The Water Witch Before the days of bottled water,before the days of tap water,before the days of indoor plumbing, even before the days of the days of the windmill,the world relied upon "Water Witches". The term applies to the art of finding water with the use of a devining rod. In olden days if you lived near a river lake or stream you were fortunate,but not all of our ancestors were afforded this oppertunity.Living away from a source of water meant hardships and a water well became a necessity for these pioneers. There were two options of finding underground water. One was to randomly dig wells 30,40,even 50 feet deep in hopes of finding a water producing well. Hundreds of attempts had to be made.The odds were very slim with this method and sucess was not only time consuming,but many times water was never to be found and the pioneer would be forced to move on.
The second choice at hand was to seek the aid of a "Dowser" or "Water Witch" to locate the lifegiving liquid. This was frowned upon by the local churches. After all it was customary to burn a witch at the stake....not seek their help. So to enlist the aid of a Water Witch meant to do so in secrecy.That is if you could find one with the talent.Water Witches were secretly in high demand and could cost a huge ammount of money. Some of the more enlightened communities pooled their money to meet the expense.The Dowser had to be elusive and the task had risk. Many small communities had laws forbiding the practice and punishments could be harsh.
To watch a dowser in action was and is a mystifying experience. A "Y" shaped rod of approximately three feet length would be held in front of the dowser. He would walk the acres of land where water was being sought with his witching stick until the downward bend of the stick would indicate the location to dig a well. It is said the pull of the energy through the rod was so great that it would sometimes be pulled out of the dowsers hands. So it was not an insignificant movement that was produced by the process of dowsing. The success rate though undocumented scientifically was indeed great.Upwards to 90 percent correct. Fantastic results by any standards. I doubted the accuracy of the reports,since there are so few records available on this subject....but I heard first hand reports from the old timers that I grew up listening to and held my judgement for a later date. Their stories attested to the accuracy of this mysterious method of finding water.
This leads me to tell you about my own experience in this field of the unexplained practice. I lived in Colorado...in the mountains. I had ordered a new septic tank for my property. As is usual the utility companies were called in to locate their underground lines in the area of the dig. The water lines are set 6 feet below the ground to avoid the annual permafrost that the Rocky Mountains are known for. The water company sent an engineer out with his trusty metal detector to locate and mark his water main. I watched with interrest as he found the lines, yet a puzzled look was still on his face.The reading from the detector wasn't to his satisfaction. He approached me then with an unusual request. He asked for a metal clothes hanger. I asked why he needed such a devise and he said he would be dowsing the area. Perplexed,I retrieved the hanger and watched in fascination as he pulled out a pair of pliers and cut it into two pieces 12 inches long.He first straightened the pieces, then 4 inches from one end on each,he bent a 90 degree angle,making both pieces "L" shaped.I asked how this worked and he told me to watch first then he would let me try it. He stood errect,arms to his sides,elbows bent putting his forearms at a 90 degree projection away from his body.His hands 12 inches apart.Rather much like he was carrying a box in front of himself. In each hand was a piece of the hanger,ths short end loosely coupled in his cupped fingers.The long ends sticking forward,away from his body.In this posture,he stepped off the area....the rods unmoving...until he reached a particular spot on the property.The rods moved towards one another. He stopped and marked the spot. He went from East to West first...then North to South...same results.Before long he had marked the exact location of the underground pipe...6 feet under across a span of 75 yards. Satisfied with his job,he informed me it was my turn. He showed me the proper way to grip the rods and the right elevation for my arms and sent me out to see if I was a dowser. I was! The rods spun like magic when I wandered over an underground structure. It worked every time.I was fascinated. He then explained how he thought it worked. He said when an object,ie: water,pipes,certain minerals,et al,remain in the same position for a long period of time,they build up an electromagnetic field. It is this E-field that metal detectors pick up and dowsers are likewise affected by the same field of energy. Afterall,our bodies are rather large batteries and we conduct electricity very well. Think about it...it is electric impulses that move our muscles,electricity causes our hearts to beat, our nervous system is an enomormous mesh of electrical currents delivering pain and pleasure. Our brain is the controll center that sends the proper amount of energy to our cells to perform these functions and many more... So why would we not be sensitive to the electromagnetic fields around us everywhere. Even our planet is a spinning dynamo producing enormous ammounts of electromagnetic energy constantly.Only in recent years has mankind found a way to harness electricity,ie electrons, ie atoms. I wonder what other forms of energy haven't been discovered yet.....it'll be interesting to find out. How it changed my life:It didn't change a thing.
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