Pendulum - the PSI connection

258 Pages·1977·1.704 MB·English

by  Hitching, Francis

Pendulum: the Psi Connection
John Francis Hitching is a member of the Royal
Archaeological Institute, the Prehistoric Society, the
Society for Psychical Research, the British Society of
Dowsers and the American Society of Dowsers.
Born in 1933, he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon
where his grandfather, Randle Ayrton, had been the lead-
ing pre-war Shakespearian actor. He left Warwick School
in 1950 and was a newspaper reporter and magazine
journalist before being appointed producer of the tele-
vision programme Ready, Steady, Go! As an independent
producer, he made many other musical programmes and
documentaries both in Britain and in Europe.
While filming at Carnac in Brittany, his boyhood
interest in megaliths was reawakened and he spent the
next four years researching for Earth Magic, his book on
that subject. He was impressed with the dowsers he met
who seemed instinctively to know why the stones had been
erected. Some of their information about psychic matters
was so extraordinary that he decided they warranted a full
investigation and explanation; hence Pendulum: the Psi
Connection.
Francis Hitching has appeared many times on tele-
vision, both in Britain and in the United States, talking
on alternative theories of archaeology and on the psychic
make-up of people. He and his wife, whom he has known
since childhood, live with their three daughters near
London.

Introduction
Deep within our minds, something uncontrollably mysterious
seems to be going on. We call it the paranormal, or psi, and it has
tantalized, challenged, and ultimately baffled the finest scholars
in the world. Most of us suspect instinctively that it exists; yet in
spite of countless successful laboratory experiments, and fleeting
individual demonstrations of the supernatural in almost every
person’s life, we still need convincing. Why doesn’t it happen
more often? Why does it seem to disappear under conditions of
strict proof? Why is it so frequently surrounded by fraud? Are
we meant to toy with such matters?
Yet even to ask these questions implies that there is something
unknown to be searched for; and perhaps the most curious thing
is not so much whether the paranormal exists, but why, for most
of us, it happens so unpredictably and so seldom.
This book is about the few people who in every generation
through history have said the opposite – that for them, the
psychic happens whenever they want it to. Traditionally, their gift
was known as divination; nowadays, it is usually called clair-
voyance or dowsing. Most good dowsers today say they ought
to be able to find anything, anywhere – not just water, but
minerals, missing people, information about the past – and that
they have all learned to use their talent more or less at will.
Now these are big claims, but they are exciting ones too. We
live in a time when there is a revival of interest in the ancient
‘mysteries’; and also when there is a great deal of scepticism, in-
herited from several hundred years of rationalism and New-
tonian science. Throughout all this time dowsing has quietly
persisted, apparently fulfilling a widespread need. In today’s
more hospitable climate for the psychic, it has two great ad-
vantages as a subject for study. Firstly, it ought to be possible to
find out just how efficient and accurate it is. Secondly, dowsers
say we can nearly all acquire the same talent.
9
Pendulum:
the Psi Connection
Francis Hitching
Fontana/Collins
First published in Fontana 1977
Copyright © Francis Hitching 1977
Made and printed in Great Britain by
William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, Glasgow
Conditions of sale:
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by
way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise
circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.
For my family
Acknowledgements
This book could not have been completed without the help and
encouragement of the many people who offered me information
and introductions, and to all of them I offer my thanks. I am
particularly grateful to Professor John Taylor, Dr Zaboj
Harvalik and Dr Eduardo Balanovski for guiding me through
the mysteries of electromagnetism; if, in spite of their patience,
there are any errors, these are entirely mine. My friendship with
Bill Lewis taught me a great deal about dowsing, but others in
this field have also given invaluable advice; especially, Dr Arthur
Bailey, Bernard and Enid Smithett, Raymond C. Willey, Major-
General James Scott Elliot and Robert Leftwich. In the United
States. I was looked after and guided by Christopher Bird, Stephen
and Chris Bosbach, Jack Livingston, Norman and Marje Runnion,
and David and Cynnie Birenbaum.
I acknowledge my debt to all those quoted in the book; in
particular Alan Angoff of the Parapsychology Foundation Inc.;
Professor Madeleine and Dr Jena Barnothy; Dr Ruth Borchard;
Robert Ater; Dr Adrian Boshier; Norma Lee Browning, whose
book The World of Peter Hurkos provided me with the opening
quotation to Part One of this book; Professor Hans Eysenck; Dr
Gordon Flint; Tom Graves; Peter Hammond; Dr Harold
Puthoff; and Dr Russell Targ. Lastly, the Journals of the British
and American Societies of Dowsers proved to be essential source
material.
Contents
Acknowledgements 6
Introduction 9
Part One: the Phenomenon
1 The World of Dowsing 15
A brainwave experiment 16
The physiological basis 19
Master dowsers 22
Footprints on time 37
2 The Ancient Tradition 42
Mining and the wand 45
Early water-divining 48
Official acceptance 55
Crime detection 57
Origins of the pendulum 60
3 Dowsing for All 63
US Marines in Vietnam 64
Unconscious muscle movements 66
Dowsing tools 69
Tuning the mind 74
Binary questions 79
Practice and improvement 84
Aids and techniques 88
Part Two: the Scientific Search
4 Dowsing versus Science 95
The Russian approach 95
The elusive phenomenon 99
Positive tests 102
Attitudes of investigation 104
CONTENTS
5 The Attraction of Magnetism 111
Dowsing sensitivity 113
Fatigue effects 119
Searching for the sensors 121
The electromagnetic spectrum 125
Magnetoreception 131
6 Rhythms of the Universe 137
Electric healing 139
Magnetism and life 141
The receiving mechanism 144
Sympathetic resonance 149
The electromagnetic dilemma 153
Part Three: the Psi Connection
7 Inter-Continental Experiment 159
Experimental method 162
Scoring by hits, queries, misses 166
Scoring by points 137
Discussion 185
Conclusion 188
8 The Psychic Spectrum 189
Standards of proof 192
ESP experiments 193
Remote viewing 197
Out-of-body experiences 204
9 Dawn of Understanding 211
Psi and anthropology 213
Brainwave patterns 218
Inner and outer minds 224
The mystery signal 225
Direct knowledge 231
Sources and Select Bibliography 240
Index 249