Diagnostic dowsing machines

Bruce Pomeranz, MD, PhD., professor at the University of Toronto, was one of the authors of the recent Nature study from Jacques Benveniste. He also was the one to link the healing power of acupuncture to endorphins. He developed a machine to place an electrode of a Voll machine, a Vega machine, or any of the other electroacupuncture machines to an acupuncture point around 1988. He created this machine so that he could get objective readings from the various electroacupuncture machines (since such machines require that the user apply the correct amount of pressure to the point, he created a machine that would get the electrode to apply similar pressure.) He has discovered that none of these machines produce any reading unless a person is holding the electrode.

Pomeranz has concluded that the electroacupuncture machines are medical dowsing devices. Pomeranz has a high respect for dowsing, but those users of such machines should not fool themselves by assuming that they are able to get objective readings. Because Pomeranz respects dowsing, he feels these machines are still useful.

The FDA classes these machines as experimental devices.

Accupath

Interro

There is a list of remedies that have been decided to be appropriate to a particular acupuncture meridian. In a technique very similar to the Voll Dermatron, the operator presses down with the probe on certain points -- presumably gets an energy reading -- and then the computer suggests which remedy from that very restricted list is suitable in treatment. The same thing is done for each of the points. What you end up with is a combination therapy made up of a number of remedies and perhaps colors or other modalities that are used with the patient.

Roger Pitcairn's personal experience of being read by the instrument in 1988 was not satisfactory.

I know what my constitutional remedy is and did not say to the operator. The readings and diagnosis were things like my kidneys were shot, my wedding ring was seriously depleting my energy and should be removed, and that my treatment should be a color (I don't remember which) along with repetition of Tuberculin 12X. When I mentioned that I had taken Tuberculinum 200C once without effect (as an self-experiment, perhaps one of my weaknesses) I was told that the potency had to be 12X and that was why it did not work for me. 

To me this is hogwash. First of all, the remedy does not fit me at all. Secondly, if I need to go low in potency to get an effect I think it could only be palliative. Thirdly, I doubt that I could even get a 12X of Tuberculinum anywhere in the world. What they would have done is treated me from -- what they call -- the electromagnetic pattern of the remedy stored on disk on the computer. 

Here is what I think is the greatest weakness of the method (which applies to dowsing as well). The patient is tested diagnostically with the instrument or pendulum and then treated with the very same instrument (either with energy flowing from the Interro or by gyrations of the pendulum over certain points). Confirmation of the effect of treatment is then determined by the very same instrument that detected the problem in the first place!

Myosan

Spelling uncertain. This one reads the vibrations, inverts the wave, and sends it back as an electric imprint into the body. Amazing cures are claimed.

Rae machine

The Rae machine is used to make a homeopathic remedy from a punched card.

The rules for the use of the Rae Instrument are as follows:

1. The card for the remedy to be made is selected and placed in the slot at the top of the instrument (assuming the dial is facing you in a readable position).
2. The card is inserted first with the pattern facing the dial and the name of the remedy at the top of the card.
3. Dial the potency you want to have.
4. If you are preparing the remedy in liquid, then use a round bottle (glass or plastic) or preferably the plastic container that comes with the instrument. Add the quantity of liquid remedy you want (water or alcohol) and leave it in place for a minimum of 10 minutes.
5. If you are preparing medicated tablets or pellets they must first by moistened with alcohol. 95% is preferable if you can get it, but very difficult to obtain in CA. Vodka will work OK if you place your tablets in the bottom of the plastic container (best to make only a few at a time -- like 6 - 10) and add just a few drops (2 - 4) to the tablets while shaking vigorously. You want to prevent them from sticking together. If they are too wet, then dump them out and wipe out the container and put the tablets back in. When ready, cap the container and place it in the well. Leave it a minimum of 15 minutes.
6. It is important that the card be in position as well as the potency dialed before you put the tablets in and also that you take the tablets out before you change the card or setting.
7. Once prepared, the liquid remedy is good for 1 month; the tablets for 6 months. They must be handled like any other homeopathic remedy, e.g., protected from odors and magnetic fields. Exposure to magnetic fields will permanently neutralize the Rae-made remedy while the pharmacy prepared type can be restored after exposure to magnetic fields by shaking them vigorously.
8. It will not work to make up a stock of remedy for your medicine chest as the life of the remedies (e.g., 6 months) is so short. For a while I would date the remedy and renew as needed, but as my store grew to hundreds of remedies this became impractical.
9. If you would like to neutralize tablets that you have made or neutralize the container in which you have just made remedies, then put the tablets or empty container in the well with no card inserted and the dial set at maximum (e.g., 10MM) for 15 minutes.

The Rae instrument is very simply made. There is a circular magnet inside with a wire going to the remedy well.   All of his information (as well as the establishment of the card patterns) was (and is) determined by dowsing with a pendulum, so your confidence in this may be affected in part by how you feel about dowsing. You can buy cards of any of the remedies known in homeopathy as well as many never proven or described. You can also have a card made up from a sample for about $10 (the price determined by the foreign exchange rate). There are also other instruments he made -- most popular among the Voll people is one that does not use cards but rather substance in one well (the remedy to made in the other) or perhaps a homeopathic remedy of one potency and the new potency in the other well.   I have known many people that use these -- what the Rae people call a two well instrument and what the Voll people call a pot to pot -- and generally it seems to me that things get a little crazy. People start making remedies of anything and everything in all possible combinations and potencies. There is a real tendency amongst the Vollists also to use nosodes and practice isopathy. Also, some of those that I have observed using these instruments do not follow the rules developed by Malcolm Rae (as described above) sometimes making the remedy for 1 minute, for example, instead of 15 minutes.

Joseph Campbell, the editor of Analog: Science Fact & Fiction, used a `dowsing' machine and got remarkable results with it. He became quite caught up in exploring this field. He found that he didn't really need the machine. All he needed was a schematic diagram of the machine's wiring and he would get the same results as with the full machine. {He also found that if one of the wiring lines in the schematic was erased he could not get results if he knew that it was erased. If he did not know that the line had been erased his results were accurate. He also found (by a trick that one of his friends played on him) that he got accurate results from the actual machine even when it wasn't plugged in. His friend unplugged it without his knowing it.

Malcom Rae created what he would call an instrument rather than a machine. There is a magnet and coil in an arrangement I cannot pretend to understand which transmits the energy pattern from the sample in one well in the instrument to some moistened sugar pellets in the other well, while the time or intensity of exposure determines the potency. The potency of the sample cannot be used as a remedy as it is changed in some way. The sample for the other instrument is dowsed with a pendulum by Rae or his successors and the image of the pendulum swing is noted on a card and the card is reproduced for you the simulator of the pharmacy! The instrument transfers the energy pattern of the card to the moistened sugar pellets. Cards of all remedies you have ever heard of and many that you have not are available from the company as well as the instrument itself.

Vega

Voll Dermatron

One doctor said that he did not see improvement with patients, that he saw many people having severe reactions and having to go to hospital and, worst of all, he demonstrated on me and my wife how he could greatly vary the point readings by the angle and pressure of the probe. He could, by slight movement, make my readings go from bad/serious to normal. He told me that it was not objective or scientific. Later articles by Peter Madill have admitted the non-objectivity of the technique.