A TWA 747 took me, in November 1979, to New York. Over the Atlantic on the Great Circle route, I dowsed at regular intervals and found nothing. Having been wished a good day at various times and asked how I was by every member of the cabin staff, we flew in over Long Island. Instantly one was aware of active lines energies. This was fascinating for, although Eric had told me about the ley system in Washington, this was the first time I had personally dowsed the American Continent, although this was not my first visit. It was very busy but I noted nothing special. On the taxi ride into New York, I found nothing. I had thought about New York for some time and one thing had struck me. The twin obelisk of Cleopatra's Needle in London was in Central Park and, bearing in mind the relevance of the European obelisks to key sites, I was certain in my own mind that the Central Park obelisk should be integrated.

Having installed myself in my hotel, I telephoned Hilda, a friend of Joyce's, whom she said I should meet. She greeted me with enthusiasm. I took her to dinner and we discoursed at length about subjects of mutual interest. I explained to her how I had found New York to be dead, like Lourdes. We concluded that it was the flagrant commercialism, as I have sought to describe elsewhere. Having established our mutual credentials to each other's satisfaction, I asked if I might go to her flat to say the invocation on her terrace. She agreed instantly. It was on the nineteenth floor overlooking the centre of Manhattan. I am sure all the film shots of the city must be taken from there! It was perfect. It was 10.30 local time. We said the necessary invocation and at that moment a puff of smoke appeared opposite. Hilda was quite taken aback. We were pretty certain it was from a conventional source, but it was on cue.

As it was 5.30 a.m. for me I fled back to the hotel. On the way I noticed that there were lines where there should be, including one big one coming out of Central Park. Next morning I went for a walk in Central Park to find the obelisk. One notices in Central Park outcrops of rock and some individual rocks standing free, very large ones. On a knoll within an octagonal surround was an octagonal building some twenty yards across. People were sleeping in it. It seemed to be a shelter for the homeless. It had 8-bar lines on it. As I progressed through the Park it became apparent that certain sections were laid out geomantically - octagonal fountains, avenues, bandstands, etc. Finally we arrived at Cleopatra's Needle, the twin of that on London, all the way from Heliopolis. It was functioning on a cross of 64-bar lines. It checked with the one I had found coming out of the Park the previous night. The other axis was on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where in a new wing a whole Egyptian Temple had just been erected, the Temple of Dendur. Indeed the Museum has over 45,000 objects from Ancient Egypt. I asked for the name of the presiding entity, and up came THOTH as in London. I moved on. "Some people get mugged here, even in the morning," said the driver of the taxi which took me back to the hotel. Anyway, there it was, the obelisk of Heliopolis was functioning in Central Park.

That evening I telephoned Hilda. "Hey, what did you do?" she asked."All my friends are phoning up telling me they had strange dreams last night. One of them even passed out. I had some very odd dreams too and slept badly." I pointed out that, as Athene Williams once commented, "You can't tweak the devil's tail and not get a backlash!" and this operation of ours had been somewhat more than a 'tweaking'. Hilda seemed pleased by it all and promised to observe events in the next few weeks and report to me. Time permitted little further observation in New York, but I did notice that St. Patrick's Cathedral, a pleasant neo-Gothic edifice, had now got itself on a 64-bar line which passed through the Rockefeller Centre. There was not time to determine where it linked with the systems on the obelisk. Many of the main thoroughfares of New York City now had fairly heavy lines running down them. It all seemed good. I was told everything was O.K. and the Chloe sign came up. It was time to go.

A flight from La Guardia took me into the near heart of Washington, where Eric was waiting for me. He levered me into his Volkswagen and we were soon in his house on Capitol Hill, drinking white wine. It was evening by now and on the way in I had seen, illuminated, the great obelisk that is the Washington Monument, and also the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. All were emitting lines. The Capitol itself was pushing out a big one. Obviously Washington was functioning, and in a way which one might have expected. Now we had to see how. Eric started briefing me on the situation and we made plans for the following day over our dinner. We would have breakfast with Christopher Bird, co-author of 'The Secret Life of Plants' and commentator on dowsing affairs generally. Then, in the few hours available, we would tour all the places in Washington which we held to be important. Next morning we drove over to Georgetown, where Chris lived. Washington was a far more beautiful city than I had imagined and Georgetown is a delightful period suburb. I had met Chris before in London at Trevor Ravenscroft's. They were like twins - both heavy-set and bearded, with deep voices. Trevor had let Chris read some of my writings and when we had met in London he had looked at me with curiosity, puzzled at the sort of person who had written the strange material he had read. We had met again with pleasure. He observed, "This man has written the craziest material I have ever read!" We exchanged pleasantries and went to a good American breakfast at a nearby 'eatery'.

Then we went off through the great park at the edge of the city to the first point on Eric's itinerary, the new Mormon Temple, some twelve miles from the centre. It was pure Walt Disney, a huge hexagonal iced-cake! We entered the lobby. A white-suited official was behind the desk. He carefully explained to us that we could not visit the Temple as we were non-believers and not 'Elders' of the Sect. Elsewhere I have tried to enter Mormon temples and always received the same reply. It was on a cross of 64-bar lines. We moved round it until we came to a flower-bed at the rear. There, picked out in flower-beds with little shrubs as a border, was the double-square rectangle within a raised octagonal platform. It was prominent and obviously deliberate. This was not an idle fancy. The Mormons clearly have an architect's department in Salt Lake City that has some comprehension of our subject. I have dowsed two Mormon temples in London, and their U.K. Headquarters in Lingfield, Sussex, and they all exhibit important lines, depending on their size. They are building many such temples in many lands. We noted the direction of two of the lines on the Washington Temple. One went to the Walter Read Army Centre and the other to the U.S. Navy Medical Centre. Why?

We drove back into downtown Washington and circled the White House, where I was able to pick up a 64-bar line emerging in an oblique line with the Washington Monument Obelisk. Lesser lines emerged at right angles. One went to Blair House nearby where, at that very moment, Israeli and Egyptian delegations were still locked in their epic struggle for peace. I went through the necessary disciplines and a 64-bar line replaced the smaller. We remarked that it was now nearly lunchtime. "Fine," said Eric, "we will lunch in the cafeteria used by the House of Representatives." I noticed that this building was connected to the Capitol by a minor line. After lunch Eric and I went on to the Capitol, where I found at each corner a double-8, a heavier version (I assumed) of the double-4. This had replaced an earlier line, noted by Eric, which had been a line of unfortunate influence. Down the main axis of the whole central system of Washington (laid out by the French architect, Pierre L'Enfant) we established that there ran a double-64 line, merging from time to time into a single. From the Capitol it emerged as two 32s which focused on an octagonal fountain on the near side, continuing as a 64 down the main axis. The double 8s followed avenues which approached the Capitol in the form of a St. Andrew's Cross. We went inside and wandered around and wandered around. It is a beautiful building. Wren himself could have been proud of it. Its proportions are satisfying. In the galleries the mosaics on the floor incorporate motifs which may be found in the cathedrals of Europe - zodiacal and esoteric. When one looks into its architectural history one finds it laden with Masonic overtones. George Washington and Pierre L'Enfant selected the site and at first their choice was much criticised. But one morning in 1791 they rode around the swampy area on horseback and L'Enfant declared, "I could discover no one situation so advantageously to greet the congressional building as is that on the west side of Jenkins Heights. It stands as a pedestal awaiting a monument." The senior Mason, George Washington, agreed with him, and a competition was launched for a design for the building.

What the official records do not state is that they had chosen a sacred site of the Indians and that it contained a sacred well, conserved to this day. Another interesting thing to note is that the stones of the building reveal the same Mason's marks as those found in European cathedrals. A design by Dr. William Thornton won the contest, and on September 18th 1793 the cornerstone was laid. This was done with due Masonic ceremony by George Washington, as President and acting Grand Master of Maryland's Grand Lodge, together with representatives of other Grand Lodges in neighbouring states. George Washington wore for the ceremony a Masonic apron said to have been made for him by the wife of General Lafayette (himself a Mason) and conducted the ceremony with a marble-headed gavel and a silver trowel. The ceremony ended with prayers, Masonic chanting Honours and a fifteen volley from the Artillery. Through various vicissitudes and professional bickerings the building progressed. So did the building of the White House, sited by L'Enfant, and on November 22nd 1800 President John Adams addressed the Senate for the first time in the completed Capitol. It was shamefully burnt by the British in 1814 and the destruction would have been complete but for a rainstorm which extinguished the fire. The windstorm that followed killed 30 British soldiers and blew cannon off their mounts. This, coupled with an accidental explosion of the gunpowder store, so demoralised the British that they left Washington, never to return. Jefferson's chosen architect, Latrobe, another Frenchman, began the work of reconstruction, and it was an American-born, Charles Bullfinch, who completed the designs of Thornton and Latrobe, including the central rotunda. The cornerstone for the Capitol's central section was laid on August 24th 1818. On October 24th 1824, it was completed in time for a gala reception for the Marquis de Lafayette.

We went into the rotunda and found the eight circles with a section missing in the direction of the Washington Monument, just as we had found with the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. We went through the necessary discipline and it was replaced. Walking round the building afterwards we found that the double-8s had become 32s and we felt things generally to be in order. From there we went to the great obelisk of the Washington Monument. Having noted that Amon-Ra had provided the obelisk in New York, it was interesting to observe that this Washington one was an entirely modern creation. While the Washington obelisk is on a cross of 64-bar lines, it is not geodetically central to the White House, although the line does connect the two. At the point where logically the Monument should stand is a small markstone which also connects to the White House by a 4-bar line. All was in order and we left. However, one or two historical facts about the Washington obelisk ought to be pointed out. The cornerstone was laid on July 4th 1848. Benjamin French, Grand Master of the District of Columbia Masonic Lodge, consecrated the cornerstone, wearing the same apron and sash that George Washington wore at the Capitol ceremony fifty-five years earlier. The new Monument was paid for by public subscription and the amount took some years to raise. It was apt that a man of such Masonic associations should have an obelisk for his monument although, of course, no modern capital city should be without one. It is odd too that Washington's home at Mount Vernon should have been surmounted by an octagonal tower and that his so-called simple tomb should have a Gothic arch as its entrance, and be surrounded by obelisks. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would have understood. Another interesting point to note is that the Great Seal of the United States has on its reverse side the pyramid with the all-seeing eye.

The Washington obelisk is the largest in the world. From 1848 onwards stones were sent from the various states of the Union and from other nations. Greece sent a piece of white marble from the Parthenon. A group of Chinese Christians sent a stone covered with oriental characters. Pope Pius IX sent a slab from the Temple of Concord in Rome, but this oddly was stolen from the site in 1854 and was never recovered. The Sultan of Turkey contributed a stone. So did Brazil which has its own obelisk in Sao Paulo. When Eric was an engineer for the Washington Metro he recalls there was a standing order for all those engaged in the tunnelling to report any odd slabs of marble they might find. Work on the obelisk was halted during the Civil War, but it was finally completed in 1884. It is 555 feet high. We left this impressive monument and proceeded to the end of L'Enfant's Grand Avenue, passing the Greek temple which is Lincoln Memorial, itself on a cross of 64-bar lines. From here there is a bridge across the Potomac diagonal to the Monument. This is the Arlington Memorial Bridge, leading to the Arlington Memorial Cemetery. Thence we went, our intention being to visit the tomb of John F. Kennedy. The 64-bar line from the cross on the Lincoln Memorial crosses this bridge.

It was late on a chilly evening of the Washington fall. Eric had been there previously and had expressed himself unhappy with the energies he had dowsed there. We arrived at the simple tomb with the permanent flame. Kennedy is one of my heroes - a regard which has not been dimmed by the later reports concerning his private life. This is not the place to enter into a profound diagnosis of his presidency. Suffice it to say that, for me, he was a solar figure, bringing light, hope and panache to the world. John Kennedy brought light into the affairs of the United States. He did initiate a process which has given reality to the citizenship of the black minorities. He did restore dignity and honour to the Presidency and re-establish its ideals, in the eyes of its foreign friends at any rate. He did open up the energies of pride in country rather than nationalism, decency in the world instead of domination, interest in art, not the hamburger. He brought glamour, in a very real sense, to an otherwise gloomy institution. The U.S. President can release good or bad energies. John Kennedy released good ones. Thus the world mourned his death as for no other leader. When he was killed, as Jules Feiffer has commented, something died in the American psyche. And he has an eternal flame over his grave. Why? How? We were pondering this as we proceeded to the spot.

The simple grave of John F. Kennedy reminded me of the apparent simplicity of that of Winston Churchill (whom Kennedy so graciously received before the joint Houses as an Honorary Citizen of the United States). Churchill chose his himself. It is on the main axis of Blenheim Palace and thus the discerning can see that the whole Blenheim complex is Churchill's monument. We do not know exactly how Kennedy's was chosen, but it is on the main axis of the Arlington Memorial Bridge which goes directly to the Lincoln Memorial. Thus likewise it is no simple tomb, and it lies on the 64-bar line to the Memorial. It was thus we approached it. It is flat within a shrubbed compound and with a sort of circular piazza on the wall of which are engraved some of his better known sayings. "Banalities!" said Eric. "I don't know," I replied, "They strike plenty of chords around the world." Eric dowses somewhat differently from me and he had found some three-dimensional pyramidal forms in front of the tomb. I noticed that the line stopped on the piazza and did not enter or leave the tomb. Where Eric had found the pyramidal forms I found the negative symbols. We went through the disciplines and the positive symbol appeared. The line now entered the tomb. Eric reeled from the energy, for he feels it more with his body than I do. Time was running out but we had time to notice Robert Kennedy's grave nearby and that of Pierre L'Enfant above and in front of Robert E. Lee's house (now part of the Cemetery). We left, musing as to what qualifies a U.S. President for burial in that spot and how the whole history of Washington was Masonic in its overtones and its forms.

Soon we were en route for Miami, out over the sea and into the dreaded Bermuda Triangle. I could dowse nothing until we came in over the coast at Miami Beach, when we entered a zone of energy wider than any I had previously encountered, running parallel to the coast. After a few days in Miami, I was en route for Mexico City, which I did via Dallas, where a change of planes was necessary. On the way we flew over the Everglades, and I could find nothing there. I wondered, therefore, were the lines evidence of human civilisation? From Dallas, where there were plenty of lines, we flew across the Bay of Mexico to Mexico City, where there were none that I could find by casual dowsing. As we went on into Mexico they started again.

Our agent collected me at my hotel the following morning to take me to one of my major objectives of the journey, the pyramids of Mexico City. Elizabeth Maas, a gentle and courteous lady, drove me out to the pyramids. We had not met before but we had a long-standing commercial relationship. I thought I had better explain why it was that my hand was moving across my body from time to time for no obvious reason. She took it all in her stride when I explained my method of dowsing. "I shall have an interesting day!" she said. As we approached the general pyramid complex, I noticed a 64-bar line coming off in the direction of Mexico City. We went on and alighted so that I could do the work on foot. It was hard work as the area is large and it took most of the day. The main axis was a 64-bar line and the so-called Pyramid of the Moon was on a cross of such lines. I was unable to go completely round the Pyramid of the Sun, but it too was on a 64-bar line entering and disappearing into the main axis. I climbed both pyramids, a fairly demanding task, somewhat apprehensive as to what I might find on the summits of the two places, where history tells us that human sacrifice was carried out on an unparalleled scale. To my acute surprise I did not find any unpleasant symbols , nor did I have any unpleasant sensations, but rather ones of peace and tranquillity. On both places I performed the necessary invocations and in each case the group of eight circles within one square was replaced by one 8-circle without the square. Perfect, but what was there before was not so bad.

The pyramid of Quetzlcoatl was interesting. As it had not really been restored one could not climb it. Behind it are the heads of the Plumed Serpent. At ground level four project: 16-bar lines came from each. What was especially interesting was that the lines came precisely from their mouths focusing into a precise point. They went through the pyramid and came out the other side to focus on a raised platform rather like an altar. On top were the five circles. They became one after the invocation and then continued on to the main axis as a 64. This site was an example of deus ex machina, if you like within the Aztec pantheon. Basically the legend of Quetzlcoatl was that one day a white-skinned and bearded god arrived in Mexico, taught the indigenous population the arts and sciences, had a lot of aggro from the local gods and withdrew in indignation, swearing that he would one day return to destroy them all. He was called the Plumed Serpent because of his general attributes. (A parallel with Thoth-Hermes would be permissible here.) What was interesting to me was that the energy lines in China were associated with dragons, as they were in England and here on another continent one could dowse energy lines emanating from the dragon-heads in the sanctuary of Quetzlcoatl. The serpent-dragon phenomenon occurred over large areas of the globe, including Greece and Rome.

I left the complex weak-kneed, literally, for those who climb the steps of these pyramids at such an altitude will find entirely unsuspected muscular weaknesses. I felt weak-headed too, for my dowsing had revealed an evaluation of the complex in total disagreement from that which history had led me to expect. I speculated on this as Elizabeth Maas drove me back to Mexico City. "In any event, we know very little," she said. A very rapid destruction of an evolved civilisation by a handful of soldiers was accompanied by the destruction of all their records. We have only the chronicles of those who accompanied the Conquistadores to rely upon. She dropped me at my hotel. We passed on the way the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. "I don't like the new building," she said. Idly I dowsed it. An 8-bar line emerged across our path. I thought little of it. I was still reflecting on the reason why the energies at Quetzlcoatl had been good rather than bad. Later on I developed a theory on the subject - a theory which had remarkable repercussions. (Ed's note: wish we could pursue this!) I also noticed that certain main thoroughfares in Mexico City had multiple lines - 8, 16 and 32, and the general situation (according to Chloe) was O.K. The great Memorial to the Revolution, more or less in the centre of the city, is a square triumphal arch, in a mixture of Western and Aztec styles. Its octagons are slightly rounded in deference to local style. It had the eight circles underneath it and a cross of 64-bar lines on it. I did not have time to do a complete analysis of the city, but it seemed to be functioning well. In looking cursorily into post-Cortez Mexican history one finds Masonry and the family of Bonaparte and Hapsburg involved.

I spent the following afternoon in the fabulous Museum of Anthropology. It was odd that an energy line of 16 bars came out of it and united with a line emerging from the Palace of Maximilian I; and the statues of the ancient gods in the Museum and the famous Aztec stone calendar were all emitting lines into this one. The Museum was, so to speak, loaded! Also interesting was the inscription inside the vestibule which indicated that the purpose of the Museum was to do justice to the destroyed civilisation - an odd thing to do if that civilisation had only been concerned with human sacrifice and bloodlust on the grand scale claimed by the conquerors.

My next stop was Brazil. Guatemala is in the system as, I believe, is every inhabited area of the globe. My route to Rio de Janeiro was at first over water and I found nothing, but coming in over Caracas the system started again. When we took off from Caracas and flew over the Amazon jungle, we ran out of lines again. That is not to say that there was nothing there, but only that it was not on the scale that would reveal itself by casual dowsing from an aircraft in bursts of a few minutes. Rio had lines. I changed here for Sao Paulo. We waited in line interminably to no avail. Only one of my bags had arrived: the little one with my shoes in it. I can tell you that a way to reduce one's morale to zero is to arrive in a strange land in a rainstorm to find all one's clothes (and presents for the children) gone, and two days in which to do one's business. My bag never turned up. Panam gave me 100 dollars and I bought myself some underwear. Fortunately my business friends in Sao Paulo were sympathetic about my turning up in jeans and a safari jacket. Sao Paulo was business all the way, except that I was with friends. I had a chance to take a brief look round. It was functioning well. There was a huge obelisk, not quite as big as the Washington Memorial, but reminiscent of it. This was a memorial to the Constitutionalists who had put Brazil on to a relatively even keel and made it independent of capricious monarchies and colonial overlords. It was on a 64-bar cross. Sao Paulo is a lovely, lunatic, chaotic city. It drives you mad but makes you love it. How people live in it I don't know, but it has a frenetic fascination. According to Chloe it functioned well. I abandoned such thoughts and concentrated on my business friends and their charming hospitality.