Don't be so hasty. there is a perfectly logical explanation...
Posted on 09/17/2012 11:50:46 AM PDT by Renfield
“I’ve been considered nuts, speaking to two bits of wire and expecting an answer from them,” admitted local historian Walter Elliot as he published his new book on dowsing, called Divining Archaeology, “but I do get an answer from them! I’ve found so much stuff now, they cannae say I’m nuts.”
The amateur archaeologist, who lives in Selkirk, has used divining rods to locate underground objects for more than 50 years, at first hunting for buried field drains and fence posts while working as a fencing contractor.
“If you were unlucky enough to burst a drain while digging a fencepost, water would flood up and you had to bail it,” he remembered. “There would be a lot of bad language, and you lost half a day’s hard work. The divining rods were practical tools, which were able to detect soil disturbances. I just used a couple o’ bits o’ L-shaped fencing wire.
“I’ve always known about divining,” he added. “I was brought up in Ettrick and all the farms up there used divining rods, usually Y-shaped hazel twigs. When you held them over a drain, they pointed back towards your chest. It was just accepted. They didnae ken how it worked: it just worked.
“My grandfather, he had the Y-shaped hazel twigs, which he held very gently in his pinkies, and he had a cushion on his chest, because it came back with such a force it could have broken his ribs. It was phenomenal how fast that thing whipped back, as soon as he went over a drain.”
While Walter was assisting the excavation of the Roman fort of Trimontium, it dawned on him that, “a Roman defensive ditch was only an over-sized drain,” and “a pattern of former postholes could indicate a house.”
“I began to find houses, people, everything more or less – like where there was a male or female in a grave. People think you can only look for water – but you can look for everything. Divining is like x-raying the ground.”
Demonstrating to TheSouthern how he uses his divining rods, Mr Elliot explained: “When I’m looking for things, I just say, for example: ‘Where is the nearest drain?’. And the rods point that way. I’ll go over there, and the rods will cross when I walk over it.
“I can tell what is under here, by asking: ‘Is it a water pipe?’. The wires cross, so yes it is. ‘Is it iron? Is it copper? Is it plastic? The wires crossed again, so it’s plastic.”
Seeing the reporter’s amazement, he added: “I’m no’ kidding. I’m no’ just pulling your leg. I’m holding the rods very lightly and carefully. I just go the way the rods are pointing, and there it is. It’s impressive.
“The difficulty is telling what the object is, and what year it belongs to. It’s a matter of persuading folk that this is one way you can find archaeological stuff, and pinpoint them, without great expense. But archaeologists, being scientists, just simply don’t want to know. I’ve found loads of archeology in the Borders, if only I can get somebody to come to dig it and prove it.” Asked how he convinces people to believe him, he responded: “I don’t bother. It’s no’ a case of belief. It’s a case of: it happens. As I fencer I couldnae have cared less, I just knew it happened. And everybody did. It was just something you did. There’s no scientific explanation that I’ve been able to find. And it’s no’ a case of me trying to twiddle anything. Archaeologists, being scientists, simply don’t want to believe something they can’t explain.”
Does he think he perhaps sees external signs, like humps and bumps, and he subconsciously moves the rods?
“Most of the finds in the book, there’s nothing you can see on the ground whatsoever,” he responds. “The only explanation I can give is that, when you have a drain or a post, water comes into it and gets held there because the soil is less dense than the surrounding soil. It’s a change in soil density. I’m finding things they can’t see with aerial photography or geophysics.”
Asked what motivated him to write such a controversial book, Mr Elliot replied: “I’m getting on – I’m 77, I’ll be 78 next month, and I dinnae have much time left. I want to get it all on paper, so that somebody else can run with it. I’ve got a lot of information in my head. If you’ve got information, you’ve got to spread it about, and let others get the benefit of it. I don’t mind being wrong. But I know I’m right.”
Scottish Borders Council’s archaeologist Dr Chris Bowles cautiously supported some of Walter’s claims.
He said: “We’re excavating a bishop’s palace near Ancrum in October, and the guy who told us it was there was a diviner. We tested his claims with geophysics, and it was broadely similar to the plans he got with divining rods. That’s why I say there could be something in it: I’m 50/50 on it. The jury’s definitely out.
“If it works, it detects differences of water retention in the soil. Anything buried in the soil is going to retain water differently, like walls or ditches. The biggest issue is how diviners interpret these findings, because there’s so much buried under the ground: geological features like natural fissures can retain water, and all of that can look like archaeology. It’s great diviners are finding this stuff, but we need to test their claims physically. The problem is archaeology is expensive, so you can’t test every single one.”
Walter Elliot is giving a talk about his new book at the Selkirkshire Antiquarian Society in Selkirk Parish Church Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday, September 19.
“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead" (Deuteronomy 18:9-11).
Divining with rods is a form of divination. And, you can see what the Bible lumps that in with.
There is zero scientific evidence that there is any physical mechanism behind divining. So, if there isn't a physical mechanism, then what kind of mechanism makes divining work? The only possible type left is a supernatural mechanism.
In other words, "if" divining works (and I put if in quotes, because I personally believe most people involved in this are simply frauds), then the only reason it works is because there is a supernatural cause--a spirit--moving the rods. But, since the Bible forbids this, we know the spirit moving this isn't God or a holy angel. That leaves only one option: a fallen angel (a demon, the devil, whatever you want to call it).
This is why the Bible condemns divination, because when you get involved in it you are either (1) committing fraud, or (2) teaming up with a demonic spirit (perhaps unknowingly, but still teaming up).
(NOTE: It also works as a Gaydar.)
LOL!! That might be true had I not turned to Christ and taken the plunge 3+ years ago...8)
The pastor that I heard the story from was adamant that when encountering something uncanny it is unsafe to assume that it is wholesome. Hence his "testing of the spirits." Having witnessed several forms of witching, I will verify that it can be uncanny. Whether or not it is never wholesome I cannot say, but you won't catch me doing it.
The Biblical passage quoted about Moses no more supports dowsing than the passage saying “David loved Jonathan” supports homosexuality. Both are taken out of context for someone’s worldly purpose and are gross distortions of scripture.
Yes, well put.
Superstition like that amazes me, and not in the way you wish. Maybe instead, you could explain to me why that method is not in widespread use by most power companies and underground locators?
“Too late. You are a devil’s minion now.”
ROFLMAO
My husband does it. He uses a Y shaped branch for water and metal rods for metal. I thought it was a bunch of “bleep” so one day I covered my living room floor with newspapers and hid 3 quarters and told him to find them and he did!!!
IMO you are comparing apples to oranges. The scripture you quoted about “one who uses divination” is specifically talking about a fortune-teller. My God-fearing Christian grandmother would use a willow branch to find artisian wells for family and friends. It was a priceless gift to the poor folks in the country back in the hard times. She and Pawpaw picked cotton for a living.
Never seen it, don’t know, but I kinda hope it’s real.
Superstition? I've tried it. You apparently have not. Who is basing their claim more on actual, repeatable observations: you or me?
Maybe instead, you could explain to me why that method is not in widespread use by most power companies and underground locators?
Maybe because modern equipment is more accurate and reliable? (I already told you that an underground locator showed me the technique.)
I suggest you try it. I'm talking about the metal rods. I was dubious, too, until I tried it, and found that it worked reliably.
Every house I’ve ever built, the well sites were witched, both of them, main site and “repair” site in the event of a failed well. They didn’t ask me, they just did it. It’s the norm here.
Same with my parent’s houses, one of which is on a high plateau below a cliff at the base of a mountain. The well had to be punched through bedrock. All wells there are punched and very deep out of necessity. Good water, expensive well.
Does it “work?” I don’t know but have never had a well fail.
It is used in the field a whole lot more often than most people know. I was a line locator for a major oil and gas company for ten years. My tool was this:
On the rare occasion that I would get stumped, invariably an old pipeliner would go get his rods out of the truck, walk up and say, "Your pipeline is right here." What I never saw in those ten years was for the pipeliner to miss.
I am a Mechanical Engineer. Graduated with Honors. I have no superstitions.
I have held two slender metal bent rods and walked across a yard, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up when they twisted in my hands. I was on top of a gas line. “Witch Sticks”, they called them.
Say what you want, I’ve experienced it.
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