Marguerite Maury – ‘How to Dowse’
Experimental & Practical Radiesthesia
Everybody in Radionics uses a pendulum. I do myself, and I am a believer that a sound training is essential for best results. I consider that there is no better place to find this than in the work and explanations of another pioneer … Marguerite Maury, who has a fine record of students. I will, therefore, begin by quoting from the Foreword of her book by the late Col. A. H. Bell, past President of the British Society of Dowsers.
Foreword by Col. A. H. Bell
“The authoress of this little book, Madame Marguerite Maury, is a lady of much experience in the teaching of Radiesthesia and in the practice of the art, particularly in its medical application.
“For many years she was a fully trained nurse and later took up massage in which she obtained conspicuously successful results.
“Some years ago, she happened to make the acquaintance of M. Louis Turenne, an engineer and a radiesthet-ist of great repute. Following a remarkable diagnosis of a case of eczema made by him, and its subsequent cure through homeopathy, Madame was persuaded by M. Turenne to take up the study of Radiesthesia, for he realised that she had a special aptitude in this direction. She developed her powers to the full and tells me that during the course of fifteen years she has carried out more than 70,000 diagnoses and made numerous locations for water and minerals.
“With the help of some collaborators she founded the College RadiesthStique Fran^ais and drew up a course of instruction by correspondence which has been followed by more than 900 pupils.
“This series of lessons, to which a section on Medical Radiesthesia has been added, forms the substance of this book.
“Readers will see that Mme. Maury who, previous to becoming a nurse, had studied physics in Vienna, is a firm believer in the purely physical origin of radiesthetic phenomenon, and some may think that her claim in this respect cannot always be justified. For instance, it is difficult to see how location on maps and diagrams, which is now a well-established fact, can be attributed to anything but some obscure stimulus from the subconscious mind.
“Mme. Maury very rightly stresses the individual nature of the radiesthetic art, and anyone who has studied the subject from an objective point of view for many years will fully bear her out.
“However that may be, it is always an advantage for a novice to start on a definite system, though he may find later that he has to depart from it and develop a method better suited to his own personality.
“A book such as this which deals with Radiesthesia in its widest application and does not advocate unnecessary refinements in instruments and technique, should be of great value as an introduction to a science which is still in a state of evolution.”
A.H.B.
———————–
“Part 1. A Course of Radiesthesia. Introduction.”
“We are about to introduce you to a world where the sense of touch, extended in some strange manner, is supreme over all other senses.
“First we must define the word Radiesthesia. Translated literally from the Greek, it means ‘sensitiveness to radiations’. What is this sensitiveness? It is a form of sensitivity which responds to external influences and reveals them by movements of a pendulum, rod or other instrument held in the operator’s hand. Unfortunately we cannot tell you the nature of the biological mechanism which controls these movements, but we can tell you the conditions under which they take place, the various forms they take, and how they can be interpreted.
“We do not intend to instruct you in the mental form of Radiesthesia; what interests us at present is the physical or, as one may say, the material form, and the possibility of putting it to real use, of reducing it to a system and of proving by results that Radiesthesia is not the fruit of a fertile imagination but a reality, though we may not at present be in a position to give a complete explanation of its mechanism.
“The difficulty is that it is almost impossible to lay down rules of a general nature, as the interpretation of the movements of the instrument used depends upon the individual properties of the person concerned. Whenever the radiesthetist discovers something, he is apt at once to fly into print and state dogmatically that, ‘Detection is a phenomenon of the following nature …’. But this statement is only true as far as he himself is concerned.
“The essential characteristics of Radiesthesia are its variability, its uncertainty and its individual quality; our course of instruction will deal with all these phenomena on this understanding.
“It is an essential condition for good detection that a radiesthetic search should be undertaken in an entirely detached manner. Your attitude towards it should in no way differ from that of one who is making an enquiry on some everyday matter. In this case, however, your sense of touch will take the place of your senses of sight and hearing; you are simply trying to find out something and should not allow your thoughts to interfere. The more detached your attitude, the clearer and more unbiased will be your powers of observation and the greater the accuracy of your results.
“We hope that none of our readers will fall into the usual mistake of exaggerating the mysterious. In our experience Radiesthesia usually gives rise to two different attitudes, either an excessive credulity or an unreasoning and violent scepticism out of all proportion to the nature of the subject. Let us approach the problem in a calm and well-balanced though critical spirit, denying nothing in advance, but preserving an attitude of practical common sense.”
———————–