Chapter I: MY EARLY DAYS IN RADIESTHESIA
THERE seems to be little doubt that Radiesthesia, although under another name, was practised as far back as 2000 years B.C. It is claimed that the Hebrews and Egyptians used it and that the Chinese called for a Radiesthetist before building a house, so as to detect, as they said, “The Claw of the Dragon”, which probably corrsponds to what we now call the nocive or harmful rays.
There is no magic in Radiesthesia; it is a faculty which most people possess and consists in their ability to receive rays or waves surrounding them and to pass them on, through muscular reflexes, to the instrument they are using, the pendulum. It is in fact a scientific investigation in which many medical men, research workers, priests, geologists and policemen have specialised.
Everybody cannot become a Radiesthetist of a high order any more than they can become great artists, musicians or cooks, but it can be developed in about 80% of human beings, some of whom, of course, will be more proficient than others either through initial adaptability to radio-perception or through training.
As far as I am aware there are no text books on, or teachers of, this subject. It must therefore be self-taught and the object of my little book is to start you off from the beginning and only deal with this interesting and useful science in a purely elementary manner. There are a great number of works on the subject in French and Italian, as both these nations seem to have made more use of it than we have in this country. Radiesthetists have different methods, although they achieve the same results or at least hope to, that is, to develop and intercept the reflexes resulting from their sensitiveness to radiations emanating from other bodies, either animal, vegetable or mineral. Radiesthesia is in no way a “parlour game”, it is an extremely serious and interesting subject and should be treated as such.
In telling the story of how I became acquainted with this science I must, in order to keep events in their correct sequence, cross the border-line between Radiesthesia and Teleradiesthesia, but I feel that it will only lead to confusion if I introduce the latter at this stage, so it must be left for the time being.
I came across Radiesthesia purely by accident. It was in Italy during the late war, a few days after the fall of Naples. We established our headquarters at Portici, a suburb of Naples, almost in the shadow of Vesuvius. Our next-door neighbour, an elderly English-speaking Italian, somehow got himself attached to us as official interpreter, chiefly I imagine because he and his family were almost starving. In order to improve my Italian I spent an hour or so in the evenings with him and it was during one of my lessons that he introduced me to Radiesthesia, partly on account of our using a book on the subject as a “reader”.
At first I was inclined to laugh at the whole thing, but as time went on he roused my interest to such an extent that I borrowed his books and a pendulum, which I still have. He first impressed me with the rapidity and accuracy with which he could find an object I had hidden somewhere in his house. In the childish game of “hunt the slipper”, with the aid of his pendulum, which he always carried in his waistcoat pocket, he found the hidden object in a matter of minutes. Still somewhat sceptical I attributed this to some form of telepathy, as it might well have been, but I kept an open mind on the subject, until one evening, quite spontaneously, he told me my age and the month in which I was born: true he used a small chart, of his own design, for this purpose. We had not discussed age so I had to rule out telepathy.
He had some misgivings regarding his elder son who was, as he thought, somewhere in North Africa. Using a photograph of his son and a series of maps, the pendulum indicated that his son was somewhere near Bombay, which appeared to him to be quite impossible. Some months later he heard from his son from India, where he was a prisoner of war. In the case of his other son, a doctor in the Italian Navy, he regularly and accurately followed his movements on maps and knew of his death a long while before he received official notification that he had been drowned at sea. I had no reason to disbelieve his stories so they made a great impression on me as, I am sure, they would have on most people.
During the winter of 1943 the war in Italy became more or less static and I found that I had plenty of spare time in which to study my new hobby as well as the language. My instructor tested me by a method which will be explained later and was of opinion that I was sufficiently sensitive to get moderately good results, impressing on me that I should not be despondent if results did not come at once and I pass this warning on to my readers.
If we approach Radiesthesia as we might a new game we are about to take up, remembering that without practice we cannot become proficient and that even when we are proficient we must expect “off days”, then we are approaching it in the right spirit which should lead to satisfactory and gratifying results.
Lt.-Col. Fulbert Audley Archdale was born August 8th, 1890, the son of the late Major M. E. Archdale of the Gloucestershire Regt. After a short time at Malvern College he went to H.M.S. Worcester at Greenhithe. He served before the mast as an apprentice on the three-masted barque Inverlyon, travelling three times round the world carrying coal and general cargoes. He served in Survey ships on the coasts of Africa and India, and finally joined the Hoogli Pilot Service in Calcutta. In 1914 he joined the 130th Baluchis and was on active service in German East Africa and Palestine. He was demobilised in 1918 in Karachi and there joined a firm of Exchange brokers. He also commanded the Karachi Corps Auxiliary Force for several years. In 1938 as a member of the Reserve of Officers he rejoined the Army in England and worked in the Department for Passive Air Defence, and then in Movement Control. In 1943 he joined the Royal Pioneer Corps with whom he was on active service in Sicily and Italy. He was awarded the M.B.E. (Milty.). He was demobilised in 1945.