J. Cecil Maby Explained

Joseph Cecil Maby
Birth Date:	1902
Death Date:	1971
Occupation:	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)
• By Stygian Waters (1933)
• The Physics of the Divining Rod; being an account of an experimental investigation of water and mineral divining (1939, 1978) [with Thomas Bedford Franklin]
• Co-operative healing: the curative properties of human radiations (1947) [with Leon Ernest Eeman]
• Confessions of a Sensitive: a critical study of the paranormal and of occult faculties in man (1966)
• Physical Principles of Radiesthesia; collected papers: 1944-65 (1966)
• A Naturalist at Large: a candid commentary upon modern life and fashions (1967)

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.

Notes and References

1. Wilson, Neil. (2000). Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction, 1820-1950. British Library. p. 334.
2. [Martin Gardner|Gardner, Martin]
3. Anonymous. (1940). The Physics of the Divining Rod. Nature 146: 150.
4. [Donovan Rawcliffe|Rawcliffe, Donovan]
5. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1925MNRAS..85..579. "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society"