A talk at North Hill Village hall
by David Lockwood
At the last indoor event of the 2005/6 season, local professional dowser and British Society of Dowsers tutor, David Lockwood, addressed an audience of 32 TDs, friends and relatives on the subject of Energy and Ley lines.
He started his talk with a quick demonstration of dowsing in action, for those unfamiliar with the concept - with the result that three of the four novices in the room picked it up there and then. Not a bad start.
David had just returned from an extended tour of Thailand and Cambodia, and it was apparent that ideas that had been evolving in recent years had been given the opportunity to gestate during his travels.
David is someone who relies explicitly on his own dowsing experience, in the true sense of the words. He questions his own basic assumptions, as well as those of other dowsers (and, for that matter, those of previous speakers!). In a relatively young and still developing field of study, this is very important. It is easy enough to find what others have found, once you have been told it is there.
With such an innovative approach to dowsing phenomena, it is not surprising that David has come up with new and novel interpretations of the ley and energy lines that proliferate on the surface of the earth.
The model of ley energy that he described is one of a series of ‘washer shaped’ hollow discs - stretching deep into the fabric of the earth and extending high above it - but sensed on the surface of the planet as straight lines. He further went on to describe the constituent parts of these discs and their often oblique trajectory with respect to the earth’s core.
He feels that the energy present, in both ley and earth energy discs, is similar in quality to the life force ‘chi’ of eastern understanding. Clearly, a month in South East Asia had had a profound effect on his own interpretation of the same intangible energies that are found in South East Cornwall.
As a local healer, David was able to explain the relationship of this life force to the energy healing process. The talk (which we had originally suggested might be called Geopathic Stress, but we felt might sound incomprehensible on public posters!) went on to describe the impact of negative energy on health, in particular on the residents of certain houses. David then explained how he approached the issue of removing or neutralising such negativity. He also added a rider about his concern (and mine!) that moving unwanted energy lines is not a ‘black and white’ process – and that merely moving the effect of such energy to another place can have unexpected and unwelcome consequences. This is an area requiring deeper research.
However, as David freely admits, his own findings are the ones that he has experienced for himself – others may be helped by these insights, but need to do their own research from first principles. This is refreshing in a field where some seem keen to establish scientific rules that apply in a Newtonian fashion across the board. If dowsing has anything to offer the future, it is an appreciation of the need to question the present in the light of one’s own experience - just the point that led Newton and Einstein, together with a multitude of seers and shamen, to unlock the mysteries of their own ages as they saw them, and then to explain them in their own languages.
In a helpful continuation of a concept voiced at other events recently, David showed the inter-active nature of earth energy lines (and/or discs). The line that had been used to show the new dowsers the basics of the skill at the start of the talk, was demonstarted to have widened to encompass the whole audience. Several of us helped to verify David’s statement. Regular readers will be aware that various experiments have been conducted locally, notably by Hamish Miller last spring, into the reactive aspect of earth energy to spiritual and/or investigative ‘actions’. To date, I had come to understand that this dialogue resulted in a symmetrical phenomenon, with the energy form becoming larger or more intense. However, David’s feeling was that, in this case at least, the energy was expanding to include all those other energies (ie us) that were part of the inter-action. This takes ‘talking with the earth spirit’, or however you like to describe the event, onto another level and had me pulling at my beard in a manner usually reserved for exciting football matches.
In common with each of our speakers this winter, David’s responses to questions were as likely to be an honest ‘don’t know’ as an erudite reply – although there were plenty of those too. There is much to be discovered, even by those who live and breathe the subject and the phrase ‘scratching the surface’ comes to mind.
From the questions it was apparent that his interesting and unusual findings certainly had the audience pondering their own dowsing experiences and their own approach to the subject.
The last three events at North Hill Village Hall have attracted over 140 people, which I find rather remarkable.
The hall has been rebooked for November and December 2006 – but for the next few months we must get back out into the field to do our own original research.
Many thanks indeed to Pete and Jenny for organising the hall – and to Annie for doing just about everything else!
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
February 2006