Have you ever been successful at dowsing?

Question

I just found out that when the rod moves..it's the energy or magnetism in your hand that makes it move. It's not the rod that picks up the energy..(until the energy comes through your hand). I never knew that. I think it can happen with sticks ...or anything like a stick. Can this happen with anyone...or do you have to be sensitive to it?

Answer 1

I've personally never tried dowsing, but I have seen people do it.  And I don't think you have to be sensitive to. I watched an episode of  'A Haunting'  and this ordinary guy used one.

Most people are septics, and just don't believe in the paranormal.

Answer 2

Deenie, why do you believe that explanation?  There's a much more likely one -- you tilt your wrist imperceptibly, the rod will swing. It's basic physics. You can test it yourself and see. The ideomotor effect is at work here. It's not magnetism. The bones and flesh making up our bodies are not ferromagnetic. Regarding "energy", this is the most abused term in the paranormal. What kind of energy? Energy is well defined in physics, but has no definition at all in the paranormal. To say it is "energy" in your hand is to really say nothing at all.

Anyhow, all controlled testing of dowsing has failed to turn up any positive results. So far, nobody has shown that they can do it. There is no legitimate science to it I'm afraid.

EDIT: I know, Deenie, me and sound reasoning. Inseparable, I tell you  :)  Your father-in-law did only what every other dowser did to fool themselves. It's not hard to find water when you're over an underground aquifer which exist in most places anyway. It would actually be more impressive to locate places where the water isn't!

Check out the document from the US Geological Survey, the experts in groundwater. They put together a great summary of dowsing and why it seems to work when in reality it is doing nothing at all. You'll need Adobe Reader to open it.

Answer 3

No, it isn't.  There's no magnetism in your hand.  It's the ideomotor effect - it's all in your head.  No one has ever passed a real test for dowsing, but since 90% of ground has water under it anyway, most people don't realize they're fooling themselves.  

I'm sorry that the word of one person is more important to you than any actual observation that could be made.  Hopefully he never tells you he's got the cure to cancer in his garage.

Answer 4

Yes, I have had success at dowsing.   One vivid instance involved a counter narcotics operation for one of the joint task forces in 1990 that I worked while still in the military remote viewing unit.  They’d had a tip that a container ship coming into a harbor on one of the US coasts was carrying “contraband.”  However, there were six ships scheduled in on the day specified in the tip, each carrying hundreds to over a thousand truck-trailer sized containers.  Without going into details (I say more in my book, but can’t name it without this being deleted as “promotion”), I was able to dowse which ship and where in its cargo contraband could be found.  This was later verified by the Coast Guard when they boarded the ship and broke into the cargo at the designated spot and found a container full of contraband material.  Some of the documents from this operation were declassified with the archives that the CIA released in 2004, so there is concrete evidence this really happened.  By the way, just to let you know, TR is right about energy – there is probably no ‘energy’ or ‘magnetic’ effects making the process work.  He is also right about the ideomotor effect being important in dowsing.  However, that does not mean that dowsing doesn’t involve a form of ESP, though how that all works is too complicated to go into here, and not relevant to the question!