The Divining Rods, Dowsing, Doodlebugging, Water Witching, Rhabdomancy, Radiesthesia, Radionics, and Pendulum Divination Bibliography is copyright 2010 by the Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology (Y.I.P.P.I.E.), and all rights are reserved. In other words, you may download The Divining Rods, Dowsing, Doodlebugging, Water Witching, Rhabdomancy, Radiesthesia, Radionics, and Pendulum Divination Bibliography and print it out at home for your own use, but you may not further copy it, because the copyright holder controls the copying rights. Specifically, you may not mirror The Divining Rods, Dowsing, Doodlebugging, Water Witching, Rhabdomancy, Radiesthesia, Radionics, and Pendulum Divination Bibliography to other web sites, you may not distribute it or publish it in print form (either for money or for free), and you may not electronically distribute it in e-lists, electronic forums, social media groups, or usenet (either for money or for free) without the express written permission of the copyright holder.

Compiler's Note on the Contents of This Bibliography:

The books and periodicals included in this bibliography cover a fairly large and overlapping -- but not always compatible -- array of foundational beliefs, objectives, methods, and tools regarding Divining Rods, Dowsing, Doodlebugging, Water Witching, Rhabdomancy, Radiesthesia, Radionics, and Pendulum Divination. The paucity of books after 1990 reflects the approximate era of the final and firm split between two previously co-existing theories of what dowsing actually is and how it is done.

These two schools of thought are:

• "Practical Dowsing" or "Old-School Dowsing": A school of dowsing primarily based on the theory that an as-yet-unquantified ability is possessed in varying degrees by certain animals (including human beings) to perceive and process natural electrical and magnetic information.

• "Psychic Dowsing" or "New Age Dowsing": A school of dowsing primarily based on metaphysical beliefs and practices that include, but are not limited to, the theory that information about hidden things is transmitted to human beings by discarnate entities, spiritual guides, and divinities.

This bibliography deals primarily with the Practical school of dowsing, as this was the first school established, and the dominant one from the 16th through the 20th centuries. The Psychic school of dowsing, which arose in the late 20th century and has so far dominated 21st century dowsing, has produced its own full library of books, and they are being added here as they come to my attention, but unless copies are offered to me for listing and review, a complete listing of books on psychic dowsing, may become a job for another bibliographer.

Basic Concepts Associated with the Topic of Dowsing:

FOUNDATIONAL BELIEFS:

Dowsers base their work on a variety of beliefs and traditions, which may -- or may NOT -- include:

• Active Dowsing: The belief that dowsing tools, like domestic animals, are allies that can and should be "trained" to work for the dowser, who is the active participant.

• Passive Dowsing: The belief that higher forces, divine spirits, or astral energies guide the tools and that the dowser's main task is to be submissively receptive.

• Psychological Dowsing: The belief that the act of dowsing consists of us asking our own brains for knowledge which we are not conscious we possess.

• Electro-Magnetic Dowsing: The belief that the act of dowsing consists of using tools to magnify real but minute electro-magnetic anomalies and resonances to a perceptible threshold.

• Quantum Theory Dowsing: The belief that quantum entanglement, in which pairs or groups of atomic particles are inextricably correlated, accounts for map and remote dowsing.

• Natural Dowsing: The belief that children make excellent "natural" dowsers until and unless they absorb societal beliefs that cause them to consider dowsing unrealistic.

OBJECTIVES:

The reasons one might wish to dowse or divine with a hand-tool include:

• Hard Target Dowsing: This is the search for verifiable physical substances, such as water, oil, minerals, relics, archaeological artifacts, skeletal remains, missing people, or lost possessions.

• Soft Target Dowsing: This is the search for subtle energies, such as ley lines, geopathic stress lines, and spiritual entities, such as ghosts.

• Informational Dowsing: This is the search for answers to questions, including "Yes / No" questions and complex queries such as, "Which puppy in this litter will make the best herding dog?"

METHODS:

The methods used in dowsing include:

• Field Dowsing: Walking the field or physical location is a common method when one is engaged in hard-target dowsing.

• Scanning: The dowser walks along one edge of the field, using L-Rods to triangulate where to enter and then to locate a limited target area, saving much time that would otherwise be spent walking the field.

• Map Dowsing: The dowser uses a map or ariel photo as a proxy for the field or location.

• Remote Dowsing: The dowser simply visualizes the area to be dowsed.

• Psychometric Dowsing: This consists of dowsing over a photograph or an object belonging to the subject to be dowsed.

• Body Dowsing: This consists of dowsing over a living human, animal, or plant for the purposes of diagnosis and treatment.

• Chart Dowsing: This consists of using a pre-determined layout, board, or chart for informational dowsing, usually performed with a pendulum while seated at a table.

• Chartless Dowsing: This form of informational dowsing is conducted with a pendulum over a table, but although there may be a photograph or card-reading spread on the table, it does not involve the use of a pre-determined layout, board, or chart.

• Radionics: This is a hybrid form of dowsing in which the human operator is augmented or replaced by electronic equipment and witness samples (see Tools); results are often interpreted by means of scales, rules, or charts of amplitude, frequency, and polarity.

TOOLS:

The hand-tools used in dowsing include:

• Y-Rod: This is a forked tree branch, often cut fresh for the occasion, or any Y-shaped tool made of wood, whalebone, plastic, or metal.

• L-Rods: This is a pair of L-shaped metal rods, with or without handles, sleeves, or holders on the short end or weights on the tips.

• Mosaic Rod, Rod of Aaron, Jacob's Rod, Wand, Bobber: A single wand, stick, or branch; if it is weighted at the tip, it is called a bobber.

• Plumb-Bob Pendulum: This is a metal, stone, wood, clay, or glass weight or bob on a string or chain.

• Witness or Sample Pendulum: This is a chambered or hollow pendulum into which can be inserted a small sample specimen (the "witness") of the item for which one is searching.

• Impromptu Pendulum: This can be a ring, button, root, key, jack ball, holed stone, or any convenient object suspended on a string, thread, or chain.

• Pendulum Dowsing Chart: A half-circle divided into segments, much like a protractor, which has been printed on paper or inscribed or painted on a board; the wedges are variously marked with letters, numbers, colours, directions, states of mind, or other conceptual arrays.

• Cameron Aurameter: This is a single L-rod containing a coiled spring and a weighted bobber tip; highly sensitive to motions; it has been, and remains, the most popular of the devices originated by the dowser Verne L. Cameron to magnify perceptibility at the tip of the tool.

• Cameron Petroleometer: This is a device designed by the dowser Verne L. Cameron in which a pointer at right angles to a rod rotates freely in a ball-race and is governed by a brake; it is designed for locating salt domes and oil deposits.

• Cameron L-Spring: This is a home-made device advocated by the dowser Verne L. Cameron; it is a long screen-door spring which has been deliberately bent and deformed to the shape of an L-Rod. Like many devices originated by Cameron, it uses spring action to magnify the perceptual visibility of the oscillations and gyrations at the tip of the tool.

• Motorscope: This class of dowsing tool, including also the Rotating Rod and the Rotogauge, was invented by Major Charles Pogson of the British Army while serving in India (see below); it consists of a wire crank, with or without handles, and with or without a central pointer.

• Radionics Equipment: A broad term coined after World War Two, combining the words Radiesthesia and Electronics; includes devices that generate and/or register the presence of electro-magnetic fields; popular among those who follow the electro-magnetic theories of perceptual dowsing.

• Hand Dowsing: No tools are used; the dowser simply extends a hand and reads the energy directly.

DO YOU KNOW THIS DOWSER? Field dowsing with a Y-rod in Bulgaria, 20th century; subject and photographer unknown. These photos were purchased online with only the note that they were personal snapshots taken in Bulgaria. Click the photos for full-size images.

The operator is holding an unusually complex Y-rod, apparently made of plastic, with a large witness-sample device at the center-point comprised of a series of graduated disks with what look like free-spinning or adjustable directional indicators. Consulting "Dowsing Devices" by Oscar T. Branson (see below) leads me to the conclusion that this is a modern reproduction of an antique Spanish Dip Needle. The geology resembles the valley of the Rusenski Lom (a tributary of the Danube), possibly near or in the Rusenski Lom Nature Park. If you know who this dowser is, and where and when the photos were taken, please contact the web-master.

PART ONE: TITLES IN ENGLISH

American Society of Dowsers [Maria Perry, ed.]. 1963 - 1988: The Water Dowsers Manual. Danville, Vermont, The American Society of Dowsers, 1990. 200 pages. Paperback. This is a valuable and well-edited compilation of all of the major articles about water dowsing that appeared in the American Dowser Quarterly Digest between 1963 and 1988. Dozens of excellent authors are represented, and the material covers the period of time when practical dowsing led the field. Within just a few years after this collection was assembled, the techniques of psychic dowsing took center stage in the American Dowser Quarterly Digest; after that, water, mineral, oil, and treasure dowsing were no longer the focus of attention in ASD publications. Short of collecting and poring through every issue of the periodical yourself, this book will provide you with the cream of the crop of short, highly informative, and, above all, practical articles on mid-to-late 20th century American water dowsing in theory and in practice. I am grateful to the editor, Maria Perry, for assembling this definitive source book before the knowledge it contains slipped away into the past, and to the ASD for publishing it just as the organization itself was pivoting from Old-School to New-Age paradigms of dowsing.

Applegate, George. The Complete Guide to Dowsing: The Definitive Guide to Finding Underground Water
Shaftesbury, Dorset, Element Books Limited, 1997.
302 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with diagrams and Photos.

Archdale, F. A. Elementary Radiesthesia and The Use of the Pendulum 1950. Reprinted, Third Edition, 1956. Reprinted, Mokelumne Hill, California, Health Research, 1961. Reprinted, Christies Beach, South Australia, Radionic and Chirotherapy Centre, 1977. 32 pages. Contents: My Early Days in Radiesthesia; The Pendulum, Operator, Sensitivity Test, Polarity, Samples, Times, Auto-suggestion, Adjustment of the Pendulum, Left-Handed Operators Radiations, Testing Water, Selection of Food. Agriculture, Testing Eggs; Miscellaneous Experiments, Medical Use of Maps and Photographs Teleradiesthesia.

Askew, Stella [and "An Anonymous Doctor"]. How to Use a Pendulum by Stella Askew and Diagnostic Analysis with the Pendulum Compiled for Health Research by a Doctor Who Prefers to Remain Anonymous Mokelumne Hill, California, Health Research, 1955, 1960, 1966, 1996. Reprinted: TRI-State Press, 1993 38 pages. Illustrated. The cover only mentions Stella Askew as the author of "How To Use a Penduum," but the title page refers to two authors, and essentially lets it be known that what we are looking at is two books in one: "How to Use a Pendulum" by Stella Askew and "Diagnostic Analysis with the Pendulum," the latter "Compiled for Health Research by a Doctor Who Prefers to Remain Anonymous." This was one of the few original titles published by Health Research, which mostly reprinted metaphysical books of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The material is solid and easy to follow, and the diagnostic portion references Old-School practitioners such as the British medical dowser Vernon D.Wethered (see below). Several editions exist, with at least two variant covers. From the Introduction: "In the seven discussions of pendular work appearing in the following pages, there will be found considerable variation in approach and in method. Each of the writers is a successful pendulum operator and the information given will be helpful both to the beginner and experienced pendular. Three of the discussions record the experiences of individuals in America and the remaining four comprise material condensed from four books published in England. That there are many different ideas about the pendulum, about ways of operating it and about the causes of its movements, may seem surprising when the results are found to be so uniformly accurate. There seems to be general agreement, however, that although almost everyone can operate the pendulum, each individual has to work out for himself those methods which prove most successful for him personally. In presenting these discussions emphasis has therefore been placed less upon theories than upon actual pendulum operation and the interpretation of results."

Ater, Robert. Dowsing: How to Do It. Danville, Vermont, The American Society of Dowsers, 1984. An early look at the usefulness of dowsing as a technique that may allow you to locate water, minerals, and lost objects. This was a standard text offered by the ASD for many years,

Bailey, Richard Nigel, Eric Cambridge, and H. Denis Briggs . Dowsing and Church Archaeology Foreword by Charles Thomas Bailey, Richard Nigel(1936-?) Published by Wimborne : Intercept, 1988. 192 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated.

Baritel, M. Jacob's Rod: A Translation from The French of a Rare and Curious Work, A.D. 1693, on the Art of Finding Springs, Mines, and Minerals by Means of the Hazel Rod: To Which Is Appended Researches, With Proofs of the Existence of a More Certain and Far Higher Faculty, With Clear and Ample Instruction for Using It. Published By The Translator Originally published in French at Lyon, 1693. Translated into English, with additional text by the translator, Thos. Welton, and published in London by Thos. Welton, 1875. Reprinted as Jacob's Rod: The Art of Finding Springs, Mines, and Minerals by Means of the Hazel Rod Fredonia Books, 2002. In this book, dowsing is called Bletonism. The first part, by M. Baritel, is about water dowsing and the like. There are bibliographical notes elsewhere that indicate that M. Baritel may have been a pseudonym for Jean Nicolas. The second part of the book, written by the translator Thomas Welton, deals with trance dowsing and also contains one of the earliest references to map dowsing.

Barrett, Sir William and Besterman, Theodore. The Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation. London, Methuen & Co., Ltd. 1926 Reprinted, New Hyde Park, N.Y., University Books, 1968. xxiii + 336 pages, including 12 plates and 62 other illustrations. Hardcover. The experimental model of dowsing generally centers on hard targets and the search for verifiable physical substances, such as water, oil, minerals, or lost possessions. The psychological model of dowsing generally takes as its topic of interest the formation of theories related to passive or receptive dowsing for informational purposes, in which the dowsers are asking their own brains for knowledge which they are not conscious they possess. Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman (1904-1976) was a psychical researcher, bibliographer, biographer, and translator. Born in Lod, Poland, he moved to England while still young. In 1924 he wrote his first book on psychical phenomena, "Crystal Gazing: A study in the History, Distribution and Practice of Scrying," which was followed by "The Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation" (1926). From 1927 to 1935 he was the investigating officer for the Society for Psychical Research. In 1938 he wrote "Water Divining: New Facts & Theories," which has its own listing.

Baum, Joseph. The Beginner's Handbook of Dowsing: The Ancient Art of Divining Underground Water Sources. New York, Crown Publishers, 1974. 32 pages. Hardcover.

Beasse, Pierre. New and Rational Treatise of Dowsing According to the Methods of Physical Radiesthesie Excluding Any Kind of Occultism, and Open to Everybody Nice, France, Progres Scientifique, 1941. (Translation of the second French edition which has been considerably enlarged from the 1938 first edition.) 214 pages; 91 illustrations. Paperback. Reprinted, Mokelumne Hill, California, Health Research, 1975. (Spiral-Bound.) Reprinted, Hastings, United Kingdom, Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, 1986. (Paperback.) The full title and subtitle present the scope of this important work of the mid 20th century: "Buried Treasure Series. A New and Rational Treatise of Dowsing according to the methods of Physical Radiesthesie excluding any kind of occultism, and open to pverybody, in which is described how one may detect, without any special gift, the radiation of matter and discover subterranean springs, buried treasures, coal fields, ores, oil, etc, and communicate with an unknown world. Noxious Rays, Medical Dowsing, Teleradiesthie, Astro-Dowsing." The emphasis is on the detection of various forms of subtle electrical-magnetic radiation -- and thus the "technical adviser" Pierre Beasse, and his "group of eminent dowsers" stand on the high ground of pragmatic, practical, and active Old-School dowsing, before the incursion of the New-Age method of "asking permission" to question one's own "subconscious" about "what is best." From ad copy: "The science of dowsing is divided into three parts: Teleradiesthesie, Astro Dowsing and Radiesthesie. All things material, dead or alive, possess and radiate certain energy force so the dowser, by concentrating on the hidden object, is able to tune into the energy of the object or element which in turn forces the dowsing rod or stick to move. Dowsing tools act as amplifiers or antennas for tuning into energy so able to detect the emission of certain substances including: water, buried treasures, subterranean springs, coal fields, ores, oil, and even people."

Bell, H. Practical Dowsing: A Symposium.
London: G. Bell & Sons Ltd., 1965.
viii + 198 pages. Hard Cover with Dust Jacket.

Bentov, Itzhak. Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness.
New York, E.P. Dutton, 1977.

This is not a practical book on dowsing, but it is an interesting read, given the publication date, which falls toward the close of the practical Old-School Dowsing era, with its searches for water, oil, and lost objects, and the rise of the New Age Dowsing era, with its emphasis on psychological dowsing and exploring the consciousness of the self. Bentov, taking a scientific approach, comes down firmly on the side of dowsing as a form of self-divining, and this book fueled the rise of the use of the pendulum as a tool particularly suited for that task. The title, by the way, is a not-very-sensible homage to the famous 1962 manual on forage-cookery, Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons, who knew a great pun when he saw it. Gibbons' book, originally released in 1962, had become so popular among the hippies of the late 1960s and early 1970s that even fifteen years after its original publication, "Stalking the Wild [Whatever]" books were still being released by publishers hoping to capture the attention of the back-to-the-land generation.

Besterman, Theodore. Water Divining: New Facts & Theories.
London: Methuen, 1938.
207 pages

"Water Divining: New Facts & Theories" (1938) was the final book on psychism written by Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman (1904-1976), who had co-authored, with Sir William Barrett, "The Divining-Rod" (1926), which was long the standard work on water-divining. Besterman went on to serve in the British Royal Artillery during World War Two and subsequently worked for UNESCO. During the 1950s he lived in Switzerland and thenceforward devoted himself to translation, biography, and bibliographical writing about Voltaire. He returned to England in the late 1960s and died there in 1976.

Bevy [Beverly C. Jaeger]. The Extra Sensitive Pendulum.
1972.
84 pages.

Bird, Christopher. The Divining Hand.
New York, E. P. Dutton, 1979.
Reprinted by Whitford Press / Schiffer Publishing, 1993.

This is a very large and thorough book, containing a definitive history of dowsing from the 15th century to the 20th century, along with practical advice on how to become an effective dowser. It is certainly the best compendium of historical material under one cover and is an essential book for anyone who wants to learn all about dowsing in addition to becoming a dowser. Its only drawback is its sheer size and weight -- it is big, and it is heavy! Someone should reprint it in hardcover, so that handling it would be easier, because the large, thick, flopsy paperback (a popular style of book in 1979, when it was first published) is quite awkward. Truly a must-have book for dowsers.

Christopher Bird (1928-1996) was a former CIA agent and Vietnam veteran. With Peter Tompkins, he was the co-author of an extremely popular book on metaphysical botany, "The Secret Life of Plants" (1973). He was also the international corresponding secretary for the Americal Society of Dowsers for a number of years.

Branson, Oscar T. (text) and Asch, Connie (illustrations). Dowsing Devices: A Sketchbook of Devices Used in Dowsing.
New Mexico, The Treasure Chest, 1985

This is an amazingly useful and thoroughly enjoyable tour through the tools of dowsing, many drawn by the illustrator from the personal collection of the author, a trustee of the American Society of Dowsers, co-organizer and past president of the Tucson Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Dowsers, and member of the British Society of Dowsers. This book will not teach you how to dowse, but it will teach you how to identify and handle virtually any dowsing tool you come across.

Don't let the weird 1985 shiny bright orange cover scare you off, and pass with gentle indulgence over Ms. Asch's silly cartoons and the Selectric Typewriter type -- the actual TEXT CONTENT and the CLEAR ILLUSTRATIONS in this book are incredible. From it, i was immediately able to identify the unusual Y-Rod held by the Bulgarian Mystery Dowser (see above) as a Spanish (also called a Mexican) Dip Needle of 19th century design, and very likely one of the 1980s copies made by Carl Anderson of Tampa, Florida. I mean, that is how exacting and complete this book is! One could not ask for anything better, aside from a less orange cover and a good, professionally typeset reprint from the ASD.

Bull, Leroy Keet. The Art and Craft of Map Dowsing: A Workbook
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Intuitive Energy Solutions / Minuteman Press, 2001.
29 pages.Spiral-bound.

From the ASD site: "Leroy Bull is a prior president of the American Society of Dowsers (ASD), current Chair of the Water for Humanity Committee and International Coordinator of ASD, and was a long-term ASD trustee. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Husbandry and a Master of Science degree in Food Technology. He has successfully dowsed at least thirty-one hundred water wells. His additional dowsing jobs include four-thousand-plus earth energies projects, thousands of map dowsings and teachings, vein diversions, mineral dowsing, lost people/pets/items and assorted specialty requests. He has been featured in the New York Times newspaper and in Smithsonian Magazine, as well as in local newspapers."

Cameron, Verne L. The Cameron Aurameter.
Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Vista, California, 1952.

Verne L. Cameron (August 14, 1896 - November 11, 1970) was an American dowser, best known for his development of the Cameron Aurameter, a spring-loaded variation on the L-rod doodlebug device. According to Oscar T. Branson (see above), Cameron did not name the device thus; his colleague Max Freedom Long did. In any case, it is a remarkable tool, and this book is Cameron's own introduction to its use. According to Bill Cox, this was Cameron's edited version of the material on the Aurameter earlier published by Layne and Crabb (which see).

Cameron, Verne L. Aquavideo; Locating Underground Water.
Santa Barbara, California, El Cariso, 1970.
Reprinted as Aquavideo ~ Locating Underground Water Through The Sensory Eye of Vern. L. Cameron, Master Dowser. 1978.
116 pages.

This is one of a trio of books by the author that cover the basics of practical dowsing for water and oil.

Cameron, Verne L. Map Dowsing. (The Dowser's Handbook Series No. 1)
Blue Cover edition, Santa Barbara, California, El Cariso, 1971 [edited by Bill Cox and illustrated by Georgiana Teeple]
White cover edition, Life Understanding Foundation, 1971. [edited by Bill Cox and Davina Cox]

In this posthumously-published book, edited by Bill Cox in two different editions, we learn the map dowsing techniques of Verne Cameron, one of the mid 20th century's best-known practical dowsers. This book explains the fundamentals of map dowsing, a method which soon came to be considered almost as useful as field dowsing, and is often preferred because it is less time-consuming than walking a field and can be performed at a distance.

Cameron, Verne L. Oil Locating (The Dowser's Handbook Series No. 2) [Edited by Bill Cox and Georgiana Teeple; illustrated by Teeple.]
paperback, Santa Barbara, California, El Cariso, 1971. 35 p.
Reprinted in hardcover by Life Understanding Foundation, 1997.

This posthumously-published book is one of a trio of titles by the author that cover the basics of practical dowsing. In this book, Cameron describes his invention, sometime after 1935, of a rotating or gyrating Petroleometer device for oil locating, and also explains his scientific theory of human sub-awareness of electrical charges. His hypothesis is that this otherwise unnoticed electrical sub-awareness is magnified to visibility by a dowsing tool such as a pendulum, bobber, wand, Y-rod, L-rods, or spring-loaded Aurameter or Petroleometer. Cameron did not originate the theory that dowsing tools amplify electro-magnetic anomalies and resonances to a perceptual threshold, but his great stature among American dowsers was such that although the electro-magnetic has so far neither been proven nor disproven, his endorsement gained it many adherents among practical dowsers.

Chambers, Howard V. Dowsing, Water Witches and Divining Rods for the Millions.
Los Angeles, Sherbourne Press, 1969.
156 pages.

Cooper-Hunt, C. L. Radiesthetic Analysis
1955.
Reprinted, Mokelumne Hill, California, Health Research, 1996.
40 pages.

Conway, Deanna J.. A Little Book of Pendulum Magic
Berkeley, California, Crossing Press, 2001. 176 pages. Paperback, illustrated.

If you are interested in New-Age dowsing of past lives, karma, and reincarnation, this will be right up your alley. It contains a total of 60 pages of simplistic art -- drawings of a straight line, a clockwise circle, a counterclockwise circle, and side-to-side movements, at the rate of one illo per page -- plus 40 half-circle pendulum charts, including 7 Gemstones Charts, 6 Animal Allies or Totems Charts, 2 Past Life Dates Charts, 2 Past Life Location Periods Charts, and, of course, the all-important Inaccuracy Cause Chart. I am not pleased with the waste of paper.

Copen, Bruce. The Practical Pendulum
1974.

Cox, Bill [Ed.]. The Original Cameron Aurameter Book: Dowsing Auras, Invisible Energies, and Thoughtforms.
Life Understanding Foundation, 1997.
74 pages. Paperback.

This is a revised and expanded edition of "The Cameron Aurameter" by Meade Layne and Riley H. Crabb, first published in 1952 (which see). It is beautifully laid out and typeset and contains some lovely introductory material by Cox, including photos of Cameron, Layne, Crabb, and others in Cameron's circle, such as Max Freedom Long and Mark Probert, with simple biographical details that place their life-work in context. I cannot praise this book enough, because it brings together, in one place, some of the formative thinking that led to Cameron's great reputation as a dowser, and also presents modern dowsers with convenient access to Layne's mid 20th century contributions to the field. Highly recommended.

Cox, Bill. The Cameron Aurameter in Action.
Santa Barbara, California, Life Understanding Foundation, 1982.

This book deals with the Cameron Aurameter, invented by Verne L. Cameron (1896 - 1970), which had a great impact on mid-20th century practical and medical dowsing. As explained in the text, the Cameron Aurameter, which is highly sensitive to the slightest motion of the hand, is particularly useful for measuring the edges or borders of energetic fields, whether human auras or underground streams. Bill Cox was the posthumous editor of the works of Verne Cameron. See also the books by Cameron and by Layne and Crabb.

Cox, Bill. The Psychology of Treasure Dowsing.
Santa Barbara, California, Life Understanding Foundation.

Cox, Bill. Techniques of Pendulum Dowsing.
Santa Barbara, California, Life Understanding Foundation.

Cox, Bill. Techniques of Swing-Rod Dowsing.
Santa Barbara, California, Life Understanding Foundation.

Davies, Rodney. Dowsing
UK, The Aquarian Press, 1991.

De France, Henry. The Modern Dowser.
London, G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1930.

De France, Henry. The Elements of Dowsing.
London, G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1948.
84 pages.

Having not seen this book, i give a 1953 publisher's advertisement in which the author is referred to as "The late Viscomte Henry de France," and a comment from the Cape Argus newspaper:

"The author of this book gives in the most straightforward language an introduction to radiesthesia and tele-radiesthesia, faculties most people posses to a greater or less degree. Here is a subject to which an increasingly wide amount of investigation has been devoted over the last thirty years and of which the author is a recognized authority." [The publisher]. "Should be of profound interest to all students of this fascinating and mysterious branch of knowledge." -- Cape Argus

Deaver, Korr L.. Rock Crystal: The Magic Stone
Samuel Weiser 1985. Revised edition 1986.
72 pages.

This is not a book about dowsing per se; rather it is an account of the wonderful properties of clear quartz rock, commonly known as rock crystal. It is, as the page-count makes clear, a slender volume, but it does contain two chapters of note, one on crystal gazing with quartz and the other on the use of quartz crystal in pendulum dowsing. Published in 1985, it is an early representative of the passive, informational, and subjective school of dowsing. I include it here because the third chapter of this book is titled "Programming the Pendulum." and this is among the earlier publications that instructs the student in "programming" a divining tool, rather than "training" it or yourself, or "learning" the skill, or establishing "codes" of communication between the tool and the operator. The author attributes the movement of the pendulum to "the subconscious."

Dym, Warren Alexander. Divining Science: Treasure Hunting and Earth Science in Early Modern Germany.
Brill, Leiden - London, 2011.
216 pages.

1. White Gold on Spitzberg Hill
2. Magic, Witchcraft, and the Nature of the Rod
3. Mining Science: Vernacular Knowledge
4. True Stories of Freiburg Dowsers
5. The Murderous Matter: Dowsing and New Science
6. The Electric Rod: Dowsing and the Freiberg Mining Academy

Ellis, Arthur J. The Divining Rod: A History of Water Witching. (United States Geological Survey, Water Supply Paper 416)
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, Department of the Interior, 1917.
59 pages. Softcover pamphlet, 6" x 9 ", in stiff stapled wraps, Illustrated; includes a 25 p. bibliography, index,
Reprinted 1938.
Reprinted 1957.

The U. S. Geological Survey printed this monograph to discourage the widespread belief in water witching. A summary of divining rods and the people who have made claims for them. The bibliography covers 500 years of references from 1532 ("A True Yet Brief Description of The Wand of Mercury") to 1949 ("Psychical Physics").

Elliot, Major General James (Jim) Scott. Dowsing One Man's Way.
UK, Neville Spearman, 1977.
TBS The Book Service Ltd, 1977,
Paperback reprint, Little, Brown Book Group, 1979.

Major General Jim Scott Elliot, both a soldier and an archaeologist, was also a past president of The British Society of Dowsers. This book is illustrated with photos and line drawings and is in three parts, covering dowsing tools, methods used for locating varied materials (including the application of dowsing to archaeology), and a series of accounts of dowsing in the field. Highly recommended for its direct style of writing and its numerous pragmatic tips. The author comes across as a man one would have liked to have known, and as the year roll on, this books consistently remains high on my list of "best dowsing books."

Evers, Ona C. Everybody's Dowser Book
1977.
70 pages.

Finch, William J. The Pendulum and Possession
Cottonwood, Arizona, Esoteric Publications, 1975.

Excellent instructions on how to use a pendulum.

Finch, Elizabeth and Bill [William J.] Finch. The Pendulum and Your Health.
Cottonwood, Arizona, Esoteric Publications, 1980.

Dowsing for the diagnosis of disease and to improve overall health.

George, Karl. Dowsing: The Science of Water-Witching.
Laurel, Montana, Karl George, 1974.
140 pages plus two laid-in sheets (4 pages) of illustrations.

A detailed series of case histories of experiments conducted by the author.

Graves, Tom. Dowsing: Techniques and Applications.
London, Turnstone Books, 1976.

Graves, Tom [Editor]. Dowsing and Archaeology.
London, Turnstone Books, 1980.
HarperCollins Distribution Services, 1980.

Articles from the Journal of the British Society of Dowsers. Authors include R. Allendar Smith and Guy Underwood. I enjoyed this book gratly and consider it both well-written and intriguing, in that it bridges the gap between modern high-tech archeological tools such as metal detection and LIDAR, and the older, less "scientific" method of getting a "feel" for the land and letting your dowsing sense lead you to "treasure."

Graves, Tom. The Diviner's Handbook.
Wellingborough, The Aquarian Press, 1986.

Graves, Tom. The Dowser's Workbook: Understanding and Using the Power of Dowsing.
New York, Sterling Publishing, 1990.

Hitching, Francis. Pendulum: The Psi Connection.
UK, Fontana, 1977

Hitching, Francis. Dowsing: The Psi Connection.
Garden City, N.Y., Anchor Press, 1978

Howells, Harvey. Dowsing for Everyone.
Brattleboro, Vermont, The Stephen Greene Press, 1979.
Viking Penguin Inc., 1979.

Howells, Harvey. Dowsing: Mind Over Matter.
Brattleboro, Vermont, The Stephen Greene Press, 1982.

Hunt, Brenda. A Beginner's Guide to Pendulum Dowsing: Unravelling the Mystery
Brenda Hunt, 2012.
128 pages. Paperback.

After a brief history of pendulum dowsing, and a throwaway glance at the basics of hard target dowsing, the author gets right into the thick of the New-Age method, in which you will learn how to "program" a pendulum and how to incorporate it into your daily life as you ask such psychologically pressing questions as, "Is it right for me to take this vitamin?" and "Is this amethyst a good energy to help me avoid headaches when using a computer?" Dowsing for divination or "fortune telling" is discouraged -- in fact, the terms, "take care" and "take great care" appear liberally throughout the section that deals with asking about the future. The author is more comfortable dowsing for food allergies, encouraging readers to ask, "Will this particular type/brand of bread give me hiccups?"

I consider this to be another in the long list of terminally neurotic 21st century pendulum dowsing books in which literally every aspect of life is examined for verity, as if one had no common sense at all and must constantly be pestering the Divine for information about the relative freshness of this or that basket of huckleberries.

Brenda Hunt lives on the West Coast of Ireland and is a member of the British Society of Dowsers.

Jenkins, E. Vaughan [as by "The Proprietors of "Water"]. Water Divining, Reprinted from "Water," A Journal for Water Supply, Irrigation, Sewage Works, Hydraulic Machinery, Lifts, Pumps, Water Softeners, Filtration, Docks, Canals, &c., &c." London: The Proprietors of "Water", n.d. (circa 1902). Small octavo hardcover. 154 pages + viii pages of ads, with 37 illustrations, including a frontis-portrait of E. Vaughan Jenkins. Here we have a collection of essays on the subject of water divining previously published in "Water, a Journal for Water Supply, Irrigation, Sewage Works, Hydraulic Machinery, Lifts, Pumps, Water Softeners, Filtration, Docks, Canals, &c., &c." The text is accompanied by reviews, black and white illustrations, biographical information, and priceless photos of Victorian-era dowsers (men, women, and children), plus advertisements for related services, including professional dowsers, well-drilling services, and drilling equipment, A time-capsule of British dowsing history, it is as charming as it is astonishing. Many of the dowsers showcased here were also well-drillers, and a common phrase found in their ads is "No Water No Pay." My favourite photo and caption is of a bearded man in a black suit with a bowler hat, standing with his back to an ivy-covered brick wall, with a small Y-rod in his hand, pointing down, and the caption, "Fig. 23 - Mr. John Stears in the Act of Divining." Also charming is "Fig 31 - Mrs Mugleston." This thin, severe-looking woman lived in Kelvedon Hatch. Clad in black from her tall, feathered hat down to her feet, she holds a Y-rod out in a pasture, looking for all the world like "The Wicked Water-Witch of the West." She told Mr. Jenkins that she had learned how to dowse from John Mullins (the author of "The Divining Rod: Its History, Truthfulness and Practicability" -- see below) and she said that locating underground water gave her "a creeping or prickly sensation in her arms and hands, and a resistance, as if something prevented her from going any further."

Jurriaanse, D. The Practical Pendulum Book

New-Age method. Introspective dowsing. 38 Pendulum Charts. 'Nuff said.

Kaufman, Ola. Successful American Dowsers: Professional Dowsers Improve Our Health, Our Environment, and Our Futures.
Xlibris Corp. 2000
124 pages. Harcover and paperback; print-on-demand.

Publisher's ad copy: "This book contains the true stories of successful Dowsers who have found: Gold, Oil, Minerals, Treasure, Missing Persons and More. These Americans dowse to find answers to: Health, Problems, Emotional Problems, Unhealthy Environments, and More. Some Dowsers reach out further to: Contact Guardian Angels, Develop Their Inner Selves, Meet Others, and More.

Kopp, J.A. Effects of Harmful Radiations and Noxious Rays: A Series of Research papers by Noted Scientists and Authors.
Danville, Vermont, The American Society of Dowsers, 1974.
32 pages. Saddle-stitched.

Here we have a convenient English translation of the 1970- 1971 research papers of the German dowser J.A. Kopp on harmful earth energies, with an appendix in which Gordon MacLean, a Trustee and Past President of the ASD, formally revises his theories about geopathogenic phenomena to accord with Kopp's theories. This short booklet was published by the American Society of Dowsers in 1974.

Kopp's writing is dense and not reader-friendly, but "Effects of Harmful Radiations and Noxious Rays" is a significant early look at the usefulness of dowsing as a technique that may allow us to locate and identify earth energies that are harmful to human, animal, or plant life. Kopp's work, with MacLean's endorsement, gave rise to an entire sub-field of "hard-target" dowsing that developed around the concept of introducing remediative metallic rods and loops into the ground in areas which were producing negative effects -- a sub-form of practical dowsing that others, such as Gregory A. Storozuk, came to call the diversion of geopathic stress zones.

Kroeger, Rev. Hanna. The Pendulum, The Bible, and Your Survival.
Boulder Colorado, New Age Foods, 1974.
Booklet.

From a review in the American Dowser Quarterly Digest, Vol 14, No. 2, May 1974: "The part the pendulum can play in helping one meet personal problems is handled simply and directly and reverently. After reading, one will wonder that so much that is helpful can be found in one booklet."

This issue of the ADQD also contains a 2 1//2 page excerpt from the booklet which deals with establishing "personal patterns" (which some call "codes") for communicating with or through a pendulum; it is solid advice, and well explained.

Layne, Meade, and Riley H. Crabb. The Cameron Aurameter.
Garberville, California, Borderland Sciences, 1952; reprinted 1970

This is a good introductory text by Meade Layne (1883 - 1961) and Riley H. Crabb that will teach the user the ins and outs of the Cameron Aurameter, a complex, spring-loaded combination between an L-Rod and a Bobber. Invented and originally produced for sale by Verne L. Cameron (1896 - 1970) as the Water-Compass, the Aurameter is sometimes called "The Cadillac of Dowsing Tools" because it is both expensive to manufacture and because Cameron himself encouraged users to purchase models coated in precious witness-metals, including the literal Gold-Plated Aurameter. Still manufactured, and still a popular tool among practical and medical dowsers, the Aurameter has a reputation as quirky, difficult to become attuned to, and absolutely unsurpassed for sensitivity once the user finally figures out how to hold it properly. A revised and expanded edition of this book was published by Bill Cox in 1997 under the title "The Original Cameron Aurameter Book" -- see more about that edition under Bill Cox.

Leftwich, Robert H. Dowsing: The Ancient Art of Rhabdomancy.
Aquarian, 1977.
64 pages. Paperback.

Lethbridge, Tom C. Ghosts and Divining Rod.
UK, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963

This book is about ghost-hunting with the tools of dowsing.

Lethbridge, Tom C. The Power of the Pendulum.
New York, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976

[Life Savers], Life Savers Book-O-Secrets for 'Holesome Entertainmint'.
Life Savers, Incorporated, Port Chester, N.Y., 1931
32 pages plus colour wraps; only one chapter on Divining Rods, but what a cool booklet; published by a candy manufacturer.

• Secret Writing (writing in code)
• Ventriloquism or How To Throw Your Voice
• How To Make Invisible Ink
• Secret of Making Everlasting Ink
• Finding Out a Person's Age
• Secret of the Moslem Oracle
• Secret of Making a Gold-Finder
• Divining Rods
• Secrets of Telling Fortunes
• Fortune Telling by Tea Leaves or Coffee Grounds
• Fortune Telling by Crystal Gazing
• Railroad Signals
• Secret Hiding Places
• Secret Initiations
• Secret Initiations of the Ancient Persians
• Initiation of the Druids
• Secrets of Making Money
• Secrets of the Woods and Trails

Lonegren, Sig. Earth Mysteries Handbook: Wholistic Non-Intrusive Data-Gathering Techniques.
Danville, Vermont, USA: The American Society of Dowsers. 1985.

Methods of gathering astronomical, sacred geometrical, dowsing and other information at sacred sites.

Lonegren, Sig. Spiritual Dowsing.
Bloomington, Indiana, USA, AuthorHouse. 1986.
England, Gothic Image, 1986.
Reprinted 2004.

History of the earth energies, healing and other uses of dowsing.

Maby, J. Cecil, and Franklin, T. B. The Physics of the Divining Rod, Being an Account of an Experimental Investigation of Water and Mineral Divining.
London, George Bell, 1939.

MacLean, Gordon. A Field Guide To Dowsing.
Danville, Vermont, American Society of Dowsers. 1971.

First Edition:
Dowsing: An Introduction to an Ancient Practice. A Book of Instruction.
South Portland, Maine, 1971.
46 mimeographed pages with 6 illustrations within the text, bound in illustrated card covers.

Reprinted as:
A Field Guide To Dowsing: How to Practice the Ancient Art Today
Danville, Vermont, American Society of Dowsers. 1976.
44 pages typeset and printed, with illustrations.

This book is currently being kept in print as of circa 2000 as
A Field Guide To Dowsing: How to Practice the Ancient Art Today
Danville, Vermont, American Society of Dowsers.
32 page photocopied saddle-stitched pamphlet missing some illustrations and some outdated information about the ASD.

Brief as it is, Gordon MacLean's Field Guide To Dowsing is one of the most important books on all forms of dowsing ever published and it has been the most valuable and instructive text used by the present bibliographer. Highly recommended. If you only buy one introduction to dowsing, this should be it. If ever a book deserved a really clean restoration, inclusion of other material by the author, and reprinting for wider distribution, this would be it.

Mager, Henri. Water Diviners and Their Methods.
London, George Bell, 1931.

Matacia, Louis J., with Matacia, Ginette. Treasure Hunters.
Matacia, 1996.

Matacia, Louis J. Finding Treasure: Combining Science and Parapsychology.
Matacia, 1997.

Louis J. Matacia was a licensed surveyor who became a dowser. During the Vietname War he dowsed Viet Cong tunnels and traps; his tools were the L-Rod and Pendulum. In later years he took up treasure-dowsing, and claimed quite a few successes. In addition to these two spiral-bound books, Matacia produced a series of five audiotapes for the American Society of Dowsers, which were released from 2000 to 2002. His work is carried on by his daughter Ginette Matacia.

The audiotape topics are:
1.- Secrets of Locating Gold and Treasure
2.- Treasure Hunting - Beaches, Rivers, Islands
3.- Treasure Hunting - Mountains, Valleys, Deserts
4.- Electronics, Radar, Digital, and Video Cameras
5.- Recovering Small Treasure

Maury, Marguerite. How to Dowse: Experimental and Practical Radiesthesia.
G. Bell and Sons, 1953.
184 pages.

This is a very thorough course in dowsing, Franco-British style. The text covers many tools and methods, and describes a number of common objectives for dowsing, including agricultural and homeopathic medical radiesthesia. The author is a devotee of radionics (and provides rough plans for radionic instruments), and also embraces a fairly early description of the phenomena of remanence (here called parasitic images), telluric emissions (which some now call geopathic stress), and techniques of map dowsing. Highly recommended for anyone undertaking formal study of the matter from a practical viewpoint, within the perspective of electro-magnetic theories, and looking to see what the British Society of Dowsers had developed in the way of teaching materials by mid 20th century.

Publisher's dust wrapper note: "The authoress of this book, Madame Maury, was trained as a nurse and is now the wife of the distinguished homeopathic doctor, E. A. Maury."

McKusick, Robert T. Practical Dowsing.
Globe, Arizona, The Association of Universal Philosophy, 1979.

Mermet, Abbe. Principles and Practice of Radiesthesia. English translation. London, Vincent Stuart Ltd., 1959. English translation. Reprinted: London, 1967. English translation. Reprinted: 1975. 230 pages. English translation. Reprinted: Element Books Ltd., 1991. 230 pages. The term "radiesthesia" is an old one, but its continuing popularity in Europe is probably due to this book. Based on forty years of personal research by Abbe Mermet, a French village priest, "Principles and Practice of Radiesthesia" took the world by storm. Mermet was the European equivalent of America's Henry Gross, a dowser from rural Maine whose worl was popularized by the author Kenneth Roberts, The difference between the two men, however, was that Mermet needed no amanuensis, and wrote his own excellent book on the use of the pendulum in water-dowsing, prospecting for minerals, diagnosing disease, and finding missing persons.

Mullins, John, and Sons. The Divining Rod: Its History, Truthfulness and Practicability. Mullins, (Colerne, Box, Wiltshire), 1893; 1894. Small octavo. viii + 64pages. Original red cloth lettered in gilt on front board, blind borders. Black-and-white frontis-portraits of John Mullins and his son Joseph Mullins on endpapers and several black and white photos. Published under the patronage of the "War Office Authorities" and the "Crown Land Commissioners". Includes a biographical sketch of the author and noted water-diviner John Mullins, collected letters on the subject, and short essays describing successful water dowsing for his patrons, whose names occupy a four-page listing that begins with dukes, proceeds to lords, and then goes on to encompass the lesser nobility, a series of wealthy "esquires," and finally concludes with a rather lengthy series of breweries, which, of course, need extensive and bountiful sources of pure, fresh water. A lovely, practical, and rare book on water-dowsing

Naylor, Peter. Discovering Dowsing and Divining.
Princes Risborough, Shire Publications Ltd., 1980.

Nicolas, Jean. Jacob's Rod.
English translation of La Verge de Jacob (1693).
London: Thomas Welton, 1875.

Nielsen, Greg, and Joseph Polansky. Pendulum Power.
New York, Warner, 1977.
Reprinted: Rochester, Vermont, Destiny Books, 1987.

Nielsen, Greg. Beyond Pendulum Power.
Reno, Nevada, Conscious Books, 1988.

Palm, Stuart. Beginner Pendulum Magic.
Third Sight Studio Publishing, 2019.
126 pages.

This is the first book in Palm's "Access Your Psychic Self" series, and, as the title indicates, it deals primarily with the passive, psychological, and New Age aspects of pendulum dowsing. The emphasis is on how a person new to the psychic sciences can develop an innate talent for pendulum divination, particularly in the realm of self-searching and personal development.

Percy, Maggie and Nigel Percy. 101 Amazing Things You Can Do With Dowsing
Sixth Sense Books, 2015
164 pages. Paperback.

A list of ways to use a pendulum for mental self-analysis and self-questioning.

Percy, Maggie and Nigel Percy. Ask The Right Question: The Essential Sourcebook Of Good Dowsing Questions.
Sixth Sense Books, 2015
188 pages. Paperback.

Introspective self-questioning tips for those who cannot frame their own questions.

Percy, Maggie and Nigel Percy. The Dowsing State: Secret Key To Accurate Dowsing
Sixth Sense Books, 2017
104 pages. Paperback.

Techniques for self-induction into the "dowsing state," a self-hypnotic mode of focused psychic awareness. This New-Age method fits very well with the "Letter To Robin" form of dowsing espoused by Walt Woods.

Pyle, Earl. How to Make a Million Dowsing and Drilling for Oil Hicksville, New York, Exposition Press, 1977. 136 pages. Harcover with Dust Jacket. Subtitle: "Faith, knowledge, and a spirit of adventure can lead to the discovery of oil." The hard-sell title makes this book seem more promotional than pragmatic but it does come out of the 1950s experimentation of the notable dowser Verne L. Cameron (1896 - 1970). See the postumously published Cameron classic from 1971, "Oil Locating" for the roots of Pyle's undertakings. Publisher's blurb: "Have you ever dreamed of discovering oil and becoming an instant millionaire? If that thought has ever entered your mind, here could be way of fulfilling the dream and turning fantasy into reality. It is more than a possibility that oil might exist in your own backyard, claims author Earl Pyle. How to go about looking for it is the key to ultimate success, and here is where Mr. Pyle's book will help, providing the seeker with the information and knowledge needed to pay off. The most important item in locating a well, according to Mr. Pyle, is the dowsing rod. Oh, yes, people have laughed at him, but he has proved time and time again that dowsing is a legitimate means for discovering a well. What it takes to make dowsing successful is a little mysticism, a strong belief in God, and a determination to do good."

Pogson, Mary E., The Art of Water Finding, with Notes on the Effect of Metals.
Backwoods, Lindfield, Sussex, England: The British Society of Dowsers, 1933.
32 page pamphlet in a blue paper wrapper.

This booklet is Mary E. Pogson's account of the dowsing techniques of her husband, the late Major William Norman Pogson, F.R.I.B.A., who had begun to work on the text, with an intent to see it published in the winter of 1918, but suffered a heart attack and passed away in October of that year. Mary Pogson then took up the manuscript and saw it published in 1920 in "The Occult Review," and in 1933, due to numerous requests, she agreed to have it reprinted as a pamphlet. Included is an account of Willian Pogson's personal experiments in the location of water and metals, and with various types of dowsing rods and tools, during the period that the couple resided in Madras and Simla, India, where Mr. Pogson was an architect for the British Army.

Both William and Mary were skilled dowsers, as was Major Charles Pogson, also of the British Army in India, who presented a paper on water divining to the Bombay Engineering Congress in 1923 and located underground water sources in the countryside around Bombay.

Major Charles Pogson is known in dowsing circles as the inventor of a deceptively simple dowsing device called the Motorscope, a crank-shaft-shaped tool; he had learned dowsing from his father in England. Accompanied by his wife, he can be seen using a Motorscope while dowsing for John Barkstead's lost treasure in the Tower of London in silent 1957 film footage made for the British Pathe newsreel service: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/excavations-inside-the-tower-of-London

The Pogson family subscribed to what Mrs. Mary Pogson called the "radio-electrical or magnetic phenomena" theory of dowsing. Major Charles Pogson referred to skilled dowsers as "human galvanometers."

This is an admirable, and admirably typical, publication of the British Society of Dowsers in the mid 20th century, when the chief reasons for dowsing were locational rather than subjective and self-informational.

Roberts, Kenneth. Henry Gross and His Dowsing Rod.
Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1951.
Hardcover in Dust Jacket. (tan cloth w/ black and gilt titles)
Reprinted several times.

The story of Henry Gross as told by Kenneth Roberts, who first encountered him in 1947 in Kennebunkport, Maine, where Roberts lived an his farm which was being threatened by a huge forest fire. Later Roberts was instrumental in helping Gross develop his skill and to bring it to the attention of scientists.

In 1949 the island of Bermuda, which traditionally relied upon roof top rainwater catch-basins, was hit by the worst drought in four decades. Even though hydrologists declared that there was little underground fresh water available, dowser Henry Gross map-dowsed from his home in Maine the general locations of four good freshwater sources in Bermuda. Already existent wells had provided little palatable water, being mostly salty or brackish in content. When Gross was summoned to Bermuda, he accurately pinpointed his four locations which in turn were drilled for water. They were completed in 1950, whereinand the four wells were able to produce two million gallons of fresh water per day for public consumption.

Roberts, Kenneth. The Seventh Sense: A Sequel to Henry Gross and His Dowsing Rod.
Garden City, N.Y.:, Doubleday, 1953
337 pages. Harcover. Illustrated.

From the ad copy: "The Seventh Sense, to put it briefly, is the working of a dowsing rod, or its equivalent, in the hands of a competent dowser. . . This illuminating sequel to 'Henry Gross and His Dowsing Rod' is the amazing and diverting record of the year's activities of Water Unlimited, Inc., following that book's publication. It is a forthright and plain-spoken attack on the scientific milquetoasts who, the author says, are endangering our water resources by discrediting the evidence he places before them."

Roberts, Kenneth. Water Unlimited.
Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1957

Roberts' final book on water dowsing; the last chapters deal with Henry Gross' efforts to dowse for other substances.

Santschi, Roy Julius. Doodlebugs and Mysteries of Treasure Hunting.
1938, 1941.

Santschi, Roy Julius. Modern Divining Rods: The Construction and Operation of Electrical Treasure Finders, Including Geophysical Prospecting Methods.
1939.

Santschi, Roy Julius, [Treasure Trails]. Doodlebug Edition of Treasure Trails with Extracts from Mysteries of Treasure Hunting by R. J. Santschi.
1973.
117 pages.

Schirmer, Mark. Pendulum Workbook
New York, Sterling Publishing. 1999.

Simmons, Russ. Dowsing For Treasure
1984.
92 pages.

Smyth, Hank. Precision Map Dowsing Esoteric Publications, 1982. Paperback.

Staffen, Joan Rose. The Book of Pendulum Healing: Charting Your Healing Course for Mind, Body, and Spirit
Red Wheel Weiser/Weiser, 2019.

The author is a proponent of "psychic healing, yoga, meditation, a Course in Miracles, Unity Church principals and prayers, and spiritual response therapy." In short, this is a book of New Age, passive, internal, psychological dowsing. Included are "30 interrelated intuitive healing charts as a spiritual guidance system," for those who are unwilling or unable to use a standard blank pendulum chart and fill it in. Note: The compiler of this bibliography considers such charts to be a waste of printed paper because most readers will only need one or two charts, and proposes that authors put only a few charts in each book -- a blank and a sample with words on it -- and then upload the rest of them as free pdfs on their or their publisher's web site. This will enable readers to download and print charts out as desired. The space saved in the book can be devoted to writing material of substance or the book can be significantly shorter, thus resulting in the killing of fewer trees. For a simple and sane approach to pendulum charts, see Anne Williams.

Stark, Erwin E. A History of Dowsing and Energy Relationships.
North Hollywood, California, BAC, 1978.

Storozuk, Gregory A. Geopathic Zones and the Iron Stake method (A Dowser's Series No. 2) 1992 39 pages. This brief but valuable booklet gives full details on the subject of geopathic stress, formerly known as "noxious earth energies" that plague cetain locations. The approach here is purely one of remediation, Gregory A. Storozuk provides a very good mini-course in how o do just that. For the origins of the topic of geopathic stress, see the pioneering descriptions in the 1953 book "How to Dowse: Experimental and Practical Radiesthesia" by Marguerite Maury, and the 1974 booklet "Effects of Harmful Radiations and Noxious Rays" by J. A. Kopp with an appendix by Gordon MacLean. Geopathic stress is of vital interest to many, and deserves complete treatment in its own right, but until a book is published on the subject, let Maury, Kopp, Maclean, and Storozuk be your guides.

Thompson, Clive [Editor]. Site and Survey Dowsing.
Turnstone Press, Wellingborough, 1980.
HarperCollins Distribution Services, 1980.

Trinder, W. H. Dowsing: The Definitive Guide to Finding Underground Water.
136 pages. Illustrated with line art and photos.
British Society of Dowsers, 1939.
Many reprints from Bell and BSD through 1962.

The sub-title, while accurate with respect to finding underground water, is a great understatement, as this magnificent text on practical dowsing also covers finding minerals, archaeological dowsing, and medical dowsing. Trinder's classic outline of the stated subject in its many facets was endorsed by the influential British Society of Dowsers, as well it deserved to be. The author's familiarity with French sources is also worth noting, as he both credits and summarizes a number of concepts and tools not otherwise well known to the Anglophone dowser.

For the record, Trinder was a practical dowser who subscribed to the electro-magnetic theory of dowsing, and who believed quite strongly that routine training would enhance the inherent ability to perceive subtle shifts in electromagnetism. He is also one of the earlier dowsers to thoroughly describe the phenomena of remanence (which he did not name as such) and parallels (which some modern dowsers call by the unfortunate term "parasitic images") -- and he described ways to overcome both conditions. The table of contents gives a good impression of the scope of the work:

Introduction
Instruments and Their Use
Location, Depth, and Quantity
Serial Numbers
Colours
Dowsing and Horticulture
Medical
Hints and Warnings
Dowsing from Photographs and Maps
Historical Survey
Some Successes and Failures
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

This book is in my Top Ten selection of classic books on dowsing that should be in every dowser's library.

Tompkins, B. Springs of Water and How to Discover Them by the Divining-Rod.
London, Hurst & Blackett Ltd., n.d. (circa 1920).

Tromp, S. W. Psychical Physics: A Scientific Analysis of Dowsing, Radiesthesia and Kindred Divining Phenomena.
New York, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1949.

Trumpfheller, Susan Bacon. 99 Ways to Use the Pendulum
Discovery Press, California, 2002; 2nd edition, 2010.
32 pages, saddle-stitched [and wrongly paginated, as page 5 is elided].

Trumpfheller, Susan Bacon. 99 More Ways to Use the Pendulum
Discovery Press, California, 2008.
30 pages, saddle-stitched [and wrongly paginated, as the count ends on page 27]

Susan Bacon Trumpfheller's little saddle-stitched pamphlets are literal eyesores, as far as i am concerned. The typography and pagination errors are maddening. However, leaving aside the fact that these are books that no bibliophile would want to confess to owning, they do add a small amount to the field of New Age, introspective, self-questioning, and psychological pendulum dowsing. Be aware that they are firmly situated in the post "Letter To Robin" era, so you must "ask permission" before dowsing, according to the New Age paradigm's embedded rule-set.

Each book in the "99 Ways" series consists of exactly 99 questions you can ask yourself via pendulum divination. Obviously, most of us have plenty of questions of our own, which means that the 198 questions offered by Trumpfheller do fall short of humanity's ultimate quest for knowledge, but still, the author does open up quite a few inquisitory byways for those who never thought to ask their pendulum which water filtration system to buy, which dentist to choose, or whether to get divorced. Other questions suggested cover an idiosyncratic gamut from which font to select when typesetting a book (and in this i feel that Trumpfheller's pendulum failed her) to which junk to eliminate from your life (i could say something snarky here, but as my bibliophilia verges on hoarderism, i will let it rest). Recommended only for the terminally eccentric and for collectors of amateur zines.

Sue Trumpfheller graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in Mathematics. A teacher, author and personal/business coach, she became a dowser in the late 1960s and began working with labyrinths in the late 1980s. She is the creator of Chi Patterns and Chi Intention Cards, and resides in Southern California.

Underwood, Peter. The Complete Book of Dowsing and Divining.
London, Rider & Company, 1980.
229 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket; includes index, bibliography, and illustrations.

Van den Eerenbeemt, Noud. Divination by Magic: Divinatory Techniques Taken from the Instructions of a Secret Esoteric Lodge
York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser Inc., 1985. First American English language edition.
64 pages. Softcover, octavo.

From the publisher: "The divinatory techniques and descriptions presented here were taken from the instructions of a secret esoteric Lodge, and are written in the form of letters from teacher to student."

Vogt, Evon Zartman, and Hyman, Ray. Water Witching, U.S.A.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
248 pages. Hardcover in dust jacket.
2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
xi + 248 pages. Illustrated. Harcover.

Ad copy: "In their quest to understand water witching, the authors also explore such related phenomena as hypnosis, mind reading, talking horses, and ouija boards. The book, which includes an appendix on scientific methods of locating underground water, is an enlightening excursion into contemporary folkways and an example of the scientific method at work."

Wayland, Bruce and Shirley Wayland. Steps to Dowsing Power.
Life Force Press, 1976.

Weaver, Herbert. Divining, the Primary Sense: Unfamiliar Radiation in Nature, Art and Science.
London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
140 pages, notes, photos and illustrations..

Ad copy: "Like dowsing, divining detects radiation from objects and organisms, using a Revealer Field Detector device."

Webster, Richard. Dowsing for Beginners: How to Find Water, Wealth and Lost Objects.
Llewellyn Publications, 1989, and still in print from Lewellyn under this title in 2019. Webster, Richard. The Art of Dowsing

(this is the cover title; it is still Dowsing for Beginners on the title page)
Reprinted by Castle Books and by Book Sales, 2001.

Richard Webster is the author of dozens of educational books on occult and metaphysical topics. This book, under whatever title and whichever publisher it is found, is an excellent introduction to the topic, generously illustrated, and well presented -- as is true of all of Webster's books. The author's concern here is practical dowsing, and he does not delve into informational or subconscious dowsing. He is from New Zealand, and it thus seems only logical that his experiences and interests developed out of the old British school of dowsing. I highly recommend this book, and am assured that as long as it remains in print, it will be one of the most popular titles on the subject.

Webster, Richard. Pendulum Magic for Beginners: Tap Into Your Inner Wisdom
Llewellyn Publications, 2002 [and still in print as of 2020].
240 pages.

This is another solid classic from Richard Webster, and belongs in every dowser's library. The emphasis is on the pendulum as an intuitive tool for self-questioning of the subconscious mind, and as such, it epitomizes the New Age school of dowsing. Included are New Thought ideas, such as how to use positive affirmations, and modern psychological Self-Help Movement concepts, such as how to revise internally programmed self-destructive behavioral patterns as you identify what you truly believe about yourself and others. All of this material is brought together in a pragmatic and informative way that is free from restrictive theological, cosmological, or doctrinal assumptions, and thus the book is accessible to all, no matter what their cultural or religious beliefs may be.

Wethered, Vernon D. The Practice of Medical Radiesthesia.
London, L. & N. Fowler, 1967.
Reprinted by Beekman Books, 1977.

The British publishing company L. & N. Fowler was known for its lengthy list of titles on various forms of divination, including palmistry and phrenology. This volume is a bit on the theoretical or metaphysical side of things, for it teaches, among other techniques, informational dowsing as a way to derive dosages for homeopathic medicines. The content is extremely specialized and of interest primarily to those who eschew conventional herbal or allopathic medicine.

Whitlock, Ralph. Water Divining and Other Dowsing: A Practical Guide
Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1982.
144 pages

Willey, Raymond C. Modern Dowsing: The Dowser's Handbook.
Cottonwood, AZ, Esoteric Publications, 1976.

The emphasis on water-witching in this fine manual of traditional dowsing technique belies the word "Modern" in its title. Little did Raymond Wiley know that within ten years his "Modern" methods would become Old-School, and that the word "Modern" would thereafter apply to psychological and passive dowsing methods primarily associated with spiritual self-divining or introspective dowsing of the mind.

Williams, Anne. The Pendulum Book of Charts.
New York City, New York, Tower Press, 1979. Reprinted many times.
24 pages.

This is a slim pamphlet, but valuable enough to learners that it went through nine printings from 1979 to 2009, and is still in print. The author presents a series of arc-shaped charts for pendulum readings on a table (as opposed to field or land readings), and the topics covered are more personal than pragmatic. In other words, rather than the search for potable water or buried minerals, Williams encourages informational dowsing, in which the pendulum dowser is to ask questions relating to personal issues. The rise of this introspective and psychological approach to pendulum consultation marked the beginning of a split between active pendulum dowsing and passive pendulum divination -- a split between Old-School Dowsing and New-Age Dowsing that widened through the course of the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Of all the pendulum chart books, this is the only one i found of value, as there are only 7 charts (Mood, Food, Tolerance and Actual Stress, Colors for Healing, The Profession Indicator, The Yes-No Chart, and The Nutrient Chart), and each one is accompanied by a page or more of instructional material. I still don't like pendulum chart books, but with a 1979 publication date, this one is so early that it recommends itself to researchers on that account alone.

Williamson, Tom. Dowsing: New Light on an Ancient Art
Robert Hale, 1993.
220 pages. Photos.

Wolfe, Sam. Dowsing for Treasure and Minerals.
Wilmington, NC, Old South Publishing, 1974.
72 pages [66 pages + maps], paperback.

Sam "Lobo" Wolfe taught field and map dowsing and also manufactured his own dowsing tools for sale. He was the first to obtain a U.S. patent on the design of an L-rod. His focus of interest, as the title of this book makes clear, was practical dowsing. Wolfe created a nation-wide organization, the United Dowsers Association (UDA), basd in La Puente, California, that promoted all forms of dowsing. During the 1970s the organization published a glossy magazine for its members that covered everything from water wells and mining to radionics, physical healing, and aura-mapping. Lobo and his wife Alma repeatedly traversed America in a motor home, hosting hands-on dowsing seminars at Holiday Inns. The Tucson Dowsers have scanned copies of the United Dowsers magazine online in pdf form for free reading at http://tucsondowsers.net/resources

Woods, Walt. Letter to Robin: A Mini-Course in Pendulum Dowsing.
The Print Shoppe, 1996
20 pages. Comb-bound.
10th Revision. March 2001

This is the epicenter of the rule-bound New-Age method of pendulum dowsing. The pendulum itself is described as "simply a read-out, interface, or communication device [...] controlled through or by your subconscious, or something of that nature." You are to begin by "making an appointment with your Subconscious or Spirit Guides." Next you must "obtain permission" to dowse. This is accomplished by jumping through the hoops of a bizarre "May I? Can I? Should I?" self-induction process in which you have to say, out loud, “May I, Can I, Should I, ESTABLISH, CHANGE or ADD Dowsing Conditions and Agreements or Programs which will be continually in effect until changed by me?" [Captialization as given.] If the pendulum indicates a "Yes," you must then say, out loud, "End of prearranged conditions and agreements, thank you,” before going on to interrogate yourself about informational, soft-target questions. But you are not finished yet, for after obtaining your answers, you must make a "final check" and "Ask the Dowsing Sytem, 'Are the Conditions or Changes acceptable as presented, being clear and non-contradictory, and open to change by my request?'” If the answer to that question is "Yes," then you are done with "the three step installation program." If not, you have to start all over again. Next come the "Don'ts": "Be very careful not to interfere with anyone’s 'Lessons in Life' or possibly their 'Karma' or other unknown areas, that are best left ALONE" and "Never dowse a person without their personal request" and "Do Not diagnose or give medical advice of any kind!!" Although this restrictive "Mother-may-i" technique is said to have been "based on the input of over 150 skilled dowsers," i do not recommend it to anyone. I regard it as obsessive, self-crippling, and antithetical to the practice of natural dowsing.

Walt Woods, was the president of the American Society of Dowsers and presided over its pivot from traditional dowsing to navel-gazing New-Age introspection. After his death, "Letter To Robin" was released as a free pdf. It is available all over the web in both print and free digital electronic form.

Woods, Walt. Companion to Letter to Robin: Learning to Dowse -- Student Guide and Teachers' Syllabus.
2004; 5th Revision, 2005.
25 pages.

Here we have the New-Age method's recasting of dowsing tools as "dowsing systems," and the work of using a "system" reduced to "programming." Like the original "Letter to Robin," this text has intentionally been made available in print and for free in digital electronic form.

Wyman, Walker D. Witching for Water, Oil, Pipes, and Precious Minerals.
River Falls, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin - River Falls Press, 1977.

PART TWO: TITLES NOT IN ENGLISH

Benedikt, M. Ruten-und Pendel-lehre.
Vienna, Leipzig, 1917.

Carrie, Abbe. L'hydroscopographie et Metalloscopographie, ou l'art de Decouvrir les Sources et les Gisement Metallifers au Moyen de l'Electro-Magnetisme.
Saintes, France, 1863.

Chevreul, M. E. De la Baguette Divinatoire, du Pendule dit Explorateur, et des Tables Tournantes.
Paris, 1854.

De Morogues, Baron. Observations sur le fFluide Organoelectrique.
Paris, 1854.

De Vallemont, Abbe. La Physique Occulte, ou Traite de la Baguette Divinatoire.
Paris, 1693.

Holly, Dr Theodose A. Notions Methaphysiques et Autres, Revelees ou Confirmees par la Radiesthesie: Dieu et L'Univers (Mecanisme Du Monde) - Tome I
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Imp. V. Valcin, n.d. [circa 1940],
6 1/8" x 9" tall, paperbound wraps, 144p. plus table of contents.

Klinckowstroem, Graf von. Virgula divina. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wuenschelrute.
Berlin, 1910.

Nicolas, Jean. La Verge de Jacob, ou l'Art de Trouver les Tresors les Sources, les Limites, les Metaux, les Mines, les Mineraux et Outres Cachees, par l'Usage du Baton Fourche.
Lyons, France, 1693. Translated as Jacob's Rod.

Rocard, Y. Le Signal du Sourcier.
Paris, Dunod, 1964.

PART THREE: ARTICLES IN PERIODICAL MAGAZINES

The present bibliography only covers books on dowsing, water-witching, and doodlebugging. However, no bibliography on dowsing would be complete without a mention of The American Dowser Quarterly Digest.

The flagship offering of the American Society of Dowsers (ASD) from 1961-2019, this is an invaluable resource on dowsing. It was published more-or-less quarterly, as its title implies, with a few double-issues along the way, and in its 59 years of existence, about 230 issues were released. Between its prim blue-and-white covers were contained thousands of amazing articles on both physical and psychic dowsing, the true backbone of American dowsing in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The ASD also published books -- see "1963 - 1988: The Water Dowsers Manual" listed above -- but is was in the pages of the Quarterly Digest that these texts first appeared. In 2019 the ASD suspended publication of the Quarterly Digest and "went digital," which means that only dues-paid members can access the new materiatial, effectively closing the door to new membership in the organization, because copies of the Digest are no longer passed around, handed out as gifts, or make their way to online or physical bookshops.

Individual used copies of the ASD Digest from the mid 1980s through the end of the run can be found with diigent searches online and through the occult bibliophile communty. They go for anywhere from $5.00 - $10.00 per copy, depending on condition and rarity, Copies from the 1960s and 1970s are much more difficult to find and are priced accordingly. Good luck!

For a similar bibliography covering articles on dowsing, water-witching, and doodlebugging published in periodical magazines prior to 1982, see:

Hansen, George P. Dowsing: A Review of Experimental Research.
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Vol. 51, No. 792, pages. 343-367, October, 1982.

A digital electronic version of Hansen's bibliography is also available at Hansen's own web site, Trickster Book.

http://www.tricksterbook.com/ArticlesOnline/Dowsing.htm (accessed 08/09/2010)

PART FOUR: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Richard Webster and Stuart Palm for contributions, and to nagasiva yronwode for site maintenance.