Twinn
EEG - Dorking
Dowsing and Working in Dorking
With over 100 people at the EEG Dowsing Open Day in sunny Surrey - a third of whom were new members or non-dowsers - this was an ideal platform from which to extend the message about the diverse applications and sheer excitement of our arcane skill.
An event held in a vineyard, headlined by a media personality and running concurrently with a Greek wedding, was always going to be a typically surreal EEG extravaganza - and so it turned out to be.
Given the outreach nature of the event, Saturday started with an introduction to dowsing and the BSD - past, present and future - by some geezer in verdant vestments. The feedback implied that this got the day off on a sound footing.
The proceedings then moved up a gear with a presentation by Carla Miles-Robinson on the relationship of dowsing to Feng Shui. Carla is a very experienced and well-qualified Feng Shui practitioner, who uses dowsing alongside her energy management work as a matter of course. She gave the audience an introduction to the elements and building blocks of her profession - and she explained how dowsing and Feng Shui are complementary ways of dealing with the problems that can arise at the flexible frontier between humans and their built environment. Carla coped womenfully with the complete failure of the interface between her iPad with the projector - an incident which actually added something to her performance - and brought forth both appreciative and supportive applause in recognition of her efforts. Her exquisite images, that might even have distracted us from the content of her talk, can however be seen on her website.
Last on before lunch was our very own AIW. In recent years, Adrian has carved out a sizeable niche in the realm of the dowsing and healing of geopathic stress. It was very apparent from his presentation that his personal portfolio of case studies is burgeoning as his experience in the field expands. He was able to share some of the insights he has gained though his work with the assembled multitude - many of whom would have had little prior knowledge of how this kind of investigation is undertaken in practice. With a DVD on sale and a forthcoming book, AIW is becoming increasingly well-known in this field - and rightly so.
The afternoon was given over to a full-scale workshop given by the television and radio presenter, The Barefoot Doctor - aka Stephen Russell. The BD is clearly someone who has been in the right place at the right time (as, arguably, we all have) - but he has certainly made the most of his good fortune. Having worked with the late Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing from a young age and then later with Laing’s mentor, the anthropologist Gregory Mason, Stephen developed an alternative and more holistic understanding of the world around him earlier than most.
His encounters with followers of the eastern traditions led him to take an active interest in martial arts, particularly aikido, and this, in turn, introduced him to the ancient philosophy of Taoism. Taoism, which predates Confucianism, and perhaps even Buddhism, has given rise to many of the disciplines of eastern origin, including Tai Chi, and reflexology. Stephen’s appreciation of the interconnectedness of all things has blossomed as a result of his embodiment of the Tao - the cosmic spirit from which it is believed all information, energy and matter derives. This, in turn has led him to develop the public-facing persona for which he is more widely known.
The BD’s take on the relationship of the human to the Tao, the quantum chi, is that we are all shards of the omnipresent One - that we should not bow down to, or be in awe of, the greatest presence. However, we should acknowledge our part of it, and we should embody and work with it. Taoists, like their Buddhist fellow-travellers, regard the manifest world around us as little more than an illusion. They feel it does not ‘exist’ in the usual sense of the word, but that it can be compared to a magic lantern show that enables us to make some sense of the world of matter - a virtual, visible veneer on the surface of a boundless reality.
Any fears we may have had that dowsing was just an add-on to The BD’s public profile were swept aside by his description of the two most precious tools that he uses in his healing work : his Taoist intuition - his direct relationship to the all-embracing information field - and his pendulum. It was quite apparent that The BD is actually a more dedicated dowser than many who regard the skill as an important part of their everyday life.
Stephen’s impressive archive of practical progress, based on his intuition and his dowsing ability, provided a fascinating and much-appreciated afternoon for an enrapt audience. Anyone unsure about how his chirpy, cockney-sparrah media style might mesh with the erudite world of the serious diviner would have been won over completely by his obvious sincerity, and by his deep appreciation of the implications of his life and his experience.
The BD explained several simple actions, such as the pressing or massaging of certain muscles, which we could take to attune our awareness - to open our hearts and minds and, quite literally, to make ourselves feel more alive. Even in the rather mundane environment of a corporate conference room, it seemed to work.
We participated in two practical sessions. One was essentially a very straightforward exercise in grounding, mind clearing and connecting - which some found particularly effective. The other was the raising of the conjoined energy in the room by the resonant chanting of the OM (pronounced AUM) - a Taoist method of linking the human consciousness directly to the resonance of the all-embracing divine. It’was actually a lot more exciting to be a participant at this process than it sounds in the cold text of a Monday morning!
For good measure, The BD didn’t plug his many books or DVDs at all, and only mentioned his forthcoming courses in response to a direct question from the floor. When asked, right at the end, what he found most exciting in his current cycle, he replied that it was just the great joy of being alive - of waking up every morning and looking forward to the day ahead.
This was a masterclass in how to convey profound insight, and the fruits of a star-crossed life, in a natural and engaging manner. Transcendent vision delivered with gentle, genial and genuine bonhomie. If you missed him at Denbigh’s, it’s worth catching him as he passes your way - in this life or the next.
If that wasn’t enough excitement for one weekend, about 40 of us re-assembled the following day at nearby Leith Hill. Those of us who, in the words of the late Bob Copper, feel that the area south west of London is “just ‘ouses, ‘ouses, ‘ouses”, were agreeably surprised to find that The Surrey Hills is not only an area of great natural beauty, but also a place with an astonishing tableau of Britannic history.
Led by local dowser and resident Sare Doughty-Bassett, we set off in search of the spirit of Surrey - and we were not disappointed. Firstly, we dowsed close to an ancient pond fed by springs from the slopes above. Here, there were many types of earth energy feature, overlaid both on the human habitation of the site and on one another. Intricate water spirals, energy lines and leys jostled in time and space with esoteric pictures and more modern agricultural remanences. Uncomfortably for the dowser, a (possibly templar) cross is etched in the ether, or on the tarmac, covering the busy modern road running through this spot. In between the velos, the motorbikes and a phalanx of Ferraris, we found a stubby cruciform shape, dating from around the 14th century - and on the adjacent slope a series of seven intentionally placed square shapes. All very intriguing - but it was very much par for the course in a landscape of many layers.
We then walked over to Anstiebury Camp, an “Iron Age Hill Fort”. Unlike many of these structures, which usually dowse as having no sign of any actual fighting, Anstiebury was the scene of the mass carnage of a Viking force by my Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Strangely, there was little dowsable evidence of death amongst the earthworks themselves, but the surrounding fields and streams were said to have run red with the blood of the vanquished. In search of this gothic image, people set off to find the burial places of the fallen. Interestingly, at one site the burial of four disembodied skulls was dowsed - as were the locations of a number of remaining artifacts from previous periods of history. Sare mentioned how healing work had been undertaken to release earthbound spirits left over from this period, but that there was still much to be done.
On the slope below the earthwork sat a classic Hamish Miller earth energy manifestation composed of two gently serrated circles around a nodal energy crossing point. Through interaction, the manifestation increased to three deeply incised saw-toothed rings - an indication of the interaction of the dowser with the energy of the earth.
Having scrambled up the side of the fort itself, we found the energy of the summit to be perceptibly lighter and more domestic. Long before the castle- builders created this defensive bulwark, ancient farmers and herders were carving out a livelihood there - and the etheric outlines of their simple homesteads and animal pens were still easily detected. While our dowsing of the period of the creation of the earthworks broadly agreed with the archaeological record, there was dowsable evidence of several thousand years of prior human habitation in this part of the pristine wildwood.
Amongst the pollarded oaks and the fallen beeches, at one point a particularly pleasant spot was detected that dowsed as being the location of a benevolent female earth spirit. Several of us worked with this energy, and concurred that it was both timeless and beneficial. Indeed, despite the incision of several episodes of armed conflict into the local tapestry, the whole area resonated primarily with calming feminine energy. This is a location known to have been frequented by the esoteric cognoscenti for centuries - and is still discreetly in use today.
It is difficult to do justice to the vast panorama of potential dowsing available in this leafy enclave of the Home Counties. I would encourage you to investigate it for yourselves, if you ever find yourselves traversing this section of the Stane Street roman road.
There were many notable firsts in this weekend - and many significant high points. The EEG has set itself quite a standard to maintain - and we look forward to Cheltenham next spring with great anticipation.
Finally, a big thank you to Adrian, Allyson and the rest of the team, who put in an awful lot of their own time and effort into making our events so successful.
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Nigel Twinn