In late April [this would be of 2009], right about the time I cracked my skull, I ordered Dowsing: A Journey Beyond Our Five Senses by Hamish Miller, from Amazon.com. I must have seen or heard or read something about dowsing, but for the life of me I cannot recall what it was that prompted me to place the order. Why dowsing? Why that book?
The little book arrived several days later while I was recuperating from my fall and then – along with a hundred pieces of paper and stacks of historical research books – sat neglected for weeks on my desk as I wrestled with a mind blurred by pain, snake venom and sulfa pills.
A New View
When in June my mind began to clear after taking myself off of the blood-pressure pills, I picked up Hamish Miller’s book and read: “So dowsing has undergone a paradigmatic shift from the useful but relatively mundane science of finding water sources, lumps of metal, and old drains to that of a spiritual search into the mysteries of human consciousness and its relationship with the earth. There is a practical, exciting journey waiting for everyone interested in the skill. It can lead by progressive expansion of thought to perceptions far beyond the normal restrictions of our five senses.”
This was great stuff. This was what my mind thirsted for, another tool to continue my search, my “re-enchantment.”
True to my usual form, I spent the next couple of nights researching on the Web and scanning the related books on Amazon.com. I was at a book store in Portland and bought The Divining Hearth: Dowsing and Spiritual Unfoldment by Patricia and Richard Wright and immediately ordered a couple more books from Amazon: The Diviner’s Handbook: A Guide to the Timeless Art of Dowsing by Tom Graves, and The Divining Mind: A Guide to Dowsing and Self-Awareness by T. Edward (Terry) Ross and Richard Wright.
Avoiding the Mistake
I now had enough books to last me for a summer’s worth of research. And then, one day last week, I reached for one of them and – in a moment of luck or guidance – happened to select Tom Graves’ Diviner’s Handbook and turned to Page 16, where I read:
“The great mistake people will make when studying dowsing – or any practical subject for that matter – is to learn about it instead of learning it. I made that mistake myself. I spent years reading about the theory of dowsing and getting confused by the various writers’ conflicting and self-contradictory statements, before it dawned on my that the way to learn it was to go out and do it.”
He was absolutely right. He had just saved me countless hours reading about dowsing and delaying for weeks actually trying it.
