February 2023 - Richard Nissen Gothic Churches

Were Gothic Churches Powered up by Earth Energies?

The irrepressibly enthusiastic BSD stalwart Richard Nissen has been dowsing for a couple of decades. He is probably best known for his ground-breaking research into the navigational abilities of migrating birds.

He has been bravely trying to persuade mainstream scientists and naturalists that tiny creatures looking for geographical or climatological waymarkers whilst flying over thousands of square miles of barely distinguishable open ground and ocean that they may never have previously experienced in any material form is actually a very big ask.

A much simpler explanation, and a much better fit for phenomenon, is that the b irds are getting their navigational data straight from the information field. i.e. that they are dowsing their way across the world, with a little help front inherited genetics.

However, on this occasion, Richard was proposing another - perhaps similar - scenario. Could it be that modern churches and Cathedrals, built over former pre-Christian sacred sites, were established by people who knew, or at least sensed where the best place existed in any given area to be at one with the universe (or however they might have phased such an idea)?

Here RN presented detail of both his own experience, and the work of others, to indicate that probably all pre-reformation churches, and certainly all Gothic Cathedrals, were sited according to earth energy currents and to sacred geometry.

Richard may not be the first to discuss these ideas in the public domain, but his talk certainly generated a lot of interest. Many participants were keen to add their own observations and dowsing information - and the subsequent discussion actually lasted far longer that the original presentation. This was clearly the objective. The debate brought out many aspects of how churches have been designed to accommodate and to accentuate the earth energy patterns beneath them.

A good airing was also given to the debate about whether the energy in a sacred place was present before the construction of it, or whether it had been attracted or generated by the participants across many centuries. As ever, there was a general consensus was that both inputs were instrumental in producing the energetic experience that we have today. Those originally using the location do seem to have been drawn to locations where earth energies were felt to be the strongest. However, successive cultures and generations appear to have built on this foundation to produce ever more complex and integrated patterns of manifest energy currents and features.

Perhaps the seminal work on the subject in the modern era is probably Dowsing and Church Archaeology (1988) by Richard N. Bailey, Eric Cambridge and H. Denis Briggs, which has a foreword written by the renowned archaeologist and Cornish Historian, Prof. Charles Thomas CBE.

Historians of dowsing have discussed how the craft was kept alive and revitalised by French Catholic monks (who presumably had the time and the ability to study the architecture and tangible energies of the religious buildings where they resided). The study of sacred sites for this purpose was re-discovered during the revival of - what we now term - earth energy dowsing, in the post war era. However, it is only since the 1970’s that the subject has become generally available to a wider audience,

Even a couple of decades ago, dowsing in a church often required a degree of secrecy. Today, while it still appropriate to be aware of the sensitivities of churchgoers, increasingly vicars and priests can be genuinely interested to appreciate one of the underlying reasons for their church to have become considered to be considered a sacred place.

Many a time, people have wondered at why such a significant building was built in this particular place, as opposed to a seemingly more suitable site a few hundred yards away - let alone those churches that are built outside of a community altogether, even on the top of a local hill! Earth energy dowsing in such religious buildings brings a new dimension both to the form and the function of their architecture.

I have personally dowsed at Eastern Orthodox churches and around Buddhist temples, with similar results. However, to date, I have no knowledge of any similar work carried out by members of the Hindu, Jewish or Islamic traditions.

Richard’s zoom also focused on one of the topical big issues of the day. If crossing earth energies raise awareness, and even altered a state of mind or consciousness, what would it do to someone engaged in a ceremony that was centred on just such a spot. The case in point is the location where the Kings and Queens of England are ritualistically crowned in the highest church of the nation - Westminster Abbey.

Richard explained that the crowning ceremony takes place exactly over the spiralling earth energy patterns of the Cosmati Pavement in the cathedral (see image below). What impact will that have on the new King - and indeed, how did it affect his predecessors?

Richard asks us all to dowse the patterns for ourselves, and indeed to remote dowse the ceremony itself! You don’t have to be a died-in-the-wool Royalist to appreciate the symbolic significance of this ceremony.

The discussion continued to consider not just the earth energy input to the event, but also the fact that Charles lll will be adorned with massive bejewelled head covering. Each piece of this magnificent crown will be powering up both his own brainwaves and the energies in his aura - and those in the surrounding environment. And all of this on top of the mental focus of millions of viewers in person, on screen, online and across the world. There are times when it is probably beneficial not to be too sensitive to the non-physical, but we shall see.

Many thanks to Richard for giving the talk in his inimitable style, to Jill Moss for setting up the event and to Gwynn for coping quietly and admirably with the IT.

Nigel Twinn

Tamar Dowsers

February 2023