Has anyone any experience with dowsing?

Question

While on a ghost walk this past week-end, my friend and I attended a lecture on dowsing. It was quite interesting. I had only heard of it from years ago when people would use a dowsing rod to find water. This gentleman is actually consulted regarding various topics and uses a crystal pendulum as his tool. We were given the opportunity to test out dowsing skills when finding another's aura. Very interesting as while watching someone else do this you can never know if they aren't moving the rods themselves. But when you do it and know you are not moving them and they move, well, pretty astounding.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Answer 1

I learned it from a well digger, he was able to find water and even tell how deep it was.  I have used it with good luck to find under ground power  cables and water pipes.  I never could get the the depth thing right.  I haven't got any idea how it works, but it does work.  Some people claim they can find anything even lost items by dowsing.

Answer 2

Doesn't it make you a bit curious when the same technique can be used to find both water and ghosts?  They are also used to find gold, oil, buried treasure, grave sights, power lines (eek!) or anything else being sought.

Dowsing is a phenomenon that operates under the same principle as Ouija boards--the ideomotor effect.  That is when you involuntarily move the object.  I have used the Ouija board and experienced the ideomotor effect myself.  It gave information only I knew and I was not consciously moving the planchette.

Dowsing has been so thoroughly disproved that it really deserves no further explanation.

Isn't is strange that someone would use a bogus method (i.e. dowsing) to find something that doesn't even exist (i.e. an aura)?  That's like saying I am going to use a crystal ball to tape record UFOs making crop circles.

Answer 3

As a kid, I used to do it to find the water pipes in my yard and it worked. I don't know about any thing above and beyond a simple task such as that though.

I have not experienced anything further myself so  I don't discount the fact that there may be a few humans that may have some ability beyond the norm.

I think it is up to the individual and not something everyone can do.

I know it was used to find water and they called them water witches. There were also guys that could find oil, but they would always be looking in an oil rich area.

I used coat hangers bent at a 90 degree.

Answer 4

I'm not sure about auras, or any water being found. But, I can find sewer, gas, and water lines with ease. I use the coat hanger method explained though out the posts. I was a skeptic too, till I was shown how to do this. It has worked for me "every" time I've tried. It has saved me alot of labor over the years, and money not having to rent excavation equipment.

Answer 5

My dad always swore he could dowse for water but I thought he was full of baloney because he would never show me.

My stepson, however, who comes from a long line of dowsers is able to find many things buried in the ground at varying depths.  Like Dave S. he uses coat hanger wire bent at 90 degrees and they will make a definite crossing action when he centers over a site.

I believe it has something to do with the magnetic properties and mass densities of the buried objects and the electro-chemical properties of his own body.  I have tried to trick him by placing objects in odd places, and had him search for items where nothing had been placed.  If there is nothing there, he does not get a false indication, and he usually finds the object (85-90% of the time).  After he had a motorcycle accident and had a titanium rod put in his right leg, all of his readings have been 14 to 20 inches to the right of his "reading".

Answer 6

Well, this gentlemen can win a million dollars taking the James Randi Challenge and proving that dowsing works.

But he won't win, nor will any other dowser.  Can you guess why?  

If this was real, it could be tested under controlled conditions.  But no one can pass or up until this date has been unable to.

A couple of links included.  One a comment on dowsing, another telling about the million dollar challenge.

Answer 7

The rods can move quite easily depending on hand or arm movements that might be imperceptible to you. You might lean just ever so slightly or relax your arms a half a degree and there you go. The ideomotor effect is very prominent here, as well as with the pendulum method.

Dowsing usually "works", but not because there is anything to it. Rather,  it is very well known and documented by geologists who study ground water that underground water exists in vast "aquifers" of crushed rock or gravel, some distance below the surface. Because water exists in these vast expanses instead of in isolated underground streams, as is commonly thought, it's pretty easy to strike water pretty much anywhere you dig if you're over an aquifer.