Opening to a New Reality
When the Body Becomes the Guide
Living in France has opened my eyes to see many things in a totally new light. I was born and raised in the United States, and it has been enriching to live in France. I’ve encountered totally different thoughts, research, and approaches to things. One of them is working with subtle energies, and it has been fascinating to stand at the crossroads between two different traditions, one British and the other French.
The world of invisible forces is immense, and I’ve been drawn to it from a young age. Years ago, I was kicked into action when my young family moved into a house near high-tension wires and a power substation. I knew that the invisible forces emanating from these things were unhealthy for my family, and I had to do something about them.
So how do you work with something unseen, like electricity and high-tension wires? I delved into geomancy and dowsing to find out what was causing stress and affecting my family. For those of you who aren’t familiar with dowsing, it is a divinatory technique used to locate mostly water. Many people also use it to find minerals and buried objects beneath the surface of the earth.
I learned to use pendulums and dowsing rods to ask yes or no questions. I had a pendulum that I used frequently. One day, I asked it if I was pregnant because I really wanted to be, and it lied to me! I quickly became disillusioned and also unsure about my abilities. When I realized that I could influence how the pendulum swung, I saw that using my mind wasn’t the magic I thought it was. It didn’t make sense, and on top of that, it was confusing!
Then, I attended a weekend workshop led by French Master Builder Dominique Susani. He had a completely different approach to dowsing, which he referred to as radiesthesia. He taught the class how to sense water veins and faults in our bodies. We used dowsing rods, but instead of accepting what we found at face value, we verified it with how it felt in our bodies. This transformed my entire perspective and even changed the course of my life. It was a lightbulb moment to realize that our bodies are incredible sensing and dowsing tools, far superior to our minds.
To continue the story, I’ll go back a bit to explain the evolution of dowsing and radiesthesia. In British and English-speaking traditions of dowsing, there is a strong focus on mental intention and logical inquiry. Dowsing rods or pendulums are seen as tools for investigation. This goes along with some of my dowsing interactions in England. I’ve tried talking about the feeling quality of certain ley lines, but no one could answer me. As I look back on the experiences, I can see how the British school of thought is mainly mental.
But for the French, it was different. Their approach is more embodied and focused on experiencing the qualities of water or the subtle energies radiated by forms. I found that I preferred the French approach much more. Confirming water's presence by how it feels in my body was far better.
I discovered that the sensations in my body don’t lie or tell me what I want to hear. For example, water reveals itself to each person in different ways. Sometimes it’s a taste, other times people feel a knot in their throat or a fullness in their bladder. For me, it’s the sensation of more saliva in my mouth. This gives me confidence in what I found is true; it’s not just a line of energy, but water that I can confirm.
As I deepened my energetic dowsing vocabulary with sensations, I found I could tell the quality of the water. Some waters are bad, and you feel sick. Others are contaminated with electricity, and you can feel this with your jaw tightening. At sacred sites, there is an entire playground of subtle energies to sense and discover.
Through this process, I also discovered a profound truth: there's an entire unseen world we can learn to perceive and interact with. It simply requires a little training, an open mind, and the willingness to trust that our bodies hold an infinite well of knowledge, often surpassing what our minds can grasp.
Now, when I teach people to dowse with their bodies—whether to sense water beneath the earth or to explore the subtle energies of sacred sites—I see the same doubts arise that I once carried: I don’t feel anything. Others must be better at this than me. And yet, time after time, those same people are astonished by what their bodies reveal to them once they begin listening.
It is always moving to watch that moment of recognition—the dawning awareness that the body itself is a living instrument, a finely tuned antenna. The more we learn to quiet our minds and release expectations, the more clearly this inner compass speaks.
In the end, this journey has taught me that the unseen world isn’t out of reach. It’s whispering to us constantly through our own bodies. All it takes is a little openness, trust, and curiosity to step into that reality—and discover just how much more there is to feel.