Chapter IX: MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
To Radiesthesia and Dowsing distance seems to make no difference when making use of maps for the purpose of tracing human beings or locating water and minerals. My Italian friend traced his son to India, a matter of several thousand miles, and W. H. Trinder in “Dowsing” tells us how, while on a fishing holiday in Scotland, he accurately marked the position of subterranean water in the Kalahari Desert from a map sent him by an official from South Africa. He also gives an instance of a lady dowser in British Columbia accurately finding water from a map of Alberta, Canada, in substantiation of which he gives a verbatim letter received by the lady from a Minister in the Parliament of Alberta.
In view of what can be achieved by a radiesthetist of a high order, it seems remarkable that the police do not make use of people with this gift for tracking criminals. Let us take, for example, the more or less recent case of the unknown man who shot a bank manager in Bristol. If I remember rightly he left behind a letter of some kind. With such a sample a good radiesthetist could probably do a lot towards finding the whereabouts of the writer. I have heard it argued that radiesthesia or dowsing could not be admitted as evidence, but even so, I suggest that an indication of a fugitive’s movements would be of inestimable value to the police. As I have already said, radiesthesia and teleradiesthesia are far from infallible, and one might be accused of unintentionally misleading the police, but I suggest that they receive so much false information, which they are not slow to verify, one more case would not make much difference especially when one takes into consideration that it has probably a 75 per cent, chance of being right. I have, perhaps quite erroneously, assumed that the Police do not make use of this science, whereas, for all I know they may make full use of it when it is applicable.
THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographs are commonly used as samples chiefly on account of their ready availability, but I doubt very much whether they are as good as other articles of a more intimate nature. It must be borne in mind that, although a photograph may represent a person, alive or dead, it may never have been in actual contact with that person, having come direct from the photographers. I believe for Radio Therapy they have used reproductions of photographs, but results have not been as good as with the originals.
My Italian friend used photographs in preference to anything else when trying to keep track of his two sons during the war, even when the youuger son was drowned at sea. Normally if you hold your pendulum over the photograph of a man it will gyrate clockwise and over that of a woman, anti-clockwise. The direction of these gyrations is reversed in the case of death. I have said “normally” because this reaction takes place with most people but W. H. Trinder is apparently an exception as he appears to get the opposite in all cases, that is to say, where I get a clockwise gyration he gets anti-clockwise; but as long as it is constant, and it apparently is, it does not matter as long as the operator knows what to expect. I did a test only a few days ago over a number of snapshots placed on my table at random, and covered so that I could not see the subject matter of the photographs. With one exception I was correct in the matter of sex, the exception being a litter of pigs, when the pendulum gave no reaction one way or another. I am told that a painting of a person is not suitable as a sample, the emanations being those of the painter rather than the subject of the picture.
The Abbe Mermet had a method whereby he put an age and gave a name to the subject of a photograph or even a specimen of handwriting. In order to get the name it is necessary to have a set of the letters of the alphabet, similar to those used when teaching children to spell. It is a somewhat lengthy process as the pendulum must be applied to each letter until it gyrates, thus indicating the correct letter. I have only tried this once and with rather extraordinary results. I borrowed, as a sample, a photograph of a girl to whom one of my officers was engaged to be married. I had no idea what her name was at the time and all I could get, after several attempts, were the letter M.O.P.S., each attempt giving the same result. When I returned the photograph I told the officer that I hadn’t been able to make any headway. He told me the young lady’s name and then added: “She is known as “Mops’ to her family on account of her mop of hair when a child.” This may sound fantastic, but is nevertheless quite true.
Using figures or numerals the age or weight of a person is ascertained in the same way, but as I have never checked this method I cannot give an opinion, but my Italian friend certainly gave my age and approximate date of birth quickly and accurately.