It amazes me how many people who do not believe pseudo-science believe in dowsing.....

[Logical]

Many still believe dowsing is a 100% real skill. There is absolutely no proof of dowsing being a real skill. Many studies show no more than random chance.

James Randi has always said, the best way to test a water dowser is to ask them to scan a open farm field and find a spot where is you drill there WILL NOT be water found. Finding water is easy, you might just need to drill a little deeper. Finding a place where you can drill and NOT find water is the hard part.

Also interesting, as Randi states, The American Society of Dowsers, is an organization that adamantly refuses to allow their claims to be tested, and has vigorously avoided trying to win the JREF prize.

That should tell you all you need to know!

[kickysnana]

1. My thoughts

Water can be smelled. Temperature differences can be felt above ground. Ground underfoot has a 'feel and sound' to it based on composition and it would have been really handy for our ancestors to be able to find underground water so perhaps it was a developed talent that some of us have.

[Logical]

2. Well, people have a really hard time proving the sense in studies.

[zappaman]

3. Stop Making Sense!

[frogmarch]

4. Witching

Caption Dowsing. Historical photograph of a group of diviners with a variety of objects used for detecting underground water ("dowsing&quot . The divining (meaning "finding&quot objects are (from left to right): a whale bone rod, a pendulum suspended from a rod, a watch on a pendulum, another watch on a pendulum and a split cane rod. The rods are held loosely in the practitioner's hands and spontaneously point upwards or downwards when he passes over an underground object such as a spring. The pendulums rotate when over an underground object. Although still widely used, divining has no scientific basis and there is no conclusive evidence that it works.
http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/231783/enlarge
~~

My father-in-law called it “water witching,” and in 1979 he insisted on “witching” water for Mr. froggy and me so we’d know where to dig our well. He found water, but we knew he’d have found it just about anywhere. There were surface springs all over the place on our land. His witching tool was a bent wire clothes hanger, and the shape of it resembled the object on the far right in the above picture.

A friend of his who was also a water witcher came with him. His witching tool was made out of crazily bent wire antennas fixed to a Gabby Hayes-style cowboy hat (see pic below). I still laugh when I think of him looking so earnest while wearing that goofy contraption on his head.

[Logical]

7. Thanks! Great story! n-t

[LARED]

5. Not sure if this is considered dowsing, but

I have many times located underground metal water pipes using two long metal rods on a pivot point. The pipe must have water flowing through it. The rods will rotate slightly towards the horizontal when passing over the pipe.

First time it was shown to me I thought it was a trick, until I did it myself.

[Logical]

6. Well, that is dowsing. Many people claim they can do it. And when tested they can't. There is....

nothing to it.

[LARED]

8. My very specific experience tells me otherwise

Specific to underground pipes with running water.

some interesting information.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/1281661

[Logical]

11. This is even more interesting!

http://www.randi.org/library/dowsing/

[sgsmith]

9. Experience says otherwise

When I first bought my house, it took a while to realize that the spare bathroom wasn't working correctly. A plumber tried to snake the drain out, but didn't find a problem. He had to put a camera down the drain line to discover that the pipe went down/up/down. Not good for water flow.

The builder's plumber (another guy from the one who did the camera) had to locate the drain line under the slab so they would know where to jackhammer the slab apart. It only took a few minutes for one of his crew to use a divining rod to indicate where the pipe was, which they did accurately.

[Logical]

10. Really? That is proof? One time I thought the phone would ring and it did!!