Part II: Revisiting the "Virgin" Site of Swedish Tavern, page 64
Meditating While Metal Detecting or Competing with Dogs?
...Although I have never practiced meditation, I know that it helps to rid your body of stress and tensions... But I can not imagine how it could be implemented into the searching process.
I do not think that it would be easy to "lie somewhere quiet and comfortable" when you must dig a ton of rusty nails. "If anything is uncomfortable [yes, this bloody headphone cable!], such as a piece of clothing or position of your body, see if you can change it [yes, toss your shovel and detector aside!] before you get started."
If only to metal detect in the "autopilot" mode?.. I used to have a treasure hunting buddy in Upstate New York.
He would not go metal detecting without attaching a plastic pack-wrangler with six cans of beer to his belt along with a pouch, a trench shovel, an alligator-digger and an electronic probe.
He and I usually relic hunted the Rev War sites in the remote wooded areas. Yeah, five cans of beer later, my friend would permanently get into a "deep trance". I was not sure whether he was "accessing his subconsciousness to acquire any subliminal perceptions" or not, but, in real world, he usually would be "out of commission" for the rest of the hunt. While I was digging "USA" buttons, he was aimlessly wondering through the forest while losing his trench shovel, alligator-digger, electronic probe and the last unopened can of beer.
Every time, my wonderful day of relic hunting with my buddy would have the same Finalé: I would spend the last amount of my energy (intended for hiking a mile back to the car) for scouting through the woods and looking for my friend's shovel, digger, that GD'd probe, and, sometimes, detector! Once I had to find my buddy himself! No, no, no, do not even think that I would be looking for his last can of beer in the forest!
The next day, my buddy would tell me that it was just a bad luck that he did not find anything. To what I would always replied: "Hey, on the contrary, you were extremely lucky to visit the wonderland!" All in all, "you do not choose friends, you become friends!"
...Again, because of technological limitations, we can not communicate with cats and dogs or birds to train them to use their "supernatural" abilities, or to figure out how they do/could do it. So we are left with ourselves in this quest. If only we could always pay attention to our thoughts, actions and their outcomes! When having a good metal detecting day and being all excited, who would track all the results he/she is getting!
A long time ago, I saw one funny post on some metal detecting forum. A detectorist trained his dog to find and dig shallow silver coins in the fields. While the guy was metal detecting, his dog would quickly sniff the ground around and find the "hot" silver spot! I am not sure whether to believe it or not, but this was a great idea! :) He even posted a few pictures of his "detecting buddy" standing over a few silver coins it had just dug out...
I did not have a dog, but I ("stayed in a Holiday Inn last night!") received a very nice silver signal! And a dime-sized silver coin rolled out of the dirt plug I dug out. For now, my Minelab E-Trac had managed to stay rival to dogs (cats, birds, chipmunks, moles, etc.)!
