Tool-less Dowsing - the current best-known systems (4th edition)

Body Response
Finding your body response: ask your question and just remain alert to any noticeable sensation or body part twitch or movement. You may get a sensation of cold or hot or a breeze, but more than 50% of people have a hand reaction of some kind - two fingers moving apart or together, or a clenching or opening (see hand-jab). A variant of this is:

Point-&-sense
Ask your question and point at the possible answers, which you have attributed mentally to the fingers of the non- pointing hand. A distinctive sensation (a sting in the neck or ear lobe is common) signifies “yes”. No luck ? Try:

Invisible balloon
Use one hand to sense with and the other (or the wall) as a wall. Ask your question and move this hand towards the 'wall'. An invisible balloon (or prickly ball, or cold area, etc.) getting in the way signifies “yes” - bigger and harder, a surer one. You can play around with this a lot - e.g. have balloons signifying “no”, or have different areas on the wall for diagnostic balloons giving you choices, numbers, times, etc. The “balloon” is used a lot to sense auras and energy bodies.

Blink
Consciously hold your eyes open and think your question. A blink occurring against your will signifies a “yes”. When learning, it often helps to point at the possible answers, as above. Some people have two blinks for “no”, one for “yes”.

Finger-thumb
Rub finger and thumb together and think your question. A rough feeling signifies “yes” and you can have a second opinion on the finger behind, giving rough for “no”. Psionic (dowsing) doctors do this in their pocket for covert diagnosis.

Double-pinch
Gently pinch your right thumb and first finger together, enclose them in a similar left-handed pinch, ask your question and try and open your right pinch against the left one. Success signifies “yes”, failure = “no”. A variant of this used in kinesiology is:

Two-ring
Put one pinch inside the other like two links of a chain and try to pull them apart. Success = yes; if the left pinch won't open = no. A single-handed variant on the pinch theme is:

Squash-pinch
Gently close forefinger and thumb together and ask question. If the pinch intensifies until it has almost flattened out, that's a hard “yes”. No movement after the first touch, or maybe the pinch even opens = no.

Opposed-thumbs
Place your hands palms-in in front of you as though sheltering your stomach, with the eight fingers hanging down almost parallel and the two thumbs upwards, pressing hard against one another in an upside-down V. Ask your question and the two thumbs flick away from you for “yes” and towards you for “no”. In my case I find I can get rough numbers out of 10 immediately, because the thumb movements are graduated over a 90 degree range.

Hand-jab
Ask your question and thrust your right or left hand down sharply as though trapping a bouncing tennis ball. The hand closing spontaneously means “no”, opening out, “yes”.

Slinky
A “slinky” is one of those machined spiral metal coils which if you place one at the top of a staircase and push it over, will somersault slowly down the stairs. Imagine you are holding one upright in your right palm, place your left palm next to it but lower, like a stair, and ask your question. If you feel the “slinky” arriving in your left palm (and/or your hands rising/lowering to match the change in weight) that signifies “yes”.

Whole body
Stand straight and ask your question. A slight bow/twist/bend = yes; other way = no.

Wrist twist
Reach out with either hand as though about to shake hands with someone. Ask question. Hand twists clockwise = yes; anticlockwise = no.

Tongue rub
Run your tongue over the roof of your mouth and ask your question. Rough = yes.

Signal arm
Upper arm relaxed by your side, forearm horizontal pointing ahead (an L shape). If when you ask your question your hand swings in to touch your body, that's a hard “yes”; if only part-way, a partial “yes”. You can use the angle to give you numbers or percentages, as in “clock” dowsing. If it swings outwards, that will be the start of a “no” reaction and you can either switch it mentally to give a graduated “no” swinging inwards, or use the other arm. As in clock dowsing, you also get a “more-yes-than-yes” indication if your hand presses your stomach hard. This signifies a “yes” stronger than the terms of your question have allowed. If say you had asked “has she passed her exam ?” this might mean “she came top”. Likewise a “no-beyond-no” if you're in “no” mode.

Finger-wiggle
Hold hands limp and ask question. Fingers of one hand flutter like a curtain in breeze = yes. Other hand = no.

Nod
Hold head straight as weakly as will just keep it from flopping. Ask question. Involuntary nod = yes. 'No' might be a shake sideways or a jerk backwards.

“Switching”
In all these cases, the significance can be reversed for some individuals, or by willpower, or against your will when you get tired (this is sometimes called “switching”). You have to find out which is which by asking establishing questions such as “which is my yes ?”

Robot-nose (field of view + blink)
As in “Nod” but keep eyes looking ahead and ask question which will be answered by something in your field of view (“which melon tastes best ?”). Allow nose to point to answer. Another way of describing this might be:

Move eyes across scene left to right, imagining a vertical cursor line. An involuntary blink means: the sought goodie is on this line.
Hold eyes on the line and scan up and down. A blink means: you are looking at it. This is especially good when picking stones or shells off a beach. You keep a reserve blink for something which is hidden underneath the top layer(s). Very good in supermarkets where the best fruit/veg is someway down in the pile. Rummage on the chosen coordinates until you get a blink. Users of this system are apt to look like a robot.

“Clock” system
Established dowsers will be able to make most of these modes work. Beginners can usually get at least one to work, which is immensely heartening for them. The clock system is a useful indicator system with and without tools and perfect when driving, with the steering wheel handy. Using an actual or visualized clock face, you can have degrees of yes and no starting at 12 o'clock and moving clock- or anti-clockwise until you get a “stop” reaction. You probably have a natural direction for yes - it's not always clockwise - so find that out first with “show me my yes”. If say your “full yes” is 3 o'clock which is usual, you will find some answers are at 4 o'clock - this is the “more-yes-than-yes” reaction (see above). The clock can be changed in a flash to have whatever meanings are useful to the quest. Water diviners are now using it to establish the depth of water in a logarithmic sense - that is, 1 o'clock means 10 ft, 2 means 100, 3 means 1000. You don't need a log table to find out what half past one means, because you can switch the clock to “tens of feet” and start again. The area between 5 and 7 o'clock can be used for the “idiot” response: “that was not the right question to ask”.

Recent Additions

Finger-lift (Carole Normand, quoting from L'Auto-hypnose by Leslie M Le Cron, Du Jour 1973, p.32)
Rest a wrist on your chest or a chair arm so that the fingers are free to move but extended. Ask one to rise to signal “yes”. When one rises, ask for another to signal “no”. Then others for other responses. Be sure that you're not moving the fingers voluntarily. If you prefer, you can choose which fingers signal which responses, e.g. use only one hand. You may notice a tingling or other sensation.

In a watchful state this method may require time and some effort. Under hypnosis it's rare for it not to work. Sometimes it's easier than using a pendulum for some people.

Hand-feeling (Frederic Ortiz)
In our monthly meetings, there was someone who made snatching movements with his hand. He explained that he was measuring, say, a “vibratory rate” by making a movement forwards with the hand and when he reached the figure he felt heat, or cold, or tingling.
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Rear-push
In a supermarket he would take a bottle of wine in his left hand and his right arm, held straight down, would feel pushed backwards to confirm that the wine suited his evening meal - or not if it didn't. This was useful for lots of things. Another one to try !

DAN WILSON is a chartered electrical engineer who got into dowsing to identify distant telephone trunk equipment faults and was diverted by pressure of demand into doing people. 26 years later, he is a professional dowser and "therapeutic healer" who runs his own health clinic at East Grinstead 30 miles south of London. He specializes in animal health, disturbed places and hauntings.

Reprinted with permission.