Holistic Health Practices/Part 16
| By: Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon; ©2007 |
| Dowsing is a psychic practice employing divinatory implements (e.g., rod and pendulum, forked sticks) and methods in order to search out desired information. |
What is Dowsing?
Dowsing is a psychic practice employing divinatory implements (e.g., rod and pendulum, forked sticks) and methods in order to search out desired information. For example, dowsing is used to discover the nature or location of disease and determine the proper treatment. It is also used to locate water or minerals, lost objects, missing persons, buried treasure, etc. Water dowsing claims to work through a supposedly natural sensitivity to geomagnetic phenomena, “water radiations,” or by some allegedly unconscious “motor ability” operating in an unknown manner.
But dowsing is not the human ability that many people assume it is. Rather, it is a spiritistic power. Learning to dowse often involves the cultivation of mild to moderate altered states of consciousness, the development of psychic powers, and even spirit contact. As documented in dowsing literature itself or in Ben Hester’s Dowsing: An Exposé of Hidden Occult Forces (self-published), many leading dowsers freely confess that dowsing is a supernatural ability, and some also confess to having spirit guides.
Biblically, dowsing is rejected both by description (Hosea 4:12) and by nature (as divination, Deuteronomy 18:9-12).
Some of the potential dangers of dowsing include health risks through improper diagnosis or treatment, occultic influences, and financial loss or other deception through dowsing failures.
