Paul Knoll lay in bed knowing that something was making him sick, so he dowsed in the dark.

Was it something he ate? No. Drank? No. The new insulation? No.

It took five minutes to nail down the culprit through a kind of energy checkup, quizzing himself while using one of his hands to try to pry apart two fingers on his other hand. If the fingers stayed pinched together, that was a yes. If they came apart easily, that was a no.

Finally, through enough trial and error, he body-dowsed to the answer: Fabric softener had gotten mixed in with the sheets.

Seems dowsing isn’t just looking for water underground anymore.

After he became chemically sensitive six years ago, exposed to so much mold in his workplace that he was diagnosed with brain poisoning, Knoll turned to dowsing for relief. He founded the New England Dowsing Center and has begun branching out. Knoll taught his first class, “Dowsing for Your Health,” in Freeport last week. He’s got another scheduled May 12.

He uses pendulums, L-rods and, in a pinch, his hands, to divine everything from whether to take a nap to whether bad energy flows under a person’s bed.

“I probably make at least 10 to 15 decisions a day based on dowsing,” Knoll said.

Of course, he warns, there is one hitch: “You’ve got to believe in this for this to really work for you.”

Mold, ghosts: A dowser is born

Knoll, 47, was an assistant principal at Memorial Middle School in South Portland when staffers started complaining of fatigue, having a tough time focusing and dealing with sinus problems. He spearheaded an effort to find out why and went around the school, literally sniffing for mold. The building had had issues with mold before.

“In three months (it was), ‘Wait a minute. I’m getting the same symptoms the staff members are,'” Knoll said. “When you get a really bad cold and your mind just feels ehh – that’s what I was feeling every day.”

Mold was eventually found under the floor in the library, most of which was later torn down because it was so bad. Knoll was later diagnosed with toxic encephalitis (brain poisoning) and cognitive disorder because of his exposure. He left the school and got help. Alternative medicine practitioners seemed to provide some of the best relief, Knoll said.

Some of those practitioners also dowsed, and he was intrigued.

His interest was sealed when a pair of ghosts started creaking on the stairs of his Cousins Island house.

Knoll suspected the spirits might have been stirred by some new renovations. A soul retrieval expert gave him an over-the-phone consultation and identified a Native American and European woman in the house, he said. She then put him in touch with a man who does energy work.

That man picked up on the same two ghosts. He dowsed to find a Native American burial site on Knoll’s property and offered advice. Knoll was impressed.

“When he left, I said, ‘I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to get involved in this.'”

Knoll and his wife built a rock garden around the site to contain the energy, and left tobacco and prayer offerings. The ghosts left, or at least quieted for a long time. A little while ago, his oldest daughter told him, “Dad, I think we have a ghost back.” So he doused. She was right.

‘You know the answer’

He has had five years of study, learning and practice. (The book “Dowsing for Health” by Dr. Patrick MacManaway is a good place for the curious to start, he said.)

The asker can definitely influence the results, he said. So before he dowses, Knoll appears to meditate for a moment and asks himself if he’s free of ego, and feeling objective and grounded. If it’s a yes to all three, he can go ahead.

“You do have to check your ego at the door – or before you swing the pendulum,” Knoll said.

He has both a store-bought pendulum with a green stone hanging on the end and a length of yarn with a brass nut that dangles on the end; it makes no difference, he said. Results don’t depend on the product. He uses those and the L-rods to ask questions indoors, and uses his hands to ask questions on the road. (For instance, Knoll says, he’s not going to take out a pendulum and swing it around in the middle of the grocery store to pick one vitamin supplement over another.)

When swinging a pendulum, a clockwise rotation for him is yes, counterclockwise no. (That can vary by individual.) It’s also possible for the pendulum to hang limp and ambivalent.

“This is all about your intuition. You know the answer. This is learning to trust what that answer is,” Knoll said. “Some people need to see that yes/no. That’s what this is about. Dowsing is bringing that gut feeling out.”

Pulling out his green pendulum, he asked if he ought to work out that day. The response was iffy, probably because he’d had knee surgery not too long ago, Knoll said. His body knew that he’d better take it easy.

His mold-related health issues are still present. Though he’s taken steps to avoid irritants, like living in a fragrance-free home, Knoll said his short-term memory is pretty poor. He has trouble reading maps and multi-tasking. He’s a stay-at-home dad now, and likes to read the energy in people’s homes and give advice, such as readjusting the alignments of beds or recommending earth acupuncture, a practice of releasing negative energy from the ground and replacing it with positive.

“Anybody with a chemical illness, you learn to manage it,” Knoll said. “Helping other people manage their lives helps me feel better about myself.”

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