The action of a dowser using a dowsing rod. The dowsing rod often consists of a forked stick. The dowser walks along holding the dowsing rod until it points to a source of water. Supposedly, the dowser has some sort of psychic power or is the medium for some sort of paranormal energy which activates his rod as it passes water.
According to Bannister Research & Consulting
Dowsing is a searching tool that has been used for at least one thousand years by prospectors who have tried, with the help of a y shaped rod, to locate underground water, ore bodies, oil and other important resources. Dowsing is subjective by nature. Its success depends on the qualities developed by the dowsers themselves, who sense, via a mind-body link, the presence of underground structures. Many people have this ability and simply have not tried it.Scientists have tried to understand the physical basis of dowsing; what factors link the movement of the rod in the dowser's hand to underground structures. No one has yet successfully explained the dowsing signal.
Not only is dowsing subjective, most testing of dowsing powers has been subjective, too. If you dowse and find water, then you have dowsing power! The fact that this pattern is found repeatedly makes the causal connection convincing to the uncritical thinker. This type of fallacious reasoning is known as post hoc reasoning and is a very common basis for belief in paranormal powers.
James Randi set up a controlled experiment to test the abilities of several dowsers. All failed the test, though each claimed to be highly successful in finding water using a variety of non-scientific instruments, including a pendulum. Says Randi, "the sad fact is that dowsers are no better at finding water than anyone else. Drill a well almost anywhere in an area where water is geologically possible, and you will find it."
If you get a whole group of people prone to belief in the paranormal and to post hoc reasoning, you can start a society! Or a business. Real psychics don't dowse, however. Like Uri Geller, they use their mental powers to locate oil or water. Map dowsers use a pendulum to locate water by swinging it over a map. Real psychics don't need pendula. Their minds penetrate the depths of the earth while viewing a mere map of the area. This is amazing but not as amazing as those standing in line to hire them.
Reader comments
I must begin by giving my applause for an informative and insightful web site. I too consider myself a skeptic on such matters; however, I have witnessed certain phenomena for which I can provide no rational explanation.
reply: The absence of a rational explanation doesn't mean there isn't one. On the other hand, there may be some things which we cannot explain rationally. It doesn't follow from either of these premises that there is always a paranormal explanation, if only we were clever enough to grasp it.
During the summer of 1993, I visited Stonehenge where I observed a man and woman using divining rods to determine the whereabouts and intensity of "lei (?) lines" around the monolith. I approached the couple and enquired about their activities and, after some discussion, I was invited to "try out" the divining rods.
reply: You probably don't recall all the details of the discussion, but my guess would be that what was said to you by the couple influenced you when you tried to do what they were doing. You may not have been conscious of their influence...you may even have consciously tried to resist being influenced. The mind is a funny thing. When I play golf, I sometimes get paired with someone who analyzes everything. I tell myself that I am ignoring what is said, that I will just hit the ball and not think about what I am doing, yet I inevitably find myself responding to my partner's analysis, despite all my efforts to ignore him.
Holding a rod in each hand, I was instructed to walk past the headstone. As I did so, the rods, which were both pointing directly forward, moved distinctly in an outward direction; as I passed the stone, they then moved back to their original position. I can assure you that I made no active effort whatsoever to influence the movement of the rods.
reply: Even experienced dowsers do not consciously make an effort to influence the movement of their sticks, wires, rods, etc. Yet, influence them they do, nonetheless.
While this experience does not make me a "believer," I am quite interested in any insights you might provide.
reply: I doubt if what I've said counts as an insight into anything, but my guess would be that you were influenced by what the couple said, even though this influence may have not only been unconscious but contrary to your conscious will.
10 Jul 1996
I thought I would comment on dowsing. I'm a Hoosier by birth and
upbringing and worked as a geologist in KY before earning my Ph.D. at
Ind. Univ. While in Ky I was exposed to "dowsing." I thought you might
be interested in knowing that in KY practitioners are called "water
witches" and they use a "divining rod."
--Clay Harris
Asst. Prof. of Geology
MTSU
reply: I'm surprised they don't call it a "bedeviling rod."
Fri 8 Nov 1996
First, I have really enjoyed your dictionary, I don't always
agree but it is most interesting.
Secondly, I take some issue with your position on dowsing. Having worked for 20 plus years in the construction business, it is not unusual for two pieces of copper wire (solid - #10) to be used as divining rods in order to find a pipe. Both plumbers and electricians have used this method with a high degree of success. I have personally used the method both on job sites and at homes to locate a buried pipe when the approximate location is known within 10' to 15'.
The use of the copper wires narrows the search to within a foot on either side of the location where the wires cross. The best explanation I have heard is that both water and/or conducting metals in the pipe create a small localized flux in the magnetic field thus enabling dowsing to be possible. I don't claim to have the final answer but it works for me.
John
reply: Your experience has been duplicated thousands of times, so why do I remain skeptical? What is "a high degree of success"? You and other dowsers found water or wires most of the time you used this method. If you do not compare how often you find water or wires without using this method, you do not have strong evidence that it was the dowsing that was responsible for your success. It may have been something else, such as the knowledge that comes from experience. I am sure it has occurred to you that electricians and plumbers have had numerous non-dowsing experiences in their trades and that what they learned from those experiences have helped them locate wires and pipes numerous times.
I don't doubt that the best explanation you have heard is that conducting metals in pipes causes a small localized flux in the magnetic field. But I doubt if this theory has been tested. If you decide to test it, I suggest you let non-plumbers and non-electricians do the dowsing. That will silence the skeptical critics who will claim that it was knowledge, not magic, that accounts for the success, if there is any.
further reading
Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1957), ch. 9.
Randi, James. Flim-Flam! (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books,1982), especially chapters 10 and 13.