=
×

Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Head To Head
Log In
Register
The Modern Antiquarian Forum »
Carn Goedog
Log In to post a reply
131 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
Evergreen Dazed
1881 posts

Re: Carn Goedog
Nov 22, 2013, 12:36
tiompan wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
tjj wrote:
An interesting conversation George - I do drop by for a read from time to time. With regard to Peter Knight, I agree the level of his appeal is very much dependent on your mind set. I used to bump into him from time to time a few years back showing groups around Avebury (on one occasion he was chanting inside WKLB). I also met him in the Henge Shop one winter solstice when he was promoting his book 'The Wessex Astrum' (co-written with Toni Perrott). I bought a copy - am sure you know it is about ley lines connecting ancient and sacred site throughout Wessex. I saw his book on the Cerne Abbas Giant last time I was in Avebury, almost bought it as it did look interesting but resisted as instinctively knew it would be more of the speculative fare. I'm not in the 'prove it or forget it' camp. Some phenomena (if that is what ley lines are) just cannot be proved, perhaps because they don't exist - who knows. Peter Knight strikes me as someone who makes some sort of a living writing books about his theories and there seem to be plenty of takers. Just as Tracey from Margate does with her own brand of art.


Dowsing, ley chasing and lots of other activities like that give many people great pleasure and i'm genuinely very pleased for them. I'm sure some peoples lives are enhanced by these activities and I have nothing but the greatest respect for that, we all have our own private worlds or 'life illusions' and, like religion for some, they can brighten up our lives or perhaps help us through difficult times.

However, when people who practice these activities post on a board like this stating the 'phenomena' as fact, it moves away from simple belief and becomes something else. It seems to me that a large majority of these individuals do not like being asked for proof once they have made their claims (I don't understand why?) and this becomes a real problem during discussion. Its a shame, because i'd love to see somebody with a genuine talent do their stuff, but they always seem to shy away from it.


The early days of the ley hunters in the 30's certainly got people out and about into areas they might not otherwise have visited and also interested in the historical aspects of the various points .Not as messy as geo-caching either .
It's always a pleasure to see people with genuine ability doing whatever they are good at and have worked at .
Some dowsers don't shy away from demonstrating their "abilities "publicly which usually means showing the rods or pendulums moving and then providing an explanation for that movement ,usually the detection of water or subtle energy ,true , far fewer are willing to be actually put to the test but some do . I imagine that like most of us who go on about dowsing , you probabaly have attempted to use rods and found they did cross etc , maybe even doing the same thing at the same spot ,what astonishes me is that in itself can be regarded as somehow being a positive indication without considering the alternative more parsimonious explanations .


I have George, a few times. First time was at the rollrights, and yes, when I walked out of the circle the rods crossed on the line of the stones, which happened twice. Trouble is I just wasn't convinced at all. I knew the line of the stones was coming up as I was walking, knew that that would be where something 'might happen' and lo and behold it did. I know I made it happen, unfortunately, by some very subtle process from brain box to arm muscle.
Elsewhere, both inside and outside of the circle the rods were crossing randomly and was never repeated in the same place twice. Towards the end I tried a third and fourth time on the line of stones and got nothing.

My conclusion was that it was good fun, but nothing could be demonstrated to have been happening other than some very thin metal rods that were being held fairly loosely in the hand were moving 99% of the time at random and the other 1% when I (unintentionally) moved them in a certain direction!

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell for me.




it's difficult to get dowsers to own up to to it but would they decribe your experience at Rollright as dowsing ? As a "beginner " possibly not , but if they didn't know the level of your experience , how could they differentiate your "findings " from someone more talented/experienced . This would be exacerbated in a non monument setting where you could argue for the discovery of anything you like . In any other skill the inexperienced would eventually be recognised even when taking "beginners luck " into consideration ,only in the " art " of dowsing can the novice or charlatan produce the same quality of info as the experienced and not get rumbled .

What really astonished me was the Lethbridge "rates " which not only discovered hidden stuff it could tell what the stuff was by the length of the string ,this even extended to concepts . needless o say even less attempt to prove that one .


The dowser I was with that day, who will remain nameless, said he could locate anything just by thinking about it. He demonstrated this by saying he was thinking of 'London' and lo and behold his dowsing rod pointed toward the SE.
I resisted causing embarrassment by suggesting he think of the name of a tiny hamlet I know of in a certain part of the country because I knew he was extremely unlikely to know where it was and would have failed and it would have been a really awkward situation.

Yes, i've read some of the lethbridge stuff, the confidence with which he relates that stuff is quite incredible.


My pendulum rate is suggesting a letter between I and M .


lol. How do you do it? Incredible talent you have there.

A nice man. I wasn't about to cause that level of awkwardness in that situation. I was sooooo tempted though.
In reply to:
Re: Carn Goedog (tiompan)		 Replies:
Re: Carn Goedog (tiompan)
Topic Outline:
The Modern Antiquarian Forum Index