Dowsing is using a pendulum or divining rod to find information normally not available through our senses or scientific instruments.

     It may be searching for water or minerals, checking vitamins, supplements and food, dowsing stock market, spiritual and distant healing and other alternative healing methods. There is also a technique of dowsing without any tools, called deviceless dowsing. Radiesthesia refers to vibrational nature of matter and energy and basically means: dowsing applied to holistic health.

       Dowsing allows  access to information that is not available to us through our conscious mind and also helps in developing our intuition. First you try to get to the state of relaxed concentration, then by asking carefully worded question you open a "channel" of communication and receive the information you seek; your body amplifies that signal and displays it through dowsing tools - pendulum or divining rod.

     Pendulums and divining rods are nothing else but an indicator of what we already know through intuition, acquired through our body acting as a receiver and discriminator (tuner), a needle of the meter, so to speak. Although the exact source of the information or the way it enters our subconscious mind is not well defined, the most important thing is - it works!

HOLDING  DOWSING  TOOLS

Holding a Y-rod: arms along the body bent at 90 degrees in elbows, palms up holding the rod in a "dynamic balance".

Holding a pendulum: the string or chain held between the thumb and the index finger (some use their middle finger as well).

Why there are so many different pendulums? I think it's a matter of a personal preference, one dowsing pendulum is more suitable for one task, another one is  more sensitive then others, some have special qualities that make dowsing tasks easier.

    Generally I divide dowsing pendulums into 2 major groups - simple pendulums and pendulums with their own radiation (shape or form radiation). Majority of pendulums fell into the first group - conical, ball-shape, teardrop, spiral, made out of brass, copper, crystal, wood, ceramics, etc. The second group requires more attention to detail, as variations in their shape may affect the strength and vibration rate. Osiris, Isis, Karnak, Universal Pendulum belong to this group.     

Who can use dowsing pendulum? Apparently - almost anybody! There are very few people who don't get any dowsing reaction after proper training.

What can be pendulums used for? This can be a very long list, as more and more uses are found every day. The most popular are:

•  checking vitamins, supplements, medications, food

• dowsing for water and minerals (including map dowsing)

•  checking sex of unborn babies or unhatched eggs

•  healing (including teleradiesthesia, or distant healing, chromotherapy, diagnosing, alternative cancer treatment, etc.)

    One could classify pendulums according to their intended use, e.g. pendulums used for healing specific illnesses, pendulums for adjusting chakras, teleradiesthesia (distance healing, map dowsing), etc.

Holding an L-rod (Spanish Rod): arms along the body bent at 90 degrees, palms facing each other in a "pistol grip", rods parallel in horizontal plane.

     There is a lot of information available on the Internet about dowsing and this is my attempt to categorize it a little, so that it's easier to search for answers to your questions.