William Barrett - The Divining-rod - An Experimental and Psychological Investigation (1968) [1 Scan - 388 JPG] (Parapsychology)

http://www.amazon.com/divining-rod-experimental-psychologica...


5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written on a hush-hush subject May 2, 2013
By David Q. Tognoni

Divining rods are a very misunderstood subject written almost 90 years ago. This book tries to clear the water. Very nice, Thanks

Quote:

"INTRODUCTION There are in many parts of the world certain persons who profess to be able to discover, without the aid of any known means of investigation, the exact location of underground water. For this purpose they usually employ a Y-shaped twig of hazel or some other wood ; this so-called divining-rod is held in the hand and the diviner then traverses the ground. When supposed to be approaching the hidden water the rod is seen to move, sometimes with such vigor as to forcibly strike the holder's body, although he claims to make considerable efforts to restrain it — a fact which seems to be proved by one limb of the twig being often snapped across under the strain of the opposing forces. The holder of the rod generally appears exhausted by the effort in same cases he complains of sickness or giddiness, occasionally the pulse rises, he breaks out into a violent perspiration, and trembles all over. As a rule he asserts that he experiences singular sensations, resembling muscular cramp, when he is over an underground water-course. These sensations are so well marked that in some eases he discards the use of the twig and trusts to his sensations alone. If now the place be carefully noted beneath which the hidden water-course is asserted to exist, the probability is that, however often the spot be crossed by the holder of the rod, the same phenomena will recur, even when his attention is distracted, or another and independent dowser is employed. Further, if a well be dug at the spot so indicated, water will usually be found. This alleged power of finding underground water, when to an ordinary observer there appears nothing to betray its presence, is not confined to a professional and paid class of men, but is found among amateurs, young and old, male and female, and in all classes of society. Nor is the dowser only met with in England ; he is found today to our knowledge in France, Italy, Spain nod Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, in short, in all parts of Europe, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, India. and doubtless in other places of which we have no direct evidence. There exists a large mass of indisputable evidence (a portion of which will be given in due course) proving that it is possible to find water, oil, metallic ores, coal, hidden objects, and so forth, by means of the rod. It is impossible to read this voluminous evidence without coming to the same conclusion as that of a modern investigator, who wrote after painstaking investigation "The evidence for the success of ' dowsing ' as a practical art is very strong — and there seems to be an unexplained residuum when all possible deductions have been made." In like manner, it is impossible to study this subject historically without being impressed by the number of those who have accepted as indisputable the practical value of the rod. And than believers in its efficacy were not a set of silly, superstitious men, easily duped by cunning rogues, credulous fools, capable of believing any nonsense ; on the contrary, among them are some of the most learned writers and the most painstaking investigators, Cabinet Ministers and judges, shrewd business men and large landowners, railway companies and architects, together with an array of practical miners and well-sinkers ; men who might to have known what they were talking about, and not likely to waste their money on a silly superstition. The popular off-hand view about the rod — that it is merely another instance of the perennial superstition and roguery of mankind — seems therefore somewhat inadequate. For the curious problem that meets one in the examination of the subject is not only the long survival and wide extent of the belief in the rod, but the singular and unselfish enthusiasm of its advocates, together with the general probity and intelligence of the diviners themselves. Quakers, farmers, ladies, children, poor-law guardians, clergymen, magistrates, etc., are among the English diviners of today, and these are not the class of people one would expect to find hoodwinking a gullible public. They may, of course, be the victims of self-deception; if so, does this also apply to the professional dowsers (in England alone there are scores who make a living by their practice), whom numerous agents of estates and owners of land find it in their interest repeatedly to employ?..."

I recommend ABBYY Finereader 11 (or similar) for doing this work in a relatively easy way. If you plan to do that please leave a comment here so the effort won't be duplicated by others. Please upload back the final pdf. Thank you.

Please note that the high quality scan images are posted here for a specific purpose - to make it easy to OCR/spellcheck the book and not spend 100 hours doing that from a crappy, lossy compressed pdfs that are sometimes posted here. So please don't waste your time asking why this is not a pdf file. Instead please contribute a few hours of your time and OCR and proofread the posted book. Thank you.
MsSVig