Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Susan McNeill Spuhler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Susan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Dowsing, Divining, Water witching, Doodlebugging. These are all terms that have been used to find water underground. As a Fourth Generation Dowser and someone who has been involved with organizational dowsing for over 30 years, I have seen many of the classic, old time dowsers pass away with very few filling their shoes. As a highly proficient dowser, a laser engineer, someone who is excellent at bringing people together and organizing large events, it has become my mission to make sure that the art of dowsing continues on into the future. I have been teaching my cousin’s son, Arthur, to dowse since he was six years old. He is now 11. Hence, he is now a Fifth-Generation water dowser.

When the Director of the West Coast Dowsers Conference suddenly passed away in 2017, I took it upon myself to keep that conference alive. That event is every other summer over July 4th weekend at the University of California Santa Cruz which is one of the Ten Most Beautiful College Campuses in the World. After a successful conference in 2018, we were faced with Covid with our 2020 Conference. We ended up holding the event at my home in Westford, Massachusetts. We had 60 speakers, I video taped most of the speakers in 45 minute increments, edited their talks then used the GoToWebinar platform to bring the conference to the world for five days, 24 hours per day for FREE. My committee flew to my home and like clockwork, we put on an excellent event that reached over 13,600 viewers interested in dowsing.

Over the course of earlier West Coast Conferences, I was asked when we were going back to Flagstaff. Up until 2013 there was a biennial dowser conference in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2019 I started to put together the event for Columbus Day weekend 2021. The event was very successful despite Covid-19 limitations. We are once again back in Flagstaff October 4 to 10, 2023. I personally fund this event because dowsing is very important to the world and many dowsers support my efforts.

Susan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was on vacation with a friend at Stonehenge in December 1991, there was a bus tour that was walking along the path by the stones. They had L-shaped wires in their hands and when they would pass the Heel Stone, their rods would spin like helicopter blades. They didn’t know what they were doing and subsequently neither did the bus driver who lent them the rods. I asked to try using the rods and I was successful at having them spin. What was happening was that we were walking over a ley line that passed through the stones at Stonehenge and through the Heel stone on the opposite side of the walking path; the the L-rods were detecting the energy. At the time I was working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts doing aluminum gallium arsenide semiconductor laser array diode research. I spoke to my fellow engineers and told them of my experience. They advised me to speak with Harold Anderson who worked there at the lab in an adjoining building. He then taught me how to dowse by measuring energy fields around our bodies….the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy fields. From there I taught myself to dowse and started finding lost items, the first being my mink ear muffs that I forgot that I had put in my cedar Hope Chest. Over time I became acquainted with the Boston Dowsers and I’ve been the President since 2002. I am often called upon to find lost items and one of the most memorable was when The TV show NOVA (WGBH, Public Television in Boston) contacted me to find 37 missing video tapes. They had two warehouses the size of football fields and many stories high. I dowsed which building they were in and was given the information that was on the tapes. I finally asked for a tape that was part of the series and used that as a “witness”, an item that is part of what you’re looking for. If you lose one earring but still have the other, the remainder earring is called a witness. After receiving the witness video tape, I put it under my arm and started following my L-rods which brought me down one aisle and then another until they pointed to the correct, mismarked box with the 37 tapes in it. Employees had searched for months without any luck of finding the box that I found in basically 15 minutes. I dowse wells for people and have become friends with many well drillers over the year. I dowsed a well for the Saratoga Springs Polo Club in New York that yielded 125 gallons per minute in addition to well sites in the six New England States, Wyoming, Arkansas and California. I have dowsed wells on the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket where the depth and gallons per minute were precise. Dowsing is focused intuition.
When I was applying to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, I had to take the GRE exam (Graduate Record Examination) as a prerequisite of being accepted into their Masters Program. I didn’t have a great deal of time to drive from Boston to Worcester (45+ minutes one way), take the exam and get back to work so I dowsed the exam. I looked at every page of questions on the computer, squinted at the screen and immediately chose the brightest/clearest letter. I did not read any of the questions, I dowsed the answers. I graduated with my Master’s Degree from WPI in 2000.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

In the past, all funds that I earned from dowsing jobs would go towards my dowsing chapter since we would have our meetings at buildings that charged us hundreds of dollars for our monthly gatherings. Once the Covid 19 issue dissipated, we started meeting at our home in Westford, Massachusetts. Once I made up my mind to revitalized the Dowser Conference in Flagstaff (previously known as the Southwest Dowsers Conference), all money that I earn go towards the making of dowsing tools for the Basic Dowsing School (L-rods, Y-rods, bobbers and pendulums) as well as scholarships for attendees. If I ever need something or extra funds, I will manifest said items or other dowsers will assist me. Manifestation plays a big role in my life. I dream, imagine and feel having certain things or situations and they invariably will happen in the most wonderful ways. I dowse in the now. Say “I have more money than I could ever possibly spend”. How does that feel? Believe it and that is what the universe will give you. This is all a Labor of Love (as Gramma McNeill used to say)

Any advice for managing a team?

Love, encouragement, gratitude and empowerment. I am always happy to help and encourage people to learn something new to improve themselves. I am a loving, generous straight shooter. “Thank you very much” are words that are often spoken by me to those I work with. A past Vice President of our Boston Dowsing chapter calls me The General. Instead of learning from my own mistakes, I learn from others mistakes and have paid attention to what makes a successful conference as well as what constitutes a not-so-successful event. I have high standards when it comes to accomplishing goals and I choose partners with my same ambition, talents, passion and sense of urgency. I can’t know everything and do my best to attract those of equivalent or higher caliber than myself. This came into play when I finally decided to get married. I needed to be with a husband who was smarter than me. At age 37 I achieved that goal. I also like to give presents. When I find out what types of things people like or collect, I’ll make a point of giving them said items.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dowserssouthwest.com/
• Instagram: susanmcneillspuhler
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=flagstaff%20dowsers%20conference
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmcneillspuhler/
• Twitter: @susanspuhler
• Youtube: @susandowser
• Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.spuhler Facebook for the West Coast Dowsers Conference: https://www.facebook.com/groups/112102348802061 This is the other dowser conference I am the Director of. It’s all A Labor of Love

Image Credits
All photos were taken by me, Susan McNeill Spuhler or with my camera.