Dowsing.

Overblood

What's everybody's opinion on dowsing? Do you believe in dowsing?

6th

Do you?

Riamfada

I find if you tilt your hands back and forward while you are holding them they have a tendency to move alot more. Some people say you are making it all up but I think its the spirits tell you to move them.

bigeasyeah

As in finding water with a stick?

Overblood

It's usually about finding water with a stick, but some people mantain that they can find gold and drugs via dowsing too.

6th wrote: »

Do you?

No I think it's a load of arse. I didn't post my opinion because I didn't want to start the thread off in a negative way. I was just wondering what other people's opinions were.

Grimes wrote: »

I find if you tilt your hands back and forward while you are holding them they have a tendency to move alot more. Some people say you are making it all up but I think its the spirits tell you to move them.

I can't tell if you're joking or not. Are you joking?

studiorat

Tried it with an uncle years ago looking for a well. Load of arse...

The Quadro 2000 Dowser Rod from the Quadro Corporation of West Virginia, was being sold to school administrators for $900 a pop in America (where else?). Apparently it's able to Dowse for marijuana in students' lockers. Might get one my self!!!

Michael Shermer showed it on a TED talk. Link

And what do you know, the Quadro Corporation ended up infront of the beak in 1996 for Economic Crimes.

http://www.skepdic.com/quadro.html

In April, 1996, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against Quadro Corp, which was convicted of engaging in a mail and wire scheme to defraud customers, under statutes 18 U.S.C. 1341 and 1343.

However if you still want to buy an electronic Dowsing Rod try these guys...
http://www.psi-tronics.com/

murrayp4

I've seen some double blind tests done for people who claim to dowse (sp?). They always failed

MrMojoRisin

I would be 70% 'no' and 30% 'yes' on my belief in dowsing and whether or not it works.

I think that the rods (or pendulum) and their movement are dictated by a person's involuntary muscle reflexes. I dont know if I have this right now, but I think the 'Ideomotor Effect' is behind most dowsing.

Overblood

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

I would be 70% 'no' and 30% 'yes' on my belief in dowsing and whether or not it works.

I think that the rods (or pendulum) and their movement are dictated by a person's involuntary muscle reflexes. I dont know if I have this right now, but I think the 'Ideomotor Effect' is behind most dowsing.

What's your reasoning behind the 30%?

Overblood

I think I just found a dowsing device that can detect explosives. Am I reading this website correctly? Are they actually selling a glorified CLOTHES HANGER that can detect semtex?

http://www.sniffex-eu.com

Overblood

6th, what is your opinion on dowsing?

MrMojoRisin

Overblood wrote: »

What's your reasoning behind the 30%?

The 30% belief of mine in the validity of dowsing has been determined by facts such as its use by the US Marines in Vietnam in the '60s and by the USSR military. Blind personal opinion on my part has also played its role in the 30%.

I don't think it's complete b0llocks, or even that it's as metaphysical as it's made out to be. I think that dowsers just detect a physical field on site - magnetic, electric and electromagnetic fields mostly. And yeah, I realise that, for this to be accepted, a physical explanation has to be provided for the generation of the signals by the features, and for the detection mechanism itself within the human body.

MrMojoRisin

Overblood wrote: »

I think I just found a dowsing device that can detect explosives. Am I reading this website correctly? Are they actually selling a glorified CLOTHES HANGER that can detect semtex?

http://www.sniffex-eu.com

Well,for people to be selling that cack is just stupid. And a greedy money-spinner, preying on the naive folk out there.

MrMojoRisin

The photos on the site remind me of crime scenes in CSI.

The fella holding the 'Sniffex' coat-hanger-explosive-detection-device thing looks like he's pointing one of those spray guns they use for tanning people in salons

http://www.airport-int.com/images/companies/2396/sniffex-operator-nll.jpg

http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/files/images/uid22818/wnbe52162.jpg

Overblood

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

Well,for people to be selling that cack is just stupid. And a greedy money-spinner, preying on the naive folk out there.

I thought you said you were 30% for this? That's a sizeable chunk.

itsallaboutheL

We had a deviner in, who was doing it with a piece of a twig he'd broken off one of our trees, i came up to have a look and was extremely sceptical, basically said i thought it was a pile of crap....

anyhoo he gave me the stick and i went off for a wander, i must say it was the weirdest experience i've ever had, evertime i walked over a particular spot the stick starded to move, it was pretty cool tbh!

MrMojoRisin

Overblood wrote: »

I thought you said you were 30% for this? That's a sizeable chunk.

Nah I dont think so. That quote you took from me and the disdain in it was only in reference to that SuffixPlus product alone.

Genghiz Cohen

James Randi to the rescue.
Video

TechFreak

The studies involving dowsing have obtained some suprising results.The German government sponsered a study by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit .

Statisticly , the dowsing had a higher hit rate the guessing alone.I believe they think that a human may be more sensitive to electromagnetic energy.

richards6

Hmm...I believe like many things really up to the interpreter. However, the only time I have had first hand experience of someone dowsing was the local Well boring firm, and before they drill, the old guy goes around the field with his rods and then they put the machine there. He let me have a go, and it was a very real sensation, like someone was pressing the ends of the rods down at the tips while I was holding the other ends. I found it very interesting, and while I dont know how it works, it was a real experience. Plus it was very cool the way the rods actually felt like they were pressing into my hands, even though my eyes were telling me no one was pushing them down. This is just my one subjective experience.