Ley lines

[jomifl]

Following a recent reference to ley lines on AB, are they something mysterious and profound or complete tosh, thoughts please?

[boxtops]

They are mysterious and profound - I have no reason to disbelieve in them.

If you follow ley lines you find mysterious sight lines and towns built at each end - I think there's something in it, but I have no idea what.

[Old_Geezer]

You pays your money and takes your choice.

I'd doubt there is anything in them, but who knows ? Maybe someone senses something.

[Answerprancer]

Well, dowsing works - I know of a large construction company that used to hire dowsers regularly to find underground water.
I don't think it's "supernatural" I think earth energies are just another force like magnetism.
Aside from the forces, ley lines definitely exist as a physical entity. Just take a look at a large OS map and see how many ancient sites (tumuli, earthworks, long barrows etc) line up almost perfectly along a straight edge for tens/hundreds of miles.
I recommend reading "The Old Straight Track" by Alfred Watkins.

[LazyGun]

I think you first have to define what you mean by Ley Lines. A recent article I read suggested that the original hypothesis for them ( 1920s?) was that the ancient monuments scattered around the UK could all be connected by straight lines, and this was somehow tied in with navigational aids.

It was only later ( late 60s?) that the new age "spiritual energy" dimension became attached. This spiritual energy is something I am highly sceptical of, just as I am of dowsing, come to that.

Some interesting references for you .... first, a nice little website you can use to determine how spiritual your own address is....

http://www.tomscott.com/ley/

Then, a sceptical view of ley lines. You pays your money, you takes your choice.... I think its all pretty much cobblers myself ;)

http://www.skeptical-...l-ley-lines-debunked/
(this is the article I was thinking of when i first started this post)

http://blogs.discover...debunking-down-under/
(link to a dowsing video and read the post in the comments re dowsing at Avebury)

[jake-the-peg]

They're amazing!

Do you know you can draw a straight line between StoneHenge and the Pyramids!?!

Awesome man!

[naomi24]

^^ Nah! Your pen would get wet and stop working. ;o)

[jomifl]

Hi Jake.. you had me in hysterics, well as near hysterics as a chap can get. What I find really astonishing about ley lines is that they could only have existed after the Mercator projection was invented. So, how did those iron age and neolithic people know where the straight lines of a mercator projection were going to be? as you say 'Awsome'.

[Mosaic]

Jakes onto it. No, it's nonesense. You have 360 degrees of choice to draw a straight line out from any particular point. You will hit anything - might be 100 metres or 100 miles away.

[jno]

apparently if you do that it will pass through the pyramid at Saqqara too. Which is at the very least a proper coincidence rather than just a truism.

[jomifl]

LG. Thanks for the ley line links, I see that my house in the UK was at a nexus of 3 ley lines or at least somewhere near one.It must have just pulsed with earth energy, I so regret not having noticed. My basic logical problem with ley lines is that nobody ever defines exactly where the centre of the significant sites are or how close the line has to be to that centre to qualify as 'passing through'. This leaves enough fiddle room to fit lines anywhere you like. Does anyone know how wide a ley line is? They would have to be planes rather than lines because as you may have noticed, the earth is a rather bumpy oblate spheroid so no straight line could go though more than 2 points as Jake implied.

[daisya]

I personally don't think they are "supernatural" just natural - of the earth/planet so yes I think they are apparent and exist.

[DTCwordfan]

The early churches (pre-13thC ) from St Michaels Mount to St Michael of Plea Church (not far from the Cathedral) are in a straight line, the line passing through Stonehenge. The church altars were located on the intersecting black and red ley lines, one of the tricks of Christianity being their ability to "embrace" the customs of pagan religions.

Do you believe in them - well I believe there may be energy forms that we still do not know about and this may limk to one. After all, think how pre18thC folk saw static electricity, lightning and Elmo's Fire.....they knew that something was there but couldn't explain it.

[DaisyNonna]

If you enjoy reading well written fiction and are a little intrigued by ley lines try reading some of the books by Phil Rickman, his Merrily Watkins series.

[askyourgran]

Quite strange, I have always wondered how he native Indians in Nazcar South America managed to draw those strange lines and shapes without the aid of aeriel vision. Dowsing is also a bit weird I didn't expect it to work when I tried it, but it does.

[jno]

ooh, could you find me some sherry, ayg? Oloroso would be nice if your dowsing rod's up to it.

[askyourgran]

If I could be sure of a sherry lake I'd try that jno, quite partial to the Oloroso myself.

[Answerprancer]

"You have 360 degrees of choice to draw a straight line out from any particular point. You will hit anything - might be 100 metres or 100 miles away".
Maybe so, but you can also draw an almost perfectly straight line through numerous ancient sites in the British isles alone, sites that can only be seen along those lines.