Dowsing with Ged

Experiment Description On the 20th January 2023 I took nine volunteers to a location on featureless undisturbed moorland where results had been experienced previously using dowsing rods.  For the purpose of this experiment I had marked out a 16 metre square split into quarters.  Some volunteers brought along their own rods and others were was given a pair of bent welding rods. All participants used simple 'L' shaped metal rods though the size and material varied. Each dowser walked a pre-defined path through the grid and at the end turned and followed the same track in reverse. The pattern helped disorientate reducing the risk that on the second pass the first pass locations would be remembered. Each time a rod cross was reported the position was measured and recorded by a neutral observer with no feedback given. Volunteers were kept at a distance until their turn so that they had no knowledge of previous dowsers' responses. Study Site This area of moorland is known to have...

Introduction The NT property I volunteer at is running several "Divining Walks" to give other volunteers and members of the public a chance to look at the moorland where dowsing is one of the tools we have used to try to understand the drainage system installed early to mid 19th century. The walks includes many aspects of the ecology and water management at Lyme but this post relates only to the Divining or Dowsing aspect. The content and location of the walks is based upon work carried out before the pandemic and you may wish to read  First Survey and Discovery as background to the rest of this post. ** update: only the first walk took place due to attendees failing to turn up Preparatory Outing I met with the organiser and another volunteer last week to look at the area chosen for the demonstration. The organiser (B) had not experimented with dowsing rods before. My colleague volunteer (K) had been involved in earlier pre-pandemic work on the moor, so had experienced reac...

This week presented an opportunity for an extensive experiment using rods to survey farmland for the route of an old fresh water pipe.  A 1945 ram pump had been confirmed from archives as providing fresh water from a millpond to a farm half a mile away cross country the other side of a hill. No plans or maps remain so this was a blind trial. My dowsing partner for the day had initially been an extreme sceptic but experienced rod crosses in an earlier experiment. He had constructed his own aluminium wire rods held in hollowed bamboo tubes for the day which worked well. [Subject 5 (Jk) in post A Separate Experiment  06/01/2020]  Prior Knowledge To make this honest commentary, I must acknowledge some prior knowledge and expectations. I believed that the freshwater feed would not be simply to the farmhouse as the ram pump's financial justification would most likely be to water cattle as farming intensified. Some mention had been made of "Whitesmead" as a destination, and thou...

It is now over 12 months since our investigation into the moorland drainage systems was halted due to the pandemic. In the UK we are currently looking as if the summer of 2021 may allow us to restart activities and this post is really just to say, "Hi, yes I am still here and the blog is alive.". Hopefully within a couple of months I'll have more to write, meanwhile, stay safe and well. Digging Pilot Holes I am eager to further investigate the possibility that we were locating the paths of a 100 year old mole plough drainage system.  The only way we'll know is when we can take out some holes at what we believe are intersection points. I believe the mole would have been at a depth of  around 0.75m (30 inches) so I would like to dig 1 metre square to a depth of 1 metre with carefully sliced sides so as not to collapse any soil tubes.

Investigation Halted Covid-19 So, just as the project was getting its legs and the Moor was revealing its first secrets to the dowsers the first pandemic to hit the world for some time arrives. Initially there was some thought that we could continue in small numbers to explore the Moor but as the virus expanded in the UK the point was reached 22 March 2020 when the National Trust was forced to close Lyme Park, House and Gardens to all access. UK Restrictions On the 24th March the UK government introduced 3 weeks of heavy restrictions: One outside Exercise p day, Food & Medicine only shopping, Essential travel to work only if unable to work from home and providing an essential service. Initially three weeks but will almost certainly continue in some form for 3-6 months and possibly beyond; So, for the foreseeable future no further dowsing activities will take place. We will be back out there though we don't know when. In the meantime Stay Well .

Strategy As with the first week, two teams of volunteers were to head out on the moors; the Tuesday team which included me were to follow one of the gullies all the way up the moor to see how far the stone built culvert extended and the Thursday team would visit Cluse Hay, an extension of the moorland to the west so see if the same patterns were repeated. Tuesday - Eastern Moor Two of us explored the clough which continued up the moor from the first culvert discovery concentrating on how far this primary culvert extended. The dowsing rods consistently predicted the line of the drain which did not always adhere to the centre of the gully. Though we did not attempt any excavations, we encountered a significant number of collapses revealing the stone culvert confirming the line and exposing the high volume water flow. This primary drain was found to continue up to just below the summit of the moorland, further than expected. The weather was foul and terrain difficult so no investig...

Second Team Following our excursion on Tuesday and apparent discovery of a grid pattern of drainage, a second team went onto an adjacent moor section on Thursday. Chris deliberately kept them in the dark as to Tuesday's results in order to avoid prediction. Grid Pattern Continues "Thursday went exactly the same as Tuesday (despite being in a new area) apart from some difficulty in locating (or at least getting a consistent line for the 10 yd drains. We certainly got the 5 yd pattern and we decided to focus on one of those lines which we could see with the pins, we brought all other pins into this line and really focused on getting a solid idea of exactly where that drain was. We ended up with 20 pins in the ground in a dead straight line, ...." This report shows a separate team using dowsing rods to identify the same regular 5 yd separated drains intercepted by approx 10 yd drains and an arterial stone built culvert running below a dry clough. "... went down...

Strategy Today 4 of us set out for our first survey attempt on Park Moor in the southern region of Lyme, a National Trust property on the edge of the Peak District in the UK. These moors were drained about 200 years ago and with climate change and other influences, these drains are now too efficient at water removal contributing to moorland fires, loss of habitat and flooding. The aim of this exercise in dowsing (divining) is to understand the drainage system Lacking any historical maps to help us know where drains would be, the first thing we had to do was to decide an approach. Several large gullies cut through the moor and one possibility was that any land drains would drain into them in a fish-bone pattern.  Taking this as a possible model, we would spread out to walk in a line parallel to a gully in the hope that we would come across side drains. First Moor Survey Results and Confusion We began walking parallel to the gully and almost immediately began to expe...

My neighbours are building an extension and two unexpected pipe routes have appeared heading under our boundary fence line when digging foundations. I can see the line they follow into our garden and experimented with the rods. Walking up the side passage between the fence and our garage, I experienced rod crosses in line with both; one a ceramic surface water drain at 90 degrees and a mystery line about 1m depth running diagonally. Feet not Rods I experienced a straight forward rod cross near the ceramic drain and after passing back and forth concluded that the cross occurred when my feet were over the drain as opposed to the rods themselves. The deeper line which looks more like an old power cable; looks as if it has a bitumen wrapping.  I experienced crosses but the rods definitely aligned with the line at 45 degrees to the fence line, again when my feet were over the projected line. If the detection indicator is the feet rather than the rods then this would ex...