Mysterious People 

Raoul Derosiers - The Man with X-Ray Vision

J. Raoul Derosiers, a Canadian businessman, had one of the strangest talents on record, he could, apparently, see deep into solid earth. His talent was known as 'water witching' or as it is more commonly called water divining or dowsing.

Derosiers had often suffered from acute stabbing pains under his lower ribs but, although the attacks were painful, they never lasted long, so he didn't take too much notice of them. In 1940, however, the attacks started to occur more frequently and for much longer durations, convincing him that he needed to visit a doctor. The doctor though the problem was mainly psychological, and would be cured by rest. Accordingly he prescribed Derosiers sleeping pills, and indeed, this appeared to work for a while

After he'd been taking the pills for about a month, Derosiers visited a cousin's farm in Quebec. The relative complained that lack of water was pushing him out of the cattle business, but although he felt sorry about the situation, Derosiers could do nothing. A few months later, while the two men were walking across a field behind the barns, Derosiers got one of his awful pains in the ribs. As it was happening, he said to his cousin: 'Don't ask me why I say this, for I can't explain it - but I feel that I am standing over a stream of underground water . . . good water. It is seventy feet down and it runs over the top of a layer of slate three inches thick. Don't drill through that slate or you will lose the water.'

Three weeks later, the well was drilled in the place Derosiers had indicated, and an abundant supply of drinkable water was discovered only a foot deeper than he had specified. Underneath the water was a layer of slate three to four inches in thickness.

News of this miraculous 'water witching' spread quickly and Derosiers found his talents very much in demand. He chose locations for over six hundred wells, without failure, simply by walking over the land and stopping when he felt the stabbing pain in his ribs.

He was exhaustively tested by Canadian government officials and scientists, some trying to prove him a fraud, others attempting to find out exactly how he did it. But, though they found that his skin's electrical potential was different from normal people's, they could discover no other significant change or variation.

What remains is, that somehow, Raoul Derosiers developed an almost supernatural ability to accurately describe the layers of rock, slate and sand that lay underneath him when he was struck by the sharp pain in his ribs. His clients said he never missed. Perhaps the doctor's prescribed sleeping pills occasioned some change in him which facilitated this extraordinary skill.

Though his strange method of detection was bizarre to say the least, Derosiers' ability is not totally unique, there have been and are dowsers with similar skills. French dowser Barthelemy Bleton accidentally discovered his own talents at the age of seven because he always felt sick and faint when sitting on a particular spot. Subsequent digging at this spot revealed a powerful underground spring.

Sources and Further Reading

• Edwards, Frank. Strange People. London, Pan Books. 1966, pp117-18.
• Wilson, Colin. Mysteries. London, Granada Publishing Ltd. 1979, p123.

Author Brian A. Haughton www.mysteriouspeople.com