Radiesthesia describes a physical ability to detect radiation emitted by a person, animal, object or geographical feature. One of its practitioners,
J. Cecil Maby, defined it as "The faculty and study of certain reflexive physical responses of living tissue to various radiations ... resulting in displacement currents and other inductive effects in living tissues." He distinguished it critically from the
psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...
facility of
divination
Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...
. Despite this distinction, there is no scientific evidence for the existence of the phenomenon and it is classed by the mainstream as
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
.
Definitions
One definition is "sensitivity to radiations of all kinds emanating from living beings, inanimate objects, mineral ores, water and even photographs".
The word derives from Latin root ''radi-'' referring to beams of light, radiation and ''aesthesia'', referring to sensory perception.
The term is a
neologism
In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
created by a French Catholic priest Alexis Timothée Bouly who was a celebrated
dowsing practitioner in the early part of the 20th century. Bouly claimed to be able to detect unexploded ordnance from WW1 and also to detect molecular changes in laboratory experiments. He was the founder at Lille in 1929 of the Association of the Friends of Radiesthesia ().
Claims
Practitioners may claim to be able to detect the emitted radiation through use of their hands or more typically with
dowsing rods or a pendulum.
Teleradiesthesia or tele-radiesthesia describes this sensitivity to radiation but without the need to be in physical proximity to the subject. Typically a practitioner will use an instrument such as a pendulum to perform analysis based on a map or photograph.
The practical application of radiesthesia, i.e. dowsing is directed toward providing individual and environmental benefits, such as:
* diagnosis of infirmities
* detection of underground water
* detection of underground mineral sources
* detection of the Earth's
telluric currents and magnetic fields
* location of lost objects
* location of missing persons or livestock
A distinction may be made in the application of radiesthesic techniques in the detection of physical phenomena e.g. water, minerals, objects, changed cell condition and using these techniques for analysis of supposed subtle energy fields or the
'aura' of an individual.
Researchers have cited an involuntary bodily reaction, that is,
ideomotor phenomenon as the initiator of the movement seen occurring in instruments such as
dowsing rods or a pendulum. It is this reactive movement which typically acts as the indicator of the location or the state change of the subject or object under investigation.
See also
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References
Further reading
* F.A. Archdale ''Elementary Radiesthesia and the Use of the Pendulum'', 1950
* Marc Aurice, ''Le Grand Livre de la radiesthésie'', 2008 éditions Trédaniel
* Gabriell Blackburn, ''Science and Art of the Pendulum: A Complete Course in Radiesthesia'', 1984 pub. Idylwild
* C.L. Cooper-Hunt, ''Radiesthetic Analysis'', 1996 pub. Health Research Books
* Bruce Copen, ''Dowsing from Maps, Tele-radiesthesia'', 1975 pub. Academic Publications
* Emma Decourtay, ''Initiation à la radiesthésie'', 2004 éditions Cristal
* Gilbert Degueldre, ''La Radiesthésie, cet instinct originel'', 1985 éditions Florikosse asbl, Verviers – Belgique
* Karl Maximilan Fischer, ''Radiästhesie und Geopathie – Theorie und empirische Untersuchungen'', 1989 Böhlau in Wien
* Christopher Freeland, ''Radiesthesia I – Method and Training for the Modern Dowser'', 2020 pub. Completelynovel
* Tom Graves, ''Pendel und Wünschelrute, Radiästhesie'', 1999
* Jane E. Hartman, ''Radionics and Radiesthesia'', 1999 pub Aquarian Systems
* Ray Hyman
How People Are Fooled by Ideomotor Action.* Adolphe Landspurg, ''Comment devenir sourcier et géobiologue (La pratique de la radiesthésie vibratoire)'', 2003 éditions Dangles
* Hartmut Lüdeling: ''Handbuch der Radiaesthesie – Schwerpunkt Grifflängentechnik.'' 2006 Drachen-Verlag
* Marguerite Maury, ''How to Dowse – Experimental And Practical Radiesthesia'' 1953, pub. G. Bell and Sons; 2008 edition
* Alexis Mermet, ''Principles and Practice of Radiesthesia: A textbook for Practitioners and Students'', 1959; 1991 edition
*
Michel Moine, ''La radiestesia – la otra sciencia'', 1974
* Helmut Müller, ''Radiestesia: Manual Práctico'', 1991 Editorial De Vecchi
* Otto Prokop, Wolf Wimmer: ''Wünschelrute, Erdstrahlen, Radiästhesie. Die okkulten Strahlenfühligkeitslehren im Lichte der Wissenschaft''. 1985 Thieme
* Jessie Toler Kingsley Tarpey, ''Healing by radiesthesia'', 1955, pub. Omega Press
* Henry Tomlinson, ''The Divination of Disease: A Study in Radiesthesia'', 1953 pub. Health Science Press
* S.W. Tromp, ''Psychical Physics, a Scientific Analysis of Dowsing, Radiesthesia and Kindred Phenomena'', 1949 pub. Elzevier, New York
* Herbet Weaver, ''Divining, the Primary Sense: Unfamiliar Radiation in Nature, Art and Science'', 1978 pub, Routledge & Kegan Paul
* V. D. Wethered, ''A Radiesthetic Approach to Health and Homoeopathy, or Health and the Pendulum'', 1950, pub. British Society of Dowsers
* V. D. Wethered, ''An Introduction to Medical Radiesthesia and Radionics'', 1957 pub. C.W. Daniel Company
External links
Association des Amis de la Radiesthesie
Associazioni Italiana Radiestesisti
{{Authority control
Pseudoscience