Dowsing: Fact or Fiction?

You obviously started this thread with the intent to insult people. You've done that. Give it a rest.
 
I never tried to find where to dig a well. I can find water lines sewer lines septic tanks. I have done it several times. I once kept getting hits about 15 ft apart while looking for a perimeter drain when I started digging I found gravel with water running throught it. Believe what you want I can do it .
Roy
 
Codger_64 said:
You obviously started this thread with the intent to insult people. You've done that. Give it a rest.
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I didn't start this thread to insult people. What I did learn is that there is a guy that claims he'll pay a million bucks to a cat that can reproduce dowsing in a controlled environment. If I could actually dows, I'd jump at the chance. If I performed and got screwed, I'd still have a great story to tell at the bar. If I performed and got paid by a rich skeptic, I'd have an even better story.

Really, I've listened to late-night AM talk radio that deals with the supernatural for years. These guys never subject themselves to examination.
 
When I was about 10 we went to visit a friend who had a part-time job playing piano in a Shakey's. It must have been a slow night because the manager showed us how to douse. He had a pair of cut clothes hangers and held them loosely in his hands and then he walked over a glass of water that he placed on a chair. The hangers crossed. He then let us try it. I held the hangers loosely in my hands and walked toward the glass. When the rods went over the glass I felt a shock go through my hands and the rods swung together over the glass.

He then showed us where an underground stream ran and we were able to trace it with the rods. It was pretty amazing. Like I said, I held them loosely in my hands so that they could swing freely and with out any help on my part they crossed over the water.

Chad
 
22 years ago I was a mechanic at a laser manufacturing company, I was commin' back from pickin' up some permt applications for some new construction they were plannin'.

As I drove through the industrial complex I saw about a dozen guys with hard hats standin' around watchin' one guy wanderin' back and forth with two bent metal, (copper) rods in his hands and a can of spray paint in his back pocket.

I stopped out of curiosity, (I figured he was dowsing, I was a firm disbeliever back then, a major skeptic) and had to ask the guy with the rods if he really thought that worked? He stopped what he was doin' came over and said, "You see all those guys standin' over there?" I nodded and said, "Yea." He said, "They're all waitin' on me to find 4 sewer lines that run across this field and all these guys are gettin' paid to sit here while I do my job..."

He went on to tell me about how we can't explain a lot of things in this world but that doesn't they don't exist or work.

He then began to tell me how just as some people are better at some jobs than other people, some people are better at focusing the, (for lack of a more scientific word) energy generated by everything in the universe, he told me much like people have magnetic fields and electrical energy flowin' through us so does every organic livin' thing does. Some people are more sensitive to this than others, also just like living things have an energy field there is also an absence of it with certain inorganic things.

All the while as he's explain' this, we're walkin' and talkin', he's cuttin' and bendin' two copper rods.

Finally we stop in the midlle of this field and he begins explainin' to me how all of nature is chaotic and when man changes nature there are subtle signs that people who are sensitive to this energy or lack of it pick up on, (the purpose of the rods is that of an antenna/amplifier), he continues explainin' how when pipes, electrical wire buried foundations, even large volumes of water generate a patterned, organized energy in a random and normally chaotic world.

He then put a rod in each one of my hands and showed me how to hold them loosely and level, than had me walk out into the field, as we walked he talked while watchin' the rods swing loosely in my hands as i walked they would move back in forth in slow short arcs and an occasional wider swing.

He told me follow the feeling, watchin' the swingin' rods like a game of cold, warm, hot. Eventually I found a direction where the rods started movin' consistintly closer together formin' an X. I stopped and the guy urged me forward a few steps more, till the two rods were parellel to each other, then I stopped, he put a rock on the spot where I stopped, had me walk across the field to another area nearby and had me repeat the same process, he placed another rock where I stopped.

After he put the rock down he pointed of in the distance at an orange X on the ground about 200 feet away and another 100 feet in the other direction, in between his marks were my two rocks. He told me I was one of those lucky people who was sensitive to the energies present in our world, he gave me the two rods and told me I should be out there dowsing for a livin' I went back to work and that afternoonfound a four inch sewer pipe buried under six inches of poured concrete floor.

That evenin' when I got home I was so shaken by the experience, (considerin' just 5 hours earier I was a skeptic/nonbeliever) I went with my wife to a local bar and proceeded to get s**tfaced drunk.

I've only done it one more time since and have never tried again, (BTW the last time was a success also).

Believe what you will but I am a convert and have seen it work and have done it my self.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
22 years ago I was a mechanic at a laser manufacturing company, I was commin' back from pickin' up some permt applications for some new construction they were plannin'.

As I drove through the industrial complex I saw about a dozen guys with hard hats standin' around watchin' one guy wanderin' back and forth with two bent metal, (copper) rods in his hands and a can of spray paint in his back pocket.

I stopped out of curiosity, (I figured he was dowsing, I was a firm disbeliever back then, a major skeptic) and had to ask the guy with the rods if he really thought that worked? He stopped what he was doin' came over and said, "You see all those guys standin' over there?" I nodded and said, "Yea." He said, "They're all waitin' on me to find 4 sewer lines that run across this field and all these guys are gettin' paid to sit here while I do my job..."

He went on to tell me about how we can't explain a lot of things in this world but that doesn't they don't exist or work.

He then began to tell me how just as some people are better at some jobs than other people, some people are better at focusing the, (for lack of a more scientific word) energy generated by everything in the universe, he told me much like people have magnetic fields and electrical energy flowin' through us so does every organic livin' thing does. Some people are more sensitive to this than others, also just like living things have an energy field there is also an absence of it with certain inorganic things.

All the while as he's explain' this, we're walkin' and talkin', he's cuttin' and bendin' two copper rods.

Finally we stop in the midlle of this field and he begins explainin' to me how all of nature is chaotic and when man changes nature there are subtle signs that people who are sensitive to this energy or lack of it pick up on, (the purpose of the rods is that of an antenna/amplifier), he continues explainin' how when pipes, electrical wire buried foundations, even large volumes of water generate a patterned, organized energy in a random and normally chaotic world.

He then put a rod in each one of my hands and showed me how to hold them loosely and level, than had me walk out into the field, as we walked he talked while watchin' the rods swing loosely in my hands as i walked they would move back in forth in slow short arcs and an occasional wider swing.

He told me follow the feeling, watchin' the swingin' rods like a game of cold, warm, hot. Eventually I found a direction where the rods started movin' consistintly closer together formin' an X. I stopped and the guy urged me forward a few steps more, till the two rods were parellel to each other, then I stopped, he put a rock on the spot where I stopped, had me walk across the field to another area nearby and had me repeat the same process, he placed another rock where I stopped.

After he put the rock down he pointed of in the distance at an orange X on the ground about 200 feet away and another 100 feet in the other direction, in between his marks were my two rocks. He told me I was one of those lucky people who was sensitive to the energies present in our world, he gave me the two rods and told me I should be out there dowsing for a livin' I went back to work and that afternoonfound a four inch sewer pipe buried under six inches of poured concrete floor.

That evenin' when I got home I was so shaken by the experience, (considerin' just 5 hours earier I was a skeptic/nonbeliever) I went with my wife to a local bar and proceeded to get s**tfaced drunk.

I've only done it one more time since and have never tried again, (BTW the last time was a success also).

Believe what you will but I am a convert and have seen it work and have done it my self.
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I'll bet he knew where the lines were. People love to hoax. I grew up near Amityville. Hoax. There is a whole subculture of supernatural hoaxers. Some do it for money, while some do it to be different and/or cool. Listen to the "Coast to Coast" radio network for example after example. It's very popular night-time radio.
 
bladerique said:
That's what all the mystics do when challenged. Instead of taking their skill and making money proving it works, they back down - EVERY TIME.
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I am not "Backing Down", I find your lame comments at peoples experiences childish. Just because you can't do it, it must not be! People do get paid and work based on this "phenomenon" (as T. Erdelyi stated). I am a skeptic and this is as close as I get to being a believer in the unknown or unexplained. If you started this thread seeking opinions, you have them. It seems you are upset at the world because you can't make two wires cross over water. Not too long ago people sounded just like you about Gravity, Earth being round, the list is HUGE! Think outside the circle, or at least try to find the circle using two copper wires.
 
Let's not all take this personal. It's a good question, and regardless of the intent the answer could have pertinence to this subforum. The point is that if it's "fact" then there should be some evidence that goes beyond personal testimony. If personal testimony is going to be good enough then I'd say mine is far better than most and that witching is unproven at best (and that's optimistic). Confirmation bias is a human condition that we should all be aware of. How about someone throw some science down on this one? Bueller?...Bueller?....
 
RyanW said:
I am not "Backing Down", I find your lame comments at peoples experiences childish. Just because you can't do it, it must not be! People do get paid and work based on this "phenomenon" (as T. Erdelyi stated). I am a skeptic and this is as close as I get to being a believer in the unknown or unexplained. If you started this thread seeking opinions, you have them. It seems you are upset at the world because you can't make two wires cross over water. Not too long ago people sounded just like you about Gravity, Earth being round, the list is HUGE! Think outside the circle, or at least try to find the circle using two copper wires.
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I'm not upset at not being able to something that people who claim they can do that very thing with ease who will not do that thing for ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

I happen to have a very special supernatural skill too. I can ---- delicious deviled eggs. If some rich guy ever challenged me to do my thing for ONE MILLION DOLLARS, I'd jump at the chance, even if I wasn't sure he'd pay. That's a risk worth taking.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
Okay. Everyone stop for just a minute. All of you who are claiming that it really works and that you do it all the time, etc... you do realize that someone is still offereing 1 million dollars ($1,000,000) if you can prove it works? You don't even have to explain it scientifically; you just have to prove that it works reliably.

No one has EVER passed the challenge, and I'll bet all 4 limbs that you won't either.

Here it is: http://www.randi.org/library/dowsing/
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:thumbup:
 
Failing to prove something scientifically, is not the same as scientifically disproving something.............
 
Perhaps I am getting a little worked up. I just find it hard that because you don't believe in something, it does not exist. I have never tried this until tonight and I was shocked to find that it worked. It did not work for my wife, who believes in all kinds of crazy psychic mumbo jumbo (To my dismay). I agree that this sounds similar to the "Wear these kinds of shoe inserts and I won't be able to push your arms down". Sales pitch, It may not be a 100% accurate or ever be explained scientifically. But I became a believer that there is something to it... Today.

As far as the million dollars go, I will read the entire article tonight and possibly give it a shot. I can put that money towards knifemaking and possibly end up with $100,000 in the end.:rolleyes:
 
Bear Claw Chris Lappe said:
Failing to prove something scientifically, is not the same as scientifically disproving something.............
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Agreed, but burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If someone claims that a pink invisible gnome is sitting on his shoulder then the reasonable expectation is that he should offer up some credible proof before expecting agreement.
 
JCavSD said:
Agreed, but burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If someone claims that a pink invisible gnome is sitting on his shoulder then the reasonable expectation is that he should offer up some credible proof before expecting agreement.
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And there is the crux, nobody is demanding others believe in it, simply saying they have (and I have), seen it done repeatedly.

If someone however wants to demand that it doesn't work, then the burden falls to them to prove that.
 
Bear Claw Chris Lappe said:
And there is the crux, nobody is demanding others believe in it, simply saying they have (and I have), seen it done repeatedly.

If someone however wants to demand that it doesn't work, then the burden falls to them to prove that.
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The original question is this...
bladerique said:
Some people do it with a wooden stick or sticks, while others claim thin metal "L" shaped rods can find underground water. If I'm not mistaken, there's no science behind it.
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The answer is...as far as we know there is no scientific proof behind these claims. Lots of people have seen lots of things that have been proven untrue. If there's some objective proof behind any of it then someone needs to cough it up and earn their millions. If that can't be done then that's fine...to each his own...just don't confuse belief with science. Hate to see someone walking around with a couple sticks, dying of thirst, when they could be doing something constructive.
 
Not here to debate, only relate, most things in this world can be explained but not all, our interpretation of our world is based on what we've been told was believed to be true at the time.

We used to believe the earth was the center of the universe, till science proved it wrong, not until it proved to science it was right.

We used to believe the world was flat, we didn't wait for the earth to prove it was round, just 'cause you or some one else says it is or isn't true you're just repeatin' what you've heard also.
 
Skepticism understood. Nonetheless, it is a fact that it works. At least as I have used it for more than thirty years. I completed one new pool yesterday and I'm digging a new pool on Tuesday. You are most welcome to come observe.
 
Codger_64 said:
Skepticism understood. Nonetheless, it is a fact that it works. At least as I have used it for more than thirty years. I completed one new pool yesterday and I'm digging a new pool on Tuesday. You are most welcome to come observe.
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This is the core problem...unsupportable claims. I've worked for public water agencies since 1983...and if you want to base "truth" on personal experience then you'll probably do well to convert to my truth...it doesn't work. Taking a step back now...if anyone can offer some objective proof that would be refreshing.
 
JCavSD said:
Agreed, but burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If someone claims that a pink invisible gnome is sitting on his shoulder then the reasonable expectation is that he should offer up some credible proof before expecting agreement.
Click to expand...

The only reason you see a blue sky when ya lookup is because you've been told all your life it was blue, what if you grew up thinkin' it was fuzzy and no one told ya different, would it make it any less real to you, unless you're conductin' extensive research and experiments on your own, once again you're a tape recorder just replayin' what ya heard and presentin' it as what you believe.
 
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