“Hypn      Hypnosis and Dowsing, Further Thoughts

    How natural is the experience of hypnosis? It is as natural as the hunt for a water source in a parched land.

    OK, so that doesn’t tell you much when I am setting out to tell you more about the subject of clinical  hypnosis as a naturally occurring and healing phenomenon. The connection, as I promise to explain below, is between the old farmer’s wierd waterwitching stick and arm muscles that move involuntarily. This revelation should become the basis for a new episode of TV’s “The Mentalist”.

   I am talking about how even non-verbal hypnosis involves suggestion to the muscle movements of the arm. The fine and subtle art of suggestion may also be applied to other parts of the body for health producing purposes.

    Psychological experiments show a form of self-hypnosis, so natural that the average person doesn't know that he/she is responding to unconscious cues. Hypnosis produces small muscle movements of the arm, called ideomotor movements. The subject usually denies that he is exerting any control over these movements. The experiments show the influence of suggestion, and tend to debunk the notion of some outside force on the farmer’s stick. I like debunking when it broadens the understanding of hypnosis!

   Psychology professor Ray Hyman, at the University of Oregon, conducted “dowsing” or “water witching” research experiments with volunteer students. After the prof demonstrated a walk across the floor with a dowsing rod, which moved when arriving at a certain spot (where supposedly there was water beneath the floor), students were asked to try it. The students found to their amazement that they could repeat the same demo, and see the rod movement over the same spot. All subjects denied “emphatically” that they were exerting any conscious effort. The experiment showed that the idiomotor muscle movements of the arm are generated outside the conscious volition of the subjects, yet arising wholely from inside the minds of these subjects. 

    The practice of dowsing is a very old method of locating underground water with a wand, usually for the purposes of where to dig a well. This wierd practice may still be seen in some areas of the country, with strong believers who attribute the movements of the dowsing wand or rod to the properties of the wand itself.

Kinesiologists use this principle to test arm movements that they say reveal a true answer to a question that asks for a yes or no answer. Theoretically, resistance to an outsiders pressure on the subject's arm muscle reveals a "truth" not revealed in verbal communication.  the operator can determine which arm movement is strong or weak.

    The thing is, there is a great deal of unacknowledged suggestion here. I have seen it demonstrated at a Rotary meeting, where the educated audience is largely impressed.

    In their book, Water Witching, Hyman and Evon Vogt claim that dowsing is basically a ritual pattern which is intended to reduce anxiety about the uncertainty of locating a well, especially in areas with ground water  problems. Hyman (1992), writing further about ideomotor action, concluded from his experiments that "under a variety of circumstances, our muscles will behave unconsciously in accordance with an implanted expectation." The source of the muscle movement is wholly within the person holding the "divining rods". Clearly mind-body interaction!

    This is fascinating to me because I like to use hypnosis to implant suggestions for the purpose of healing. With such an above described mind-body interaction, I think some physical healing can and does happen. This is based on the fact that not only muscles, but other organs of the body respond to suggestion. In fact, some negative suggestion probably occurs to our health detriment, without  conscious realization or acknowledgement. Some patients may, for example, be subject to the subtle suggestions of health-care providers who do not know how to engender hope.

I also believe that a therapist does not have to be directly involved in the enactment of certain healing rituals which can also have the same effect. Those wishing to benefit simply must independently participate in the ritual, whatever it might be: assigned by a priest, shaman, or practitioner of non-traditional or alternative medicine.

    Religious ritual should be included in any discussion here. I have a strong opinion about how physical healing can be a beneficial result of simple healing services of worship, which occur regularly in many faith traditions.

    What if we could harness this power of the unconscious to stimulate the immune system? Some family doctors of modern medicine are realizing that there are rudimentary methods of non-verbal communication with patients, which help the healing process. An example of this is the routine exam where the doctor touches the patient in a non-threatening manner, such as to apply the stethoscope to check the heart.

    Human beings possess within themselves a legitimate source of healing, without having to believe in any magic  or superstition. It is not superstitious to participate in ritual that is a part of one’s faith tradition, designated as a “healing ritual”.

    Is dowsing still used to locate water? I asked Richard Jackson, co-owner of Water Medic in Cape Coral what he thinks of this old-time method of preparation for digging a water well. Although he is a well professional, he actually owns a dowsing rod. He uses more modern methods now if he has to locate underground water, but he keeps the dowsing tool around. For him, it is more like a piece of history than a serious instrument . He confesses he has played with it, and believes that it works. “The old-timers didn’t have the equipment that we do now”, he says.

    “ If you go back in time, it was better than nothing”, says Jackson, showing some respect for the method. He was not skeptical, and, on questioning, seemed to attribute the power of the dowsing rod to something operating outside the person . How does he thinks it works, I asked? “Maybe magnetism”, he replied. I was not ready to debate him about this. Why should I question his belief with the new science I had discovered?