J. Cecil Maby

Joseph Cecil Maby
Maby dowsing at River Leven, Fife
Born	1902
Died	1971
Occupation(s)	Physicist, dowser

Joseph Cecil Maby (1902-1971) was a British biophysicist, dowser and psychical researcher.

Maby was born in the Colony of Natal and moved to England as a child. He lived near Cheltenham. He believed that he had experienced paranormal events at his family's home. He developed a lifelong interest in psychical research.[1]

With physicist T. Bedford Franklin, Maby wrote the book The Physics of the Dowsing Rod (1939).[2] They postulated that dowsing occurred due to some form of radiation. A review in Nature noted that there is "no direct evidence for such waves and the author's discussion of their polarization cannot be justified on our present physical knowledge."[3] Psychologist Donovan Rawcliffe wrote that claims in the book have no scientific validity.[4]

Maby was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.[5] He was a member of the British Society of Dowsers and Society for Psychical Research.

Publications

Books

• Walls of Jericho (1932) OCLC 2980019
• By Stygian Waters (1933) OCLC 6717220
• The Physics of the Divining Rod; being an account of an experimental investigation of water and mineral divining (1939, 1978) [with Thomas Bedford Franklin] OCLC 221162635, 2311518
• Co-operative healing: the curative properties of human radiations (1947) [with Leon Ernest Eeman] OCLC 4812229, 559677865
• Confessions of a Sensitive: a critical study of the paranormal and of occult faculties in man (1966) OCLC 6621144
• Physical Principles of Radiesthesia; collected papers: 1944-65 (1966) OCLC 14502425
• A Naturalist at Large: a candid commentary upon modern life and fashions (1967) OCLC 30282781

Papers

• Maby, C. (1935). An Experimental Test of Astrological Claims. Journal of the British Astronomical Association 45: 165-166.
• Maby, C. (1936). Micellar Structure of the Tracheide Wall in Certain Woods, in Relation to Morphogenetic and Mechanical Factors. New Phytologist 35 (5): 432-455.
• Maby, C. (1940). Science and the Divining Rod. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 88 (4559): 520-539.

References

1. Wilson, Neil. (2000). Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction, 1820-1950. British Library. p. 334. ISBN 0-7123-1074-6
2. Gardner, Martin. (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Publications. p. 103. ISBN 0-486-20394-8
3. Anonymous. (1940). The Physics of the Divining Rod. Nature 146: 150.
4. Rawcliffe, Donovan. (1988). Occult and Supernatural Phenomena. Dover Publications. p. 358. ISBN 0-486-25551-4
5. "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society". May 8, 1925.

External links

• Maby, Joseph Cecil in libraries (WorldCat catalog)