dowsing rods / dousing rods

[kopend]

do they work ??

and if so how??

[paddywak]

When I worked for British Coal I was often had to trace buried cables, prior to ditches etc being dug and I did this with 2 welding rods bent at right angles held loosely in each hand so they could swing. When over the buried cable (or pipe) the 2 rods would swing across and remain crossed as long as we were over the cable. It was as accurrate as using a proper cable detecter and worked even if the cable was isolated. I dont know how or why it worked but it did even when the cable was buried quite deep

[jake-the-peg]

It's ideomotoc action

The same way that Darren Brown gets people convinced that tables are flying around the stage

http://www.quackwatch...Topics/ideomotor.html

Dowsers are all convinced that they can do it

Put them to a test to find glasses of water under boxes and they're all all convinced they can do it and are all surprised when they fail.

[rov1200]

Put 2 large ships close together and an attraction takes places. Put a thin dowsing rod near to cable and there could be a similar attraction. Maybe magnetism is one of many attractive forces?

[alavahalf]

In parts of Ireland It would be normal practce to get a dowser to visit before you started to build a new property on a new building plot.

When visiting relatives I was amazed when the dowser turned up. First of all he found the kettle and once he had his breakfast inside him he set about work.
He asked for a pencil and paper...
Cant remember what tree he broke twigs from, but he bent them at right angles and headed to the highest point of the land and with the twigs swinging to and fro....every now and then he would stop and write something down... and them walk to a landmark( A post or gate or anything) pacing it out as he went...and write somemore.
Over the morning and with cake and tea ....he paced about an acre out...
He returned to the house for a substantial lunch followed by a few small glasses of the hard stuff....and began to explain his child like drawing...it was actually fairly simple to understand...underground streams and circles were marked with lines and circles.
Their location could be identified by items on the ground...posts stakes etc.
He then said his goodbyes and left ....no money changed hands..!
Three days later the borer turned up and was pleased to see the drawing...
He sank a 2 bore holes where the circles showed on the drawing, and dropped a lift pump into them.....one was a little deeper than the other and that's where the pump stayed....
When I enquired about the medeival methods... I was asked.....
How else would you find water..?

Many years later the well still produces fine spring water...

Later that week the dowser was in the local pub and I told him of the results...he said
''Twill be a great bit of water it will...but beware you cannot mix that water with whiskey''
Offering me his near empty glass he said ...
''You can only mix whiskey with more whiskey''...

[heathfield]

(N.B. Jake's among those skeptics who aren't willing to try it for themselves).

[wildwood]

No matter what side of the fence you're sitting on, you'll always wonder....

If you want to know for sure, do as Jake suggested - get someone to put a glass/pan of water under one of four upside down boxes while you're out of the room.
Come in and do your dowsing. If you get it right 3 times in a row then please post it here.

[R1Geezer]

It's called the ideometer effect, google it, you do it yourself.

James Randi has been offering $1m dollars to dowsers, or any of the wonderful world of total bollux for years, no one has ever passed. He's even agreed a scientific test with dowsers themselves. Still no takers, if they had special powers would they not pick up the Million, just lying there?

Sorry I'm with jake on this, self deluding rubbish.

[jackthehat]

Although I tend to the side of the 'sceptics', I have been present on two occasions where a Dowser has found substantial underground features.
These were the only times I have seen a Dowser at work, and consequently have never been present during unsuccessful dowsing events.

I have no idea of whether the Dowser had previous information of the site and this influenced the results, or not. It was still very interesting to listen to his pronouncements and then be present at the unearthing (literally) of the results.

[chakka35]

That is why anecdotal 'evidence' is valueless, ,jackthehat.

Double-blind tests have never shown that dowsing works. As others have said, the ideomotor effect explains it all (as it does the ouija-board). James Randi's money is quite safe, as he well knows.