Taught dowsing by his father, a marine engineer in Yorkshire, Ced was soon able to develop an ‘energetic' approach to living environments, and he is now a member of the British Society of Dowers and former executive committee member of their Earth Energies group. Ced incorporates dowsing as an essential part of his energy work.

Another area of major interest for Ced is to bring about an improvement in people's health, and for this he calls upon his other areas of expertise, such as Geopathic Stress, Spirit Release and design issues, to name but a few.
So, without further ado, I allow Ced to continue the story...

1. Your career began by working with deprived communities in London; can you tell us something of this time and the problems faced by these communities at that time?

In the early 1970's most of the remaining Victorian areas of our cities were threatened with redevelopment. Urban clearance seemed unstoppable, but two groups mounted a resistance. The first consisted of long-term residents of the areas who did not want to move, and the second was made up of wealthier incomers who appreciated the advantages the areas offered.

It was at this point that I realised that something was seriously adrift. Perfectly ~ or at least potentially perfectly ~ reasonable areas were being demolished, and what was being erected in their place was often much worse. This made me reflect on what makes a place good to live in, and also the fact that poor people have little control over the forces that shape their lives.

This experience triggered an enduring interest in how different environments enhance or diminish the quality of life.

2. You subsequently achieved a diploma in urban and regional planning and at this time you also discovered the writings of Ernest John Eitel, a German missionary in 19th century China who studied the tradition and philosophical roots of Feng Shui. How much influence did Eitel's work have on the way you then chose to develop and use your skills?

Eitel is really interesting. He was an outsider looking in on a different culture, just like us! Eitel was the first person to expose me to the notion of putting relatively small things ~ such as the design of a house ~ in the context of life, the universe and everything.

When I read Eitel's book it was the only one in print on Feng Shui. It led to me to a study of the I Ching and the realisation that the Ching lies at the heart of so much of Chinese wisdom, which I explored via Joseph Needham's many volumed ‘Science and Civilisation in China'. Needham was an outstanding Cambridge academic and his work is extremely valuable.

For me the really interesting thing was that here your had a philosophy, a notion of the forces underlying the universe, yet those same principles could be successfully applied to many parts of our lives, and the homes we live in.

3. Dowsing, taught to you by your father, is a skill you bring to your work. How important a role does this play in consultations?

Dowsing is vital. It is a bridge between the mundane and the unseen worlds. It is also a way of validating our experience. There is a huge amount of theory within Feng Shui ~ you only have to look at Stephen Skinner's excellent book on the compass ~ but dowsing can also tell you if you are heading in the right direction, or not.

It's interesting that the first chapter in the recently published Book of English Magic is about dowsing. Like Feng Shui, dowsing is a kind of magic that marries intention, knowledge of the forces in play, and action in the external world, to bring about the desired result.

Dowsing is also helpful at a basic level in identifying Geopathic stress, detrimental energy lines, and letting you know whether your interventions are having a beneficial effect.

4. Do you have an example of how dowsing has made an extraordinary difference to a situation?

Better quality of sleep. Without good quality sleep your defences are compromised, you're more vulnerable to infection, leading to pressure on the immune system and poor health.

Besides using dowsing to ‘unearth' information, dowsing can also be used as a form of intervention. I learnt a lot from the American dowser Joey Korn, who uses a combination of dowsing and prayer (or what you might call focussed intent). Joey helped me to develop my healing skills, and my first success was with someone who had been afflicted with neck pain for many years.

Dowsing ~ and interventions based on dowsing ~ has brought more benefits to my clients than many other actions.

5. People's health is a major interest for you; one aspect being electromagnetic energy fields (EMF's). With the increasing number of cell phone towers, cables and other such equipment dotting the landscape, do you believe EMF's are becoming more of a problem for many people's personal well being?

Absolutely. Our bodies have an electromagnetic aspect, but it is very small and gentle. Human beings have never before been exposed to the volume of electricity that surrounds us, and some of the forms in which electricity is present are less than two hundred years old.

In addition, electro-magnetic and other waves bombard us daily. There is no rest from them. Telecom masts surround us. The Church of England is making money by installing mobile phone masts in church towers. This is appalling, and shows no understanding of sacred space or vibrational energy.

Observing the stresses on people's health ~ and the resulting debilitating diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome ~ has led me to an involvement in direct forms of health intervention. So, besides using Feng Shui and Dowsing, in appropriate circumstances I also apply what is often called energy or vibrational healing.

I have joined and am training with The Healing Trust, formerly the National Federation of Spiritual Healers. For me, this is a logical development of the skills I acquired from Joey Korn. In my view healing could be described as the true purpose of a feng shui consultation, whether it is the healing of someone's body or their environment.

6. Will you share with us something of your work as a practitioner with the Spirit Release Foundation?

Many people ~ far more than you might expect ~ believe that they are subject to interference or deliberate attack from the spirits of people who have died.

It is of course impossible to say one way or the other if this is objectively ‘true', but that is how many people experience it. I have found that certain interventions can improve the client's welfare and experience regarding this.

The process used to be called Exorcism, now mostly described as Spirit Release, or Deliverance. The Church of England ditched the term Exorcism and adopted Deliverance not long after the release of the film of ‘The Exorcist'. All C of E Dioceses now have a Deliverance Minister who specialises ~ amongst their other duties ~ in Deliverance.

I trained in this field with the Spirit Release Foundation ~ itself made up of healers and psychiatrists ~ and if it is appropriate I incorporate this work into my consultations. I have written elsewhere on the link between dowsing and spirit release, and if you want an interesting and relevant literary introduction, look at the well informed novels of Phil Rickman, concerning the doings of the Herefordshire Deliverance Minister, Merrily Watkins. I'd suggest you start with ‘Midwinter of the Spirit'.

7. Do you find clients are becoming more open to the idea of other realities and concepts, such as the presence of predecessor energy in a property?

Yes. It's very interesting how many people have experiences of ghosts or something similar. Some people link this to their family history, others to a property.

Usually people have not heard of predecessor energy, but relate to it strongly when it is mentioned.

People are interested in other realities ~ what the dowser Hamish Miller refers to as ‘upstairs', or ‘the management' ~ and Feng Shui can provide a very gentle way of dipping your feet in the ocean.

8. Have you ever experienced a real (Feng Shui) challenge to your skills? If so, how did you deal with the situation?

We are alternative therapy practitioners. Like all such labourers, we sometimes get clients who have already tried everything else, and they wouldn't have come to us if they'd previously been successful.

Some clients have a multitude of serious problems: Ill health, no money, no friends, and no sense of a way forward. Their situation is dire, and it's hard to find the magic bullet. In such cases what you can do is...everything you know. If you engage, the path will be shown. If we build it, they will come.

Sometimes it takes a while before a client's core issues emerge. We need to develop our listening skills to ensure that we are in the right forest.

9. Do you have a particular aspect of your Feng Shui work that you consider a favourite? Why is this?

Bringing an improvement to the quality of a person's health and well-being. It is wonderful when you see joy re-surfacing in a client, and it makes all the years of study worthwhile.

10. Do you become involved with both homes and businesses when using your Feng Shui skills?

Absolutely. Both homes and businesses are concerned with what might be called the microenvironments of human interaction and experience. That is also what Feng Shui is about.

Fascinating work is being undertaken in the study of psycho-geography, microenvironments and psychology, from both a commercial and developmental perspective.

We are only at the beginning of all this. We have yet to absorb the benefits ~ already available to us ~ of the centuries of learning within Chinese intellectual history. In a few years time the study of Feng Shui will require the commitment of an Open University undergraduate course. Wedding this to our modern knowledge of psychology, developmental therapy, health, and environmental impact will form the basis of our post-graduate studies.