lauren (02/17/83)
While I tend to be extremely skeptical about most para-normal "abilities", I waver a little when it comes to dowsing. There seem to be a fair number of "documented" cases where dowsers have been amazingly successful at picking good locations for wells and such -- even when most "modern" techniques have failed. Not that it proves anything, but I believe there is actually an Army or Air Force manual that discusses dowsing techniques! I've never met anyone who claimed to have this "talent". Does anybody out there have any firsthand experience with this area, or is it really just another pile of bunk? Thanks much. --Lauren--
ka (02/19/83)
I heard The Amazing Randi talk about one "dowser" who claimed to have a perfect track record and tried to collect Randi's $10,000. Randi set up a double-blind test, and about halfway through the test, the dowser announced that there was no need to continue the test because he had been successful in all the tries so far. After the test was completed and it turned out that he was unsuccessful on every single trial, some- body asked him what that did to his "perfect track record." "Nothing," he replied, because since his power was obviously not working that day, his failure didn't count. I don't think there are any cases of successful dowsing which cannot be attributed to chance. Kenneth Almquist
dap1 (02/19/83)
#R:vortex:-2400:ihlpb:6600012: 0:662 ihlpb!dap1 Feb 18 18: 7:00 1983 Several years ago a construction crew was digging up water mains on the street in front of our house and we noticed them using coat hangars and asked them about it. Sure enough, they were looking for water mains. I've read of people who have been paid large sums of money for such talents by large companies. I tried the same thing and the damn things crossed just as I was walking over a water main! Before we start talking about sub-conscious muscle actions let me explain that I was too young to have ANY idea about where the water main was. I guess these guys were just not sophisticated enough to know that what they were doing couldn't possibly work.
mmt (02/20/83)
We had a next-door neighbour once who was a master plumber. On one occasion his gang had a job that required digging up an old drain in a building without plans; new concrete had been laid over the whole floor. They had no real means of telling where it went, except sampling trenches. As a joke, he tried dowsing for it with copper pipe as the indicator. He claims that he found the track zig-zagging across the concrete, and when they dug there, they found the drain. No extra mess in the new concrete. It's an anecdote, and probably embellished in the telling, but it changed this man's opinion of dowsing from thinking it idiocy to believing in it. Martin Taylor
jcz (02/21/83)
References: ihlpb.310 How do you use coat hangers to find water mains? No cracks, just how does the 'dowser' hold the wire? how does he move? --jcz
mauney (02/21/83)
Just to balance the anecdotal evidence on dowsing --
A few years ago I was visiting my parents
and woke up one marning 24 just in time to hear my sister tell my mother
that when she flushed the toilet, sewage came up the bathtub drain.
After some snaking around, we decided we had to deal directly
with the sewer pipe in the back yard.
Only problem: where is the pipe?
My father, being a man of science (and being unable to find the blueprints)
quickly ran to the closet and cut up a couple of coathangers.
Each of us dowsed the back yard, and found the pipe in a different location.
We were all wrong; the problem was solved when my brother decided he
remembered where the pipe was from when the house was built, dug a hole,
and found it.
Of course, it turned out that the pipe was composite, not metal,
so maybe that's why ...
Jon Mauney
NC State U.kxn (02/21/83)
I have had some experience with dowsing. One summer when I was still
in High school, I worked for a builder on new houses. One day, it came
to the attention of the builder that a leak had developed in a buried pipe
that led to the septic tank. The backhoe operator that was called out
had never worked there before so he didn't know where the pipe was. Well
the builder only had a vague idea of its whereabouts. The operator went to
his truck, pulled out some metal L shaped sticks he made up, and started
walking around with them. We all laughed at him when he stopped at one
spot and said he found the pipe. Sure enough, when he dug at that spot
the pipe was there. Later we all tried using the sticks and they
certainly do work - they actually turn in you hands. The operator says
that it works because an undergound object, like a pipe, concentrates
the earths magnetic field and that the stronger field acts on the metal
rods. I have no idea whether he can locate a good spot to dig a well.
When the well driller was on the same job, he used the old hunt-and-peck
method. (he gets paid by the foot)
Ken Koronaharkins (02/21/83)
when i was a kid, i learned how to find buried water pipes with bent coat hangers; a shovel proved the point! a dowser friend of mine and i chose the same spot (given the general area of say, 100 x 100 ft sq.) within five feet; i managed to dig a "well" by going down only three feet. the funny thing is, i just used the shovel itself for that one while she used the standard bent rods. i suspect that someone someday will figure out what sort of magnetic fields are involved and how they produce the phenomenon (at least that's what i think it); btw, they call it geomancy rather than dowsing these days. ernie harkins
jcz (02/23/83)
References: pyuxcc.436 If it is true that the Earth's magnetic field is 'concentrated' around buried metal pipes, wouldn't a compass be better at dowsing than L-shaped metal sticks? --jcz
frank (02/24/83)
#R:vortex:-2400:zinfandel:8200022:000:559 zinfandel!frank Feb 20 09:36:00 1983 I did read an item about dowsers some years ago (Scientific American?) that talked about dowsers and testing them to determine if they had para-normal capibilities. The conclusion was that dowsers are more sensitive to changes in electro-magnetic fields than most people, and that by shielding various parts of there bodies (kidneys, brain, ...) with various metals (like lead foil, grounded conductive foil, ..) that the sensitivity was decreased. That was the only thing I remember reading about dowsers. frank ...!decvax!sytek!zehntel!zinfandel!frank
russ (03/01/83)
#R:cires:-198900:kirk:22600008:000:190 kirk!russ Feb 24 09:51:00 1983 Dowsing can't possibly work in Oregon in the rainy season. Point the rods anywhere and you'll get a positive indication of water. Russ Nelson (sick of the rain) ...hp-pcd!hp-cvd!russ
mwc (03/01/83)
perhaps we should have sent coathangers up on the viking landers. i mean really now folks... ziggy