Water Dowsing

[glasgowcyclist]

There's a British Society of Dowsers with an entertaining forum. Best bit is Mike's UFO Corner where he describes seeing, on almost a daily basis, a variety of vividly described craft visiting the centre of the universe better known as Coventry. Apparently his dowsing powers can detect alien spacecraft.

 

[Profpointy]

There's a British Society of Dowsers with an entertaining forum. Best bit is Mike's UFO Corner where he describes seeing, on almost a daily basis, a variety of vividly described craft visiting the centre of the universe better known as Coventry. Apparently his dowsing powers can detect alien spacecraft.

Just because some dowsers claim daft things, doesn't make the underlying thing false.

I dare say some UFO types claim they can detect space aliens using electromagnetism but that does not falsify electromagnetism.

Other posters have argued something along the lines that dowsing is false because homeopathy is false. You could equally well claim that quantum physics is false because homeopathy is false.

 

[Tim Hall]

It'll all go horribly wrong:

Titty's eyes were swimming. She saw the ground of the yard at her feet through a mist. Something queer was happening that she could neither hinder nor help. The stick was more than a bit of wood in her hands. It was coming alive. If only she could drop it, be free of it. But there was Nancy's voice, talking, close to her and yet far away [...] there could be doubt no longer. The ends of the stick were lifting. She fought against them, trying as hard as she could to hold them still. But the fork of the stick was dipping, dipping, Nothing could stop it. Her hands turned in spite of her… They were all talking to her at once. The next moment the stick had twisted out of her hands. It lay on the ground, just a forked hazel twig with the green showing through the bark where Nancy had trimmed it. Titty, the dowser, startled more than she could bear, and shaking with sobs, had bolted up into the wood.

 

[Profpointy]

It'll all go horribly wrong:

Where's that from? I reckon it's been written by someone who's actually tried it and felt it and I have seen people genuinely spooked by it and dropped the rods in fright. I was quit unsettled mysef to be honest

 

[jefmcg]

Where's that from?

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aZrFlbjZjqMC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=Titty,+the+dowser,+startled+more+than+she+could+bear,+and+shaking+with+sobs,+had+bolted+up+into+the+wood.&source=bl&ots=0LuSogZ2yA&sig=MtIRmdlxQmwt3rG9YYo8sidQOps&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO45vyndfXAhWnCMAKHSPMCjUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Titty, the dowser, startled more than she could bear, and shaking with sobs, had bolted up into the wood.&f=false

 

[Tim Hall]

@jefmcg has it. Drifting off topic, I was in Sydney earlier this year and none of my sisters or nieces could identify which character from children's literature was brought up close to Sydney Harbour and was therefore well versed in sailing . I despair sometimes, I really do. The Girl, however, having been brought up proper, nailed it.


(It was Mrs Walker, obvs. Mother of the Swallows)

 

[Profpointy]

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aZrFlbjZjqMC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=Titty,+the+dowser,+startled+more+than+she+could+bear,+and+shaking+with+sobs,+had+bolted+up+into+the+wood.&source=bl&ots=0LuSogZ2yA&sig=MtIRmdlxQmwt3rG9YYo8sidQOps&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO45vyndfXAhWnCMAKHSPMCjUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Titty, the dowser, startled more than she could bear, and shaking with sobs, had bolted up into the wood.&f=false

Never read it, though enjoyed a film version. I do like the reply in the letter though "better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown" No elf-n-safety gorn maad back then eh!

 

[Tim Hall]

Never read it, though enjoyed a film version. I do like the reply in the letter though "better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown" No elf-n-safety gorn maad back then eh!

Keen students will note that the quotation is from Pigeon Post, not Swallows and Amazons. Same author, same characters (plus some more), no boats.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

A couple of the things that puzzle me are:
how dowsing can be used to find just about any object: water, ore, coins, precious stones, graves, cavities, tunnels, missing persons;
how does the dowser ensure that the target material is the only one detected?

(I imagine it would be fairly important when searching for a missing person as you wouldn't want to keep turning up water pipes or long-lost sixpences.)

 

[psmiffy]

(I imagine it would be fairly important when searching for a missing person as you wouldn't want to keep turning up water pipes or long-lost sixpences.)

The technology version - Ground Probing Radar - suffers from the same limitations

 

[Profpointy]

A couple of the things that puzzle me are:
how dowsing can be used to find just about any object: water, ore, coins, precious stones, graves, cavities, tunnels, missing persons;
how does the dowser ensure that the target material is the only one detected?

(I imagine it would be fairly important when searching for a missing person as you wouldn't want to keep turning up water pipes or long-lost sixpences.)

My hypothesis is that i am somehow detecting discontinuities of some kind. Eg pipes, voids, faults (in the rock) and that kind of thing. This is consistent with what I detect tending to be a line, and also in some cases at least corresponding to a linear feature which is tangibly there. This seems to correspond a bit more than coincidence. That said, this is not anything like real proof, and I have have deliberately used the word "seems" a lot.

I have heard claims of being able to detect different things by tuning in to water or electricity etc and being able to infer depth. I am very skeptical of much of this.

But as Galileo is reputed to have said "and yet it moves"

 

[Fnaar]

I'm a complete cynic about this sort of stuff to be honest, but it reminded me of one of my favourite books "A Star Called Henry" (Roddy Doyle). The book traces traces Irish 1916 rebellion and the start of the Irish Civil War, through a character called Henry Smart. (actually a trilogy of books, but...)
Henry's dad is/was a criminal/thug/killer who has a special affinity with water ... his wooden leg twitches when he senses water, and he escapes from crime scenes using the Dublin sewer network.

Kinda personal to me, as at the time the book is set, my grandfather worked in the Dublin sewers, and lived a couple of streets away from the GPO in Dublin.

 

[jefmcg]

@jefmcg has it. Drifting off topic, I was in Sydney earlier this year and none of my sisters or nieces could identify which character from children's literature was brought up close to Sydney Harbour and was therefore well versed in sailing . I despair sometimes, I really do. The Girl, however, having been brought up proper, nailed it.


(It was Mrs Walker, obvs. Mother of the Swallows)

Not surprised. I read S&A as a kid in Melbourne. Thought it was terrible and the kids were insufferable. It should not be inflicted on Australian kids. Not all literature travels well.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

My hypothesis is that i am somehow detecting discontinuities of some kind. Eg pipes, voids, faults (in the rock) and that kind of thing. This is consistent with what I detect tending to be a line, and also in some cases at least corresponding to a linear feature which is tangibly there. This seems to correspond a bit more than coincidence. That said, this is not anything like real proof, and I have have deliberately used the word "seems" a lot.

I have heard claims of being able to detect different things by tuning in to water or electricity etc and being able to infer depth. I am very skeptical of much of this.

But as Galileo is reputed to have said "and yet it moves"

You've made a couple of references to sensing your muscles tense or twitch when detecting something; does this happen when your in the same spot but without the rods?

 

[Profpointy]

You've made a couple of references to sensing your muscles tense or twitch when detecting something; does this happen when your in the same spot but without the rods?

Yes.

Took several tries with the rods before I twigged (no pun intended) that I was causing the rods to move and that they were just amplifying subtle muscle movements. I then realised I could actually feel my muscles tensing and sort-of didn't need the rods if I really concentrated. It's easier, and much more clear cut with the rods though.

Edit: as a sciency / sceptical sort of guy it was a relief when it was clear it wasn't some mysterious magick moving the rods or the twig, but just me detecting something - or perhaps better to use the word "noticing" something - and it all becomes a bit less mumbo jumbo