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Grave Dowsing and Locating
GRAVE DOWSING
One of the biggest frustrations in genealogy, is being unable to locate
the burial site of an ancestor. Although we may have an idea of where
this ancestor is buried, we have no proof. Grave dowsing cannot give us
the name of the person buried in any un-marked grave, but it can
identify the locations of unmarked graves within a cemetery or lot and
also provide some clues to their gender and age. You may find that the
dowsing rods respond differently for you than as outlined in this
article which is why it is extremely important that you practice and
develop your own technique.
Dowsing is an age-old art that has been used for centuries to locate
water, graves and etc. I first learned about grave dowsing from a fellow
volunteer at the Cass County Historical Society while working on
"The Cemetery Project". Since that time, I have conducted
several of my own experiments and researched different theories. I still
don't know that answer as to just exactly why this technique works, but
I can assure you that this technique does work and has been proven. I
will attempt to teach you how to dowse for graves in this article.
MAKING DOWSING RODS
There are several ways to make dowsing rods, but I since I have only
used one of these methods, that is the method that I will recommend.
Start with 2 metal coat hangers. Cut them at the neck just before the
point
where they join to form the hook of the hanger.
Straighten each hanger, trying to get out all bends.
Once the hangers are straight, make a 90 degree bend for the handles. I
recommend that the handles be 3 to 4 inches long. You may need to vary
the handle length depending on the size of your hand. Just be sure that
the handle does not extend below beneath the hand. This allows for a
light grip and keeps the handle from obstructing movement.
BASIC DOWSING TECHNIQUE
Hold the rods lightly in your hands, with elbows at your waist and
forearms parallel to the ground. The rods should be held straight out,
also parallel to the ground and parallel with each other. Do not place
your thumbs over the bend of the handle, this will restrict movement. Do
not grip too tightly, only enough to keep the rods parallel.
Approach the suspected gravesite, walking very slowly.
If a body is present, the rods will cross in front of you when you are
over the grave. Once you step off of the grave, they will uncross.
PRACTICE
Let me stress that in order for this method to work properly, you must
go to a cemetery with marked graves and PRACTICE. Everyone develops a
slight variance in their technique and just because something works for
me does not mean that it will work exactly the same way for everyone.
For some, this method will not work at all, but I have found that it
works for at least 90% of the people that I have taught this method to.
Some people have associated dowsing with witchcraft, however, I do not
believe that 90% of the population are practicing witches, I'm certainly
not which means that there has to be a scientific explanation and
requires no "Special Powers" by the person who is performing
the dowsing.
CEMETERY LAYOUTS
Most cemeteries in the United States bury their dead in a Christian
manner. This means that all bodies are laid with the head pointing west
and the feet pointing east. It is very important to remember this, as
the layout of the body will later help you determine the gender of the
person buried there and also help determine if the burial ground
contains human remains. I have not yet experimented with Indian burial
grounds. It is my understanding that many of them are buried in a
sitting position so some alterations to this technique may be necessary
while dowsing in Indian burial grounds or cemeteries with different
religious backgrounds. The techniques I describe in this segment will be
based on Christian burials.
LOCATING AN UNMARKED CEMETERY
As mentioned earlier, Christian graves are laid out in a west/east
direction. When trying to locate a lost cemetery, it is best to walk in
north/south direction in order to pick up a pattern. Usually you will
find the graves to be separated by 2-3 feet. As you cross each grave,
the rods will cross and then uncross as you step off of them. I find
that I take 2-3 steps between each grave (this may vary depending on the
size of your step, which is why practice is, important). If you find
that a pattern develops (cross, 3 steps, cross, 3 steps, etc.) you have
most likely found a cemetery. You will then need to determine the
perimeter of the cemetery. By walking north and south, you can come
pretty close to determining where the burials begin and end. When you
reach the edge of the burial ground and are not longer picking up
bodies, go back to the last grave and begin walking east and west. You
will now be picking up on the length of the body, you will get some
variances depending on rather infants, children or adults occupy the end
graves. Keep walking east and west until you are no longer picking up
bodies. By the time you have completed a square, you will have a good
idea of the perimeters of the cemetery. Be sure to always check past the
last body for at least 20 feet. Remember that you are looking for a
pattern. You will find that Christian burial grounds are very well laid
out. Side by side and head to toe in perfectly straight lines. This is
important to note because animals can also be picked up with dowsing
rods, however, it would be unusual for an animal burial ground to be
laid out so symmetrically. So, the symmetrical layout of the burials is
your first clue that the remains are most likely human.
DETERMINING APPROXIMATE AGE
To determine the approximate age of the person buried in an unmarked
grave, begin at the foot/head of the grave and walk the length. The rods
will cross at the feet/head and remained crossed until you reach the
other end (feet/head) at which time they will uncross when you step off
of the body. I count my steps as I walk the length of the body. For me,
1-2 steps indicates an infant, 2-3 a toddler, 3-4 a child, 5 an
adolescent or short adult, 6 an adult and 7 a tall adult. Once again,
this is where practicing with marked graves helps perfect your
technique.
DETERMINING GENDER
There are two methods to determine gender of the person buried. The
first one can give a false reading depending on rather the undertaker
buried the person correctly, the second method has proven to be
foolproof, so far. It is VERY important to use both methods when
determining rather a burial site contains human remains.
Method 1: (Overhead) Standing over the center of a grave, hold one rod
over your head. The rod will swing around and point to the feet of a
male or the head of a female. I don't know the scientific reason for
this, but I can only guess that each gender is polarized to the earth by
different portion of the body. You may get a false reading. It is
uncommon, but does happen, that a person can accidentally be buried
backwards. I have found this several times which is why method # 2 is
used as confirmation.
Method 2: (One-finger) Standing over the center of the grave, balance
the handle of one rod on your index finger, holding the rod straight
down. The rod will begin making a circular motion. It will rotate
clockwise for a male and counterclockwise for a female. No matter how
the body is laid in the grave, this method will give the correct gender.
This method can also be used when more than two people are buried in one
coffin or one grave. In this case you will need to go over the entire
grave using the one-finger method. If there is a break between the
bodies or a difference in gender, the rods will swing in a pendulum
motion and then resume a circular motion. This is good to use when an
infant is buried with their mother, etc.
Combining the two methods will help determine human or animal remains.
Animals will also register gender but it is unlikely that they will all
be buried in a Christian manner. So if you find several burials, use the
gender methods to determine the layout of the bodies. If all heads point
west and the one-finger method agrees with the overhead method, then
most likely you have found human remains.
CREMATIONS
Cremations are more difficult to pick up, however, they are detectable
if the ashes were buried in a container. When crossing over the buried
(contained) ashes, the rods will react differently, swinging together
from left to right in a horizontal pendulum motion. You CANNOT determine
gender. Using the one-finger method, the rod will circle either
clockwise or counterclockwise and then reverse direction, repeating the
reversals over and over. If ashes were spread over an area, then of
course, they have gone with the four winds and cannot be detected.
DETERMINING HUMAN REMAINS
As mentioned above, animals can be picked up using the rods for grave
dowsing and the one-finger method WILL also determine their gender. This
is where looking for the layout of the burial becomes important and
combining all of the above techniques to make an accurate determination.
While checking a field that contained unmarked slave burials, I came
across a horse that had been buried. One oddity in checking the grave
was that if seemed to be extremely large. I had stepped off 9 paces for
the length and about 4-5 for the width. This was an indication that
something was not quite right. Doing the gender checks, the overhead
method indicated female and the one-finger method agreed. Even though
this appeared to be a Christian burial, the size remained questionable.
I then had to use the one-finger method to get an exact layout of the
body and discovered that it had legs protruding to one side. The size
was a good indication that the remains were not human but by determining
the body layout, I was able to confirm this. Most humans (hopefully) are
buried on their backs, animals on their sides. Checking for these slight
differences will confirm rather you have human or animal remains.
Although a horse is quite larger than a human, dogs, cats and other
smaller animals can easily be confused.
DEAD VS LIVING
Since I starting using this technique, I have often wondered what causes
the rods to cross. I have done some research and have found that several
scientists claim that the rods pick up a disturbance in the earth's
magnetic field, other's claim that they are picking up the gases from
decaying bodies. I have proven that these theories are incorrect. I give
a presentation on dowsing and use a video tape to demonstrate the
different techniques; however, this could easily be faked. In order to
convince my audience that this method truly works, I asked for
volunteers to test the method on living subjects. Much to their
amazement, the rods will cross over the body of a living human while
they are lying on the floor. They will also give a gender reading. So,
the above theories by scientist cannot be true if this method works on
living individuals. It has to have something to do with the magnetic
field given off by our bodies that remains with the body even after
death.
WATER DOWSING
Water dowsing is done much the same way as your basic grave dowsing,
however I have found a slight difference in the reaction of the rods
when finding a large body of underground water. For me, when I walk over
an area that contains a well or larger body of water, my rods begin to
take me in a circular motion, both of them pulling me to one direction
and around. On water pipes, however, I still get the rod crossing. This
segment is important as you must learn to recognize rather you are
picking up on a burial or on a water source. You can usually solve this
rather quickly by following the length. Most of the time, your water
source is a water pipe and once you find the direction that the pipe is
laid, the rods will stay crossed as long as you remain over it. One step
to the left or right though, will cause your rods to uncross, further
establishing the fact that you are over a pipe. This is great for
finding the water pipes in your yard and will save money if you ever
have to have them dug up.
PRACTICE
Once again, I'm including another segment on practice. I cannot stress
the importance of this enough. You cannot be sure that the readings you
are getting are accurate unless you have perfected the technique while
practicing on marked graves. Do not look at the stone before you attempt
dowsing. Do all the methods mentioned above, make your determination and
then verify it with the information on the stone. Doing this over and
over again, varying gender and ages, and soon you will become
comfortable enough to be confident of your dowsing. The more comfortable
you become, the more sensitive you will become with the rods. If you are
having trouble getting this method to work for you, then you are
probably holding the rods too tightly, placing your thumbs over the
bends of the rods or walking too fast. If you can rule out these three
most common problems, then you probably fall within the 10% who cannot
perform this technique.
PROVEN RESULTS
There are many skeptics who will say that this technique does not work.
In the summer of 2000, I was given the opportunity to prove that grave
dowsing does work when I was called to a local cemetery to check a lot
for unmarked graves. Upon dowsing, I found 3 unmarked graves located in
the lot. The family, doubting this method, instructed the funeral home
to dig anyway. Two wooden coffins were found in the exact locations that
the dowsing rods had indicated, the 3rd location was not checked. Was
this just luck? You be the judge.
THEORY UPDATE
After further experimenting in different geographical locations and
receiving reports from other dowsers who have tried this method
thoughtout the United States, we are finding that that the reactions of
the rods when determining gender, vary. In some instances, they react
the opposite of what I have reported here. This is why practicing in a
marked cemetery in the same geographical location is important. I now
feel that the longitude and latitudes of the earth affect the polarity
reaction of the rod reading.
By Brenda Marble |