The Dowsing Encyclopedia

Dowsing, although an incredibly simple, natural skill, has become more difficult both to understand and appreciate. The reasons for this situation are various. Some of it is, no doubt, due to the ever-increasing ways in which dowsers seek to use this skill. Some of the confusion is also due to one incontrovertible problem with dowsing. This problem, simply stated is that the greatest strength of dowsing is that it is so easy to learn, and, at the same time, the greatest weakness of dowsing is that it is so easy to learn. Ease of learning does not equal simplicity. Because anyone can pick up a pendulum or other tool does not make them a good dowser. Neither does it make them aware of the what dowsing is peculiarly capable of or where its strengths and weaknesses lie. It was in an attempt to help both dowsers and non-dowsers to gain a clearer appreciation of the skill that this encyclopedia was undertaken. So many ideas and concepts in dowsing are both confused and confusing. Words and phrases are bandied about with little regard as to their meanings or why such terms came about in the first place. Therefore, this encyclopedia, the first of its kind, was designed to be a helpful tool to clarify many hitherto problematic aspects of dowsing as well as to broaden all dowsers’ awareness of the various ideas, concepts and theories of dowsing, as well as lay out some of the history of the subject. There are other, very brief, attempts at defining various words and concepts of some aspects of dowsing, but this is the first volume which goes into sufficient detail and depth as to offer the reader a broad view of the subject as a whole. Here, the reader will find the obvious and expected entries on some techniques, but also there are other entries on less well-known subjects as the Spanish Zahoris and a Frenchman named Paramelle. Additionally, there are longer entries on topics such as Permission, Fallacies and Beliefs. In other words, this is intended to be an indispensable reference book for anyone with even the slightest interest in dowsing, what it is and what it can (and cannot) do.