Dowsing

Dowsing

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5 Responses

  1. Neil Boothman says:

    I’m led to believe that
    I’m led to believe that controlled, scientific tests of dowsing have revealed no real ability of dowsers to locate water, precious metals or anything else. I’ve always thought dowsing for water is a fallacy because, wherever you dig you will find water eventually, if you dig deep enough.

    • Ian Topham says:

      Dowsing
      [quote=Neil Boothman]I’m led to believe that controlled, scientific tests of dowsing have revealed no real ability of dowsers to locate water, precious metals or anything else. I’ve always thought dowsing for water is a fallacy because, wherever you dig you will find water eventually, if you dig deep enough.
      [/quote]

      My experience of experimenting with dowsing certainly supports your belief Neil but has anybody had successful results under scientific conditions?

  2. Mauro says:

    Just want to repeat an

    Just want to repeat an experience I posted on the original forum.
    My grandfather owned a farm and when the time came to drill a deep well he turned to a dowser. Funnily he was advised to do so by the drilling company owner himself "it will save you money and time".
    This dowser discovered his "gift" in an unusual way: when going to church every Sunday as a boy he felt queasy when passing in the square in front of the church. As he grew up he began to feel more and more ill each passing Sunday to the point that he turned to the parish priest for help since doctors could not find anything wrong with him. Strangely the priest quickly discovered the cause of his illness: under the square there are a number of deep wells, long unusued but still connected to the underlying acquifer. He referenced the youth to a fellow clergyman which instructed him on how to use this "gift".  
    In short he could tell a good place to drill a well simply by walking over a suitable location and saying "here"; he could even give a rough extimate of the depth. No rods, sticks, amulets or whatever.
    I have no idea how he could this and if fraud was involved but I can tell what my grandparents and my father kept saying to me: this fellow came to the farm with the drilling company manager, began to walk around very slowly and marked three possible locations. Exploratory drilling was conducted and water was found in all three locations.
    I have no rational explanation to offer.

  3. Neil Boothman says:

    I remember reading somewhere
    I remember reading somewhere (I can’t recall the source) that it was found that successful dowsers in the USA tended to be based in areas of an aquifer rich geology, which does suggest that locating subterreanean water was down to probability rather than occult or paranormal means.

    The presence of several deep wells in the vicinity of the dowser in Mauro’s tale would make it likely that he was operating in an aquifer rich zone.

    Or perhaps dowsers have a subliminal ability to read the landscape and detect surface features associated with aquifers?

  4. Matt.H says:

    I suspect that dowsing may
    I suspect that dowsing may "work" to some degree, but that as Neil says it may well be linked more closely to geography. Have there been any decent studies into dowsing that have actually put dowsers into the environment, rather than testing in a lab? This could help to explore whether there is some sort of geographical, or perhaps geological, issue at play here.