My name is Robyn -- hey there to all. I am somewhat of a novice at dowsing though I love the energy with it. I normally read tarot for people but also want to become really proficient at dowsing. If you're posing a "yes / no" question to the pendulum, how do you prevent your own "wishful thinking" from coming through whether you're reading for yourself, or someone else. I've dowsed for a couple of people and it turned out to be inaccurate. I want to fine tune this skill and be able to have confidence in the responses... any thought?

Hello from Isabelle.
I have been an active dowser for 15 years and dowse 2-4 hours a day.
A few suggestions-1) clear your mind of all thouhts
2) Practice every day
3) Have a dowsing chart of 1-10 to check level of accuracy
for example you might have 90% accuracy which means you might need to refine the question or simply keep at it until you get 100%
4) For yes and no answers there are many ways of doing this. When I first started dowsing, the method showed to me did not work for me but another method did. One way that works very well is-put your pendulun on your right knee-it will automatically go to your yes answer either clockwise or counter clockwise circle) do the same with the left knee. In this way you are in tune with your own body rhythm. My yes and no (ie clockwise and counter clockwise) are the opposite to what most people;s are.
5) try out various systems until you find out that works well for you.
6) know that during 10 minutes of every hour (when the tide is changing) it is most difficult to get accurate answers unless you have an over-ride system. That is why I suggest that if you get an inaccurate answer , try again in 10 minutes (in case you hit the tide change time) and perhaps you will get the right answer.
7) dowsing is a skill that comes over time and much practice.
Good luck and have lots of fun with it.

In the most simple terms:
Have no emotional connection or expectations whatsoever with the subject you are dowsing.Easier said than done. This is part of the discipline required to accurately dowse. I don't want to sound too Zen here, but the funny part is that the harder you try to divorce yourself emotionally from a dowsing topic, the less accurate the results become. Hence, it pays to develop an emotional and mental "spring cleaning" ritual or exercise as part of your dowsing procedure. Over time, you will automatically and easily attain this non-involved "blank page" state from which to more effectively "view" your dowsing results. All the best to you in your dowsing!

Wow, that's alot of great advice !