Showing posts with label dowsing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dowsing. Show all posts

Monday, 20 November 2023

Tapping into the Earth's Pulse: The Power of Dowsing and the Empowering Teachings of Raymon Grace

Dowsing emerges as a captivating connection, bridging the gap between the visible and the invisible within a realm teeming with hidden energies and uncharted potentials. This ancient practice, shrouded in mystery and enriched by tradition, finds a vibrant warrior in an individual who is renowned in the field. His name is Raymon Grace—a man who has become synonymous with the art and power of dowsing. Grace wields his tools with mastery and possesses a treasure trove of captivating stories, which not only unveil the Earth's mysteries but also unleash the dormant potential within each individual. We delve into the world of dowsing through the lens of Raymon Grace's transformative teachings.

Understanding Dowsing and Its Power

Dowsing, an ancient technique, involves skilled practitioners utilizing various tools like rods, pendulums, or even humble twigs to successfully locate elusive treasures like water sources, minerals, or other hidden resources. Beyond its practical applications, dowsing is a journey into the subtler realms of energy and intuition. In spite of the skepticism and ongoing debates surrounding its scientific foundation, dowsing remains a captivating practice that seamlessly bridges the realm of earthly wisdom with ethereal connections. However, perhaps not as well known is the power within the art of dowsing. It has the ability to become a transformational experience that can turn someone’s life around or become the catalyst to a deep healing.

Raymon Grace: A Living Legend

raymon grace

Raymon Grace, hailing from the rolling landscapes of Virginia, is a towering figure in the world of dowsing. A real cowboy character with wisdom and wit, and a charismatic speaker. With his extensive expertise acquired over the course of many decades, he truly personifies the essence of a genuine dowser. He not only possesses the gift to unveil the hidden depths of spirituality and the Earth, but he is also dedicated to unearthing the untapped potential that lies within each individual.

What I appreciate about him is his no nonsense attitude to things. He has a strong connection with Native Americans and learned from them to develop his unique spiritual insights. With his extensive expertise acquired over the course of many decades, he truly personifies the essence of a genuine dowser. He not only possesses the gift to unveil the hidden depths of spirituality and the Earth, but he is also dedicated to unearthing the untapped potential that lies within each individual.

Raymon is a spiritual warrior and has no time for evil acts in the world. He resolves problems that originate in the etheric to prevent them from appearing in the material world. Once they emerge, he promptly eradicates any vestige of negativity or malevolent deeds. Whilst this may seem unbelievable, truth really is often stranger than fiction. Consequently, he has won accolades from very high quarters for his work and dedication to humanity. Yet, he is a humble man and one that I tower above, but only in height. He is a giant in his world with no real equal.

Grace Empowerment

Raymon's philosophy is one of empowerment. He perceives dowsing not merely as a method for locating water or minerals, but rather as a powerful instrument for individual and societal metamorphosis. His unique approach intertwines traditional dowsing methods with an expansive understanding of human consciousness and the power of positive intent. He also transforms water, similar to the astounding occurrences recorded in history. However, he does not convert it into wine, but rather into a sublime substance vibrating at a higher frequency, endowed with the power to heal. He manipulates time, banishes spirits, and tackles cases that demand his intervention to cleanse the criminal underworld.

I am quite a scientifically minded individual. When it comes to other worldly phenomena and mediumship, evidence for me is a prerequisite to my acceptance. Much to my delight, Raymon has a plethora of verified feats that challenge science and has taken part in scientific research. All he wants to do in the world is ‘good,’ and to serve those who are in need, but be aware, he is no fool.

An Invite To Experience Raymon Grace Teachings First Hand

I was very fortunate to be invited to one of Raymon’s workshops as his guest and experience first hand what he teaches. I attended day 2 of the workshop along with 50-60 other participants who attended day 1, including my wife who has been a student of Raymon’s. He also endorsed her latest book ‘Clear Spirit, the Life Changing Power of Energy Clearing.’

Now I cannot profess to know much about dowsing and haven’t had any personal experiences, but I have witnessed its power from the work my wife has done and heard stories of the somewhat miraculous works of Raymon himself. Always the skeptical enquirer, I was delighted to find that many of Raymon’s extraordinary stories were true, including scientific validations of his ability, and many others who attested to healings and transformations.

New Age - Not Me

You may think that Raymon's teachings are exclusively for individuals who gravitate towards the new age movement and harbor the belief that they possess the power to instantaneously transform the world through love and mere thoughts, or by employing dowsing to halt warfare. Absolutely not! That's not the way things work and shows a lack of understanding of the mechanics of spirit and divine law. Now I am not saying that everyone is all light and love, not at all. Although, even though some people may have incorrect beliefs and unrealistic expectations, I have met many extraordinary individuals.

Raymon’s students range from military officials, doctors, scientists and many other people who have a genuine passion to serve humanity. They are all amazing people. I met a couple of women who are in business together and who use the power of dowsing to develop beautiful landscapes in California. For me that was quite a remarkable story, and you will hear more from Martha and Marta in a future article. Or Nancy who lives right on the Gettysburg battlefield and who recalled stories of phenomena she has experienced in the area. Who knows, a PDN visit could come out of that.

Clearing Negative Energy

Ruth decided to travel to Raymon’s class just after the war started with Israel. She had studied some of his videos and felt her passion stir within. She also believes in the power of healing. Ruth's son, who is currently studying in Israel, is a subject of great concern for her. She firmly believes in doing everything possible to help him and others who are suffering, even if it involves clearing negative energy. Now that is selfless service.

No one told me I could not do it

I will never forget one of the messages that really struck me. Despite my initial skepticism, something stood out and strongly impacted me. Raymon Grace was telling one of his stories about his dowsing projects, which seemed unbelievable and like something out of a Harry Potter movie. Very matter of fact and nonchalantly, he states;

“No one told me I couldn't do it and I don’t know what I don’t know, so I did it anyway.”

And what he did, worked. I am not going to recount one of those stories but suggest you attend one of his workshops.

raymon grace dowsing

The Power of Stories in Teaching

At the heart of Raymon Grace's teachings are his stories—narratives rich with wisdom, humor, and insight. These stories offer more than just entertainment. They are vessels of knowledge, intricately woven with experiences that deeply resonate with his audience. Through tales of dowsing triumphs, community healing, and personal revelations, Grace illustrates the profound impact of dowsing, making the intangible tangibly powerful. To truly grasp the profound wisdom within a story, one must listen attentively to the unspoken messages it conveys. Only then can you fully immerse yourself in its rich and profound teachings. After all, as human beings, we are built for story telling, so what better way to transmit knowledge through story. The Native Americans, who are embedded in Raymon’s philosophy, are often taught through stories and communicate through stories.

Empowering Through Dowsing

Central to Grace's mission is the empowerment of individuals and the capacity within each person to affect change. One of his principles is that ‘energy follows thought.’ He firmly believes in the ability of dowsing to unlock personal growth and community well-being. His workshops are more than just lessons on how to find water or clear energies; they are transformative experiences that provide individuals with the necessary tools to access their inner potential and create positive transformations in both their personal lives and surroundings.

Continuing the Journey

Raymon Grace's legacy is an ongoing narrative of inspiration and empowerment. His work has spawned a vibrant community of dowsers, eager to explore the mysteries of the Earth and harness the potential within themselves. Through books, seminars, and personal engagements, Grace continues to spread the message of dowsing, not as a mere practice, but as a path to empowerment and a deeper understanding of the world. He is further on in his years and I hope that he will continue to share his wisdom until he takes his last breath. I felt truly honored to be in his presence and to witness at first hand the passion he has for serving humanity.

Final Thought

In Raymon Grace's enduring journey with dowsing, we find a profound lesson—the Earth speaks to those who listen, and within its whispers lie secrets waiting to be discovered. Grace's life is a testament to the transformative power of dowsing, not only as a means to find water or minerals but as a tool for personal empowerment and communal harmony.

As we stand amidst the energies that weave through our world, we are reminded of the power of stories, the strength of intent, and the unyielding potential that resides within each of us. Raymon Grace's teachings invite us to embark on this journey of discovery, to harness the power of dowsing, and to awaken the dormant capabilities that await within the depths of our being.

One great gift I received from that weekend was meeting the people at the seminar and spending time with individuals who just wanted to end suffering.

Finally, keep tuned in as Raymon will be my guest on Deadly Departed. If you have a question, send your questions to: editor@paranormaldailynews.com

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Tuesday, 4 April 2023

The Mystery of Dowsing: Skepticism vs. Science

When it comes to evaluating the science to determine whether an effect has been found under controlled conditions, the first step is always to find the original studies and see what they say. (On Wikipedia, this is not allowed, by the way. They rely on second sources. So the Wikipedia dowsing entry favors skeptical commentary over original research.)

Dowsing is the practice of using a pointer or pendulum to find objects of interest that may be hidden or obscured, such as underground water, treasure or lost items. There is no known mechanism, other than the ideomotor effect which explains anything about the process. And the ideomotor effect doesn’t explain much.

A dowser at work, from Pierre le Brun, Histoire critique des pratiques superstitieuses, (Jean-Frederic Bernard, 1733–1736). It is unclear whether or not the dowser is using a diving rod or the lesser known Scrimometer. Caption "EPREUVE par la BAGUETTE." public domain

As with all things psychic, skepticism abounds. One only need look to the Wikipedia entry on dowsing to see this, where they’ve taken the questionable approach of granting skepticism 100% credibility while giving 0% credibility to anyone else. But I digress.

Anthropologist Jonathan Woolley wrote in 2018:

dowsing is first and foremost a customary practice that has a fundamentally different relationship to the scientific theories that purport to explain it. The tradition of divining for minerals or treasure using wooden or metal rods dates  back over 500 years, well before any widespread theories about ‘energy’ arose in academic or public consciousness in western Europe (United States National Museum 1846: 325-326; Vogt & Hyman 2000).
Although the Earth Energies Hypothesis has proved to be a popular explanation amongst dowsers and their scientific supporters since it was first developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it is by no means the only explanation practitioners of dowsing invoke. Furthermore, the assumption that the  practice of dowsing rests upon a theory is also problematic: dowsing is a practice wherein what is known is not held consciously as knowledge. Dowsing must be understood as such, especially if one wishes to challenge it.

The wires crossed: What dowsing reveals about environmental knowledge in Britain

Is Dowsing Real?

The main question here is this: Is dowsing real? Most people reading this will be looking for a response to that question and I will do my best to answer. I personally don’t have any attachment to dowsing; It’s a curiosity to me. As a parapsychology journalist with many years of experience though, I have a general idea of what the research is going to look like before I start.

the mystery of dowsing

The short answer is that there isn’t a lot of science on dowsing. Because parapsychology has to overcome the usual skepticism, the answer someone gives will depend on how much trust they put in either side. If you think the skeptics are more credible, then there isn’t enough evidence. If you think the researchers are more credible, then there is enough evidence. The social norm is to accept the skepticism by default, but this doesn’t have anything to do with what the science shows. The answer someone chooses depends on the credibility they assign to either side. If you think the researchers are more credible, then there is enough evidence. The social norm is to accept the skepticism by default, but this doesn’t have anything to do with what the science shows.parapsychology endures, the answer someone chooses depends on the credibility they assign to either side. If you think the skeptics are more credible, then there isn’t enough evidence. If you think the researchers are more credible, then there is enough evidence. The social norm is to accept the skepticism by default, but this doesn’t have anything to do with what the science shows.

Our Ancestors Weren’t Stupid

Dowsing has been around for a very long time. A depiction of a dowsing rod appears in a book written in Latin by a German, Georgius Agricola, in 1556 and translated into English by future president of the United States, Herbert Hoover. The U. S. has several professional dowsing organizations to this day. It would be beyond arrogant to assume that our ancestors would be using a method that was no better than chance.

dowsing

There was even a time when dowsing was considered normal and geologic engineering was regarded as pseudoscience.

The first time oil drillers needed to find oil, they didn’t turn to geologists, they turned to dowsers, who they regarded as much more efficient. The dowsers were referred to as “oil wizards”. Rochelle Raineri Zuck writes for the Journal of American Studies (2012):

After more than 140 years, the oil industry still pits its wizards against the forces of nature and geology, staking its success on the combined efforts of science and psychometrics.

What they lacked in sophisticated experiments and advanced statistics they more than made up for in practical assessments and good sense. They found a way to get stuff done and esoteric theories about how it worked didn’t much matter to them. If dowsing didn’t produce results, then they would have moved on to something else.

What Science Says About Dowsing

When it comes to evaluating the science to determine whether an effect has been found under controlled conditions, the first step is always to find the original studies and see what they say. (On Wikipedia, this is not allowed, by the way. They rely on second sources. So the Wikiipedia dowsing entry favors skeptical commentary over original research.)

The scientific studies are peer reviewed, which means that they were at least fact checked and reviewed by two other people with sufficient expertise and experience to fully understand the subject matter. More eyeballs are better.

I found Some Explorations with Dowsing Techniques (Osis, 1960)

DOWSING: A REVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH by GEORGE P. HANSEN published in 1982.

In this review, George Hansen does a very thorough exploration of the literature up to that point. (I talked to him once on the phone years ago, trying to persuade him to do an interview online. He impressed me as a no-bullshit, take-no-crap kind of guy. That really stood out about him. He can be very skeptical, but he’s not in any way dogmatic.)

science of dowsing

His conclusion was that although there was some evidence indicating that dowsing was probably real, some of it dating to the 1920’s, the documentation of those studies was too sketchy or the studies not rigorous enough for any firm conclusions.

The Big Study On Dowsing

Which brings us to the most recent and hotly debated study, -that was almost 30 years ago-.

Unconventional Water Detection: Field Test of the Dowsing Technique in Dry Zones: Part l* Betz, H-D. (1995a)

Unconventional Water Detection: Field Test of the Dowsing Technique in Dry Zones: Part 2* Betz, H-D. (1995b)

This large study, part one and part two, showed successful dowsing. This is frequently lost in the endless debates about whether dowsing is real. Skeptics call it a failed study, but this is grossly misleading. The outcome is contested by skeptical claims that it wasn’t successful, but that is mere controversy, which can’t be taken at face value. Skeptics aren’t automatically right.

The skepticism can be found in this article: Water Dowsing - the Scheunen Experiments in which a skeptic claims to have redone the statistics and corrected mistakes which then showed no effect. Betz rebutted this and the skeptic responded.

This pattern of successful study -> withering skepticism -> rebuttal -> rebuttal to the rebuttal is so common in parapsychology that you can find this cycle in pretty much every area of parapsychological research. This is important for understanding the research in context. When everything is contested all the time, which is unheard of in any other area of science, this says more about the nature of the skepticism than it does about the research.

Being Skeptical of Skeptics

In fact, digging through criticisms and rebuttals almost always favors the researchers and exposes flaws in the skeptical criticism. It’s quite rare for the skeptic to make a good point. Personally, this has led me to grow very cynical about psi skepticism over the years. I don’t trust the motives of the skeptics and I operate on the assumption that they are not working in good faith.

the science of dowsing

That seems to be the case here as well. The tone of his article is somewhat, though not overly condescending; which is typical skeptic language. Enright is using some familiar, if unconvincing skeptical arguments. For instance, in psi testing, it’s very common for a few individuals to much better than most others. Enright thinks they might be cheating, but provides no explanation of how this could have occurred. He misinterprets psi missing, another common psi phenomenon, gets corrected on some basic facts and claims that some dowsers were singled out when the entire experiment was double blind.

Enright disputes this and other things in his predictable rebuttal to the rebuttal.

So who is right? Betz or his skeptic, J.T. Enright? Well, it comes down to the validity of the statistics. Betz wrote in his rebuttal:

Enright (1995) does not find an error in our analysis, but argues that it was customized afterwards and thus not valid; other evaluations would not give significant results. In a rejoinder Betz et al. (1996) showed that the initial analysis remains valid and other statistical procedures yield significance as well. In particular, Ertel (1996) presented a completely different evaluation which reveals very high statistical significance. Although none of these calculations were shown to be incorrect, Enright continues to debate the data.

Betz’s publication was peer reviewed and Enright’s reubuttal was not; it was published in the Skeptical Inquirer, a popular magazine known for its heavy bias against psychic research. Enright’s comments do not appear to have been fact checked by a disinterested party and are therefore suspect.

One serious piece of criticism I have against this sort of skepticism is that Enright gathered information and then launched his attack, failing to mention information that may have damaged his argument. Betz continues:

Ertel's analysis (1996) of the barn experiment was presented to Enright prior to publication. From January to March 1996 an extensive scientific exchange occurred between Enright and Ertel . In continued emails with data attachments Ertel answered numerous questions in great detail. I was kept informed by Ertel, because several aspects of the data had to be clarified, and Enright was aware of this connection. Finally, on May 27 Enright mailed: the matter is resolved indicating that his doubts regarding our data and Ertel's way of handling them were removed. Not the faintest objection had he raised to our study.

This is an example of why it’s important to read the rebuttals to criticism in parapsychology. Too often, there are objections raised by researchers that shed light on the process and some of the questionable practices of skeptics. This has happened before.

dowsing science

It’s important that Enright’s statistics were not vetted, (one of the problems of non peer reviewed criticism) but Betz’s were. Betz described Enright’s statistical methods as “crude, even illegitimate.” According to his rebuttal, Betz got his statistics analyzed by a third party which confirmed his results. Enright did not do this for his statistics.

When it comes to the statistical analysis, which is the main point of dispute, Betz has the greater claim to legitimacy.

Enright’s treatment of the subject was that he was right. He allowed for no ambiguity on this matter, which is typical of the skeptical zealotry that I am familiar with. It is suggestive of someone who had his mind made up before he started and then worked backwards to justify that conclusion. He would not be the first skeptic to do this.

The enduring story that “there is no evidence for dowsing” isn’t actually true. The truth is that there was a large peer reviewed study with positive results and that a skeptic disputed it in a non peer reviewed criticism. The whole narrative of Betz’s study being discredited is pure hype that is repeatedly reinforced by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry through the Skeptical Inquirer and their Wikipedia people, The Guerrilla Skeptics.

There is a real bias in the sciences against anything that smacks of psychic ability and a media organization that reinforces those biases by repeating their talking points over and over again in the media.

So based on my understanding of the field, I’d wager that Betz’s research is probably sound and that the skeptical objections are probably untrue. It’s the way to bet.

Roughly half the world has at least one psychic experience. Psychic ability is found in every culture on earth, in every social and economic group and throughout history. It’s relatively common and therefore something that science should expect to find. Psychic ability itself has a substantial amount of scientific evidence backing up its existence. So operating on the assumption that dowsing is impossible is not scientific.

Neither does physics demonstrate that psychic ability can’t exist. It’s yet another skeptic talking point and it’s wrong.

Underlying this skepticism is an assumption that materialism (a belief that the universe is made of material) is true. However, this assumption has come under increasing scrutiny.

the science of dowsing

To put this in the simplest way possible, the problem with materialism (which is the basis for assuming that dowsing is impossible) is that we do not know whether we are living in a material universe or an extremely realistic dream. To view the physical world objectively, we would have to somehow get outside of our consciousness. But this is impossible. We experience our physical reality; which can’t be done without consciousness. We are stuck using our minds to experience the material world, which in turn makes it impossible to prove that the material world exists outside of our minds.

If you instead work with the assumption that idealism (a belief that the universe is made out of ideas) is true, -and there is no rational explanation of why this wouldn’t be true- then dowsing has a theoretical basis for functioning. The mind and our physical reality are not separate, so dowsing is just another form of awareness.

To sum this up, it’s not unreasonable to believe that the scientific evidence for dowsing is pretty good. It has very practical uses and it’s very doubtful that it would have gained acceptance with merely chance results. That’s just not how the world works.

As long as you don’t handwave idealism or psychic ability as impossible, it’s not much of a stretch to accept that dowsing is real.