Dowsing: County residents using ancient tradition to find water

OK, Desmond's success rate (however that is defined) is 85%. What's the success rate for drillers who don't use downsers?

Where can I read those "recent scientific studies" that show dowsing works?

We've all heard stories of the dowser who was brought in after several dry holes, and found water. Have you ever heard stories where the driller found water on the first try, but they brought in a dowser anyway and he found dry holes? Of course not - because when the driller finds water, you stop looking! This is Fooled by Randomness territory.

Agreed, and such a test has already been done.

See the $40,000 "Australian Skeptics Divining Test" by James Randy... http://www.skeptics.com.au/articles/divining....

"When the results were tabulated, 111 tries had been made, with an expected 10% success rate by chance alone, There were 15 successes, 13.5%, a figure well within expectation.

But what had the dowsers declared as their expected success rate? It averaged out to better than 92%!

Though diviners will continue to be hired by believers in such powers, and wells will be dug with great precision on spots located by forked-stick folks, these water supplies will not prove that dowsing works. They will only prove that there is a great deal of water down under the earth, and we do not need silly folks wiggling sticks to tell us that.

Divining is a delusion, and must be recognised as such."

I know a couple water witches one is said to be successful sometimes...The other has quite a rep, He I can't say as I have heard of him missing.

As far as it being a delusion, I would have to disagree. I was lucky enough to be witness to a demonstration, It was not water witching but follows the same principles. The demonstration went as followed...A group of us meet the demonstrator at the local breakfast place, He knew only 2 local people the rest of the group were strangers. We all went to one of the "strangers" house, One person was told to hide a staple in the house that had been marked by a permanent marker of a color that only the person hiding the staple "that had never meet the demonstrator before" knew. The demonstrator was kept blindfolded and in a car with no cell phone or ability to communicate with anyone.

The demonstrator was then given a blueprint of the house. Using a pendulum ,he passed the pendulum over the blueprint stopping on one of the rooms then the closet of that room. He went in the house to that closet and using the pendulum again he then focused on a pile of blankets searched them and found the blue colored staple, this all took just over 3 min.

The principle he was demonstrating was...our soul and spirit knows all things, we all have the ability to tap into that knowledge and by the use of medium of simple instrument's we can allow our inner selves to "speak" so to say...

It is that principle that can allow one to "divine" water, find minerals or even lost objects. It is science but not in the mundane sense.

Actually dowsing does work. I've done it and I'm not a special person. I believe the metal rods are the key to the dowser's success because they detect the electromagnetic flow of underground water currents.
There are studies out there that have shown the success of dowsing, despite what James Randy claims.
http://jameseg.newsvine.com/_news/2009/03/21/...

Tammy wrote:

Actually dowsing does work. I've done it and I'm not a special person. I believe the metal rods are the key to the dowser's success because they detect the electromagnetic flow of underground water currents.
There are studies out there that have shown the success of dowsing, despite what James Randy claims.
http://jameseg.newsvine.com/_news/2009/03/21/...

The successful dowser I know uses red willow not metal.

buttered bread wrote:

I know a couple water witches one is said to be successful sometimes...The other has quite a rep, He I can't say as I have heard of him missing.
As far as it being a delusion, I would have to disagree. I was lucky enough to be witness to a demonstration, It was not water witching but follows the same principles. The demonstration went as followed...A group of us meet the demonstrator at the local breakfast place, He knew only 2 local people the rest of the group were strangers. We all went to one of the "strangers" house, One person was told to hide a staple in the house that had been marked by a permanent marker of a color that only the person hiding the staple "that had never meet the demonstrator before" knew. The demonstrator was kept blindfolded and in a car with no cell phone or ability to communicate with anyone.
The demonstrator was then given a blueprint of the house. Using a pendulum ,he passed the pendulum over the blueprint stopping on one of the rooms then the closet of that room. He went in the house to that closet and using the pendulum again he then focused on a pile of blankets searched them and found the blue colored staple, this all took just over 3 min.
The principle he was demonstrating was...our soul and spirit knows all things, we all have the ability to tap into that knowledge and by the use of medium of simple instrument's we can allow our inner selves to "speak" so to say...
It is that principle that can allow one to "divine" water, find minerals or even lost objects. It is science but not in the mundane sense.

to appreciate such phenomenon requires faith, open-mindedness, and a suspension of previously held limited-reductionist belief systems...no wonder most people remain bitter skeptics!

Dowsers have been prosecuted in California for fraud for about 10 years now. Most dowsers contact the local water authority or CA DWR and look up the groundwater data which is free and usually available online. Unsuspecting customers are so enthralled with the spiritual aspect that they never bother to look up the data themselves.