Old Cemeteries and Grave Dowsing

Dowsing is odd, but it seems to work. When dealing with odd phenomena we have a choice: say that we don't understand how it works, so deny that something is happening other than by coincidence; or say that even though we don't understand it, we know that something is happening. This is what I think is the issue with dowsing. I have said how it happened for me, even though I was trying to disprove its possibility.

The technique is to walk along with two rods, be they metal or willow, and when one swings dig underneath it. Something should be there. But why?

Detecting oil is difficult as it is far deeper underground than water or a grave is.

There is no connection with ouija boards, which aim to call spirits. This is the trouble with the paranormal, it is a dustbin category in which a myriad of different, unrelated phenomena are dumped.

Never heard of dowsing. It does sound to be something like Ouija boards. What I don't understand is if there is any principle at work. If it was the grave, you could say it was something spiritual, otherworldly. But how come it detects water and oil as well?

Angela, Yes indeed . It was common practice here amongst the poor. If old Coffins have to be moved to another location for various reasons, it is quite common to find a skeletal infant in cloths or boxes in the grave also.

I think when people see dramas and read fiction about England's past, it gives the very mistaken impression of elegance, grandeur, wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people in Britain were living a life of desperate poverty and starvation. Some still are. There were several famines and yet we only ever hear about the Irish Famine of 184's.

frankbeswick - I sure didn't know that about putting infants into other people's graves, but I can see the need. It's sad, though.

Infant mortality is sometimes concealed by the fact that poor people used to hang around cemeteries with dead babies in shoe boxes and plead with mourners to allow the dead baby to be interred free of charge in a grave. Most people agreed.

Sometimes when looking round graveyards I have seen several dates around the same time and I always wonder if there was some sort of virus or disease that was going round a village or some disaster locally. Social and local history can be seen at their best with just one visit to a graveyard.

TY for posting.

frankbeswick - I've heard too many stories of dowsing for water for me not to believe in it. Often people dowse looking for old water pipes, too. I think the whole subject is fascinating.

Veronica - I agree that old graveyards tell a story. Sometimes you'll see the graves of many infants in the same family - infant mortality was high years ago. And if there are several death dates from 1918, you wonder if they died from the flu epidemic - my great grandmother did.

When we sought the pump in the dark the farmhand doused it. I dismissed dowsing and took the divining rods to show that it did not work. To my surprise they moved in my hands without my will. At that moment I swallowed my academic pride and admitted that there was something that I did not understand. Since then there have been more things that have challenged my world view and I have become more open minded about strange phenomena.

This is fascinating. We used to try dowsing as children and it does work. We weren't doing witchcraft though.

I also love old graveyards. They are an invaluable source of local history and the tomb themselves can tell a life story.

Ty for this. The photos are lovely and evocative. The infant graves are very poignant.