Posted: 6/21/2005 9:08:58 PM EDT
| I was watching a television show that showed someone dowsing. For those of you that don't know, it is taking either metal rods or a tree branch and finding water with it. I have used coat hangers and successfully dowsed for water lines. The wife wanted to see it, and I "located" our septic line. She took them and located our water line, and she didn't know it was there. Shocked her. Anybody else have any experience with this? |
My great uncle in NH is a real life dowser. He can find water ANYWHERE, and has been doing so for about 55 years +. He taught one of my sisters some of the in and outs, and just found a natural well for my dad on his new property. It's no myth. 
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My dad can do it with tree branches, but I have tried and cannot. My dad has a book on it..... it is said that you can find gold, money, car keys, etc..... Anything that is hidden or lost. I've tried just for water with no results.... I guess it depends on the person doing it. But it does work, no shit ! |
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skepdic.com/dowsing.html Dowsing is horseshit, just like most things people believe. Dowse anywhere where there is a remote possibility of water being present, drill deep enough, and whala!!!! You hit water most of the time. Duh. |
I have found buried water lines with it. I dug straight to them. Actually, it is not bs. I have never located a water well, though. |
Skepdic is on my toolbar for easy access. I love that site. PS Dousing works better if Bigfoot does it for you. |
If it works, then why has no one claimed Randi's $1,000,000 by doing it consistently by the standards that the original test diviners AGREED upon, nor has anyone since? Here's a hint: Dowsing is guesswork, which means it doesn't work. I found a wallet once by getting mad and throwing my hat in disgust and it landed on my wallet in the yard. Pretty damn cool, but I don't pretend that this is a scientifically proven method of finding lost wallets. |
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I do some geospatial analysis work, and a colleague of mine has specialized in finding unmarked graves. She gave a talk to the local genealogical society on her surveying of several potential grave sites, and an older guy in the audience scoffed at her doing this work (with ground conductivity meters, airphotos, densiometers, etc.) when he could find a grave with a pair of welding rods. I don't doubt that he could identify graves. My opinion is that dowsers either intentionally, or subconciously, are doing careful analysis of things like vegetation, terrain, soil color, scent, location, and anything else that normal human senses pick up, and then using that information to locate the probable water/grave/whatever. I do not think that it is a phenomenon which needs supernatural explanation. Jim |
Indeed. To date, no dowser or any other practitioner of the supernatural has ever been able to show, in a controlled setting, that their "abilities" are anything greater than what can be expected by chance. That milion dollar prize still awaits anyone who can show otherwise. I guess you don't need a million dollars, when you can continue to rip off millions of people for a few bucks each. What's next, a thread about talking to the dead? edit: errhh - I guess AssaultRifler beat me to the punch. |
| Everbody seems stuck on some kind of supernatural. I never claimed anything like that. I am just curious why something works for me, and for my totally sceptical wife. Oh, she just tried it tonight for the first time, in the dark. It worked for her. It is just weird stuff I guess. |
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I've found water lines on the job when I was working for a company that did residential gasline hook ups. It worked beyond doubt. I could never figure out how someone could find a well with tree branch tho. BTW we carried metal rods on the work truck all the time for the specific purpose of witching for water lines. |