Local Dowsing Group News :   No. 22

Dowsing for Ghosts (Part 1)
It was early summer 1977. I only make reference to the season as a reminder of the time of year; every day was like summer in Djibouti City, only some were more unbearable than others. I was 19 years old, working part-time as a clerical assistant in a tiny office I shared with two others: the temperature inside was 102 degrees and although the two small windows were open, the air was still and dry.
 
My father was a director of a shipping agency, handling all the protocols of freight movement within the port. It was quite a prestigious occupation and we lived in a spacious, rented house in the suburbs. ‘We’, being my father, stepmother, younger half-sister and myself. My birth mother had passed away when I was only four years old and father remarried, some five years later, a beautiful French lady whom he met on one of his many business trips to Marseilles.
 
Djibouti, as it was then known, was the capital of the ‘French Territory of the Afars and the Issas’, a small country located in the Horn of Africa between Ethiopia and Somalia. But tomorrow all that would change; tomorrow, 27 th of June 1977, would be Independence Day…………   and the day I learned to dowse.

Our working day was not regulated but it was structured. The larger ships’ movements were governed by the tides, hence arrival and departure times varied greatly from day to day. It was not uncommon to work 24 hour shifts. However, Independence Day would be a public holiday for everybody, a day of celebration.
 
The office manager was Samson Kone; Sam to everybody. Tall, of slim build and with a crop of short, grey hair, thinning on the top. He never did divulge his exact age but allowed himself to be “around 60”. His only daughter was to be married later that year and Sam was considering the purchase of a parcel of land on which to build a small house for the newlyweds. Several were available but he only wanted the best. ‘The best’ would be the one with the most reliable water supply. Would I care to join him with his search and perhaps become a ‘Sourcier’? Why not, it was going to be a long, noisy day in the capital and I had no appetite for that.
 
We agreed to meet at 7 am the following morning at a dusty crossroads in the suburb of Marabout; roughly half-way between our two homes. Sam had picked four plots which he considered suitable.

He carried with him a tapering stick with a gnarly lump on one end; I would have described it as a Shillelagh but later discovered its correct name was a Knobkerrie; Sam called it his ‘Baguette de Sourcier’.
 
Sam also toted a leather bag containing bottles of water, a pair of dowsing rods made from a metal coat hanger and a folded handkerchief concealing something ‘traditional’.
 
“These are for you”, Sam said, handing me the dowsing rods. I then spent about half-an-hour being tutored in the ancient art of dowsing for water; learning the principles of concentration, visualisation and intuition. I must confess I was very excited and a little bewildered when my rods moved ‘by themselves’ for the first time. The only answer I received from Sam to my question, “how does it work?” was “it doesn’t matter how, just believe it does”.

We would not have far to journey, the first plot of land was actually at the crossroads where we met and the other three were all adjacent to each other, the nearest being about two hundred metres away.
 
At the first plot, Sam rested the pointed end of his stick in the ground then placed the palm of his right hand, forefinger outstretched, on the lumpy bit. He did this without ceremony but with reverence. “No talking”, he said in a low voice. Then slowly he moved his hand in a clockwise rotation so that the pointed end of the stick acted as a pivot. Next, he turned 90 degrees to his right and repeated the procedures until he had completed a full circle. “Follow me”, he said.
 
Sam balanced the gnarly lump of his stick in the palm of his right hand and paced away from the road. After about ten metres, the pointed end of the stick began to move from side to side as though being rocked gently; although I saw no movement of Sam’s hand. Suddenly, he thrust the pointed end of the stick into the dry earth. “Here, let’s scratch this spot”, he said and without question I used a dowsing rod to trace a circle around the marked position. Sam opened one of the bottles of water and poured a generous amount onto the spot; it quickly disappeared into the dry earth. Sam mumbled something in French; it sounded like “20 metres” but I couldn’t be certain.

We moved on to the next two plots but no positive results were forthcoming. At the last plot, Sam repeated his rituals and again, me scratching a circle and he anointing it with bottled water, lead me to believe we had discovered a source. “This will have to do”, he said, “a good supply but more than 30 metres down, so not ideal”.
 
 “Wasn’t the first place better at only 20 metres down?” “Yes”, replied Sam “but there is Le Revenant and that is not good! Here is where Mireille and Hassan will live.”
 
I later discovered that Le Revenant translated to ‘a person or former living thing which has returned, supposedly after death’. Wasn’t this another name for a ghost? Not quite. The French word for Ghost is Fantome, a mainly benign energy reflected from a deceased person; whereas Revenant was more closely associated with something spooky or a spirit which returns to actively haunt and disturb people. Message understood!
I had one more experience of Dowsing for Ghosts, whilst living and working in Djibouti. This was altogether a more vivid and evocative enlightenment and one which was to shape the future of my dowsing career. More in part two.

© Michael T. Barwell  19 th . September 2018
This article is composed from notes taken from interviews with a third party who wishes not to be named.
mtbarwell@btinternet.com

Letters to the editor from…  

Graham Wayt

I got your circular in a roundabout way yesterday  in it you printed a letter from Phyllida that I have responded to and enclose a copy  if criticism by anybody is going to be printed and circulated you must provide a platform for response and possible explanations of of the course of complaint .  For a tiny hobbiest society the negativity of its membership is beyond belief in respect of future routes . There are lots of good ideas out there but none who expound their thoughts will stand as trustees  The latter under the articles of association of the society is the only mechanism for changing directions within its running   I have said this in emails at least a hundred times in the last month for members and followers who for their own reasons wish to change the society agenda.

I would suggest you word a note to all your readers that the latter comment is the only route in which, we the trustees can redirect the societies running.

best wishes  Graham

As requested, please note the point in the final paragraph ~ Ed.

Graham Wayt  ( to P hyllida Howlett )

Your letter of comment
Hello Phyllada  I have just been given access to CED s newsletter which contained your letter of comment on the BSD symposium which you attended in April this year. Due to having an operation on my vein in my left leg to correct a thrombosis I was unable to travel back to the UK  price you pay for getting old   As president of the BSD with only 2 trustees to run the daily problems of the society , none of us realised the state of operation of the society when we were coopted into our roles by the last president  who from history spent most of her time putting out fires with very little help from her trustees  and on take over we all were not made aware of what in governance had not been done ranging from insurance, company returns charities commission returns etc. along with banking and investment problems. The 3 of us all have full time jobs and get paid nothing for our efforts but each of us have to fit in about 20 hours per week in BSD related management which none of us bargained for or can afford to do. So the symposium was really a cry for help to put the society into a situation to go forward with new ideas and the wheels on which to launch them . From what I was told of the meeting there were certain people present who for their own reasons decided to be verbose and not stick to the agreed agenda .which did not ease matters with a fixed time scale for the pre lunch I am sorry that you feel cheated possibly by the outcome of the meeting or maybe the manner in which is was controlled. You could of course offer your help in some way to assist 3 unpaid trustees and 1 paid member of the society, as help we need
best wishes  Graham L Wayt  C.eng  resident engineer Dam 347 Sierra Navada Granada Espana

President of the British Society of Dowsing    and contributor to the DT Magazine ( water and rare earths)

Phyllida Howlett is at phyllida@50mail.com


Jane Court

Hi Ced

Thank you for this.

The BSD trustees are currently reviewing and evaluating the 10 expressions of interest we have received from members interested in supporting the BSD ongoing. 
Regards

Peter Taylor                                              

I see there have been suggestions to get rid of the Dowsing Today magazine. I must remind the membership that not all members have got the use of computers and that all members should have the pleasure of receiving a magazine. I realise that it does cost money and I suggest again and I have mentioned previously why not revert back to a small paperback journal version called "Journal of the British Society of Dowsers".    This gave us information of what was going on and plus it had pictures admittedly in black and white but the cost of it was much cheaper than the glossy magazine we have now. Yes we do have to cut our cloth accordingly, this is why I am suggesting we should revert back to the journal. We could possibly have 4 per year instead of 3 per year which would be a step forward as some people would see that they were getting value for money. I know some people think that the Society should not think about money as it is a charity but without making money we cannot survive, so like I have said previously we need to use the money making methods we had before, such as bring back the logo (double V ) as I believe when it was changed people started to lose interest in the BSD which incidentally happened when the Council and President decided themselves to change it which also included the manager and the council members of the time.   At that time I was the chairman of the Water and Services SIG. We had a committee of 8 members, all had a free vote and all voted that the logo should be saved. I informed the council and President at the time and the future president to no avail, they totally ignored what we all said they told us we had to move with the times.  So they were already ignoring the grass roots of the Society. Needless to say the SIGs were quietly removed, not before they had persuaded us to give them our funds to save the Society. So really we need to revitalise the 4 SIGs as this will bring in much needed funds. The BSD also need to have realistic figures on pricing workshops and where they hold them.   The council and president should listen to the membership as without the membership there will be no BSD.  Furthermore there should be at least one deputy President at all times within the Society and if we get more than 4 council members that is not a problem we have had 8 in the past the more the better.  Again these are my thoughts and my group’s thoughts.  



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