Ouija board, Planchette, Table Tipping, Magic Pendulums, Dowsing, the Odylic force and the Ideometer effect.

Michel Chevreul research on the "magic pendulum", Dowsing rods and table-turning is revolutionary. In his paper "De la baguette"(1864), Chevreul explains how human muscular reactions, totally involuntary and subconscious, are responsible for seemingly magical movements. In the end Chevreul discovered that once a person holding divining rods/magic pendulum became aware of the brain's reaction, the movements stopped and could not be willingly reproduced.
His experiments with the pendulum show how easy it is

"to mistake illusions for realities, whenever we are confronted by phenomena in which the human sense-organs are involved under conditions imperfectly analyzed."

In 1853 Michael Faraday, while studying table tipping, concluded:

“that honest, intelligent people can unconsciously engage in muscular activity that is consistent with their expectations.”

Faraday obtained the cooperation of participants who he knew to be "very honorable" and who were also "successful table-movers." He found that the table would move in the expected direction, even when just one subject was seated at the table.

The ideomotor effect ("ideo-motor reflex" or "ideo-motor response")is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. The term was first used in a scientific paper discussing the means through which the Ouija board produced its results, by William Benjamin Carpenter in 1852, the eminent Victorian physiologist and psychologist, whence the alternative term Carpenter effect. In the paper, Carpenter explained his theory that muscular movement can be independent of conscious desires or emotions.
Tears are an ideomter response to emotions. In a similar manner, pain may cause involuntary muscle movement.
Carpenter, in 1852, wanted to show that a variety of currently popular phenomena had conventional scientific explanations rather than the widely believed supernatural ones. The phenomena he tackled included dowsing , the magic pendulum, "table turning," and the "Odylic force."[ http://goalhypnosis.blogspot.ca/2012/03/illusions-for-realities-fantasy.html]

William James elaborated upon Carpenter's ideas, asserting that ideomotor activity was the basic process underlying all volitional behavior:

"Wherever a movement unhesitatingly and immediately follows upon the idea of it, we have ideomotor action. We are then aware of nothing between the conception and the execution. All sorts of neuromuscular responses come between, of course, but we know absolutely nothing of them. We think the act, and it is done; and that is all that introspection tells us of the matter."

A planchette, from the French for "little plank", is a small, usually heart-shaped flat piece of wood that one moves around on a board to spell out messages or answer questions. Paranormal advocates believe that the planchette is moved by some extra-normal force. The motion is due to the ideomotor effect. In occult usage, a pencil would be attached to the planchette, writing letters or other designs on paper to be later interpreted by a medium.
The most common use of the planchette is with a Ouija or spirit board. In this instance, it is sometimes referred to as an "indicator" or "pointer" to show where something is etc., like a Dowsing board. Used since the beginning of the Spiritualism movement of the mid-nineteenth century, planchettes predate the invention of spirit boards.

The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye" and various symbols and graphics. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette and it is moved about the board to spell out words.

As already noted, many scientists relate it to the ideomotor response, Various studies have been produced, recreating the effects of the Ouija board in the lab and showing that, at least under laboratory conditions, the subjects were moving the planchette involuntarily. It’s been noted that the messages ostensibly spelled out by spirits were similar to whatever was going through the minds of the user.

William James and Albert Einstein, both argued that most of us are using only ten to fifteen percent of our natural ability 99% of the time. In other words, think of yourself as an automobile with ten cylinders. Only one is working.

Back around 2004 I bought a piece of sacred geometry jewelery($300) and some buttons($20 each) that were supposed to neutralize the hazardous effects of microwaves, computers and cell phones. The proof of authenticity was someone walking around with Dowsing Rods. No actual instrument to show a change.
Seems somewhat ludicrous now in lieu of the ideometer effect.
There devices now, however, that do measure DE.Dr. Magda Havas, a leading researcher in the area of DE, from Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario) conducts research into Dirty electricity, EMR's and ELFR.http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2011/12/smart-meters-and-health.html http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2011/03/welcome-to-dirty-electricity-de.html
But don't rely on a Dowsing Rod as scientific proof.

George Washington wore a "Perkins Metallic Tractor" and swore by it. This was proven false when someone carved pieces of wood and painted them to look similar to the original device. Similar results were obtained to the Perkins devices. Which further demonstrates the power of the mind to be deceived. http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2011/01/quack-remedies-and-placebos.html

Have FAITH in God.

The Historical Destiny of the United States.

Extract from Alter Your Life by Emmet Fox (1931)

The intellectual understanding of law was one of the conditions needed for the re-birth of this truth; and an outward condition of political freedom with a tradition of personal independence of judgment was the other essential factor.

We will now pause to consider why, when this doctrine was to come into the world, it should need the special social and political conditions which were only to be found in the United States, and to provide which, in fact, the United States had really been brought into existence. It actually came into expression among the simple, unlearned, everyday people of New England―farmers, small traders, artisans, and so forth. A great idea never arrives in the world at one isolated point: it always "comes through" at about the same time, but in varied degrees of clearness, in a number of different places. When we understand that there is a general race-mind common to all human beings, we see why this must be so. These ideas percolate through at various points whenever, for one reason or another, there is an easy passage. We say that certain ideas are "in the air." Now these ideas were "in the air," i.e., in the race-mind, at this period; and so it happened that several people got them in various degrees of intensity about the same time. There has since been some little discussion in various quarters as to who should have the honor of priority, but that point is of no importance whatever. The honor of priority, if it is to go to anyone, probably belongs to Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a practical clockmaker of Portland [Belfast], Maine. Quimby was quite without what is conventionally called education. He had practically no schooling, much less scholarship; but he was naturally a very spiritual man, and he had the great quality of open-mindedness, and much natural intelligence. Like Faraday[1], a working bookbinder and a genius of somewhat similar type who is sometimes called the Father of Electrical Engineering, Quimby had a natural gift for scientific experimentation, and this he applied to the subject of mental and spiritual healing. But the thing was in the air generally. Emerson, of course, is the prophet of the teaching―but Emerson[2] with his academic detachment from actualities did not discover its practical application to the healing of the body and affairs. Prentice Mulford got it too, independently, but by no means as clearly as Quimby did, and he seems never to have distinguished definitely between the spiritual and the psychic. There were a number of other pioneers, too.



Prentice Mulford




A natural question that presents itself at this point is this: Why was this discovery, the most important discovery in the whole history of mankind, left to a self-educated working clockmaker? Why was the discovery not made at Harvard, or Yale, or Oxford, or Cambridge, or any of the great centers of learning on the Continent? Why, for that matter, was not the Great Truth revealed to one of the Bishops or Archbishops, or to any of the recognized intellectual or spiritual leaders? Is it that the Holy Spirit has a preference for simple uneducated people, and a prejudice against learning and leadership? The answer is, of course, that the Holy Spirit, which really means the Wisdom of God in action, has no preferences whatever. Do we not know that God is no respecter of persons? But there is one indispensable condition that must be present if spiritual revelation is to be received―there must be an open mind, and freedom from spiritual pride. Jesus formulated this rule when he said, "If you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven you must become like a little child," and our modern academic education, both religious and secular, has manifested one paralyzing defect―it has not developed spiritual or intellectual humility. On the contrary, it has displayed a fatal tendency to foster spiritual pride. Men and women of academic training too often come to feel―not always consciously―that things must happen in a certain way, because that is the way that they have been trained to expect them to happen―and the voice of God is forever whispering, "Behold, I make all things new."

Other things being equal, this message would have come to the leaders of the great universities, or to the heads of the great churches, because, in consequence of their official positions, such people would have been able to give the message out more quickly, and to larger numbers of people than any obscure man could have done; and as Divine Wisdom always chooses the way of efficiency it would have chosen such channels in preference; but alas, these channels were closed. The clearest open channel for the Jesus Christ teaching was the clockmaker of Portland [Belfast], and because we always get at all times just what we deserve (which means just what we are ready for), the clockmaker got the revelation. Once more the finger of God had put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted the humble and unknown.



[Extracted from Alter Your Life(1931), "The Historical Destiny of the United States," pages 206-209.][201-203 HARPER COLLINS 1994]

[1] Michael Faraday, FRS (1791 – 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of the time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. At fourteen he became apprenticed to a local bookbinder and bookseller and, during his seven-year apprenticeship, he read many books, including Isaac Watts' The Improvement of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented the principles and suggestions that it contained. He developed an interest in science, especially in electricity. Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics, such as calculus, he was one of the most influential scientists in history.

[2] Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson's religious views were often considered radical at the time. He believed that all things are connected to God and, therefore, all things are divine. Evidently Emerson was not amused over the "Rochester Rappings" or "Rochester Knockings" as they had become to be known.