Brandy Burton is not afraid or embarrassed to admit she knows how to witch for graves, and is willing to help anyone who needs her particular talent.
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Dowsing is an age-old art that has been used for centuries to locate water and graves.
“When I tell people what I do in my spare time, they back up a few steps and say, ‘Well, you’re weird,'” laughs Brandy. “It’s an odd thing to put on a resume.”
Her gift may run in the family. A cousin, H.A. Roberson, owner and operator of Roberson Funeral Homes, also has the ability.
Brandy was only a small child when she first discovered her unusual gift. She was with a group of adults at Hickory Creek Cemetery when they were trying to plot out the graves. Mr. Roberson was there, along with Beverly and Billy Joe Ward, Brandy’s mother Ronetta Burton, and a grandmother. Family stories had been handed down about several graves in the cemetery which were not marked on any plot books.
Mr. Roberson had witched and found an unmarked grave. He had everybody else try their hand at witching. He gave Brandy the witching sticks. These dowsing rods were the ‘call before you dig’ survey wires with the little flags on the end.
“I walked across the grave and the wires in my hands crossed; when I stepped off the grave they uncrossed,” said Brandy. “I felt the energy from the body; there’s almost a magnetism between the flags. I was the only who tried and had any kind of reaction.”
Mr. Roberson said he remembers the day and is very pleased to know the skill runs in the family. “I’ve been checking graves for years and so far I’ve never missed,” he said. “I teased everybody at the cemetery that day and told them they had to be good, clean, upstanding people who never lied or it wouldn’t work.”
While it might not be easy to prove there are people buried at a particular spot short of digging them up, Mr. Roberson says he has also successfully witched for lots of water and sewer lines. He thinks dousing works because the ground has been disturbed.
Brandy wasn’t that impressed by her own ability at the time…”I was a little kid, 10 or 11, and I got bored walking back and forth.”
Through the years, Brandy has witched and found water and sewer lines, too, but other than family backyards, there is not much call for witching these days.
“Water companies have sonar,” she said. “They don’t need wires.”
It’s hard to explain how dowsing works. Brandy believes there is a scientific explanation that has to do with the polarization of the earth and the magnetic fields of the bodies. After bodies decompose they leave a residual aura of energy. Her own body acts as a conductor. Even over graves that are a century old, she can pick up and connect with that energy through the witching wires.
She can tell to an exacting degree where the bodies are buried. The readings will change. The size of the grave gives clues to whether it is for an adult or a child and also to gender.
Dead animals and underground streams can create problems. But Brandy can usually resolve the issue by following the length of the thing that is buried.
Brandy does not use her gift for hire. While it may be a dying art in this age of computers and high tech, if somebody asks her to find a grave, she tries to help. Tom Sullivan on DD Highway asked her to map out a wagon trail cemetery on his farm.
“Those early pioneers laid their dead around trees or by big rocks so they knew where they were at and could go back and find them,” said Brandy. “Of course that was a hundred years ago and the land has since changed.”
Brandy is 34 and has a lot more patience than when she was a kid.
“I’m glad I’m able to help find the graves,” she said. “Not everybody got a headstone.”