(HOST) Commentator Deborah Doyle-Schechtman has something to confess.
(SCHECHTMAN) Some would call me a water witch, a diviner, or questor. I call myself a dowser.
And this week, I’m in very good company.
People from all over North America who can find water, mineral deposits and lost objects are currently gathered in the Mad River Valley. They’ve come with their L-rods, pendulums, and forked-sticks in search of information, because that’s what dowsing is, with or without the recognized tools of the trade. The knowledge gleaned in this way is used for personal benefit, or on behalf of others, and appears to come to the dowser through a means other than the five senses.
I just love the dowser’s convention. For me it’s a real life Hogwarts, minus the capes, school colors and Quiddich. We go to class, hang out with our friends, and celebrate our diversity. The Hogwarts analogy struck me last year at a workshop when the instructor casually asked the class to pull out their pendulums. What a sight! There were fancy gemstone affairs, wooden acorns, golden spirals, silver bobs, and my absolute favorite, a wintergreen Lifesaver on a piece of dental floss. All were equally effective, but I can’t tell you why, even though I’ve been at this for nearly 40 years. The best explanation I can offer is that it’s a Quantum Physics kind of thing – tied into the idea that matter and energy cannot be separated.
What I can tell you, without a doubt, is that dowsing has nothing to do with magic or the black arts, although the Catholic Church disapproved of any form of divination for centuries. It is a talent virtually all of us are said to have – a basic ability that’s been documented throughout human history. It’s referred to in the Bible, depicted on Egyptian tombs, and found in ancient
European cave paintings. Da Vinci was a dowser. And so was Michelangelo, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Vermonter and founder of the Mormons, Joseph Smith, and millions of others. Dowsers were used in the 15th century to find mineral deposits, by the Queen of Sheba to find water whenever she traveled to see Solomon, and by the US government to find tunnels in Viet Nam. And lest you think dowsing is too esoteric a subject for true scholars, you may be interested to know that Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins, the President of Dartmouth College from 1916-1945, was a founding member of the American Society of Dowsers.
That was back in the late 1950s, not long after Danville town official, Reg Smith, lost his gold watch when clearing brush and sought the assistance of local farmer and dowser, Clint Gray to find it. Smith was so taken with Gray’s ability to locate the heirloom beneath the large area of slash, he suggested that a dowsing school be added to an upcoming list of foliage activities the local Chamber of Commerce was planning that year to attract more tourists to the area. The rest, as they say, is history.
Deborah Doyle-Schechtman is a writer and author who divides her time between the Upper Valley and Northeast Kingdom.