How old is map-dowsing?

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Ian Pegler
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How old is map-dowsing?

Post by Ian Pegler »

Here's one for you dowsing historians out there...

How old is map-dowsing? To put it more precisely, what's the date of the earliest record of map-dowsing either within the BSD or more generally within the dowsing world...?

Anyone?

Ian
griff
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Re: How old is map-dowsing?

Post by griff »

Hi Ian

Quote
"In 1906 the French Abbe Alexis Mermet blamed radiations for dowsing. Man, having his own radiation, intuited the radiation of other bodies by walking into their field. This was taken up by modern mathematician John Taylor who thought the answer was in the electromagnetic spectrum. Predictably, when he could find no such influence, he denied dowsing existed.

MAP DOWSING

The problem with such 'physical' theories is that it does not cover the whole subject of dowsing. For instance, Abbe Mermet popularised map dowsing, where a pendulum is held over a map in order to find, not only water and minerals, but people too. The Abbe claimed that twenty times he had successfully located murderers or missing people and animals."

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2007_0 ... chive.html

I guess that only with the development of maps depicting accurately and to scale the distances between topographical features, did map dowsing become a viable tool.

Regards Griff 8)
Paul Collett
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Re: How old is map-dowsing?

Post by Paul Collett »

By the nature of this question this has to be an auction. I'll start the bidding ! The book 'Dowsing' by WH Trinder, first published 1939, my reprint 1941, Published by BSD, Page 91 Chapter VIII. Trinder suggests that some can do it from maps or photographs , himself included.
Paul Collett
simonwheeler
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Re: How old is map-dowsing?

Post by simonwheeler »

griff: I guess that only with the development of maps depicting accurately and to scale the distances between topographical features, did map dowsing become a viable tool.
Perhaps, also, because much dowsing was centred on water-divining -- especially from the end of the 19th century when money was to be made---there was competition between dowsers and geologists about where to find water. So dowsers deliberately eschewed anything to do with maps- in case their ability was called into doubt, being told that they were interpreting the geological features.


Last bumped by Ian Pegler on Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:58 pm.
Don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out. LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI

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Simon
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