Dowsing

[BigBlackDodge]

Can anyone here do this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing


I have had people tell me it works and they do it all the time at construction sites locating buried water/electrical lines. Even my wife says her grandfather could do it.

Real or BS?


BBD

[A383Wing]

I would like to see the size of the chicken for that big wishbone 

Bryan  (I don't know...I call BS, but that's just me)

[stripedelete]

I've used the rods.  They work and it's pretty cool.  I've located water lines, tiebacks, drain tile, etc.  It seems if it's not metal it has to have water in it.

[Daytona R/T SE]

A local woman uses dowsing rods to find unmarked old graves.

She can also tell whether the corpse buried there is male or

female...


My father claimed he could use the rods to find the best place

to dig a well...

[bobs66440]

This has been scientifically tested many times. Most notably by Arthur C. Clarke using claimed dowsers. Very interesting show, but they showed that dowsers could do little better than pure chance. 

http://www.psychicscience.org/viddows1.aspx

[bobs66440]

.

[hatersaurusrex]

I think it's a matter of 'When I did find something, I just KNEW I would' vs. 'When I didn't find anything, I promptly forgot about it and told myself I was doing something wrong until I FIND SOMETHING again, then I just KNEW it all along!!!'.

The 4 stories of success always outshine the 104 stories of failure that preceded them.   Human nature, time and again, shows that if you believe something very strongly, you'll rationalize it into the ground until it breaks off and refuse other explanations.   Why do you think we still have love stories where people 'find their one true love that lasts forever and ever and ever and ever' even though the divorce rate is ridiculous.    Better to live in the real world, cover your own ass, and enjoy things that are real and palpable.

Kind of like that person everyone knows, that when they go to the casino, they "Always win AT LEAST 3,000 dollars".  Except for those time they "Always lost 3,000 dollars".  Those times they didn't tell you about, and they don't talk about because those are a fluke to them, while they are really the reality.

It's perception, nothing else.   Dowsing is hokum and snake oil, nothing more.

[stripedelete]

It's perception, nothing else.   Dowsing is hokum and snake oil, nothing more.

I had the same reaction the first time I saw someone use the rods.  I've tested the crap out of them - they work.   Why?  Some type of magnetic field.
I also found their use to be pretty common.     

[sunfire69]

I use it to find elec lines...cable, telephone...two pieces of wire bent in an "L" work just fine...hold the "short side of the "L" loosly in your hand I let them point straight ahead. When you pass over a wire carrying current they will swing inward to each other...no trick the magnetic field around wire carrying current will cause them to swing....try it....if you have a buried power cable at home cut two coat hangers or just use two pieces of copper wire....works every time.
I'm on a well and it will find the water line going from the well to the house....I've never tried to find water....

[74bluecharger440]

I do it all the time.I will show customers best place to drill their well, find septic run, waterlines,electrical wire.  I use 2  copper wires bent in half. Alot of people don't believe it till they see it/

[BigBlackDodge]

Interesting replies!

The electrical contractor I spoke with says they're able to find former trenches where conduit was buried. Most of the time there is no power in the conduits yet, he says it's more to do with finding the 'disturbed' soil.



BBD

[Cooter]

Skeptics will always debunk what they refuse to believe. They work..Why? Because I've seen it happen many times. Why do they work? Dunno, and don't care. if I'm looking for water, I'll go see the dude with the rods.

[Old Moparz]

It's perception, nothing else.   Dowsing is hokum and snake oil, nothing more.

I had the same reaction the first time I saw someone use the rods.  I've tested the crap out of them - they work.   Why?  Some type of magnetic field.
I also found their use to be pretty common.    

One time I was land surveying out in the woods & locating manholes for a storm sewer easement that was fairly overgrown. We had to pop the covers to measure the depth of the manhole & the pipe size, as well as map out the pipe layout. People had used the easement to ride dirt bikes so we had a general idea of which direction to go, but some were buried so we would have to guess.

The guy I was working with decided we were going back to the van & got out a long piece of wire or a coat hanger & bent it into an "L" shape. I asked what the hell he was doing, & he said just watch & learn. As we went back to the area where we couldn't find the manholes, he held out his hands, folded them while letting the "L" shaped wire balance. One side pointed down & the other side pointed straight out ahead of him.

Now I was wondering if this guy was smoking something or trying to get me to fall for a joke when he said the wire will point in the same direction as the pipe.    I watched, & then decided for sure that he was full of s**t. The wire moved to one side as he shouted, "SEE IT? SEE IT? Did you see the wire move?"

I said, "Yeah, I see a retarded crackhead that thinks a coat hanger works better than a $15,000 electronic survey instrument sitting in the van."

He walked in the same direction as the wire pointed, moved some brush & found a manhole cover. Now he was gleaming with excitement bragging about how it worked. For all I knew, he had already known the location of the manhole cover, tilted his hands to move the wire & hoped that I fell for it. He held out the wire & showed me how to balance it & try it for myself.

I humored him by holding it pointing forward, then walked perpendicular over where we both knew the pipe would be. As I crossed over the pipe the wire swung sideways pointing in the same direction the pipe went. I thought the wire would stay pointing forward & hoped it would so I could tell this guy he was full of it, but laughed & walked back over the pipe. The wire did the same thing & all I could do was hand it to him & say I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't try it.

He said an old timer showed it to him & that he thought it was because of the void inside the pipe. I have no idea & think that it could be a combination of reasons the wire swung, including the void, magnetic fields, etc. I'm one of the biggest skeptics about almost anything, but there is definitely something to the dowsing.

[areibel]

I didn't believe it until I needed to have my septic tank pumped.  The guy I called about it asked if I knew where it was, I said no.  He said no problem, showed up with a pair of rods and started where the pipe went  out of the house.  He found it in less than 30 seconds, I changed my mind!

[hatersaurusrex]

Skeptics will always debunk what they refuse to believe. They work..Why? Because I've seen it happen many times. Why do they work? Dunno, and don't care. if I'm looking for water, I'll go see the dude with the rods.

Not always.   I'm a huge skeptic, mostly cause the world is overrun with BS and you can choose to be a skeptic or a sucker.    That said, you have to admit the concept shares a lot with snake oil and psychics and a ton of other things which may be .002% true but mostly garbage.

Reading posts here makes me think there must be something to it, but I'd still have to see it to believe it.

[Old Moparz]

Skeptics will always debunk what they refuse to believe. They work..Why? Because I've seen it happen many times. Why do they work? Dunno, and don't care. if I'm looking for water, I'll go see the dude with the rods.

Not always.   I'm a huge skeptic, mostly cause the world is overrun with BS and you can choose to be a skeptic or a sucker.    That said, you have to admit the concept shares a lot with snake oil and psychics and a ton of other things which may be .002% true but mostly garbage.

Reading posts here makes me think there must be something to it, but I'd still have to see it to believe it.

That's exactly how I felt about it, too. You can give the wire thing a try that I posted by just going to where you already know a pipe exists. Bend a wire into a 2 foot "L" & balance it. If you don't want to look like a retard, do it when nobody is around. As for the wishbone shaped sticks where these people look like they're almost fighting to hold the thing up, I'll call BS on that one.

[sunfire69]

Anybody can try it....if your house has cable, telephone, electricity....get two pieces of bare wire about a foot long, bend a 4 inch or so 90 in them at one end..hold them loosly in your hands out in front of you about 12 inches apart...and walk across where your lines come in....they WILL swing into each other and as soon as you pass the cables the will swing back out....it's easy to prove to yourself. I usually angle them down slightly in front so after I pass the lines they swing out easier.....only takes a minute and a foot of 16/2 wire....

[Indygenerallee]

It works! I know a lot of "old timers" that swear by it and I have seen it performed with my own two eyes, nobody has to believe anything but I have seen some weird stuff in my 32 years on this earth that goes against all "scientific" reasoning.

[Ghoste]

I am another one who has seen it done many times.  I cannot explain it and I am as big a skeptic as anyone but sometimes things just defy reason.

[oldgold69]

it work had an old farmer come over an dows for my dads well in the 70 s  he used a willow branch  i ve seen a lot of people use the wire on underground  it works too