Dowsing is a type of divination employed in
attempts to locate ground water, buried metals
or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many
other objects and materials without the use
of scientific apparatus. Dowsing is considered
a pseudoscience, and there is no scientific
evidence that it is any more effective than
random chance.
Dowsing is also known as divining, doodlebugging
or water finding, water witching or water
dowsing.
A Y- or L-shaped twig or rod, called a dowsing
rod, divining rod, a "vining rod" or witching
rod is sometimes used during dowsing, although
some dowsers use other equipment or no equipment
at all.
Dowsing appears to have arisen in the context
of Renaissance magic in Germany, and it remains
popular among believers in Forteana or radiesthesia.
The motion of dowsing rods is nowadays generally
attributed to the ideomotor effect.
History
Dowsing as practiced today may have originated
in Germany during the 15th century, when it
was used in attempts to find metals. As early
as 1518 Martin Luther listed dowsing for metals
as an act that broke the first commandment.
The 1550 edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia
contains a woodcut of a dowser with forked
rod in hand walking over a cutaway image of
a mining operation. The rod is labelled "Virgula
Divina – Glück rüt", but there is no text
accompanying the woodcut. By 1556 Georgius
Agricola's treatment of mining and smelting
of ore, De Re Metallica, included a detailed
description of dowsing for metal ore.
In 1662 dowsing was declared to be "superstitious,
or rather satanic" by a Jesuit, Gaspar Schott,
though he later noted that he wasn't sure
that the devil was always responsible for
the movement of the rod. In the South of France
in the 17th century it was used in tracking
criminals and heretics. Its abuse led to a
decree of the inquisition in 1701, forbidding
its employment for purposes of justice.
An epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from Epigrams
theological, philosophical, and romantick
runs thus:
Virgula divina.
"Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod,
Gather'd with Vowes and Sacrifice,
And will strangely nod
To hidden Treasure where it lies;
Mankind is that Rod divine,
For to the Wealthiest they incline."
Dowsing was conducted in South Dakota in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries to help
homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers locate
water wells on their property.
In the late 1960s during the Vietnam War,
some United States Marines used dowsing to
attempt to locate weapons and tunnels. As
late as in 1986, when 31 soldiers were taken
by an avalanche during an operation in the
NATO drill Anchor Express in Vassdalen, Norway,
the Norwegian army attempted to locate soldiers
buried in the avalanche using dowsing as search
method. 16 soldiers died.
Regardless of the scientific experiments,
dowsing is still used by some farmers.
Equipment
Rods
Traditionally, the most common dowsing rod
is a forked branch from a tree or bush. Some
dowsers prefer branches from particular trees,
and some prefer the branches to be freshly
cut. Hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel
in the United States are traditionally commonly
chosen, as are branches from willow or peach
trees. The two ends on the forked side are
held one in each hand with the third pointing
straight ahead. Often the branches are grasped
palms down. The dowser then walks slowly over
the places where he suspects the target may
be, and the dowsing rod dips, inclines or
twitches when a discovery is made. This method
is sometimes known as "willow witching".
Many dowsers today use a pair of simple L-shaped
metal rods. One rod is held in each hand,
with the short arm of the L held upright,
and the long arm pointing forward. When something
is found, the rods cross over one another
making an X over the found object. If the
object is long and straight, such as a water
pipe, the rods may point in opposite directions,
showing its orientation. The rods are sometimes
fashioned from wire coat hangers, and glass
or plastic rods have also been accepted. Straight
rods are also sometimes used for the same
purposes, and were not uncommon in early 19th-century
New England.
In all cases, the device is in a state of
unstable equilibrium from which slight movements
may be amplified.
Pendulum
A pendulum of crystal, metal or other materials
suspended on a chain is sometimes used in
divination and dowsing. In one approach the
user first determines which direction will
indicate "yes" and which "no" before proceeding
to ask the pendulum specific questions, or
else another person may pose questions to
the person holding the pendulum. The pendulum
may also be used over a pad or cloth with
"yes" and "no" written on it and perhaps other
words written in a circle. The person holding
the pendulum aims to hold it as steadily as
possible over the center and its movements
are held to indicate answers to the questions.
In the practice of radiesthesia, a pendulum
is used for medical diagnosis.
Police and Military devices
A number of devices resembling "high tech"
dowsing rods have been marketed for modern
police and military use: none has been shown
to be effective. The more notable of this
class of device are ADE 651, Sniffex, and
the GT200. A US government study advised against
buying "bogus explosive detection equipment".
Devices:
Sandia National Laboratories tested the MOLE
Programmable System manufactured by Global
Technical Ltd. of Kent, UK and found it ineffective.
The ADE 651 is a device produced by ATSC and
widely used by Iraqi police to detect explosives.
Many have denied its effectiveness and contended
that the ADE 651 failed to prevent many bombings
in Iraq. On 23 April 2013, the director of
ATSC, Jim McCormick was convicted of fraud
by misrepresentation. Earlier, the British
Government had announced a ban on the export
of the ADE 651.
SNIFFEX was the subject of a report by the
United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal
that concluded "The handheld SNIFFEX explosives
detector does not work."
Global Technical GT200 is a dowsing type explosive
detector which contains no scientific mechanism.
Scientific appraisal
A 1948 study tested 58 dowsers' ability to
detect water. None of them was more reliable
than chance. A 1979 review examined many controlled
studies of dowsing for water, and found that
none of them showed better than chance results.
A 2006 study of grave dowsing in Iowa reviewed
14 published studies and determined that none
of them correctly predicted the location of
human burials, and simple scientific experiments
demonstrated the fundamental principles commonly
used to explain grave dowsing were incorrect.
Kassel study
A 1990 double-blind study was undertaken in
Kassel, Germany, under the direction of the
Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung
von Parawissenschaften. James Randi offered
a US$10,000 prize to any successful dowser.
The three-day test of some 30 dowsers involved
plastic pipes through which water flow could
be controlled and directed. The pipes were
buried 50 centimeters under a level field,
the position of each marked on the surface
with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell
whether water was running through each pipe.
All the dowsers signed a statement agreeing
this was a fair test of their abilities and
that they expected a 100 percent success rate.
However, the results were no better than chance,
thus no one was awarded the prize.
Betz study
A 1987-88 study in Munich by Hans-Dieter Betz
and other scientists, 500 dowsers were initially
tested for their skill and the experimenters
selected the best 43 among them for further
tests. Water was pumped through a pipe on
the ground floor of a two-storey barn. Before
each test the pipe was moved in a direction
perpendicular to the water flow. On the upper
floor each dowser was asked to determine the
position of the pipe. Over two years the dowsers
performed 843 such tests. Of the 43 pre-selected
and extensively tested candidates at least
37 showed no dowsing ability. The results
from the remaining 6 were said to be better
than chance, resulting in the experimenters'
conclusion that some dowsers "in particular
tasks, showed an extraordinarily high rate
of success, which can scarcely if at all be
explained as due to chance ... a real core
of dowser-phenomena can be regarded as empirically
proven."
Five years after the Munich study was published,
Jim T. Enright, a professor of physiology
who emphasised correct data analysis procedure,
contended that the study's results are merely
consistent with statistical fluctuations and
not significant. He believed the experiments
provided "the most convincing disproof imaginable
that dowsers can do what they claim", stating
that the data analysis was "special, unconventional
and customized". Replacing it with "more ordinary
analyses", he noted that the best dowser was
on average 4 millimeters out of 10 meters
closer to a mid-line guess, an advantage of
0.04%, and that the five other "good" dowsers
were on average farther than a mid-line guess.
He further pointed out that the six "good"
dowsers did not perform any better than chance
in separate tests.
Suggested explanations
Early attempts at a scientific explanation
of dowsing were based on the notion that the
divining rod was physically affected by emanations
from substances of interest. The following
explanation is from William Pryce's 1778 Mineralogia
Cornubiensis:
The corpuscles ... that rise from the Minerals,
entering the rod, determine it to bow down,
in order to render it parallel to the vertical
lines which the effluvia describe in their
rise. In effect the Mineral particles seem
to be emitted from the earth; now the Virgula
[rod], being of a light porous wood, gives
an easy passage to these particles, which
are also very fine and subtle; the effluvia
then driven forwards by those that follow
them, and pressed at the same time by the
atmosphere incumbent on them, are forced to
enter the little interstices between the fibres
of the wood, and by that effort they oblige
it to incline, or dip down perpendicularly,
to become parallel with the little columns
which those vapours form in their rise.
Such explanations have no modern scientific
basis. A 1986 article in Nature included dowsing
in a list of "effects which until recently
were claimed to be paranormal but which can
now be explained from within orthodox science."
Specifically, dowsing could be explained in
terms of sensory cues, expectancy effects
and probability. Skeptics and some supporters
believe that dowsing apparatus has no power
of its own but merely amplifies slight movements
of the hands caused by a phenomenon known
as the ideomotor effect: people's subconscious
minds may influence their bodies without them
consciously deciding to take action. This
would make the dowsing rods a conduit for
the diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception;
but also susceptible to confirmation bias.
Soviet geologists have made claims for the
abilities of dowsers, which remain unverified
by any credible scientific means. Some authors
suggest that these abilities may be explained
by postulating human sensitivity to small
magnetic field gradient changes.
Notable dowsers
Well-known dowsers include:
Otto Edler von Graeve
Uri Geller
A. Frank Glahn
Thomas Charles Lethbridge
Nils-Axel Mörner
Karl Spiesberger
Ludwig Straniak
Hellmut Wolff
See also
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
Alpha 6
Geopathic stress
Long range locator
Michel Moine
Professor Calculus
Rhabdomancy
TR Araña
Ley line
References
Further reading
Barrett, William and Theodore Besterman. The
Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological
Investigation. Kessinger Publishing, 2004
Barrett, Linda K. and Evon Z. Vogt, "The Urban
American Dowser", The Journal of American
Folklore 325, S. 195-213
Bird, Christopher, The Divining Hand, 1979.
Randi, James, Flim-Flam!, 1982. Devotes 19
pages to double-blind tests in Italy which
yielded results no better than chance.
Spiesberger, Karl, Reveal the Power of the
Pendulum.
Underwood, Guy, The Pattern of the Past, Museum
Press 1969; Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd 1970;
Abacus 1972.
Vermeir K. "The physical prophet and the powers
of the imagination. Part II: a case-study
on dowsing and the naturalisation of the moral,
1685-1710." Studies in History and Philosophy
of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 2005
Mar; 36(1):1-24.
External links
Dowsing at DMOZ
Footage of water dowser at work
George P. Hansen: "Dowsing: A Review of Experimental
Research". In: Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, Volume 51, Number 792,
October 1982, pp. 343–67
James Randi, "The Matter of Dowsing"
The Skeptics Dictionary - Includes details
of various scientific tests
Dowsing, on season 8 , episode 2 of Scientific
American Frontiers. On "Beyond Science" video
featuring Ray Hyman, November 19, 1997
