One of the ancient frescoes in a cave in Namibia depicts a Neolithic man holding a forked vine in his hands. The first researchers of this monument of primitive art considered that the plot refers to some kind of cult of one of the African tribes.
Historians would probably have calmed down on this, if the same plot had not been repeated on ancient Chinese miniatures, medieval European engravings, in the coat of arms of the city of Petrozavodsk of the Catherine era, in business papers of the Ural miner Demidov … In Norway, a monument to a dowser who discovered several useful deposits fossils.
The ability of some people to find underground waters, oil, gas, minerals with the help of a vine (indicator) has been known for a long time. This search method is used in many countries. The top of the flexible twig in the hands of dowsers, they are also called "dowsing operators", leans over the mineral deposits and springs.
The movement of the twig is accompanied by an unpleasant sensation in the elbows, as with a weak electric shock. So far, people are far from explaining the methods of dowsing. Is this phenomenon the result of a special hypersensitivity, the sixth or seventh sense organ? Or maybe every person once possessed such an ability, but with the development of civilization, these abilities simply disappeared? The answers to these questions may have to wait a long time.
Nobody knows what a magic wand looked like until the 17th century, but the fact that it existed is a fact. At least, the famous Paracelsus in his writings speaks of her as something self-evident: "… We take virgula mercurialis …". As if this is not a "Mercurialis", but the most ordinary grip for a frying pan.
Virgula mercurialis translates as "magic wand" or "magic wand".
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The scientific description of the magic wand of those years takes one line. This is a Y-shaped rod for metal searching. Some authors say that each metal must be searched for with the help of "your" stick, others argue that the type of wood does not matter - the main thing is that the stick is flexible. (Therefore, it is better to take willow, hazel or ash.)
A miner wishing to open a mine must take a stick by the two short ends and slowly move with it across the field. Work should begin in the place where the free long end of the stick tilts to the ground.
In 1642, the trial of the spouses Martine de Berteron and Jean de Chartres, Baron de Beslay, took place in France. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bastille for "contacts with the devil" in the discovery of more than 150 mineral deposits. Martine de Berteron's treatise, written by her in a prison cell, mentions a "trembling", "jumping", "beating" vine.
In 1630, news came from Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) that with the help of willow and alder virgula mercurialis, underground springs were discovered. Since then, the wand has become very popular among the common people: the peasant needs to find a place for a well, he immediately goes into the forest and - ene-ben-slave … This continued until the end of the century.
For several centuries, science forgot about virgula mercurialis. She became part of the traditional fairytale trinity: a flying carpet, running boots, a magic wand. And then a new device was invented, with the help of which they are now looking for metals.
The principle of operation of a modern metal detector, of course, is much more complicated than it seemed to our ancestors, but the shape remains the same. Long or short stick ending in a triangle, circle, or square. So virgula mercurialis still exists. Since the 17th century, it has hardly changed.
In November 1942, American troops landing in Casablanca found all the wells blown up. The soldiers were threatened with death in the African desert. The paratroopers were rescued by Captain Harris, who knew how to find water with the help of a willow stick. He found 17 water sources, providing the troops with drinking water.
Americans remembered dowsing during the Vietnam War. They searched for enemy underground shelters and plastic mines using wire frames similar to willow vines. After the end of the war, research on the dowsing effect - as dowsing is officially called - was funded by the CIA and the US Department of Defense.
Our military did not lag behind American colleagues. Not to mention the unique specialists who were carefully classified, let us mention the dowser soldiers. There were a lot of them, judging by the instructions of the sapper units of the Red Army, which they followed from 1930 to 1943, where it was recommended to use the vine when searching for water in an unfamiliar area.
Experienced dowsers traditionally use forks made of willow or hazel branches, but they also use pieces of wire bent in the form of the Russian letter "G" or in the form of the Roman numeral "V". However, the type of frame does not really matter, since the main thing is a person gifted with the talent of a dowser. In some cases, people manage to develop this talent in themselves through persistent training.
Dowsing is a very mysterious phenomenon, not understood by science to this day. An even more striking property of dowsers is finding water or valuable minerals on a geographical map (!) Using a pendulum in the form of a thread with a load at the end.
The operator must determine the length of the thread in advance by trial and error. But no matter what method he uses, a pendulum, a vine or a metal frame, the main thing is to tune in psychologically to the object of the search before work and to concentrate very much on it.
Traditional scholars are skeptical about dowsing. However, facts are stubborn things, and sooner or later, traditional science will have to deal with the physical nature of this amazing phenomenon.
Some scientists explain it as follows: unknown radiation of the Earth excites the contraction of the muscles of the arm, which consequently turns the vine or frame. But this is contradicted by the practice of dowsers, who often place their instrument in a metal tube (this was done, for example, by the famous St. Petersburg parapsychologist Vadim Borisovich Polyakov, now deceased). Moreover, this theory does not explain the work with a pendulum in any way.
Most of the theories still admit precisely the radiation of the earth's interior. But how then can one understand that the strength and certainty of turning the vine or the frame remain unchanged at different depths of the sought substance?
Dowser practitioners consider their abilities to be paranormal and due to a direct connection between the thought process and the desired object. The fact that many dowsers often do without any tools at all indicates the perception of some radiation by the brain or part of it.
Vincent Reddish, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, remains in the old position. In his book "The Power of Dowsers", published in 1993, he tries to substantiate the existence in nature of a special force that affects the work of a dowser, but which is "no stranger than gravity and electromagnetism, and therefore does not require going beyond the limits of current physical knowledge." …
Reddish considers the reality of the radiation of the fields surrounding various underground objects. According to his hypothesis, which seems to be quite artificial, subatomic particles (smaller than an atom), which he called "dauzons" (from the English dowser - dowser), somehow "stick" to the desired object and are captured by the dowser.
Alas, this assumption has not been proven by experiments and cannot explain the success of water finders or operators working on a map with a pendulum.