Questions About Dowsing For Water

[harry k]

And you sound like anohter of those who won't even try it.

Harry K

[Red]

This subject is just like arguing politics or religion - neither side will change their viewpoint. Those of us who have had it work on many occasions and know it works will never convince those who will never get off their dead asses and try it. We're falling to level of the alt.hvac or sci.geo.geology groups in arguing this subject.

Red

[Ashton Crusher]

That's the typical cop out - can't say for sure how it works or anything else factual about it but somehow "they" just KNOW it works and no amount of failure will change their mind. So how does it "find" these fissures? What's the physics involved? And I can guarantee that if your witcher thinks it's fissures that Randi would be happen to create a test of fissures. Just dig some trenches and then put plywood over the whole thing. But wait, I can hear the objections now,... it will work for "fissures" that are hundreds of feet below the surface and covered by 100 feet of dirt, but somehow it won't work for surface fissures covered by plywood. You really should go read Randis' book "Flim-Flam". This same nonsense is trotted out by every deluded "expert" in dousing, mind reading, psychic healing, etc and they ALL fail when tested under conditions that don't allow them to just ignore their failures, i.e. controlled conditions.

[Ashton Crusher]

If you can't make them move you are holding them too tightly. Anyone can "witch". Just cut up a coat hanger and make your two L's. Then go play with it. Aim it at the dogs water dish, the rods will cross. It's elementary... if you start out with the requirement that you need to maintain them pointing forward and parallel to each other (and you don't hold them too tight), then the slightest movement of your hands will cause them to swing one way or the other. The amount of hand movement is almost imperceptible. It is VERY easy to delude yourself that you are not doing it. I've played with them and found that IF you are just playing around that it will SEEM like it finds water when you KNOW where the water is. It's very eerie on one level. But it won't actually find water when you don't know where it is. It's been tested over and over and the "experts" always fail.

[Ashton Crusher]

I can predict what the results would be. On one level the results would be that it didn't work. On the other level the "expert" would start talking about how "of course it doesn't work, it HAS to be held in the persons hands because it's not just the rods, it's the PERSON too and the mysterious unknown force has to go thru both the rods AND the person to work." It's cop out #6 in the cop out hit parade of reasons why these powers never work if someone actually try's to test them.

[Ashton Crusher]

I wonder how much kickback he gets from the witchers....

[Ashton Crusher]

Once again, someone who 100% successful in their witching just walks away from a million dollars. That's the reason I can't take your story seriously - you might be lying, deluded, or just lucky.

If someone told you that they had been playing 21 at the church Casino nights for the last 10 years and that they won virtually EVERY time wouldn't you find it strange that they refused to go to Las Vegas and clean up.

[Ashton Crusher]

Why don't you go win the million dollars?

[Doug Miller]

Quite obviously I *have*. You keep writing things like "I often wonder if any of the skeptics have actually tried using a couple bent wires. They work for me ... they work for at least half of anyone who tries it." and "Have I found stuff using the rods? Yes" and "the RODS WILL MOVE".

The phrases above are not those of even a partial skeptic. They are those of a true believer, one who's swallowed the entire pitcher of Koolaid.

Once again: you claimed you can find things using dowsing rods. Prove that, and you're an instant millionaire. Why are you unwilling to take the test?

[Doug Miller]

I'll be convinced as soon as I see it demonstrated under controlled conditions. You claim to "have had it work on many occasions" -- go claim your million dollars.

Or explain why you're unwilling to be tested under controlled conditions.

[SteveB]

You one of the ones that can't do it, huh?

Steve

[SteveB]

Well, I don't give anyone who spells their name with an "i" at the end any credibility. Are you two dating again?

[SteveB]

The really hilarious thing about this dowsing nonsense is that if people really believed that it worked, they'd mount their rods under sealed glass with precision bearings.... not HOLD THEM IN THEIR HANDS.

That's like having cork on sandpaper for a a bearing! Of course if they actually made such an instrument, it become blindingly obvious how useless it'd be in about one minute.

Reply

Actually, the two bent baling wire rods work better when held in two Tabasco bottles.

Steve

[SteveB]

You haven't been paying attention, have you? I never claimed that I could dowse water. I merely said that I have successfully used them to find buried wires, pipes, and lines.

Sheesh. Listen up, will ya?

Steve

[Ulysses]

Next you'll be telling me that my dog doesn't understand geometry and physics.

I don't really see much difference between believing in ideomotor action and believing in dowsing or witching.

[JIMMIE]

I located my water main with better accuracy than the local locator service did. I have seen Randi's web page and he assumes that dowsing does certain things that even dowsers do not make claim to. Basically he has built a strwman to shoot at.

Jimmie

[mike]

That would slightly increase the sensitivity to wind and how lousy human hands are at holding something plumb or level.

Why not put the rods on precision bearings, under glass, and roll the device at a constant speed on level rails over areas of question?

Otherwise, you're measuring human frailty, wind direction, incline, or acceleration. I don't know what people think they'd be measuring... it can't be magnetic fields, or they'd use a compass.

[harry k]

ds for

Amen to that! I have found things using them and I have had them fail. Thus I remain a 'half-skeptic'

Harry K

[harry k]

nds for

Perhaps you could try reading and understanding what I have written. I direct your attention to my repeated "half-skeptic'

Harry K

[harry k]

Or perhaps you could read what I have written where I said they have failed me?

Harry K