places in our family.  I have come to associate Grandma’s spirit with my right-hand rod and Baby William’s spirit with my left-hand rod.  I make this association with Baby William’s spirit when the left rod spontaneously moves and stops pointing toward a representation of Baby William that I usually have before me during spiritual rodding; frequently, the other rod simultaneously points toward my heart.  Similarly, I make the association with Grandma’s spirit when the right rod spontaneously moves and stops pointing toward a small picture of Grandma that I also usually have before me; and the other rod often simultaneously points toward my heart or Pat wherever she is in our home, sometimes following her as she moves around.

Yes or No Positions

Much traditional usage of dowsing rods is associated with asking questions answerable with Yes or No responses, and with one or both rods moving to a responsive position that represents either Yes or No.  Refer to the books listed above. These books and other traditional dowsing materials describe variant rod positions as representing a Yes or No response and different methods of determining the applicable positions for a particular dowser.

Basic throughout my experiences of spiritual rodding has been, and still is, asking yes-or-no type questions and receiving through the rods yes-or-no responses.  Consistently from the beginning of my experiences, my rods point away from each other for a Yes response ( ←  → ) and toward each other for a No response ( →  ← ), having at the outset pointed more at an angle toward each other than directly at each other for a No response.  During most of my rodding and now, for a “non-response” the rods point perpendicular to each other ( ←  ↑ or  ↑  → ), having at the outset just not moved as a “non-response.”  Early on I used  an “open” position of the rods ( ↑  ↑ ) between questions; later on this position between questions ceased to be part of my spiritual rodding practice.

Number Responses

The horizontal surface over which my rods rotate can be visualized as having numbered positions corresponding to 1 to 12 on the face of a clock with the 6 nearest me.  From this perspective, the number 12 position can also be considered as a numerical zero (“0”), with context determining whether 12 or 0 applies in a given instance.  So viewed, I have now and again during spiritual rodding asked number-oriented questions and received numerical responses.  Regarding my initial experience of number-oriented questions and responses during rodding engagements.

Alphabetical Letter Positions

There being twenty-six letters in the English alphabet, what if each of the 12 clock-positions on the horizontal surface below my rods represent more than one letter of the alphabet?  In other words, what if, depending on a spelling context, the 1-position was the 1st letter A, or the 13th letter M, or the 25th letter Y? And, the 2-position was the 2nd letter B, or the 14th letter N, or the 26th letter Z?  And, the 3-position was the 3rd letter C or the 15th letter O?  And so forth around the twelve positions.  Visualized this way, the entire alphabet could be positioned, as shown below, on the horizontal surface underneath the rods.  So viewed, which of the two or three letters represented by each position and applicable in a given instance would depend upon discernable spelling context.

My Experiences of Spiritual Rodding Language

My experiences of language during my spiritual rodding is English, without punctuation, mostly using third person, sometimes first person, terminology.  For me, this is natural during my conscious connections and conscious communications with such spirits as Grandma’s and Baby William’s spirits.  But, how does my experience of conscious connection and conscious communication work relative to a spirit whose human life was as a non-English speaking American Indian?  Candidly, I do not know the “how” of my experiences of spiritual rodding; what I do know is that these experiences are real and genuine.  To me, whether “somehow” the “how” rests in the whole of All/all energy, spiritual and otherwise, or elsewhere, is less important to me than the reality I experience during spiritual rodding.  In this and other writings I use “All/all” (and comparable wording) to express a relationally connected continuum (represented by “/”).

Appropriate Questions

From my early experiences of spiritual rodding, I learned that appropriateness of my questions is essential to the integrity of responses during engagements.  Regrettably, on some occasions before I learned this, I dishonored and disrespected the spiritual rodding I was graced to be experiencing by asking purely secular oriented questions.  In response to such questions, sometimes the rods did not move or moved and stopped at a non-response position; at other times, responses through the rods was otherwise confusing or unreliable.  My learning curve was aided at times by asking through the rods:  “Q. Is this an appropriate question for me to ask in this engagement?”   When the response to this question was negative, I either did not further pursue that particular question or type of question, or after reflecting on the question and revising its content, I would re-ask whether the reworded question was appropriate.  Sometimes the response changed to Yes and other times remained No.

Over the course of my spiritual rodding, I have developed a more and more reliable sense of questions that are, and are not, appropriate for me to ask during my engagements.  Even so, the type or content of a particular question I want to ask during a spiritual rodding engagement may be such that I ask the appropriateness-question before I ask the question itself.  Based on my experiences of spiritual rodding, I have put together and follow these general guidelines for determining whether or not a particular question is appropriate:

• That I have a “fitting” relationship with the particular question;

• That I have a “fitting” spiritual oriented purpose or intention for the particular question

• That a question involving a future aspect may unavoidably involve a human choice and/or circumstance which precludes or inhibits an unqualified Yes or No response; and,

• That, as an ongoing student of spiritual rodding, I may at times ask and receive responses to selective exploratory inquiries but not as a matter of mere curiosity or academic interest.

Periodicity of My Spiritual Rodding

Over time I have determined that appropriate periodicity, not necessarily daily, is important to my spiritual rodding; and that prerequisite periodicity varies for different aspects of my spiritual rodding, such as petitioning comparable to prayer on behalf of someone or some matter.  For example, I do petitioning-type spiritual rodding with daily periodicity for a reasonable span of time when my petitioning concerns a surgical or other health care situation involving a person with whom I have a sufficient relationship.  In my spiritual rodding practice concerning such matters, I frame the petitioning to the effect that those  involved, including applicable surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and other caregivers, as well as the patient and supporters, be their best selves on behalf of the most favorable outcome possible under the applicable human circumstances.  In other petitioning situations and contexts, the appropriate periodicity varies.  Again, for example, I have a more or less weekly periodicity for my recurring family-oriented thanksgiving and petitioning.

Strong Sensation in My Hands

Occasionally during my spiritual rodding, I feel a really strong sensation in both of my hands  ─  a tingling-like sensation that is difficult for me to describe with words, but is nonetheless for me unmistakably genuine when it happens.  This occurs sometimes, not always, following a spiritual rodding petition on my part on behalf of a particular person or matter.  At these times both rods spontaneously rotate, often in sync  for three or seven rotations; then stop pointing toward each other (bringing to my mind the almost-but-not-touching forefingers in Michelangelo’s La Creazione painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome); remain pointed toward each other during the duration of the sensation in my hands; and more often than not, as the sensation subsides, again move and stop at what I identify in my spiritual rodding practice as a spiritual position.

An Illustrative Mantra for Spiritual Rodding

In beginning a spiritual rodding engagement, I usually use a personally formulated mantra, such as the following:

Be still and know that I AM

Enable me with my entire being and whole life to serve

with all honor in all ways at all times

through spiritual rodding and otherwise

- the All of All

- the spirituality of the living universe

- walking with love for all

 - Namaste                             

- all families, including

- the Holy Family

- my/Pat’s and Grandma’s families

- all families of stillborns

- all spiritual families

- spiritual rodding              

- Enable me

- to be do and say all that is mine to be do and say on behalf of

  - walking with love for all

  - Namaste                          

  - all families

  - spiritual rodding 

- Enable me to be ready here and now for this spiritual rodding engagement

  - open

  - clear minded

    - transparent with my ego surrendered

  - focused

  - fitting

Q.  Am I ready here and now for this engagement?

With my entire being and whole life I am thankful to the All of All for

- the living universe and the spirituality of this universe

- human and other life and love on this planet

- connection including conscious connection

- communication including conscious connection

- oneness and Namaste

- all families, including

- each and all within and among my/Pat’s and Grandma’s families

- spiritual rodding, including

  - my conscious connection and conscious communication

  - through spiritual rodding and otherwise with

  - Grandma’s, Baby William’s, and other individual spirits

An Amen for My Experiences of Spiritual Rodding

In the same sense of “amen” as “verily” and “it is so,” and being fully appreciative of my being graced with phenomenal experiences of spiritual rodding, I am steadfastly in awe and wonder of this ever unfolding truly divine mystery.

                        BE STILL

                                BE STILL AND KNOW

                                BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM

                                NAMASTE AMEN