Victoria: Trafford/Jeffrey Keen 2005. 310 pp US$23.99, CAN$29.99, EUR19.50, £13.50   3 pp. Refs
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Jeffrey Keen has an Honors degree in Physics and Mathematics from Imperial College, London University and is currently Chairman and Managing Director of Swisher Hygiene UK Ltd. While he was initially a skeptic about psychic phenomena such as dowsing, "he now accepts that science is not infallible and that there is enormous scope in investigating non-mainstream science." He has been studying dowsing and other aspects of consciousness for 20 years.

Keen's book is written for educated dowsers, researchers in psi, and scientists interested to know whether there are any systematic, lawful observations about dowsing. With Keen's book, the answer is a resounding 'Yes!' Keen has meticulously studied dowsed impressions of various objects such as crystals and ordinary rocks, plants and humans. He reports fascinating notes on the energy fields around single objects, paired objects, and groups of similar objects. Having explored dowsing for several decades, this reviewer was both delighted and dismayed at some of these notes.

He notes that crystals and other objects become charged with dowsable energy through being in the sun and being located over places with positive earth energies. Their energies are discharged or drained by being in a dark place, being located over places with negative earth energies, or being handled by humans.

The greater portion of the book is devoted to studies of regularly, repeatably dowsed observations of the intuitively perceived fields around various objects. With meticulous detail, Keen catalogues and classifies various dowsable fields and lines around objects, noting how they may vary under different circumstances, such as when pairs or circles of objects are present. Keen identifies seven distinct layers of energy fields around inanimate and animate objects. These fields attenuate with distance, and are perceptible only to a finite distance from the object. He also finds dowsable lines that project from objects in straight lines with no apparent attenuation. While these observations alone make the book worthwhile reading, many further findings open doorways into fascinating further studies.

Two items are of particular interest to practitioners and researchers of spiritual healing. First, Keen identifies seven dowsable bands that are distributed vertically on any object, be it animate or inanimate. This suggests that the seven major chakras present along the vertical axis of the human body may be special cases of sub-fields that are more universally present than has been acknowledged previously.

Second, Keen found that mental projections of images are dowsable from any distance. These remain permanently situated approximately where they are 'planted' but sometimes may drift Westward over time. This reviewer would see this as a caution to healers and medical intuitives. A mental construct of illness (as in an anxiety about having an illness that is not actually present) might be perceived as an actual illness.

Keen also discusses briefly the apparent awareness that prehistoric man had of dowsable phenomena.

Keen acknowledges that people may identify these energies through tactile sensations, as a visual aura, or through kinesiology, but feels that a dowsing pendulum offers the most reliable means for assessing these. (See more on kinesiology below.)

Keen acknowledges that the person is actually the instrument, but writes as though anyone can sense these fields and reproduce his findings.  Generally accepted observations of my own and of other dowsers I've spoken with (abbreviated below as "generally accepted observations") indicate that the instrument is not nearly as important in distinguishing dowsable fields as the sensitivity of the person holding the instrument. While nearly everyone appears to have a modicum of psi/intuitive/dowsing abilities, people gifted naturally and those who practice diligently to develop their abilities are far more sensitive to these fields. Sensitivity may vary, waxing and waning over time and under various physical and psychological conditions, even in the most gifted.

Keen suggests that a standard for strength of a dowsed field could be established as follows:

Clearly, each person would have to establish her or his own scale for field strength. This would, however, vary over time and under various circumstances.

I am also troubled by the suggestion that a quartz crystal can be used as a standard for comparison. Generally accepted observations indicate that quartz or any other material is not a standard commodity in terms of dowsable energies. Each crystal appears (to sensitive dowsers/ intuitives) to have its unique properties. Keen acknowledges that any object may be charged and discharged under various conditions. It would be difficult to know whether a crystal that is fully charged is equivalent to another crystal.

Here are a few simple observations:

Keen believes that kinesiology only reflects negative energies (p. 90). This is totally untrue. Kinesiology may reflect the influence of negative energies, as when muscles are weakened in the presence of negative environmental energies or in response to negative thoughts. They may equally reflect positive energies and thoughts, as when muscles reflect healing environmental energies and positive  awarenesses. In fact, kinesiology can be used as another form of dowsing Ð with the strength or weakness of muscles reflecting yes or no answers to questions, just as a pendulum or dowsing rod can reflect the minute, unconscious muscle movements of the dowser.

Keen's strengths in this book are in his meticulous measurements of dowsable phenomena and his start at categorizing their regular and lawful nature. His weaknesses appear to be in limited awareness of healing and intuitive perceptions outside of dowsing.