I have key words set up on Google Alert so that I can be notified when there's mention out there in cyberland about me or my books. It works great. Some of the time. With book titles such Dating Can Be Deadly and The Remains of the Dead, it's inevitable that such words turn up on blogs and news with, um, unique stories. Today alone I've received the following alerts:
* in BEIJING — a crocodile shot to death in south China during a search for a missing 9-year-old student was found to contain the child’s remains.
* A Santa Barbara News-Press editor was smeared by publisher
* news about a dead bug taped to art paper
* an article (and a cartoon) on dowsing in the middle ages
Now I could become far more specific in the wording of my news alerts and weed out much of these kinds of notifications. Truthfully, most of the time I enjoy them. I never suspected that dowsing (divining rod stuff), for example, was still so huge in the U.S. and Canada. See, I learned something new :) Have you learned anything new today? Or do you know anyone who has ever dowsed (or performed dowsing) and you want to share?
9 comments:
Wendy, you're braver than I am! I never signed up for google alerts. Then again, with titles like Dark Desires and His Dark Kiss, I can only imagine the sorts of alerts i would have received :)
OY!
Umm, explain dousing please...?
I can dowse! I have a couple dowsing pendulums and have tinkered a bit. One night, I was 'testing' myself using cards--trying to find a specific card in a line of 7 cards facedown. My husband was out and the kids were sleeping and it was probably near midnight. Anyway, it worked SO perfectly on the first try that I got totally freaked out and quickly put the stuff away.
I haven't tinkered much since then--but it IS very cool.
Eve, I think I understand why you avoid the google alerts LOL! Dowsing is using something to find something else ... like a divining rod to find water :)
Kristina, I'd love to watch someone dowse. Have you tried your talent on lottery numbers? ;-)
My daughter can find the red king every time if you put the 2 black kings and 1 red king face down on the table. She says it feels hotter to her. It works in the reverse too. She can find the black king just as easily. Hmmm, maybe that doesn't count as dowsing since she only uses her hand.
Kim (ks)
Hi Kim, great to "see" you! I'm not sure if your daughter's skill counts as dowsing but it sure is amazing! Wow!
Dowsing sounds a little creepy! Is this the same principle that lets people hang a pendulum over a pregnant woman's belly to discover the baby's sex?
Ann
Ann, I have no idea. This dowsing info is mostly new to me too LOL. I may have to do some research on the topic to satisfy my curiosity.
Ann, the ring over the pregnant woman's belly thing IS dowsing! At least a variation of it.
Basically, you suspend a weighted pendulum from your hand (or you can use dowsing rods, particularly looking for water) and ask a question--usually a 'yes' or 'no' question. A dowser has already established what 'their' movement is for yes, no, or can't answer.
I can hide a card--say a queen of hearts--in a line up of 7 cards, hold the pendulum over each one and ask, "is this the queen of hearts?" and go down the line till I get a 'yes.' And...gulp...I'm pretty much 100% spot on.
Apparently it used to be more 'accepted' than it is today--was particularly useful for finding sources of water, or finding lost things, etc.
I took a workshop on dowsing--it really is quite cool. Probably just considered a form of 'white magic'.
Hey, I did that thing with the pregnant belly with my first son. We did it at the office. I took a strand of my hair and tied my wedding ring to it, then hung it over my belly. The ring moved back and forth if the baby was a girl and in a circular motion if it was a boy--or vice versa. I forget--I was just taking instructions from a co-worker. But the wedding ring was correct! That was 25 years ago--I haven't done any dowsing since then.
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