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Magnetism, Leys & Stone Circles

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In the final 1982 issue of New Scientist, Paul Devereux and Robert Forrest relate the history of leys in England. Leys are supposedly the intentional spotting of megalithic sites along straight lines extending several kilometers. Some alignments occur through chance, but several leys seem statistically significant. The puzzle is why ancient peoples bothered to align their edifices -- assuming they really did.

Most professional archeologists believe leys to be figments of the imagination of amateurs. This being so, they must be incensed by the claims made two weeks later in New Scientist. There, stimulated by the earlier report on leys, a retired engineer presented his measurements of the magnetic fields around the Rollright Stones. He maintained that he was able to magnetically detect several converging leys and, in addition, a spiral pattern inside the stone circle. A psychic accompanying him independently perceived the leys and spiral.

(Devereux, Paul, and Forrest, Robert; "Straight Lines on an Ancient Landscape," New Scientist, 96:822, 1982. Also: Brooker, Charles; "Magnetism and the Standing Stones," New Scientist, 97:105, 1983.)

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf026/sf026p02.htm
 
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Thanks for this, TC - I have a particular fascination with ley lines and stone circles, and I wasn't aware of these New Scientist articles. I now have to find someone with an NS subscription so that I can access the archive - if any kind Fortean can help me out on this, please send me a PM.

I do agree that some ley lines are pretty contrived as lines, and the alignment of sites could be pure coincidence, or wishful thinking on the part of amateur archaeologists. Some "lines" certainly aren't straight, but many of those that align with sun and moonrise at certain times of the year do seem to have been deliberately placed.

There is some hypothesis on various UFO websites regarding the sighting of UFOs coinciding with ley lines and "sacred" sites, supposedly due to the magnetic anomalies found along these lines and at certain sites. It's worth doing a search on Google if you're into UFOs.

Danny Sullivan's book on Ley Lines (Piatkus, 1999) gives a good overview of the subject, and gives due credit to Alfred Watkins, arguably the greatest ley hunter of all. It also has a very interesting map of Australia showing the Aboriginal songlines.

Fizz
 
The retired engineer you mention Tubal C. Was also on Tomorrow's World a couple of times about 1982. He discussed his ley line theories, showed how he thought ancient man (or woman) could have prodiced a line of magnetic force along a ley line & also had an intresting theory as to why dowsing worked.

Then like most things on TW, he was never seen again!!!!
 
A few of the claimed leys are hard to dismiss, particularly when they align henges and solitary standing stones, many of which have been lost to the farmer's plough of course, which makes it hard to substantiate them.
It's a shame only retired bods take up the challenge, but I guess they're not so bothered about their reputations becoming tarnished.
It's hard to dismiss the magnetic readings which go some way to support the theory.
I'll try to get hold of the original N.S. reports and post them up Fizz, I also have a couple of other items on the subject from N.S. that I shall edit and post in due course.
 
ley lines etc.

I learned how to dowse a few years back at a country fair whilst away from home, and proved that it worked on our local waterworks field. I then taught my son, and we went to a local stone circle to plot anything we could find. We plotted lines meeting in the circle on paper and then compared results, which proved to be identical. Then my son whilst walking around the circle discovered that his dowsing rods turned alternately inwards then outwards as he passed over each stone. I got the same result. there are 19 stones so each time one went around the same stone turned the rods alternately in & out! When back at home looking at a plan of the stones drawn in a local pagan magazine (Meyn Mamvro) I found ley lines drawn on it by a dowser who claimed water flowed underground along fissures that met in the centre of the circle and his plans matched ours.
 
Blimey!

That is very interesting! I've not tried it myself, but a farmer where I used to live had some work done by an construction firm. I was very surprised to learn that the company used dowsers to make sure they didn't hit any underground pipes or cables during the work. Apparently they employ dowsers for this purpose all the time with 100% success.
There are two stone circles close to where I live, Stanton Drew in Avon and Ninestones in Dorset, so I'm planning an excursion this summer to check this out for myself. I'll try to get a field meter for this and I'll let you guys know how I get on.

David, the engineer Charles Brooker was recently on an edition of UltraScience on Discovery channel Sci-Trek, so he is still around doing his stuff, he's spent the last twenty years travelling the world conducting these tests at other sites, and has found similar geomagnetic anomalies in war zones and trouble spots.

DOWSING SKEPTICS CONVERTED
A while back, New Scientist ran an article on the "dowsing sense." Two letters prompted by the article were from scientifically trained people who originally were very skeptical about dowsing.

The first letter from P.L. Younger, a university hydrogeologist, first mentioned that most dowsers are convinced that they are hunting underground streams of water. In actuality, he says, most underground water flow is intergranular and laminar. There are no underground streams to find! Then, he continued:


"Having said all this, while conducting hydrogeological fieldwork in Colorado, I was involved in 'dowsing' the exact location of buried metal pipes using two L-shaped metal rods, which were balanced on the fingers (not clutched at all). Surface and subsurface pipes gave clear deflection of the rods. I was led to conclude that the rods operated as a crude magnetometer."
B.W. Skelcher originally did not believe that any variation in the magnetic field or any other natural force would cause a hand-held stick to move. But:


"One day, on the undeveloped plot of land adjacent to my abode, I spied a 'nutter' pacing to and fro with hazel in hand. When the fellow assured me that he was seriously checking the site for hidden water mains, power cables, and so on, I expressed my grave doubts. At this he handed me the twigs and after a brief instruction goaded me to try. After a few paces I was astonished to feel the two bent twigs move in my hands. I am not skeptical any more, I know it works."
(Younger, Paul L., and Skelcher, B.W.; "Dowsing-Sense," New Scientist, p. 62, April 9, 1987.)
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf052/sf052p20.htm

MANIFESTATIONS OF EARTH ENERGY AT MEGALITHIC SITES?
Stories have long circulated that strange phenomena cluster about megalithic sites, such as Stonehenge. Those who claim psychic powers state that earth energies (whatever they are) seem to focus at these ancient constructions. The story goes that the builders of the stone circles could also detect these natural forces and intentionally chose these spots where the energies were most powerful. "Proper" siting and orientation were doubtless important to the builders of the megalithic structures, but can modern, no-nonsense science even begin to explore these mystical, psychic claims?

Given today's scientific impatience with all psychic subjects, one would not expect a scientific journal, even a popular one, to touch the subject of "earth energies." Yet, here is an article describing the use of ultrasound detectors and Geiger counters in surveying megalithic monuments for foci of earth energies. Sure enough, curious enhancements of ultrasound intensity were discovered at the Rollright Stones. At another site, the natural radiation background level was anomalously depressed. It is all very mystifying.

(Robins, Don; "The Dragon Project and the Talking Stones," New Scientist, 96: 166, 1982.)
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf025/sf025p02.htm
 
Interesting to know that some scientists at last acknowledge the existence of these facilities! I checked out mine on our local waterworks field. I knew where some pipes were as i saw them installed in an update, but both james & i drew plans which generally agreed and both of us plotted a line with a very strong deflection in another fied going to the works(storage tanks). A visiting waterworks employee lokked at our maps and confirmed them totally accurate. The big response plotted the main incoming supply pipe installed many years ago, so we were convinced that it worked . The same thing is happening with hypnosis, denied for years by many scientists, although I have used it for childbirth, removing fear of the dentist etc many times over the years. look forward to reading your results tb!
 
I have just started reading up on this as well- I've always been interested in british prehistory and after reading Mark Chadbourn's brilliant "Age of Misrule" trilogy ( Modern fantasy where the age of reason is coming to an end and a major aspect of the survival of humanity is learning to harness earth energy- it even name checks forteantimes.com- highly recommended ) I have bought some Paul Devereux stuff and I'm getting fascinated all over again.

Of course, down in the South-east where I am there doesn't seem to be much that is very old, but so it goes- I'm definitely going to have to go exploring a bit now...
 
I've just discovered another circle in Dorset, Kingston Russell. There's also the Priddy circles, but they're like mounds or tumuli really, but still interesting. There are a couple of circles near Sidmouth and Seaton too. Looks like I'll have a busy summer...

Here is a good online map of stones and circles:

http://www.megalith.ukf.net/bigmap.htm

You're right - there aren't any in the S/E, all in S/W, wales Scotland and Ireland on this map at least. Must be something about us Celts and West Country folks eh? Unless all the others were built on.

I'm well into Devereaux's work, I may go to the FT Unconvention seeing that him and Hancock are speaking there. The *Dragons of the Mekong* talk sounds good too. Bonzer!

Does anyone know where I can get a magnetometer?
 
Still on dowsing... I have a "standing stone", actually an old granite gate post, on land just in front of my backgarden, which we erected ourselves. I dowsed over the stone and got nothing. Then I had to video a local pagan artist "bringing a granite sculpture to life by beating it and chanting with help from some local witches. This, he said energised it. (funny folk us lot down here!!) Now to the interesting bit: I decided to go out after dark and beat my gatepost and copy his chant, i didn't want my neighbours watching! next day i tried dowsing & got a strong reaction - maybe not surprising as i had done the energising and had perhaps expectations. Then i got my son James to try, having not been told about anything and previously having had a nill reaction. Amazingly, he now got the same strong reaction as i did. Has the process of physically beating done something to the quartz in the stone? Or has something else operated? Any comments tb?
 
That sounds really interesting. No idea what was going on, but I'm very intrigued.

Any recommendations on getting started with dowsing. Sounds like it has too much potential for interesting to miss out on.
 
Wonder if it's a similar effect to those piezo crystals they used to use in ciggy lighters. The mechanism whacks 'em together and you get enough of a charge for a spark to occur.

Could be the same sort of thing on a smaller scale. Your continuous beating developing a small charge in the stone.
 
Just another thought.

If a stone is big enough will it have it's own magnetic field? Or at least cause a measurable displacement of the Earths field?

I remember seeing a dowser on the telly who claimed that all solitary standing stones/menhirs where close to running water, usually underground, that kept the stones charged.

Makes you wonder doesn't it? If you had a means to "see" the Earths field then the changes in it caused by these stones would make them stick out like beacons across the landscape. Good way to navigate, eh?
 
And another thing.

Pigeons and other critters are supposed to navigate by reading the Earths magnetic field. I wonder if there was a time when humans had this ability too? Some seem to still possess it don't they? Another dormant function perhaps?
 
xtals :)

Humans also have some way of using the magnetic field for finding their way. But I don't know how it works. I don't have it though, I could get lost in a phonebooth. But experiments have been done with people trying to find north and failing with a magnet stuck to their head.
 
Xanatic, scientists did exactly the same things with pigeons who then could not home and were completely lost.

The research began because someone noticed that pigeons and other birds went to great lengths to avoided electrical storms, sometimes flying hundreds of miles off course to get around them. The electrical activity of the storm obviously affecting their ability to navigate.
 
I know, but I found it more interesting that it also works for humans.

Now, if somebody is standing in an elevator, will they be able to tell which way north is then?
 
I would guess that being able to navigate by magnetic fields is what we probably understand as people having a good sense of direction- everyone knows people who just are good navigators, I suspect they are a little more in touch with this faculty than most people.
 
Anonymous said:
In the final 1982 issue of New Scientist, Paul Devereux and Robert Forrest relate the history of leys in England. ...

(Devereux, Paul, and Forrest, Robert; "Straight Lines on an Ancient Landscape," New Scientist, 96:822, 1982. Also: Brooker, Charles; "Magnetism and the Standing Stones," New Scientist, 97:105, 1983.)

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf026/sf026p02.htm
Click to expand...

The cited 1982 New Scientist article can be access at Google Books:

https://books.google.com/books?id=_...e&q=devereux Forrest "straight lines"&f=false
 
Didn't some scientists find that dogs align themselves according to magnetic fields when defaecating?
 
I'm one of the people who knows where north is. I get flustered and bothered if I can't find it.

Mr Frideswide did some recording and observations without me knowing and he reckons I'm within 10 degrees each side of magnetic north, over 90% of the time. The rest I'm in the correct quadrant OR I can't decide and come over all unnecessary!

There is anecdotal word of mouth evidence that it's more common in autistics - but that could just be we are more likely to notice and much more likely to spend time exploring it.
 
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