Reprinted from the American Society of Dowsers, Winter 2010

As I was going through all of this at the 1976 convention, it was also the year when Ray Willey's book, Modern Dowsing, came out. I had to buy it, of course. As I started to study it in the motel that night, I immediately got hung up on page 5, where Willey defines dowsing as “the exercise of a human faculty which allows one to gain information in some manner beyond the power and scope of the standard human senses”. I realized as I looked at the words again that ‘...the exercise of the human faculty...’ means anyone can dowse, anyone, no matter who. The next part, ‘...which allows one to gain information..’ means that you have a choice. But the part that really got to me was ‘...in some manner beyond the power and scope of the standard human senses’.

So, in essence, he was saying as far as your mind can reach, that's how far you can dowse. That is absolutely incredible! But we don't know how it works, and this bothered me. I had to find out how it worked. I needed to get more knowledge. I had to go deeper. Soon after that, I was flying out to Kansas City to speak. Sitting on the plane, I closed my eyes and asked myself the question, “What makes dowsing work?”
And immediately in front of me was a smiling, male mouth not the whole face, just the mouth. It said, “Natural law.” I thought, “Yeah, that makes sense. Natural law gravity, all that sort of stuff.” T hen this voice smiled again and said, “No. Larger natural laws”. I thought, “Larger natural laws?” And, poof, the face disappeared. Of course, this made me curious

The Seven Hermetic Principles
When I got back home, I called a friend in California who owned a bookstore. I explained the experience I'd had on the airplane, and I said, “Rich, I need to find a book on natural law. What have you got?” He said, “I'll send it to you.” What he sent me was called ‘Kybalion’. I highly recommend this book. Now keep in mind that the whole article is about basic dowsing; this is all basic dowsing, all the stuff you do before you ever pick up a pendulum or a pair of rods. It's all mental preparation, and this particular type of information is something every dowser needs to get your mind in order.

The Kybalion is a listing of the seven Hermetic principles. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hermetic principles, Hermes was deified by the ancient Egyptians as the god Thoth, or Thoth/Hermes, who set forth these principles. These were handed down by word of mouth, and eventually somebody decided to put them into print.
The author of this is ‘The Three Initiates’. You've probably heard some of these principles before in other books of wisdom, but I'll go over them very briefly with a few comments. 1. All Is Mind. This principal states that the universe is mental.

2. Correspondence. This principal states that “As Above, So Below; As Below, So Above.” In essence, this principle is saying that all of these seven principles are in effect all of the time, 24/7, and that they go all the way from the macrocosm to the microcosm. The energies that govern the motions of the universe are the same energies that govern an ant working in an anthill.

3. Vibration. This principle states that nothing rests, everything moves, everything vibrates. When I read this, I thought, “They're saying that at oms (or now, it would be neutrinos or quarks) vibrate. Well, if that's the case, and everything moves and vibrates, and atoms are the building blocks of the universe, then does that mean that everything is alive?" Yes... everything is alive, no matter what it is.

4. Polarity. The fourth principal states that everything is dual, everything has its poles, everything has its pair of opposites. Like and unlike are the same. Opposites are identical in nature but different in degree. Extremes meet. All truths are but half truths. All paradoxes may be reconciled. This principle of polarity, in essence talking about opposites, is stated in a number of other philosophical books as well. In the Tao, in Chinese philosophy, they talk about the Yin and the Yang. You can't have one with out having the other. There is balance. You can't know beauty unless you know ugly; you can't know tall unless you know short.

5. Rhythm. This principle states that everything flows out and in. Everything has its tides. All things rise and fall. The pendulum swing manifests in everything. The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left. Rhythm compensates.

6. Cause and Effect. This principle states that every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause. Everything happens according to law. Chance is but a name for law not recognized. There are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law. “As you sow, so shall you reap” is another way of putting it.
7. Gender. This principle states that gender is in everything. Everything has its masculine and feminine principles. Gender manifests on all levels. Here we're not talking about sexuality, but about the principles involved, like male aggression vs. female passivity, or male logic vs. feminine feeling.
So this is the Kybalion. I went to a California conference once where Rich gave an hour and a half talk on the principle of vibration alone and how that directly related to dowsing. In order to get your head in order, to feed your brain, to feed your mind, this is a superb book to read.
A Dowsing Conversation
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. I was giving a talk once on map dowsing. During a break, one of our elderly members, Ralph Ellis, said to me, “What do you think makes this work, anyway?” I thought, “Well, I read the Kybalion, I went to college, I know.” So I said, “Well, Ralph, I think it's the natural laws and everything else like that” He said, “That's it?” “Well, I'm sure there's a lot to it,” I answered.
And he said, “Hmm...,” and just walked away.
Now, this bothered me. I had to talk to this man, so I called him on the telephone. We talked... a lot... and thus began a very long friendship with a man who is probably one of the best read men I've met in my entire life. You name the philosophy, and this man knew it; he not only knew it, he understood it and could recite from it. He was absolutely incredible.
I invited him to visit me and asked if he'd mind if I recorded our conversation. He said that would be fine, and now I have four double sided cassette tapes from that time. One of the things that we talked about was where dowsing information comes from.
Ralph asked me, “What's your definition of God?” Well, I was born and raised a Catholic, so I gave him everything I had learned from the catechism, and he said, “That's it?”
At this point I started to get a little annoyed, because I thought my mind was deeper, you know. So I said, “Well, let me ask you. What's your definition of God?”
He thought for a second and said, “Do you mind if I use the term deity instead?” He didn't really care too much for the term God, because it had a lot of religious implications.
I said, “No, that'll work. What's your definition of deity?
He said, “That which is referred to as deity is the totality of all consciousness, intelligence, and energy, of all that exists whether it's tangible or intangible”.
In amazement, I thought, “Wow, what Ralph just did was to take the entire universe and put it into three things: consciousness, intelligence, and energy.” I thought about this for a really long time, and I still think about it.
He also referred to unity, the oneness of all things. He loved that term unity. In the very last talk he gave, he said that the first thing dowsers need to look at is space, not the astronomer's space which has limitations, but the ultimate space. It's this huge, grand, formless mass of consciousness, intelligence, and energy. If you put a pencil dot on a blank sheet of paper, that dot would represent unity, the oneness of all things. T hat little dot would represent God. Why? Because it's the very first identifiable aspect coming from ultimate space.

In my opinion, these are all dowsing basics. All this information I shared with you tonight is the foundation upon which the dowsing ability is built. The stronger the foundation, the stronger the dowser's ability.

Water's Place in the Scheme of Things
If ASD was one of the old mystery schools, chances are students would be studying these philosophical sub jects for two or three years before they even got to touch a dowsing instrument.

Then when you were ready, one of the first targets your instructors would give you would be water. Why? A couple of reasons.
First, our bodies and the planet contain approximately the same percent ages of water roughly 70 to 75%.
Second, there are four things necessary for human and animal survival: air, water, food, and shelter. We have to assume that we will always have air, which leaves us three things, and of those, two are directly related. You cannot grow food without water, which makes water a primary requirement for survival.
The reasons, then, should be obvious. We are dowsers. This is the American Society of Dowsers. The public perception of dowsers is that dowsers find water; this is what dowsers do. However, I've noticed over the years that most of the articles in the Digest aren't related to water. Most people don't give a damn about locating water anymore. When I got into ASD in I976, dowsing for water was pretty much all they taught for my first few years.
This is really important, for your own survival if nothing else. How do you think your water gets to you? It comes from pumps. Where does the electricity for the pumps come from? The grid. Where's your water? You wouldn't have any. Uh oh. Trouble.

A Challenge for Dowsers
I'm not asking everyone to go out and drill a water well. Instead I challenge every single one of you to go out in your backyard and see if you can locate a fresh flowing vein of underground drinking water less than a foot deep. Can it be done? Hell, yes, it can be done. Less than a foot deep. That's not asking too much, plus you'll be able to prove to yourself that you can do it. AND, God forbid, if the grid goes out, you'll survive. If anybody on this planet survives, it should be dowsers!
If you can't find a vein less than a foot deep in your backyard, go to a park or somewhere else. Find a vein of underground water less than a foot deep. Don't say they don't exist, because I know they do. I did this myself when I was out camping once. I dug with my hand and a rock. Finally I got down about eight inches, and the side of the hole was a little damp. The water was just barely trickling into the hole, but it was water. It took me about an hour to fill my canteen. I didn't have to do it, because I had water in my vehicle; but I had to try, to prove to myself that I can survive.