Dowsing: the search for underground water or minerals by observing the motion of a pointer, supposedly in response to unseen influences (Oxford English Dictionary).
My mother’s uncle could do it. My mother can do it. I can do it sometimes. Water dowsing, or water witching, runs in the family. My mom uses a forked willow branch. The tip drops when she is over water. I use two L-shaped wires bent out of coat hangers. The wires cross, or separate, when I walk over underground water pipes or electric pipes. In my yard where I have experimented, the electric lines run near the water lines so I’m not always sure what my divining rods are showing me.
I have heard of dowsers that can tell you where on the property to dig the well, and how deep the water will be. They use a formula for how many times the rod dips at the end to calculate the depth. Actually, I imagine one can estimate well depth pretty well by reviewing data on the wells in the neighborhood but dowsing the best location could be useful. I wonder how many wells actually come up empty, with dowsing versus no dowsing? Personally, even though the dowsing rods move for me, I have no idea how they work. I have a pet theory though… electric wires, and running water are really a bunch of moving electrons with charges. I believe the divining rods (wires in my case) are lining up with subtle electric or magnetic fields. Like metal shavings above a magnet will align to the magnetic field. However, when I read a book about dowsing (The Divining Rod by Barrett and Besterman), the authors disputed the magnetic theory, based on old experiments with dowsers on insulated versus uninsulated surfaces. They also concluded that because divining rods can be wood, or metal, or other substances that are not influenced by magnets or charges, that the theory is not supported.
Am I biased and making the rods move unconsciously? That’s what my son says. But I had one set of divining rods that are in a metal sleeve. It would be much harder for my unconscious muscle contractions to move them, and they still moved when I crossed a pipe. Or at least they did move, until I lost one of those special rods. I like that I can dowse, but I have only ever used it for fun and interest’s sake. I have never had to dig a well, so I’m not sure how successful I would be on that task.
We dowsers also can use pendulums to answer questions. My mom has explored that, using a needle hanging on a thread as the pendulum. You ask a question, and the needle moves left and right, or back and forth, or in a circle. I would have to read a different book to remember which movement is supposed to be yes, no, or unknown. When I try a pendulum, it does move decisively. But is it real? I don’t know. My mom’s generation, and her mom’s generation would use the needle on a thread over a pregnant woman’s belly to determine whether she will have a boy or a girl. Now we have ultrasound. You could probably develop a pretty good pendulum prediction experiment using ultrasound as the proof. All you need is a whole bunch of friends that are pregnant and willing to share the data with you. I have no pregnant friends at this time. There goes that experiment.
Are people still dowsing these days? I asked the giant orb in the sky (Google). There was one website for a guy explaining that Christ called him to dowse water. That reminded me of a friend of mine who said she had dowsing ability but didn’t use it because she thought it was un-Christian. Perhaps because of the “witching” name. Another Google result showed a local well drilling company that says they will recommend water-witchers if you want, but generally if you simply dig deep enough you will find water around here. They also stated that, more rarely, sometimes both witchers and well drillers get skunked. As I dig a little deeper into the depths of the subject, I find many stories that say witching is not scientifically explained, it’s unproven, and no one tells the stories of when it fails.
Back to the dowsing book. I skimmed it; it was extremely wordy. It discussed the history (going back to medieval times) and summarized some experiments that seemed to indicate water dowsing works. The book was published in 1968 but was based mainly on earlier studies and information from the late 1800s and early 1900s. After using the book illustrations to refresh myself on how to hold the rods, I went outside with a forked willow stick, and with my bent wire coat hangers. I recognize that I have a bias when I dowse in my yard. I know where most of the water pipes and electric lines are. Nonetheless when I tried dowsing with both implements across known water and electric lines nothing happened. I failed.
The book also described how some dowsers can find missing objects, or minerals such as silver and gold. I had lost a small key to my camper a couple months prior. I assumed the keys were lost out in the yard where my camper was parked. As an experiment, I “introduced” my dowsing rods to my other camper key by touching the key with the rod. Then I visualized the key while gridding the side yard. Nothing. No response; my second fail. Is this because the key was not silver or gold? Is this because the key was not lost in the area I gridded? Or is this because dowsing for objects is a crock?
After two failed dowsing trials on the same day, I thought I had lost my dowsing talent. I was bummed. Then I invited my mom, my son, and his girlfriend out into the yard to try dowsing. My mom got some bobbles out of the forked willow stick, near some known water pipelines. I tried it again and also got some responses with the willow rod tipping down. Maybe my mom needed to charge it or something?
Then I started getting reactions with the wire rods, where I hadn’t earlier in the day. Maybe I needed to be in the right frame of mind? Meanwhile, my son showed us how he could move the willow stick purposefully, yet subtly, showing how it could be manipulated. His girlfriend did not get reactions from the willow or the wire. So is dowsing real? I don’t move the rods purposely, but perhaps there is something that happens unconsciously. None of these tests count as well-planned experiments.
The dowsing book finally concluded that the movement of the rod comes from an unconscious muscular action, but it didn’t scientifically explain what causes the unconscious movement. My son says dowsing has clearly been debunked. Perhaps. I’ll have to dig deeper into the literature, and especially look for more recent literature. In the meantime, I still haven’t found my lost camper key. Maybe I should pull out my pendulum and ask it a bunch of yes/no questions to determine where the keys were lost. I’m sure that will work, and I will successfully find the key. Hey, if that does work, maybe I can use that process to find the missing dowsing rod with the metal sleave! Or better yet, I can ask the giant orb in the sky to find me a new set of sleaved metal dowsing rods to purchase. Maybe we don’t need dowsing now that we have the internet. Heck, I’ll bet I can find a replacement camper key, too! That type of search will work for sure.
Michelle Eames 