Hamish Miller and the Lost Podcast

The passing of dowser Hamish Miller on Burn’s Night may have been unexpected to the rest of us, yet Hamish himself had been there before – three times to be exact – so at least he knew what to expect.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t manage to get a podcast interview from Hamish. We had spoken about the possibility a couple of times at BSD Conference and Hamish was very amenable to the idea, but somehow we never managed to find the time during the weekend. However, at our 2008 Conference I discovered that he had recently installed Skype on his computer. This was exciting news, as I had purchased a piece of software called Pretty May that would record Skype conversations, allowing me to edit them into a podcast. We finally managed to find a suitable date last summer, and had a great chat online.

I first met Hamish ten years ago when I was doing my geomancy training in Glastonbury with Sig and Patrick. Hamish and Ba came to spend a few scant hours with us on a Friday evening. Although I was familiar with his books at the time, I don’t think any of us were prepared for the loving and gentle aura that emanated from the man in person.
The next day, our group of students dowsed the Michael and Mary currents on Glastonbury Tor, and I for one was amazed to find my then relatively-new Aurameter twisting and turning dramatically in my hand as it mapped out the complicated energy patterns almost exactly as Hamish had plotted them. For me, that was proof enough that these two energy currents actually existed for real, for I had been extremely sceptical about being able to dowse them. It would be some years later that I actually saw them snaking away into the night northeast of the Tor, two sinuous serpents of silver and blue. Hamish was delighted when I told him of that experience during our chat.

We spoke of this and other topics; his early work with the Fountain Group, his epic dowsing journey across Europe following the Apollo/ Athena lines, his visit to New Zealand, and his recent DVD ‘Diverse Dowsing’, which I had only just watched. Hamish had some interesting anecdotes about the making of it, and it was clear that he’d had a lot of fun with it.
Finally, we moved on to perhaps his greatest work, the creation of the Parallel Community. It was clear that he regarded this as the most important thing that he’d ever done. Not so much an organisation, more a state of being. It’s a fine legacy for anyone to leave behind.
After a talk of almost 40 minutes, I thanked Hamish for his time, and stopped recording. After I’d finished the call, I then clicked on the ‘play’ button, only to feel a sickeningly cold feeling in my stomach as an error message popped up saying ‘cannot find recorded file’. I was absolutely distraught, as I knew this had been the best interview I’d ever done for a podcast; yet despite a full search of my computer and frantic emails to technical support, it was clear that the damned thing hadn’t even recorded in the first place.
So regrettably, my ‘wee chat’ with Hamish turned out to be a private, final seminar for me from an acknowledged Master of earth energies. It’s a lesson that I shall cherish for the rest of my own life.

Hamish’s life was so varied and full that he achieved more things after the age of 70 that most folk manage in their entire lifetime. And yet he was always full of humility and claimed that he was just an ordinary guy. For someone so humble, he has left a great hole in our dowsing community, one that will be hard to fill indeed. We’ll all miss him.

Grahame Gardner
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