TOPAZ Magazine | Detection - Know yourself and the world around you

Detection - Know yourself and the world around you

By Josina Keuskamp - van Schaik

The writing on the temple of Apollo in Deplhi says ‘Gnoti Seauton’, or ‘Know thyself’. I believe that that's why we live - to find out what we are and what we are here to do. Ever since humans began to think, they've been haunted by questions such as what am I? who am I? why am I here? what is this planet where I am living? where am I going to? is there anything new under the sun? what is actually going on here? This inborn inner urge to get to know ourselves and our environment drives us to read books or seek out people who may be able to give us answers. However, we all have our own researching equipment, our bodies and faculties, which with effort can give us first hand perception and experience about what we are and what the relationship with our surroundings is about.

Detection is the art of discovering and shedding new light upon the world around us. From our very first breath of air we try to understand and interpret the signals that are coming towards us and we try to make sense of the body we find ourselves within and our immediate surroundings. The baby watches its fingers or puts them into its mouth or turns its head to where sound is coming from - always busy registering and sensing. We live inside a complex and versatile machine, our body equipped with five senses that are the industrious vehicle for reception and detection, and which is in constant exchange with the world outside us. These senses, in association with our brain, translate and analyse everything for us through colour, image, smell, sound, taste and sensation. Detection is the process of making conscious and extending our ability to translate and understand the more hidden worlds around us, and the way to experience and appreciate more through our extraordinary faculties. These hidden or unseen worlds are where the causes of what we see lie.

The many applications of Detection

The human body and its inherent faculties is the most acute, accurate, sharp and relentless master detective. Upon entering a room, within a split second, it will have assessed its dimensions, proportions, contents and atmosphere, and will be busy trying to communicate this information to us. Our body detects more efficiently and to a far greater degree than we can. It falls upon us to try to hear its messages and to interpret what is being measured and detected for us.

Detection could be described as the skill of discovering what is actually going on at any moment, not what we think is going on according to our coloured glasses of expectation, hope, aspiration or even frustration. Detection is the inroad to the inner life of things. Through detection we can get to know such things as the properties and qualities of trees, plants and minerals, to understand human behaviour and why people do what they do, and we can better relate to the world around us.

As an example, what is the difference between living on land that is clay based and rock-based? What is the difference between living in low-lying land or in the mountains? What effect does running water have on our body, and what do ley-lines cause in our system? What effect does holding a crystal have, or a diamond, or a pebble? Do we feel and experience in our life an ever growing insight into the connections that exist between things, between people, from people to animals, between people and flora life?
There are as many applications in detection as there are interests that people have. Detection can be never-ending, and the beauty of it is that it observes the function of something without putting a value judgement on it.

Detection and the Natural Worlds

You may be interested in detecting the natural worlds, so when you visit a place your first quest would be to detect influences in the vicinity. What plants and trees grow there? What is the geography and the nature of the soil? What is the nature of the water, the light and the air? Is it charging or sedating? Is it calming or revitalising? What has happened there over the course of history? Where did the people living there originate?
By asking questions, through sensitivity and the right kind of assimilation and study we can begin to understand the more hidden aspects of life. We can begin to appreciate how hills and mountains tend to radiate influences like a radio station transmitting signals, whilst lowlands and valleys tend to take in and retain influences, like a receiving station - and this will have an effect upon the people living there. It is said that where poppies grow blood has been shed. And where camomile grows there is peace and quiet. Where there are squirrels it indicates that it is a place of strong energy which promotes activity. Where you find a group of sycamores together then this is a good place to have a rest and you will find that it is easy to have thoughts here about your future. And so on… There are certain types of land where the radiations can enhance the quality of the blood, or the nerves or the voice. It can explain why dogs howl at the moon, what the difference is between wearing cotton and silk, and how certain types of music can improve one's health.

The art of detection is a journey of discovery. All we need to do is to take the first step towards adventure and hunger for the unknown and to start to become curious again.

I spoke with Ge and Lied Weber, Paul Keuskamp and Barry Wentzel who have been researching detection together with an international network of detecto friends. For years they have organised successful fieldtrips to archaeological sites all over the world, to museums, religious and military monuments, castles and cathedrals - to places where human passion has left footprints for those to come who may gain wisdom therefrom.

Interviews

Barry Wentzel: When I intend to practice my detection I prepare myself beforehand so as to be open for impressions that I might come across. I try to bring myself internally into a neutral state by not having too many conscious thoughts for a full hour. Increasingly I enjoy doing this because life today places a strong demand upon having to think in a fragmented way. The process of detection for me is trying to tune into things, so that I am not separate from them. So, if I am going out into nature, I aim to become part of it and in harmony with it.

Out in the country I try to register and measure what a particular landscape feels like. By observing the plants and animal and bird life, I can learn a great deal about the nature of the land in that place and what energies belong with that area. There are certain things to particularly watch out for, such as the predominant colours, shapes, the nature of fauna life in the district, the geological formations and so on. Have you noticed how birds sometimes fly around in a particular cone shape pattern? Well this can tell us something about what energies are present, since birds are very responsive to electro-magnetic influences.

Paul Keuskamp: Detection trains us into being sensitive to the body's immediate experience of something. The instinct and intuition are very important tools and faculties, often generally undeveloped in how we use them. One method to try to develop the intuition is to go and sit somewhere, such as at the entrance to a historical building, where throughout the centuries many people have passed. You sit quietly in a receptive, waiting mode and you try to quieten the continuous automatic brain process. You then try to become aware of what, if any, pictures turn up in the mind, or unexpected thoughts, or urges you feel to do certain things. It is actually possible for our faculties to connect to historical experiences and to register activities that happened many centuries before. Do we not visit historical places to try to get a feeling of what it was like for previous generations? It is not simply an academic exercise - we love to sense and feel things outside of our common reference. Well, our body and faculty is far more capable in doing this than we often give it credit for.

Lied Weber: As a child you are always observing and detecting things - what colour is it, how big is it and so on. As we grow up we can lose our natural curiosity. I've always been curious and I still am even at 74 years old. I‘m always asking myself how and why something works. I've also always seen or felt things that I wanted to know more about, such as colours others did not see, a shape on the wall or a registration that I need to escape a certain place. Sometimes in certain places I receive strong feelings as if there is a particular presence in the place. It is strange and yet at the same time very real.

Detection is searching for how things are caused and why they are as they are. You train yourself to understand cause and effect - this has happened for this reason and now this will follow. The more you do it, the more it seems to switch on new awarenesses, so I find I get more hunches and knowing or premonitions about things today than I used to.

Ge Weber: Most of our common ways of detection are through the five senses of hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell. Simply by becoming more conscious of what these senses are receiving or registering you can improve your awareness ten-fold. But there is also a world of registrations beyond the field of the five senses, that calls into play more advanced faculties of detection. There are many unseen and unfelt influences that are part of our environment and yet beyond the scope or range of our general sensitivity. As an example, most people know of the existence of ley lines, and yet they cannot be measured by machines. So there are many such things that may not be scientifically proven but which can be proven by the tangible evidence of our own experience. The hands, if trained, can be tremendous detection instruments and can sense things that cannot be seen. Likewise we have often used items such as detecting rods made from metal coat hangers that work rather like divination rods, that react to electro-magnetic energy in the district. By learning how to use these you can trace lines of power or energy such as in ley lines. It has been fascinating to study and map the relationship between ley lines and the placement of churches or cathedrals.

Lied Weber: You can detect the radiation of animals, trees and plants as well. As an example, in early spring the trees have large banks of energy above them, which dissipate as the leaves begin to appear. To feel and sense these kinds of things is like tapping into the extras of life.

We run guided detection tours to different places and one venue we often visit is the Egyptian department of the Museum of Archeology in Leiden. We show people preparatory sensitivity exercises, mainly to sensitise the hands, and we use the hands to sense different artefacts and statues. There are simple exercises that help to charge and sensitise the hands so as to be able to sense and register the unseen radiation of such statues. Alongside this we practice using observation and enquiry to stimulate new ways of looking at and understanding these ancient cultures. What does the position of the hands or feet indicate, what is their posture implying, and so on. Without exercising the natural curiosity and practicing our arts of detection these statues are no more than pieces of stone with seemingly small relevance to our lives. By learning the arts of detection the world opens up and becomes a far more interesting place than it already is.

Ge Weber: The word detection for us is all about increasing awareness and therefore value for the world around us. It takes one away from familiarity with everything and prompts us to approach life afresh. And the more you do it the more we see that we are part of an amazing and awesome system. Detection I is an adventure, not always to find answers, but to probe a little bit deeper into the mysteries that are everywhere.

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