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Dowsing

Do you believe dowsing for water works?

  • Total voters
    33
I saw a Time Team the other day when they had to humour the guy who'd called them in for a dig ...

The fake bomb detectors should have put paid to that bollocks.
 
And as for stories about when it has apparently worked. Well, people saying things doesn't make something actually true.
 
I remember the 70s, and have to live with the embarrassment of having been caught up in the ESP / paranormal thing. In my defence I was very young and there were only 3 TV channels ...
It's possibly even more embarrassing that I didn't finally bury religion and spirituality until my late 20s ...
 
It sounds like nonsense to me, but after reading 8ball's posts on the other thread, I'm not going to 100% write off the possibility of some non-supernatural ideomotor Ouija board weirdness making it possible that it works in some cases.
 
It's failed every time it's been subjected to rigorous scientific testing. It's fucking bollocks. If it worked at all then we'd know by know.
 
I think anyone who claims they can detect water in a buried pipe etc. is probably full of crap, which is why it always fail in scientific tests, sounds like the jury might still be out a little bit on whether people who know the landscape well can subconsciously detect clues to groundwater - at least in some cases.

But it definitely wasn't the case when the British Army tried consulting water diviners in North Africa in WWII:
Major-General Tickell (Director of Works for Middle East Forces) stated in a letter, dated 1942, to the Engineer-in-Chief: Our experience has been, without one shadow of a doubt, that the water diviners’ assistance has been absolutely worthless. Not only in their percentage of successes below what would have been expected by mere chance, but their ability to distinguish between saline and non-saline water does not exist. They have been given a fair trial and we have come to the conclusion that they should be prohibited from even offering gratuitous advice.
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Thought I`d put my vote in because my good friend (used to run raves together) is currently running Celtic Mineral Water Company and the spring was dowsed for by his father
I will now attempt to find some kind of tangible evidence. Wish me luck ... I really hope that I haven`t deluded myself and m8`s family aren't a load of naughty bullshitters.

Enjoy feeling more savey than me. This will be your only chance ;)
 
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Ralph Llama said:
Thought I`d put my vote in because my good friend (used to run raves together) is currently running Celtic Mineral Water Company and the spring was dowsed for by his father
I will now attempt to find some kind of tangible evidence. Wish me luck ... I really hope that I haven`t deluded myself and m8`s family aren't a load of naughty bullshitters.

Enjoy feeling more savey than me. This will be your only chance ;)
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Good luck. And your mate's family I'm sure are not bullshitters as such - they no doubt believe It's true too.

I'm not sure what "savey" means but good luck anyway.
 
Thank you :) I will need it. Oh and i meant savvy .

Right- Before hitting the search engine I`m thinking the `magic` is caused the ideomotor effect translating subconscious information that is formed by subtle input of recognition of the lay of the land and some kind of autonomic water finding system in our brains similar to say, the indigenousness tribes inbuilt navigation/compass.
Ridiculous I know.
 
mauvais said:
Someone put in a FOIA request not so long ago and it was revealed that almost all the UK water companies use divining rods.

UK water firms admit using divining rods to find leaks and pipes

(this shouldn't be taken as an endorsement!)
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Having had recent experience of mining the front garden in the rain to find the position of the main-drain vis a vis that of various trees its reassuring to read that there is no easier method of detection.
 
Ralph Llama said:
Thank you :) I will need it. Oh and i meant savvy .

Right- Before hitting the search engine I`m thinking the `magic` is caused the ideomotor effect translating subconscious information that is formed by subtle input of recognition of the lay of the land and some kind of autonomic water finding system in our brains similar to say, the indigenousness tribes inbuilt navigation/compass.
Ridiculous I know.
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You're not helping yourself already with that statement :D
 
It IS bollocks and I see the fallout from this every day. Trust me, for everyone's uncle's mate who found a natural spring, there are plenty of examples of holes being dug erroneously. I see it first hand all the time.
 
Hey ... i`m out on a limb here :D

Ok surprise, surprise ... this angle is one of the theories already waffled about ( i probably read it in some hippy book when i was a kid)

Another theory is that some diviners know from their experience and local knowledge where groundwater is likely to be located and subconsciously cause the reaction.
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Does divining actually work?

So i`ll see where this goes.
 
Finding Water With A Forked Stick May Not Be A Hoax

Interesting article...especially the "in the field success vs lab fails"

UK water firms admit using divining rods to find leaks and pipes

Quite a few water engineers seem to still keep dowsing on ... in their back pocket.

My grandad was someone who kept bees, grew all his own veg..hunted..fished...to stay alive..just someone living in the countryside who grew up in the countryside and lived off if. He was an intelligent person...and not one who suffered fool's or foolishness.
He was often called on to find water for people. He didn't see it as woo woo voodoo or witch stuff.. He just said that it was to do with energy. That water had a different energy to earth. A void under the ground being different to a rock. A bit like tapping a wall to find a stud....
Anyway...it was no big deal to him.

So...on foot of personal experience and the fact the water companies still have dowsing....I'm unable to vote..

Darn it.
 
I was thinking that. An aggressive response... but I`m the same anytime somebody tries to tell me the earth is flat, meditating can affect political struggles or state communism is a good idea.
 
PippinTook said:
Finding Water With A Forked Stick May Not Be A Hoax

Interesting article...especially the "in the field success vs lab fails"

UK water firms admit using divining rods to find leaks and pipes

Quite a few water engineers seem to still keep dowsing on ... in their back pocket.

My grandad was someone who kept bees, grew all his own veg..hunted..fished...to stay alive..just someone living in the countryside who grew up in the countryside and lived off if. He was an intelligent person...and not one who suffered fool's or foolishness.
He was often called on to find water for people. He didn't see it as woo woo voodoo or witch stuff.. He just said that it was to do with energy. That water had a different energy to earth. A void under the ground being different to a rock. A bit like tapping a wall to find a stud....
Anyway...it was no big deal to him.

So...on foot of personal experience and the fact the water companies still have dowsing....I'm unable to vote..

Darn it.
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Out of curiosity did he get paid even if he didn't find water?
 
Coincidentally, I have been having a bit of a Time Team binge recently and while cycling to work through a park the other day it struck me that I should have a go at making some geophys kit - and none of this walking around a field all day, it would be an autonomous wheeled vehicle.
 
You know all those twats that believe in astrology and wiccan spells and fairies and what not do my bonce in. My ex used to hide her belief in ghosts as "it's just a bit of fun" because she knew I thought it was daft.

Despite all this...

... Dowsing works. I've tried it and it worked.
Don't ask me how it works. It's crazy bizarre that it works. But it does.

Dowsing rods that is. Dunno if that dowsing twig stuff does. Seems a bit far fetched but then so does the rods.
 
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