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MARCH/APRIL 2006, MAY 2012. JULY 2013

This article was carried in the APRIL-MAY 2006 issue of “Streams of Living Water”, Calcutta Charismatic Renewal Services

PENDULUM DOWSING, RADIESTHESIA,

AND WATER DIVINING

WHAT IS DOWSING?

“A form of divination using a forked rod or bent wire often used to find objects, people, or things. A person holds the dowsing instrument and is ‘led’ around by it until the object is, allegedly, found.”
Source:
http://www.carm.org

The Skeptical Enquirer FAQ Page [2.5: Does dowsing work?] notes, "Dowsing is the art of finding underground water by extra-sensory perception. Sometimes tools are used. The traditional one is a forked hazel stick." Source: http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/housechu/dowsing.htm
				

DOWSING IS DIVINATION

So, too, admits Diane Marcotte, a former Board Member of the Canadian Society of Dowsers who explains, “Dowsing is the process of using a tool such as a pendulum or rod to discover things that cannot be discovered using our everyday senses. It is a term that in the past has been associated primarily with the finding of water sources. Modern dowsers, or diviners as they are sometimes known as, dowse for oil and gas, minerals, water, lost objects, and lost people to name just a few.” “Any object hung from a piece of string is a pendulum. In and of itself”, she says, the instrument “has no power and no ability to move. Although no one knows how or why dowsing works, it is most commonly thought that its movement is controlled through or by your subconscious. Dowsing is a skill that anyone can learn. First, you need to discover what the movement of the pendulum means.” Commonly there are three movements: “one for a yes/positive answer, another for no/negative, and a third for maybe/neutral response. Experienced dowsers may also count the number of swings or turns to determine depth of an item being searched for” etc. “The next step is determining what your responses mean. They may vary from another person’s but that is fine – what works for you is all that counts!” Marcotte advises that we “ask the pendulum mentally or out loud”

to show us its ‘yes’ or ‘no’ movement by swinging in a particular circular direction. She also teaches the use of charts in which one can “mark the names of various remedies: Bach Flower*, homeopathic*, etc.
to see which ones you should take.” Source: http://www.canadiandowsers.org/How_to_pendulum.html

BRIEF HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY

The ancient art of Rhabdomancy, as dowsing was originally known, has been practised since time immemorial. Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians dowsed using split reeds, and the early Chinese Emperor Kwang Sung (circa 2200 BCE) was known to have dowsed. The Chinese art of Feng Shui*, that is, sacred geomancy* or building, evolved from a theory linking geomancy with rhabdomancy. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3373175

The actual words ‘dowsing rod‘ first appeared in print in a seventeenth century essay written by John Locke, who referred to the ability to ‘divine,’ or discover, mines of gold and silver.

One of the first medical dowsers was Abbé Alexis Bouly, a Catholic priest, living in a little French seaside village on the English Channel. Bouly eventually founded the Society of Friends of Radiesthesia, a new word he coined for dowsing, an amalgam of a Latin root for ‘radiation’ and a Greek root for ‘perception.’ [The Divining Hand: The 500-Year-Old Mystery of Dowsing, by Christober Bird
Source:
http://www.prosperity.com/billellis/radi.htm
]

Under the above title, John Weldon, conducts an in-depth study of the practice and proves that dowsing involves occult power. Source: http://iclnet93.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0099a.txt He says, “The fact that dowsing is also increasingly accepted in the church as a spiritual practice adds to the need for an evaluation of this technique. Dowsing itself is a broad category encompassing many different forms, one of which is dowsing for water… All forms of dowsing are ancient pagan practices that are really forms of divination.”

THE “TWITCHING” IS WITCH-ING

From ancient times dowsing has been considered an occult art. The terms “witching” and “water witching”, used in the West, reveal an early, close association with witchcraft. Some dowsers enter a trance or altered state of conscious -ness when dowsing. It has been compared to a mild state of hypnosis, or trance, or meditation. [The American Dowser (TAD), May 1976, 70; November 1977, 178; May 1976, 79]. Dowsing literature reveals that the practice has been shown to cause one to develop other psychic abilities and so associates it with the realm of the occult, not science; and that it requires faith, respect, and a
personal interaction/response with the rod.

Says Weldon, “Every book or pamphlet on dowsing instruction stresses the necessity to ask the device questions from the very first try. The facts suggest that the force behind this practice is personal, intelligent, and desirous of human interaction. If men were only dealing with an impersonal force, it would never require respect or faith or personal communication. But these responses are exactly what spirit guides demand of their human mediums. Many illustrations of this kind of spirit-human interaction could be cited from those who use Ouija boards, the I Ching, rune dice, tarot cards, or who employ ceremonial magic and other forms of the occult. Many indications exist that a
personal spirit entity
operates through the dowsing implement and that interaction with it is necessary for success.”

Dowsing is often linked with other forms of occult practice. Dowsers have made connections between dowsing and such practices as astral projection, remote viewing, shamanism*, and yoga*, write Frances Hitching, in Dowsing: The Psi Connection [Anchor Books, 1978 pp. 130, 204-5, 243-44; Gordon MacLean, in A Field Guide, TAD p. 27 etc.

They frequently employ radionic devices- instruments used for detecting cosmic or ‘vital energy’* [various issues of TAD]. Monte Kline, an evangelical Christian promoter of holistic health therapies like homoeopathy* and
applied kinesiology* [Christian Health Counselor, March/April 1989, p. 6] defends the practice of dowsing. Both are included in the “New Age… range of practices”.

In my write-up on Homoeopathy, the operation of which also rests on the ‘vital energy’ principle, I have recorded the well-known fact that not a few homoeopaths use the pendulum or other dowsing/ divining devices for the selection of the basic ingredients with which to formulate their remedies.

Dowsing literature provides ample evidence that the dowsing power is both supernatural and uncontrollable.

S. Tromp, International Journal of Parapsychology [Winter, 1968] on researching dowsing for UNESCO concluded that a force field which is not only detectable in the dowsing device, but in the entire body and clearly registers with the electrocardiograph is ‘tapped’ in the dowsing act. 2.

The dowser must ask the device specific questions to receive specific answers. Since it is practiced worldwide, this mean the dowsing power can somehow respond to all languages. But how does an impersonal force understand every language under the sun? More precisely, how did it learn any language at all?

For water-dowsing, the forked stick is usually used. Some dowsers use the wood of a particular tree, but others, another. Still others prefer to use metal. The American Society of Dowsers List for 1983 sells a variety of pendulums and other occult implements such as ‘aura indicators’. “But”, says Weldon, “all such implements are simply useless radionic devices: the psychic power comes from the spirit entity who works behind the device, not the device itself… The object becomes the contact material for spirits to work through.” They function like the horoscope in Astrology* or the cards of the Tarot. “Is it reasonable,” he asks, to expect that mere pieces of paper bearing symbols (horoscopes), simple forked sticks, cards… could supply miraculous information?” Dowsing is a form of spiritism.

MEDICAL DOWSING

For centuries, healing systems been using a form of a biofeedback* system to diagnose illness and discover hidden things. Its constant elements, the tester and the instrument, are the same as in applied kinesiology*… That biofeedback system is dowsing. Dowsing is a form of clairvoyance and has the same appeal to scientists as people who bend spoons. But people find water, cure illness, and solve mysteries with it.  Dowsers use the most elaborate diagnostic systems with homeopathy* today. Medical dowsers generally use a pendulum, which has been proven to work by providing an amplification of normally undetectable movements of the wrist muscle… More recent popular writings about dowsing have departed further from scientific method by combining a personal belief system with the basic elements that are necessary to dowsing. Some of the terms coined for the more esoteric systems of dowsing are Radiesthesia, Radionics, Bio-Energetics, Psycho-Metrics, Biophysics, and Psychotronics.

Source: http://homeoinfo.com/08_non-classical_topics/dowsing/medical_dowsing.php

DOWSING AND THE CHRISTIAN

Dr. Kurt Koch [Occult ABC, 1980, pp. 185-86] says “I have met doctors, pastors, missionaries, and even evangelists who use the rod or pendulum and believe they have received this gift from God.”

The official “Dowser’s Prayer” of the American Society of Dowsers also suggests that dowsing is a gift of God. It reads: “Lord, guide my hands, enhance my sensitivity, and bless my purpose that I may be an instrument of Your power and glory in locating what is searched for.” [The American Dowser, November 1977, page 169].

Christian dowsers sometimes attempt to justify the practice by appealing to the Bible. Passages that refer to digging wells or searching for water are said to be ‘mistranslated’. If they were ‘properly’ translated they would, supposedly, mention dowsing. They claim that Moses used his staff to dowse for [to divine] water [Exodus 17].
Moses was not searching for water. He had been divinely instructed to go to that particular rock and verbally command water to come out of it. In his anger over another matter he disobeyed and struck the rock with his staff as he made the command. According to the account he suffered rather severe punishment for this disobedience, which implies there was some important meaning in the use of the staff, which he should not have made.

In fact, there is only one direct reference to dowsing in the Bible. And here the practice is specifically condemned by God: “[My people] consult their piece of wood, and their wand** makes pronouncements for them; for the spirit of harlotry has led them astray; they commit harlotry, forsaking their God,” Hosea 4: 12. **Wood… wand: an idol used in divination, New American Bible.

The Bible condemns divination. God tells His people, “There shall not be found among you anyone who…practices divination…” Deuteronomy 18: 10. Because dowsing is a form of divination, it is also rejected.

Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into the Latin vulgate in the fourth century referred to the divining “staff” of Hosea’s time and says it was cut from Myrtle wood. Saint Cyril, in the ninth century made the same reference.

Ben G. Hester in
DOWSING
writes,
“In 1362 a Papal Bull against the ‘use of a ring to obtain answers in the manner of the Devil’ (pendulum dowsing) was issued by Pope John XXII… Today, the Roman Catholic Church takes somewhat the same stand as reflected in its works on Moral Theology, stating that dowsing is ‘practicing superstition’ which is a serious sin. The Catholic Information Service of the Knights of Columbus classifies dowsing as ‘rank superstition’ and breaking the first commandment only if using the power as supernatural.”

“The Catholic Church in 1853, declared that dowsing worked because it was the devil his very self that pulled and twisted the dowsing rod to give the accurate results.” Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3373175

Please also refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2115 to 2117.

In 1518, Martin Luther referred to dowsing as a form of idolatry. [Ben G. Hester, Dowsing: An Expose of Hidden Occult Forces, 1984, pp. 59-71] He declared that its use broke the first commandment.

At the National Seminar on Charisms [Chennai, January 2005] Fr. Rufus Pereira said “80 to 90% of our Catholics have gone to astrologers or for occult healing to babas“; he considered this the main obstacle [followed by unforgiveness] to a fuller life in the Spirit. Bro. Anthony Lobo, in his recent retreat [Chennai, February 2006] said that involvement in New Age practices is a major obstacle to Inner Healing. Dowsing would obviously be included in both categories. 3.

In reverse, conversion to Christ may mean loss of the dowsing ability altogether. Prayer may hinder or prevent the dowsing process. [Koch, Occult ABC, pp. 188-191]. “This reveals an additional link to spiritism. Regeneration (John 3: 3-8;
6: 63; 2 Corinthians 5: 17) and answers to prayer (Proverbs 15: 8, 29; 1 John 5: 14) are activities of God. When these activities counteract certain practices, then, by definition, those practices cannot be activities of God, or else God would be seen to work against Himself. Thus dowsing cannot be a gift of God… In conclusion, dowsing is neither a scientific technique nor a natural human ability. It is a spiritistic power used by dowsers who only think they are using a natural or divine gift. Unfortunately, they are really practicing a forbidden art,” writes John Weldon.

*Vatican document on New Age, 3^rd February 2003, n 2.2.3; all starred items above

TWICE FORMER NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE CCR PRACTISES DIVINATION BY DOWSING

APRIL 2006. NOTE: THE DETAILED REPORT ON THIS SUBJECT WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

“In January 2005, the National Service Team [NST] of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal [CCR] held a Seminar on the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit at Dhyana Ashram here in Chennai. I attended the entire programme. One speaker was Rev. Fr. A. J. Thamburaj S.J., former National Chairman of the CCR.

On the 24^th of January, at 5:45 pm., Fr. Thamburaj gave us a workshop on how to learn the practice and exercising of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

For the best results, our gifts must be constantly and diligently exercised, he said.

Next, he took this occult practice of pendulum dowsing as a practical example of developing the gifts.

He proudly announced that he possesses the ‘gift’ of water divination!

While admitting to having exercised the ‘gift’ with a divining rod, he explained that if he were to now devote his time and continue to ‘use’ it, he would not have time for his charismatic ministry.

It is obvious that Fr. Thamburaj would not be aware that he has this ‘gift’ if he had not previously ‘used’ it with ‘positive’ results.

As a second example, Fr. Thamburaj also spoke with enthusiasm about a seminarian friend of his who used a bunch of keys which started ‘turning very quickly’ when he was divining for stuff, and who “now uses this gift to mint money”. All this was said, most regrettably, while introducing us to the development and use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit!!

There were about 40 persons attending this Seminar on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The other speakers and those present at the Seminar included Fr. Rufus Pereira, and other national-level CCR leaders including Benjamin Gonzaga, then Chairman of the Madras Service Team [MST], Thomas Manuel, now Chairman of the MST, a national-level leader of the CCR youth, and prayer group leaders.

During the next intermission, I tried to bring the issue to the attention to some of the organizers and leaders but was not reassured that any corrective measures would be taken.

A few of them listened to me sadly, heads down, silent, with no comment.

Mr. Gonzaga informed me that he himself is an engineer, and learnt dowsing during his college studies, and that he did not think that it was wrong. After saying that he tried to hurry away saying that he was busy, and had things to organize. When I tried to press the issue, he turned hostile, and walked away.

Despite my objections, which were conveyed to all those who mattered, a retraction was not made by either Fr. Thamburaj or by the organizers during the remaining two days of the seminar.

I then wrote to selected leaders of the CCR at the national level, including some of those who were present, explaining that Fr. Thamburaj once again** [mis-]used his position of leadership and authority in the CCR to promote a New Age practice, and that I intended to bring out a pamphlet on such forms of divination, and mention this incident in it. I RECEIVED NO RESPONSE FROM ANY OF THE CCR LEADERS.

In the preceding talk that Fr. Rufus gave on Inner Healing, he had mentioned that 80 to 90 % of Catholics have at one time or another indulged in some form of occult healing. He noted that it constitutes “the most common and most damaging obstacle [to healing] in a Christian’s life”.

I would safely add from my personal experience that roughly 25 % of charismatics, maybe much more, including leaders in the renewal, have used occult alternative medicines and dubious meditation techniques either pre-renewal or even while continuing to be in prayer groups.

However many leaders have steadfastly continued to reject the possibility that anyone in their groups have ever been involved in such things and do not even permit these issues to be discussed or lectured on.

If Fr. Rufus’ statement is to be taken seriously, how are priests like Fr. Thamburaj permitted to continue to preach and to minister in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

**‘Once again’: In the initial stages of this ministry, I have reported that Fr. Thamburaj has been associated with the practise of pranic healing and reiki. He has later studied Zen meditation at Fr. Ama Samy SJ’s Bodhi Zendo ashram. He has attempted to introduce charismatics to these New Age therapies & meditations by frequently mentioning them at meetings and by inviting people to try them out.

These earlier reports and numerous letters to the concerned leaders are presently available only in hardcopy. They will be soon be copied into my computer and uploaded on this ministry’s website.

Meanwhile, this ministry’s efforts to bring these issues to the attention of CCR leaders has been the cause of certain retaliatory reactions which will be revealed in due course. 4.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

According to Fr. Clemens Pilar Cop in his Esoteric Practices and Christian Faith, [2001 German edition, translated into English 2003], the book The Other Medicine by the German ‘Stiftung Warentest’ or ‘Foundation for Testing Products’ examines and rates a large number of New Age alternative therapies. Among those that did not pass the test and which therefore, the [German] public was warned of: Acupuncture,
Bach-flower therapy,
Foot Reflex Massage [reflexology],
Radiesthetics [pendulum dowsing], Diagnosis of the iris [iridology], Kinesiology, Rolfing, Reiki, Precious Stone Therapy, etc. You will find mostly all of these named in the Vatican Document on New Age.

Astrology or Trust in God?

http://fabienne.guerrero.free.fr/index.astrologybooklet.htm
EXTRACT

By former New Ager Fabienne Guerrero, Originally published by Editions Téqui, 2010

“If you’ve been in contact with the occult, esotericism, spiritualism [spiritism], astrology, witchcraft, magic, hypnosis, reiki, yoga, transcendental meditation, new age and all kinds of sects or with Prana Therapists, or so-called healers, magnetizers who cure by laying on of hands, or magnetic passes, dowsing, pendulum; or, if you have visited clairvoyants such as magicians, soothsayers, marabouts or gurus, fortune-tellers who read the cards, palmists who read the lines of the hand or necromancers who consult the spirits of the dead: know that you were in contact with individuals who work with the devil and you have given Satan a certain power over you.

Astrology: Help, Hoax, or Harm?

http://www.reasons.org/articles/astrology-help-hoax-or-harm
EXTRACT

By Dr. Hugh Ross, Ph. D.

A CHALLENGE

76-year old Canadian-born James Randi, author of nine books, has lectured at NASA, the White House and top universities, throwing down the gauntlet to psychics, homoeopaths, pendulum dowsers and astrologers with an offer of $1 million to anyone who could prove these phenomena scientifically [NIE December 4, 2004].

[A transcript of Randi’s $1 million BBC-aired challenge on homoeopathy, which he won and homoeopathy lost, is on this ministry’s website at
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/HOMOEOPATHY_BBC_THE_TEST.doc]

MY COMMENTS

As I have repeatedly said, all that science can say is that secular conclusions can be only that these are non-sciences. But a Christian would do well to remember that there are no neutral powers in the spiritual world.

Use of rosary as a pendulum -I

http://www.saint-mike.net/qa/sw/viewanswer.asp?QID=1257

July 24, 2010

I used a rosary (probably blessed) as a pendulum. A member of Catholic clergy taught me and was told was talking to my guardian angel and that it was ok to do this according to Church. I asked private questions. Am I in danger of that personal info haunting me in the future? Would God allow that to happen since a clergy taught me, a religious object was used, and I was at the most depressed time in my life? Will I be held accountable since I was misled by one of the Church’s own? What should I do in my house where the rosary was used? -Jon

I am a little confused myself. Did the priest say you can talk to your Guardian Angel? Or did he say you can use the rosary as a pendulum to talk and ask questions of your Guardian Angel?

One can certainly pray (talk) to his Guardian Angel in the same way one would pray and talk to our Blessed Mother or any Saint in heaven. One may not use a pendulum to ask questions of one’s Guardian Angel, or any Saint, or any spirit as that is divination which is a grave sin. The Catechism states:

Divination and magic

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others – even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. (Cf. Deuteronomy18:10; Jeremiah 29:8) Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

First, go to confession, then pray the prayer above, then pray the following general Prayer of Renunciation of Satan and Claiming the Full Victory:

http://www.saint-mike.net/qa/sw/viewanswer.asp?QID=1260

Yes, I was told the rosary can be used as a pendulum to talk and ask questions of guardian angel. Could you please answer the 3 questions in the first paragraph of my original post? This is of great concern to me. Thank you. –Jon

Well, any priest who would suggest this occult action has committed a grave sin and a scandal. He should be reported to the Bishop.

As for the question, I did answer it indirectly. You need to go to confession. While getting wrong advice from your priest reduces your culpability, it does not necessarily eliminate it.

We cannot completely excuse our acts by saying, “I was told wrong by a priest”. We have an obligation to know our faith. This “asking questions of angels with a pendulum” business is an obvious occult act and you should have known this.

I know a priest who preaches from the pulpit that Sunday Mass is no longer an obligation. No matter what he says, anyone who follows his words will be hard pressed to excuse themselves before God for not going to Sunday Mass. Know your faith and check for yourself what the Church teaches when any priest, bishop, or any teacher (including me) says something that doesn’t seem right. And then get a “second opinion”, as you did in posting your question.

Unfortunately, we live in an age that we cannot always trust our sacred pastors (priests and even bishops sometimes), to tell us the truth about our faith. The reason for this is sometimes that the priest or bishop is liberal. Sometimes it is because the priest is thoughtless in their theology due to intellectual laziness. Sometimes the priest actually is ignorant of the issues. It is especially the case with priests that they MUST know the faith because they are charged with teaching it to the Faithful. There is no excuse for such ignorance. It is the priest’s job to know.

What you are reporting was told to you by a priest is inexcusable of him. You might want to ask him about it again to make sure you are understanding him correctly. But, if you did understand him correctly and he really did recommend this action, then, frankly, he should be reported to the bishop as he is dangerous to the Faithful.

Anyway, although you are not at fault for the priest’s stupidity, you should have had some gut feeling that something was wrong. Be sure to learn your faith well. Read and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Regardless of the level of your culpability, you need to confess this action in the Sacrament of Confession, and follow through on the other prayers I suggested. –Bro.
Ignatius Mary OMSM

Radiaesthesia

The Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office has given serious consideration to the troubles which to the detriment of religious and true piety arise from the investigation by clerics of Radiaesthesia for divining facts and events. In view of the directives of canon 138 and 139.1 of the Code of Canon Law protecting clerics and religious from those matters which are such as to dishonour their office or dignity or to do possible harm to their authority, (the Congregation) makes the following findings. However the Congregation has no wish by this decree to touch upon scientific investigation of Radiaesthesia:
The Most Excellent Ordinaries of places and Religious Superiors are ordered to prohibit their clerics or religious by stern directive from ever proceeding with those exercises in Radiaesthesia, which are involved in the above mentioned investigation.
It will be for these Ordinaries or Religious Superiors, if they consider it necessary or appropriate, to attach a threat of penal sanction to forbidden action of this kind.
But if any cleric or religious should repeatedly transgress this ban or if he (she) should provide an opportunity for serious harm or scandal, the Ordinaries or Superiors should report this fact to this Sacred Supreme Tribunal.
Given in Rome, at the chambers of the Holy Office, on 26 March 1942
Giovanni Pepe, Notary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. #9629

Categories: Eastern Meditation, new age