There is a vast amount of
information available today on self-help, self-responsibility, self-realization,
self-healing; the list goes on. This information is most welcome as collectively
we approach the need for major change in our life-styles if life, as we know it,
is to continue on planet Earth.
Piece by piece we assimilate
this ‘new’ information into our consciousness, step by step we move into a
new understanding of what it means to be a Human Being. We may have our moments
of feeling content, smug, despairing, happy, sad, angry, frightened or safe,
this is all part of the parcel that is a human being. Even with the ‘new’
information available to us today we still have to do the work. At some point we
need to confront our perceptions of who and what we are, to move out of limiting
perceptions of self into a much bigger picture.
This is indeed a challenge,
many on this journey seem to get stuck, albeit temporarily, in the process.
Identifying with the mental, emotional and physical issues that present
themselves moment by moment. It is no easy thing to step outside of yourself,
objectively view the personality, correct any imbalance you may find and then
return, a changed person, back into the personality. For one, there is little
sense of anything existing outside of the self. This is indeed a truism, for on
the personality level the ‘I’ is supreme and anything ‘external’ to the
‘I’ is seen and interpreted through the physical, mental and emotional
conditioning of the ‘I’. This being the case all ‘external’ phenomena is
viewed uniquely and differs from observer to observer.
On the other hand, the fact
that nothing exists outside of the self (Self) on a soul level reflects the
‘oneness’ of all life. Seen from the perspective of the personality, the
being that is experiencing ‘life’ is very attached to the body, to the
material world and will remain an apparent victim to external events unable to
consciously affect his or her destiny. The ‘nothing outside of self’ when
understood on a soul level is incredibly liberating, requires great
self-responsibility and allows true healing to occur.
This is all very well and
generally understood the secret of course is how to reach this state of
awareness. All roads, we are told, lead to Rome. There are many paths to select
from, the Hindus, through their yogic philosophies, defined several main
pathways, of which there are now many lesser paths, sub paths and jungle trails
to choose from.
Service; Devotion;
Contemplation and Wisdom.
Among these main paths are,
the path of Service; Devotion; Contemplation and Wisdom. Through giving oneself
entirely into service to others one will lose the addiction to self. Through
devotion (e.g. to God) again one is able to step outside of the personality,
contemplation (meditation) leads one into the quiet, inner spaces, of the mind
wherein the sense of oneness may be found. It is the path of wisdom approached
from a unique, practical point of view, that forms the basis for this article.
There is yet another yogic path called Raja yoga, or king yoga that combines all
the others into one path which, when seen from an understanding of Gnana yoga,
wisdom yoga, becomes an obvious, well balanced path, however, to reach this
awareness a good, grounded knowledge of one of the basic paths is required.
There are many ways one can
gain wisdom. Wisdom is not knowledge, though one can grow wise from knowledge it
is not necessarily so. I would like to share what I consider to be two of the
most powerful aids to self-mastery available to us. A pendulum and an ‘L’
rod, the two simple tools used by dowsers worldwide to explore their seen and
unseen universe. How, you may ask, will a pendulum help me step outside of my
reality and give me a greater picture of my own fears and limitations, an even
bigger question might be, how will these simple devices help me overcome my
fears and limitations.
There are seven stages of
dowsing and, if followed correctly and diligently, will lead without fail to
self-mastery. One must travel at ones own pace, face ones own demons, explore
ones own reality and grow at ones own pace. Because we all see life slightly
differently, all have our own unique interpretations of reality, there is no one
set of rules or guidelines that fits all. With some rudimentary training and
with a little ongoing support anyone can learn to use the pendulum and ‘L’
rod, get pointed in the right direction and be left to safely explore their own
perceptions of who and what they are. No one to set any pace, no one to limit
the depth of discovery, just the individual on their personal journey.
Dowsing - an Ancient Art with
surprising applications:
You may well have heard of
dowsers, or water diviners who, armed with a piece of fencing wire, wander
across paddocks in the search for underground water. For many years this has
been our limited understanding of a dowser. Dowsing is a very ancient art, with
references in the Bible and even several hieroglyphs in Egyptian tombs depicting
a person using a dowsing rod. In medieval times the Europeans used dowsers to
locate underground ores and minerals. More recently, at the turn of the century,
the French used dowsers to track down criminals, the U.S. Forces in Vietnam
trained soldiers in the art of dowsing in order to locate land mines and
tunnels. Even today the police in Switzerland employ the services of a dowser to
help track down missing persons.
Closer to home chicken
farmers use dowsing to sex chickens, horticulturists can use it to sex various
plants. Many people will have heard of grand-ma, using a wedding ring suspended
on a piece of cotton, to determine the sex of an unborn infant. Many health
practitioners use a pendulum to help identify various remedies, dowsing has as
many applications as you could imagine, and then some more. The use of this
process is limited only by your imagination.
How does it Work?
There have been many books
written on the subject all no doubt contain some truth. If we go back to the
earlier part of this article and look again at the statement …“The
‘nothing outside of self’ when understood on a soul level is incredibly
liberating, requires great self-responsibility and allows true healing to
occur”. As we come to accept the truth of this re come to the understanding
that, if there is nothing outside of self, then all that exists ‘externally’
is a reflection of the self, or another aspect of self yet to be embraced in the
oneness of all beings. We can then imagine ourselves to be swimming in a sea of
consciousness, totally connected and relating to all other parts of this sea of
consciousness. It is this connectedness that allows us to access information
that at first glance appears external and unconnected. The brain, constantly
computing information received via our six senses and the chakras, is just as
much a part of this whole-ness which allows it to receive and translate messages
contained in the vastness of the sea of consciousness.
As the brain, scanning all
wavelengths, connects into the particular frequency of the information that we
are seeking so the fine motor muscles of the hand, or even consciousness itself,
influences the dowsing rod or pendulum. Then according to an established
response, we can determine a positive or negative answer to whatever question we
were asking at the time.
Children make excellent
dowsers, having little preconception of dowsing and little emotional attachment
to the outcome. This is most important, for anyone using the pendulum can
influence the outcome through their own desire body. It is unwise to dowse on
matters where the dowser has an emotional investment in the outcome.
The Seven Levels.
The first level is known as
on site, hands-on dowsing. This is where the dowser is actually on the site to
be explored, armed with ‘L’ rod and pendulum. The second is known as horizon
dowsing, again the dowser is on site scanning the horizon, particularly useful
when there is a large area to be ‘searched’.
The third method involves
distance dowsing, or dowsing over a map of a given area. The fourth moves into a
slightly different area, the area known as information dowsing. Here the dowser,
using the pendulum can gain answers to almost any questions that can be
imagined.
Next, the more
‘interesting’ areas, the fifth - co-operation with nature. Here the dowser,
with an understanding of the natural order is able to advise on the best avenues
open for utilizing the natural energy fields in the environment. The sixth area,
an exciting step toward ‘enlightenment’ is co-creation with nature, the true
area of dowsing as a tool to heal - both personal and environmental. Of course,
number seven, self-mastery, becomes the logical conclusion if the earlier steps
are followed assiduously.
Returning to look at each of
the steps in more details and thereby gaining an understanding of how this
knowledge can be applied to gain the wisdom required to reach the goal, we can
see how, with practice each step leads comfortably to the next.
Among the many applications
for level one, on-site dowsing, a particularly useful area is the exploration of
the physical and metaphysical universe. Using the dowsing rod, a dowser can
survey any environment for the presence (or absence) of various energy fields.
In Germany the services of energy dowsers are commonly accepted. Before building
or buying a home or land, the dowser is called in to survey the land or building
and check for any ‘unhealthy’ energy fields. Applying this principle to our
Seven Stages we see that by getting in touch with our physical environment we
become better acquainted with the physical health of our environment. We are
able to detect areas of stress created by the earth’s magnetic field,
underground water, geological fault lines and caves. Extending this
understanding a little we can evaluate the health risk posed, if any, from
Extremely Low Frequency Electro Magnetic Radiation (ELF EMR). Most importantly,
from a personal growth point of view, we can explore the layers of the mental
and emotional energy that gets stuck and builds up in the physical environment.
Level two is simply an
extension of level one, enabling us to explore larger areas without the need to
physically cover the whole of the area to be surveyed. As such it is a useful
tool for practical applications but has little use if ones aim is enlightenment.
Similarly map dowsing, the fourth stage, is very useful for determining energy
patterns in a physical location that may be many kilometers from your base and
consequently not accessible. This level does serve a valuable purpose though. As
the dowser gains experience and confidence in level one, to realize that it is
possible to access this information from a distance serves to confirm the unity
and inter-connectedness of all life. From this point of view level three is an
exciting step along the road.
So far the dowser has been
gathering an understanding of geo-physical and metaphysical phenomena. Level
four, or information dowsing helps to sort the information gained through the
study of level one, quantify it and increase awareness. Applying this level the
dowser is able to ask questions relating to the finding gained in level one.
Through the questioning process more questions come to light, following on from
previous questions. This journey leads the dowser into a greater awareness of
the inter-connectedness of all life, out of separation.
When all life, both internal
and external is seen to consist of atoms in various configurations and specific
rates of frequency (it is the frequency that defines the purpose or physical
manifestation of atomic structures), then we can understand that even our
thoughts and emotional energy have specific frequency patterns. It becomes easy
to understand, this being the case, how we store information in our physical
bodies, as frequency patterns. This energy can be stored in the physical or
subtle bodies, anyone that has experienced an emotional release after a massage,
reflexology or acupuncture treatment will understand the power held in the body.
This holding in, this hanging onto emotional and mental trauma may well be seen
as the beginning of sickness and dis-ease.
To understand how dowsing can
help us come to terms with our ‘negative addictions’ we look again at the
world of energy. All is energy, manifesting in multi divers forms, yet the fact
that we are energy fields, complex and diverse is fundamental to the next step
out of the darkness of limitation. Seeing stored emotion as energy held at
particular frequency patterns and recognizing that the ‘external’ reality is
but a reflection of the internal, we begin to see that our ‘external’
reality holds frequency patterns identical to those holding emotional trauma
within the physical body. When we encounter these apparently external frequency
patterns, which relate to patterns held in our physical or subtle bodies, we are
triggered into an emotional response that equates with the original trauma. In
effect we are unconsciously catapulted into an emotional reaction that tends to
dominate our perceptions (whilst it lasts).
This reaction tends to take
us by surprise, we are not consciously aware that we have gone into reaction,
this could be a minor event, an habitual response to certain stimuli or it could
be a major drama wherein we lose our balance and tumble helplessly into an
emotional state that can be life threatening, at the least damaging to health.
If, by a process of
increasing awareness we were able to recognize, at one stage, the impact our so
called external environment has upon our physical, mental and emotional well
being then we must see that are have taken a profound step on the road to self
mastery. The dowsing helps us to understand our selves, from whatever
perspective the self needs to be understood in order for it to grow and evolve
through its lessons here on Earth.
The fifth level, that of
co-operation with nature, combines the wisdom and knowledge gained through
application of the earlier levels. As we become increasingly aware of the nature
of our relationship with our environment we are better empowered to live in
harmony with that environment, less able to pollute and destroy on levels that
we may not have dreamed of before. Our emotional and mental energy could be
amongst the major pollutants on the planet at the moment. We continue to
transmit clouds of disturbing mental and emotional patterns that build up like
layers of smog over a city. This emotional energy and these thought forms tend
to block out the light of understanding. The more we pollute in this manner the
more difficult it is for us to break free of the limiting patterns that caused
us to pollute with our thoughts and emotions in the first place.
Through the continued
application of the techniques spoken of so far, we become aware that these
energy patterns pollute. We also see the extreme degree that we hold ourselves
captive to old, limiting, thoughts and addictive emotional patterns. By
identifying these patterns but not identifying with them, with the help of the
various levels of dowsing, we begin to accept more responsibility for our part
in the ongoing creation of ‘reality’. As we accept responsibility we
gradually empower ourselves with choice. To go into immediate reaction when we
encounter the right trigger, or to respond, stay in our centre, and respond with
awareness or unconditional love.
Having successfully mastered
these levels the sixth is a natural extension. Co-creation with nature. Having
realized the complete connection you have with your total environment, and
gained insight into the nature of reality, having seen that all that is manifest
is the result of consciousness, it is possible to add your own intent to create
a more harmonious world to live in. This is not new. We have all been
co-creating our reality 24 hours a day since we were born. What is new is that
we now do it with conscious awareness. Instead of adding to the clouds of greed,
fear and ignorance through our own lack of awareness we choose, with conscious
intent, to create balance and harmony.
A powerful and interesting
step towards self mastery comes when we see that in order to create/restore
balance to our world we must either already contain that balance within us or
step right outside of personality to do so. For the personality can only create
that which it desires, that which it understands. The personality imposes its
will on the external reality thus creating more of the same. We have traveled
that road for many years and the fruits of that journey are obvious to all.
Whilst we are still caught up in our own darkness we cannot create light. We all
have the answer, the truth, within us, always have had always will. We tend to
be our own worse enemies, continually putting up barriers or making life
difficult in order to justify our fear of our own truth. The defenses that we
have already long established effectively block out the light. We need do
nothing more to remain in darkness, however because we have the answer within us
already, we need do nothing to come into the light except remember.
Dowsing takes us gently but
surely on the path of remembering. As we are able to identify, for ourselves,
our fears and limitations, as we are able to question our reactions to external
stimuli, so we come out of our cave of lack, into the bright light of day –
the Seventh Level.
