- 1 -

AN EXPERIMENT IN DOWSING AND SELF-HEALING

Copyright by Pete Warburton, 1 July 2008

email: petepw@earthlink.net

The first version of this paper was written for the American Society of Dowsers (ASD) West Coast Conference, July 1987, and the paper has been under revision ever since.  This version anticipates the  ASD West Coast Conference July 2008.

American Society of Dowsers: www.dowsers.org

ASD West Coast Conference:  www.dowserswestcoast.org

Ozark Research Institute:  www.ozarkresearch.org

Subtle Energy Research Institute: www.seri-worldwide.org

Journal of Scientific Exploration_: www.scientificexploration.org

A proposed "technology" of dowsing for self-healing is given on page 16.  The rest of the paper is written to support that page.

                                                                       Page

    1.0 THE ROAD TO SELF-HEALING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

    2.0 DOWSING TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

        Water Dowsing as a Technology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

        Self-Healing as a Proto-Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

    3.0 SELF-HEALING: TECHNIQUES IN THE DOWSER'S TOOL KIT  . . . . . . 9

        Basic Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

        Clearing Emotions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

        Affirmations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

        Clearing Traumas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

        Clearing Energies and DNA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

        Dowsing, Consciousness, Intentionality, Self-healing . . . . .  17

    4.0 THE SCIENCE OF DOWSING and THE DOWSING OF SCIENCE . . . . . .  18

        Physics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

        Earth Energies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19

        Biology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

        Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21

        The Social Sciences  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22

        The Frontiers of Science and Religion  . . . . . . . . . . . .  23

        The Unity of Science   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23

    5.0 DOWSING AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 25

        Problematical Truth  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25

        Veridical Perception and Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25

        Communal "Common Sense" Truth  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26

        Realism, Conceptual Relativity, and Theoretical Truth. . . . .  26

        Moral Puzzles in the Search for Truth  . . . . . . . . . . . .  28

    REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29

                                                                          - 2 -

1.0 THE ROAD TO SELF-HEALING

This paper is an interim progress report on my research in dowsing and self-healing, and owes much to my dowsing guides, Bob Mahany (1916-2007) and Joe Wippich, and to my philosophical guides, Wilfrid Sellars (1912-1989) and John Searle. Major steps were to explore psychic phenomena (1973-83), build a model of psychic structure (1983-93), extend the model to DNA and the body (1993-present), convert to a full-time task in 1995, and continue the research as far as possible (table on page 15, 1991, revised 2007).

In the early 1970s, I became interested in self-healing.  My primary interests are in keeping myself and others healthy, in understanding how the human psyche works, and building bridges to scientific theories in physics and psychology.  A retired computer programmer, I have an MA in Philosophy.  Views expressed in this paper are my personal opinions, naturally. The research project has several objectives.

1) Develop a dowsing technology to heal myself and to assist others in self-healing.  Water dowsers have a technology with a success rate of at least 95%.  At present, I do not know how to measure self-healing success, but even if I could, it would be less than 95% (I suspect).

2) Understand areas of science that are incomplete today, and integrate these areas into a scientific conceptual framework that accounts for dowsing.  Dowsing is a proto-science (not a pseudo-science), and there are many reasons to believe that dowsing will become part of mainstream science in the future.

My guess it that in 20 years we will know how DNA drives healing (electirc/magnetic energies), and in 50 years, we may know how mind drives DNA (space/time energies). Body chemistry and DNA seem too complex for chemical control, so healing is driven by harmony and high vibration rates (Lipton 2005). 

    ***

In the early 1970s, I spent some time in the Stanford University Medical Library researching how far neurophysiologists had progressed in uniting mind and brain.  Not very far, I decided.

Psychologists know a great deal about human behavior (Bowlby 1969/1973/1980) and neuro-physiologists know a great deal about brain chemistry and neuronal pathways, but there was little to bridge the two sciences.  Much progress has been made since then (Lipton 2005, Backster 2003, Engel 2002, Freeman 2000, Wilson 1998, Deacon 1997, Waal 1996), but large gaps remain (e.g., Searle 2007).

I decided that if I were to understand the human mind during my lifetime, I best look elsewhere.  So, I looked into parapsychology.  The evidence seemed fragmentary at best. But one area caught my attention:  psychic healing (Fuller 1974, Krippner 1976, Meek 1977, Pelletier 1977).  If psychic healing works, it is not only more economical for one's pocketbook but also less stressful on the body and psyche than conventional medicine.

In 1976, I met Bob Mahany who had developed a technique of self-healing, tuning into people to help them heal themselves.  In 1972, Bob had learned about the "recording wire" (a dowsing rod) from Mrs Francis Nixon (author of _Born to be Magnetic_), and began his work in 1974.  Only several years later did I learn that Bob was "dowsing" (Bird 1979).

"Dowsing is a synthesis of the spiritual and the rational.  Dowsing is different from other spiritual practices because it asks a question from the psychic side and demands an answer through the physical side.  That's a kind of joining of heaven and earth." - Nicolas Finck (1998)

                                                                                - 3 -

Most dowsers seek water, minerals, etc., but Bob had learned to dowse the human body and psyche for emotional traumas which impact a person's health.  When a person becomes aware of the trauma, perhaps also meditating on the trauma and the people involved in it, the body seems to heal. The cases of many of Bob's clients sounded like those of John Bowlby (1969), so dowsing and psychology connected. Over the years, Bob has developed many techniques using dowsing to answer two key therapeutic questions:

- Why doesn't this client's body heal itself?

- What does this client need to know to heal her/himself?

Here indeed was a phenomena I could research, while waiting for the scientific world to "reduce mind to body". But the only way to research dowsing and self-healing is to be a "participant-observer",  a self-healing dowser. To Bob's approach, I have added a theory of grounding, and a theory that DNA operates by maximizing the harmony of all vibes (low energy levels result in dis-ease, aging, and low will power).

The search for self-healing seems to be a search to learn how to deal with (and resolve) disharmony (or disharmonious energies) in the soul, mind, emotions, and physical body. I do not know what is best for others, so I see it as my task to help others get their energies together and unblocked, so they can do what is best for themselves.

                                                                             ***

How healthy we are seems to be an intersection of two variables with a wide range of values (e.g., think of the range of scientific opinion as to whether high-power electric lines are a health hazard):

- our environment ranges in many ways from very healthy to very unhealthy (metal and non-metal toxins, pesticides, electromagnetic radiation, etc);

- our body/mind/psyche ranges in may ways from very healthy to very unhealthy (disabilities, illnesses, allergies, emotional traumas, chemical sensitivities, etc).

At the present moment, each of us is at a unique intersection of these two variables of environmental hazards and bodily health, and each of us presents a unique challenge to our own self-healing capabilities.

                                                                             ***

There are three steps of faith and experience that one takes on the road to self-healing:

(1) The first step is a decision to take as much responsibility for one's health as one can, a relatively safe step, since two-thirds of common ailments clear up on their own, given time and patience. Brody (2000) describes natural self-healing and placebo effects.                                                                      

But for many people, this decision seems to be a "big deal" because today's conventional wisdom is that you and nature cannot heal yourself, and that at the first sign of illness or discomfort, one is obligated to rush to the pharmacist, doctor, shrink, chiropractor, herbalist, accupressurist, etc.  As Bernie Siegal says "Like most doctors, I have to try to remember that I am merely a facilitator of healing, not the healer himself" (Peace Love and Healing_, p 125).

(2) The second step is to determine just how one is going to stay healthy and how one is going to deal with illness.  Dowsers have a great variety of recommendations for dowsing food and everything else.

At one extreme are persons who dowse all foods, vitamins, medications; people who monitor the radiations of their TVs, etc.  At the other extreme are dowsers who don't do anything in particular.

                                                                               - 4 -

Once you have decided to be responsible for your health, you will find methods that you are comfortable with, so you can gain confidence that indeed you can maintain your own health in the face of friends and family who insist you should be consulting your doctor (conventional, shaman, or quack).  My own choice is to dowse traumas and resolve them, without worrying about food, or procedures like accupuncture.  Indeed, if I dowse that I need vitamin C, my goal is to clear the trauma that generated my need for the supplement.

The Perricone diet has helped many people.  Andrew Weil (www.DrWeil.com) has several books offering many alternative medical techniques for people to take care of themselves. Mat Van Benschoten, O.M.D., (www.mmvbs.com) advises herbs for chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivity, toxins, etc.

Brody (2000) offers many helpful suggestions.  Buddhism offers many suggestions as to how one can improve one's health through a change of attitude.  An excellent psychology for living is offered by _A Course in Miracles_ (quite apart from its problematic metaphysics).

(3) The third step is to decide how far to push one's self-healing skills.  How much pain, agony, and feeling lousy are you prepared to take before seeing the doctor?  How much of a chance are you willing to take that you can completely heal yourself?

We have all heard stories of people who died because stubbornness kept them from seeking medical help.  On the other hand, we also know of persons whose bodies were kept alive by medical technology after all "quality of life" was gone.  Anyone taking responsibility (or sharing responsibility with his/her health practitioner) faces such questions. These techniques kept me away from doctors for 37 years, until I had a hernia in 2007. Now I have a second chance, to stay away for another 37 years.

                                                                            ***

Self-healing involves more than the physical body known to Western medicine.  There is also a metaphysical structure of psychic centers and healing energies: etheric, astral, chakras, meridians, mind, ego, soul, etc.                                     

How quickly does healing start?  Well, while you are chewing your food, your pancreas, liver, and stomach are making chemicals needed to digest exactly the food in your mouth. Healing seems to start to work that quickly, and continues until completed.                                                                        

We dowsers do not diagnose or treat illnesses (since most of us are not health practitioners), but we tell "dowsing stories" (phenomenological accounts, not medical or scientific accounts) for a person's consideration in deciding what they want to do for themselves, and we try to help persons heal themselves (self-healing).                                                                         

It is much easier to help another person to heal than to work on yourself.  Self-healing is like self-analysis:  one hides from self-analysis in convoluted ways.  Yet the payoff is to heal one's self.                                                                          

The premise of this "power of mind" approach is that the physical/metaphysical body will heal itself when "the subconscious" (a group of subsystems coordinated by the intent of a conscious mind) knows what traumas and disharmonious energies are blocking self-healing. The process involves a subconscious rapport between the dowser and the self-healing person.

                                                                                - 5 -

Self-healing is greatly facilitated if the person has reasonable family/community support, diet, and exercise; "reasonable" as described in the studies of Dean Ornish (1990) and Brody (2000).  Otherwise, there are many deep traumas to clear and release.

The approach to dowsing taken in this research project involves two modes of operation. First, in dowsing questions and answers, be open to all possibilities, including all the garbage information in the world.  Second, put aside the dowsing mode, and analyze the informations to see if the answers form a coherent and sensible body of information.  If not, dowse and analyze further for clarification of details.  This two-fold approach resulted in the model of psychic structure developed in this paper.

The basics of self-healing: be responsible for yourself and your self-healing, be in harmony with yourself and all the disharmony in the world, in harmony with your illness/microbes/toxins/all parts of your body.

The limits seem to be an inability to release stress, negative emotions, and dysfunctional behavior.

We dowsers each have our own approach to dowsing and self-healing. Some dowsers conclude that entities and possessions are involved in 80% to 90% of their clients, whereas Bob Mahany and I find possessions perhaps 1% of the time. We would agree that 80% to 90% of the problems we deal with do involve the energies/emotions of a second or third person in our clients, but not an entity or a possession.

The difference, I think, is due to methods and concepts.

Many dowsers approach health problems by dowsing auras, and find that a person's aura is shifted (up, down, right, left), or skewed, or has holes holes in it, or has "abnormal" colored shapes in it, and these distortions correlate with physical/emotional problems mentioned by clients.  When distortions (in body or aura) are cleared, the client heals, so it seems natural to conclude that these distortions were foreign entities or possessions.

On the other hand, when Bob Mahany dowsed persons and their auras, he found emotions and links, but he distinguished these from what he occasionally dowsed as a possession.  I have followed Bob's practice, and rarely find an entity or a possession.

Many dowsers believe that dowsed information comes from a "universal mind", but I doubt it (else we dowsers would not make mistakes). Dowsed information seems to come from earth energies, or the subconscious minds of living persons or spirits. On the other hand, theosophists talked (circa 1900) of the planetary logos and solar diva, and in the years following, we got Alice Bailey and the cosmic hierarchy, Urantia, Uri Geller's intergalactic council of nine, and Keys of Enoch. Each of these begins with plausible psychic phenomena, and grows into increasingly more complex science fiction.

CAUTION:  I think that in our enthusiasm to share our self-healing experiences, we dowsers sometimes oversell our ability and understanding of self-healing.  When an ill person, especially with a life-threatening disease (cancer, etc), is misled and self-healing fails, there may well be bitter feelings against us dowsers._

Note: While dowsing for self-healing is inexpensive, relying on a professional at $50-$500 an hour is no cheaper than any other professional service. However, if it takes no more time to self-heal 10 or more persons in a group than it would take for the longest session of the 10 plus individually, then perhaps group self-healing could be done at a reasonable cost per person.

                                                                           - 6 -

2.0 _DOWSING TECHNOLOGIES_

Water Dowsing as a Technology_

Technology is an art which is reliable, repeatable, and teachable; but not necessarily at 100% (Silicon Valley companies have a viable technology, even if chip yields are less than 100%).  Water dowsers with a success rate of 95% (Bird 1979, pp. 34-40) have a technology.

Dr Betz (1995) reports:  The good news is that after 10 years of study world-wide, dowsers find water 95% of the time, geologists only 50% of the time.  The bad news is that he was  unable to devise a protocol for a laboratory dowsing experiment.

"Experimenter effect" is a problem for dowsers and others.  Cleve Baxter (2003) automates  his experiments on communication among plants, yogurt, eggs, human cells, and human intent.  The experimenter can affect results just by watching polygraph/EKG/EEG recording as it happens.  Tiller (2001) describes experimenter effects on physical events.  Subjective experience is a fact of the world (Searle 2007), and science should not hold that "experimenter effect" always indicates faulty work.

Technologies do not always have a scientific explanation.  Ceramics, metallurgy, and navigation were technologies centuries before there were sciences of physics, chemistry, or astronomy; 200 years ago there was not much theory of electricity/magnetism/electronics. A major step in the scientific exploration of technologies is to develop experimental protocols with operational definitions of what the experimental steps are, and definitions (statistical or otherwise) of what constitutes a measurement of success.

For their Remote Viewing experiments, Targ and Puthoff (Targ 1998) spent a year developing a protocol, to which their fellow scientists agreed prior to the experimental work; but they were unable to develop protocols for experiments with Uri Geller bending metals. Tiller (2001) put considerable effort into developing protocols for his experimental work.  Water dowsers have such protocols, but dowsing for self-healing does not.

Dowsing involves physical energies; but when we realize that it is people (and perhaps animals) that dowse, not instruments or devices, then dowsing seems more biological than physical. Dowsing seems to involve the dowser's entire body:  nerves, glands, etc.  Dowsers get differing results, if the forehead or abdomen is shielded with lead (Bird 1979).

The dowsing question/answer method also involves mind, not just body.  An answer of yes, no, or maybe, requires a conceptual framework by which one evaluates a yes/no answer to a particular question  (e,g., water dowsers know much about wells, soils, etc).  So dowsing is psychological, not just physical and biological.  Successful dowsing may also depend upon a supportive cultural environment (Morgan 1994).

Because dowsing cuts across the sciences, dowsing seems to be part of several technologies:

- physics (water, minerals, earth energies),

- biology (healing the physical body),

- psychology (healing emotions, mind, spirit).