PIP COURTNEY: For some people it's total voodoo and has little scientific credibility. But for others, subtle energy healing is an essential way to harmonise country, animals, people and their businesses.

It used to be called geomancy and these psychic healers are still used widely in traditional cultures.

Now some Australian farmers are drawing on these ancient practices to find ways to improve their bottom line.

TITLE: SUBTLE ENERGY

GARRY MCDOUALL: So we actually run what's called time-controlled grazing. Essentially, we identify some principles which encourage the most active and productive growth of perennial grass species; in our case, native grass species. The reason for having native grasses is essentially a slightly lower production, but dramatically lower cost enterprise, and therefore an enterprise which is easy to run and equally as profitable as a much more intensive enterprise.

SEAN MURPHY: Garry McDouall does things a bit differently on his 700 hectares near Bingara on the north-west slopes of NSW. But his time-controlled grazing system is only part of the story. He believes in subtle energy healing, that his landscape and animals have a kind of spiritual energy that needs to be harmonised to get the best out of his cattle trading enterprise.

GARRY MCDOUALL: When we're talking about subtle energy, it's the mainstream basis, really, of agricultural practices, health practices, religious practices, even, right throughout the world in probably five out of the 7 billion people that exist here. It's only in Western, in Western societies that we find it hard to deal with. And that applies both to medicine and to agriculture.

But in terms of the ecological balance sheet we're a very long way ahead.

SEAN MURPHY: Garry McDouall is working with Patrick MacManaway, a Scottish trained doctor turned geobiologist, or geomancer. He practices in Europe and the United States, helping farmers heal the geopathic stress in their farms and businesses.

PATRICK MACMANAWAY, GEOBIOLOGIST: Well, we think of it in terms of holistic approaches or holistic therapies to landscape, as much as we're familiar now with holistic therapies in the context of treating people.

And so when we think about the life energy, the chi, the spirit of the thing, then we can look at landscape and look at the spirit of place and the different component parts that make that up and we can look at how we can manage that, somewhat manipulate it and adapt it to the benefit of our agricultural systems, whether those are cropping or livestock.

(Garry and Patrick talking on a field)

SEAN MURPHY: Garry McDouall wants Patrick MacManaway to look at helping cattle settle faster when they arrive on his farm.

GARRY MCDOUALL: We see down here some cattle we've only recently bought. I've noticed, ever since that they got here, that they tend to hang in the northern corner of the paddock ,so I'm not sure whether they're hankering for home, or what. But they clearly haven't associated with the rest of the mob.

So it's a well understood thing in the cattle game that when you mingle mobs, there's a certain element of stress attached to that. When you bring livestock from a long, long away, they've had a certain amount of stress attached to the transport. They may have come out of saleyards, whatever. So traditionally that's been accepted, you will get a period of lower performance. There are a number of livestock handling techniques that you can adopt that will mitigate against that, but the other element there is to make sure, from a subtle energy point of view, those animals are accepted by the landscape.

SEAN MURPHY: With the power of his imagination, and his dousing tools, Patrick MacManaway claims he can get the new mob of cattle settled up to a month earlier than they would otherwise, and that means they're ready for market sooner.

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: What we're looking at is really trying to use our human mind and imagination, really, to bridge the consciousness of the landscape, the living intelligence of soil, the intelligence of the spirit of place and then bring in to that dialogue the spirit of the mob, the spirit of the cattle and the ones most recently introduced and really connect them, much as we would connect strangers at a party, just let them know who each other is and give them a friendly context and framework for fitting in to each other.

The main tool with subtle energies is the mind and the creative use of the imagination directed towards specific elements or moving parts in a farmscape.

SEAN MURPHY: Subtle energy healing will be a feature of Bingara's Living Classroom project. An ambitious plan to convert 150 hectares of land adjoining the town into a centre of learning for sustainable agriculture.

The Gwydir Shire Council has set aside the original town common for the project and with State and federal grants, has already spent about $1.2 million on classrooms, machinery sheds and accommodation facilities.

DUNCAN THAIN, GWYDER SHIRE COUNCIL: We have people like Allan Yeomans onsite with the Yeomans Plow, with carbon capturing projects. We have the CMA Biolinks Program running through the site and we also have the subtle energy people who are interested in demonstrating their project as well. So we're doing that and at the same time we're promoting Primary Industries Trade Training, so we'll be involved with tractor education, chemical certification, quad bike education, those type of courses.

SEAN MURPHY: How much convincing did the Council need to be involved with something like subtle energy healing?

DUNCAN THAIN: The Council has made it quite clear that it's prepared to, to encourage anybody with new ideas to the mainstream. Subtle energy is not a new idea, but in terms of exposure to the broader agricultural society, it's quite happy to entertain the concept and allow the concept to be explored within the site. Where it goes from there really depends on how it evolves. But all new concepts are embraced by the Council.

SEAN MURPHY: The Living Classroom project is big on community involvement and volunteers have started planting an apple and pear orchard and a public forage garden.

(Women watches group of children planting trees)

WOMEN: Well done. You have planted the first tree on this site. Congratulations.

RICK HUTTON, LIVING CLASSROOM PROJECT: The Living Classroom is a multi-layered project to engage our local community and to also connect us with the world beyond. So we're looking at local food, we're looking at our local agricultural systems and contemplating ways in which they might vary over the years, especially how they might respond to some of those pressures that are coming upon us, like oil shortages and fertiliser shortages and changes in markets.

And for our local community it's an opportunity to engage with all ages, as you can see behind us, in gardening and growing our local food and keeping it as fresh and as near to us as we can.

But more than that, the total project, which is 150 hectares, gives us an opportunity to build a destination for both the tourist and for those who wish to engage with and understand food production from - not only Australia, but from all over the world.

SEAN MURPHY: The Living Classroom has already hosted a three-day course on subtle energy healing organised by the Queensland-based Resource Consulting Service, which also runs grazing for profit courses at the centre. It costs up to $5,000 for three days to learn skills such as dousing, using divining rods to read subtle energy.

(Patrick MacManaway talking to a group in a field)

SEAN MARSHALL: Is that my mind or is that his aura?

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: It's his aura.

SEAN MARSHALL: It's his aura.

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: Your mind is the part that's dousing and some people who are sensitive can pick that up with their hands. It's easier to pick it up with a tool, I think.

SEAN MARSHALL: I come from a little town called Goodooga and we put a sheep operation out there. The property's probably about - just under 18,000 acres. We've got about 1,500 acres of farming country and so it's - yeah, mostly grazing with a little bit of farming.

SEAN MURPHY: That's a serious enterprise, what brings you here?

SEAN MARSHALL: I guess, like any business, you're looking for any additional tools that you can use to improve the business and make it a better business.

SEAN MURPHY: And what do you think of it so far?

SEAN MARSHALL: Yes, I think it's fantastic. I could sit and listen to this bloke for days.

ST JOHN KENT: We're predominantly grain growers, sometimes cotton growers. We farm about 4,500 acres in partnership with a neighbour. We grow predominantly - probably two-thirds sorghum and a third, chickpeas and some barley, some wheat.

SEAN MURPHY: What are you hoping to get out of this?

ST JOHN KENT: Oh, you know, we've got a system that we've basically doubled our yields in the last 25 years and I think we pushed it as far as we can go. So, if you've got an inquiring, open mind you look at all sorts of different things, and I guess it's a journey of personal education, personal development.

SEAN MURPHY: I sense that you're a little bit sceptical?

ST JOHN KENT: I'm a born cynic, I'm three-quarters Scot.

(Patrick leads group into a backyard)

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: Come and meet our water dragon here. We're walking out here to look at a geopathic stress feature and we'll start by just flagging this out.

SEAN MURPHY: Patrick MacManaway says everyone has the power to douse subtle energy, to identify hidden stresses caused by things like geological features such as underground water.

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: So using dousing rods and looking just for water, and this would apply if we were looking for a borehole site, but in this case we're looking for something that's going to affect human health. So the rods are separating here when we come over a stream, which we're assuming is some kind of fissure in the rock that is allowing water to flow through it.

It's one of the most natural instinctive functions in a person and particularly, I think, people experience that when they're in survival situations as a gut instinct, or a natural sense of right action or images or sometimes words or thoughts come to us based on need.

Our lives don't have quite so much survival-based habit patterns in it now, so we've somewhat lost that, although I think often people make business decisions based on a gut instinct. Investors might do that or choosing whether to buy or sell or get involved in a particular enterprise. It's a very, very natural thing, particularly working with landscape, to be able to read the subtle imprints that whisper into our imagination, really.

SEAN MURPHY: Patrick MacManaway claims he's helped Scottish potato growers increase their yields by up to 30 per cent and helped dairy farmers improve their productivity and herd health. He accepts many people are sceptical about things like growing circles, but he says they're often convinced when they see results.

PATRICK MACMANAWAY: I just hold in mind what we're looking for, which would be the centre of the highest energy spot, which would be ideal for germinative growth.

So when we start to see yield and pest resistance and frost resistant results, then we can quickly establish that, whatever we may or may not believe about it, there's something very valuable and beneficial to be gained through really very simple techniques that we can learn to use.

SEAN MURPHY: So this is an energy tower, what does it do?

GARRY MCDOUALL: So it's an energy tower. The first thing is that it's placed on the point of highest energy on the property, which is something that you can douse for in the same way that practitioners douse for water or whatever. You just change the mindset. So we're broadcasting intent and a lot of the energy work - the most important thing about it is really focusing intent to bring about an outcome.

SEAN MURPHY: So what have you got in there?

GARRY MCDOUALL: So what we've got here are two lots of biodynamic preps and there will be other biodynamic preps in the bottom one and a statement of intention, of our philosophy, our wishes, our desires in relation to this property and also a map of the property so that we - that intent extends to the boundary of this property. Obviously you can't convey, or you shouldn't convey your intent to other people's country.

SEAN MURPHY: Garry McDouall says he's sure some people question his sanity, but equally he believes growing numbers of farmers see the wisdom in incorporating old ways with the new.

GARRY MCDOUALL: It's a growing movement for sure, a willingness to embrace different ways of doing things and it's a movement which has to gain traction, because we're facing a period of unprecedented change. It's my belief that the next 10 or 15 years are going to see us in a dramatically different place than what we are at the moment and therefore by definition, the way in which we farm will be dramatically different.