Water Dowsers

[rov1200]

Is there a scientific explanation why water dowsers appear to work (for most people anyway)?

[morn]

I suspect that some people (like some animals) can somehow 'sense' the presence of water - it seems to be particularly running water in dowsing - and that the 'dowsing rods' act as an amplifier, greatly increasing tiny muscular movements. If so, it's a survival mechanism

[chakka35]

If that were true, morn, then tests on dowsers would show positive results. But they never do.
But certainly your explanation of why the rods move is perfectly correct - the ideomotor effect.

[Old_Geezer]

beso why would spirit folk, assuming they exist, wish to harm living folk, assuming they could ? If true, then it would probably have more to do with folk convinced they were going to die and taking foolish risks.

As has been pointed out, this is the science site so a subject dealing with something probably outside the realm of science, may not be best considered here. But I have enough experience to know that subconcious movement can not on it's own account for information given, since to do so information given would have to have been known beforehand.

IMO James Randi and other "reward" givers are hardly offering unbiased tests, since it is the reward giver who decides whether the reward has been won.

[chakka35]

Your last statement is not true, Old Geezer. The whole point of a double-blind test is that neither the tester nor the tested knows in advance which results will prove to be correct. It is that final revelation, that no-one can dispute, of which claims were valid and which weren't, which would decide whether the prize had been won. In other words, you and I would both be as qualified as Randi to make that judgment.

Randi has not been found cheating or hedging once during all his investigations. To do so by withholding the prize when the whole world could see that it had been won would be the end of him.

[rov1200]

One of my sub questions has not been answered. If the human race originated in Africa and thrived to produce future generations how were they able to do this without a ready supply of drinking water? The tools used then have been discarded. Its a well known fact that adults lose most of their creativity through lack of use. Maybe we should encourage more junior inventors who possess the skill.

[chakka35]

That wasn't a question, rov1200, merely a speculation.

[mibn2cweus]

Until you understand the cause there's no explaining the effects. There are no random events no matter how unlikely. Only a lack of knowledge regarding the underlying causes involved which, in many circumstances, are simply far to complex and interelated to fathom. Regardless, no knowledge ~ no certainty.