Anyone else able to divine for water

Reggie. wrote: »

I think your understanding this wrong Brian. The metal rods as it was explained to me only work a few feet. The very odd person with the true gift can tell the depth and the strength of flow of the water found with the hazel. I have witnessed it jump.

The energy required to move light metal rods across "a few feet" distance is huge. It's just not there. How can a water pipe buried under a few feet of earth have any effect on metal worker held in your hands.

I hate to use the term BS about stuff people believe in but there is just no scientific way this would be possible.

Reggie. wrote: »

Its not that I believe it Brian I've done it. Give it a go and see for yourself. For the craic If nothing else

Amazing how the posters that deny it never tried it and have all the answers.

_Brian wrote: »

I don't mean to offend anyone but I put divining in the same drawer as tarot cards, wigi boards, the banshi, the stray sod, and turning bread and water into flesh and blood - just because you believe something doesn't mean it happens.

So do I.

Well, so did I.

I remember my mam's dad getting a diviner in to look for water in "the field" when I was a child, and him using a hazel twig. I tried that a few times over the years and never felt a thing.

Then - as a well-grown-up-thoroughly-sceptical-scientific-adult - we were visiting my dad's brother a few years ago and something in the random conversation that families have (nothing to do with proving anything) prompted him to ask me "do you know if you've got it?" and we all headed out to his garden.

OK, I'm not 100% sceptic because I've studied and use acupuncture, but it was a real WTF moment when to bits of wire that I was holding just swung through 90° of their own accord when I hit "that" spot, then swung away when I moved on.

I can't offer a rational explanation, but I can repeat the experiment with the same results every time. FWIW, one rod on its own doesn't budge - it needs the two.

Zillah wrote: »

It's called the ideomotor effect. It's the same phenomenon that makes ouija boards work. Your muscles make small little movements that you have no conscious control over. I bet if we blindfolded you and spun you around and had you walk around so that you had no idea where 'the spot' was they wouldn't cross at the right time. Especially if you weren't being led through it by someone who wanted you to succeed and believe it was real.

Whatever your opinion of Dawkins, this is a good demonstrations:

Why is it a good demonstration? For all we know it could be all set up.

Sam Kade wrote: »

Why is it a good demonstration? For all we know it could be all set up.

....a set up?

Did you see the part where they open the boxes in front of the people performing the dowsing and show them what was inside? Why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of setting up a fake water dowsing experiment?

ganmo wrote: »

For example homeopathy for all its craziness did manage to come up with a cure for cancer.

I'm going to assume this is a wind up. For the sake of my blood pressure if nothing else.

Chuchote wrote: »

True enough, but my Donegal buddy had geologists in to survey the patch of land around her cottage and they told her she'd have to go down 60 feet to get water. On the Lone Parents, this wasn't feasible. Then her neighbour brought over a dowser who divined water near the surface a few metres from her front door, the brought a digger and a couple of lads with shovels in and voilà! Water!

The word 'sorcerer', by the way, comes from 'sourcier', or 'one who can find a water source'.

Far me it from me to question the truth of that story but you only ever hear about the successful ones.

The word sorcerer is about as connected with water as those stories mates from donegal tell you are connected to the truth.

I suppose the crux of this debate is blind faith, not your typical F&F debate but essentially that's what it boils down to.
There are those who fall on the side of believing it blindly even though there isn't a shred of evidence behind the process.
Then there are those (myself included) that can't see the reasoning in believing this is nothing more than pure chance. We had a diviner here years ago and the well that was bored on his advice was dry to 250ft. Bored where the well men said to do it and we have a wonderful well at 200ft. I need to be able to tie at least a shred of science or engineering to something to take it on board as being a reality.

For me these guys are working on pure chance, some probably have a rudimentary understanding of hydrology and geology (without realising it) and this gut feeling comes from the likely places water would be present. The chances that a 3/4hydrodare pipe 6ft down emits a power or we can subconsciously smell the leak - nope, on my side of the tracks this isn't possible. I'm open to some proper science being put onto this, but I can't find any online and that doesn't surprise me really.

Sam Kade wrote: »

To make it look as if they are right

Did you ever think that the dowsers might be in on it or that it was edited to make it look as if they were wrong?

I feel your scepticism is misplaced!

Sam Kade wrote: »

To make it look as if they are right

Did you ever think that the dowsers might be in on it or that it was edited to make it look as if they were wrong? So many things can be hidden or changed behind a camera.

You realise that was Professor Richard Dawkins doing a large budget documentary commissioned and aired by Channel 4? They're not in the habit of creating huge conspiracies to debunk eccentric mysticism.

Not that any of that matters to you. You believe you have magic powers, you want to believe that and that's all that matters. You'll come up with any rationalisation you can to protect that belief. You weren't talked into that position by reason so we can't talk you out of it.

Also dowsing detects flowing water not water in a bottle.

How do you know this? Have you done experiments? Do all dowsers agree? Are the dowsers who don't need running water wrong? Are you going to prove them wrong? That's the problem when people are happy to believe things based on stories and anecdotes - they just say whatever feels like it works for them and they can dodge reality indefinitely.

Those dowsers obviously did not believe so, and if they did they should have raised that problem before they undertook the test.

But as Dougal says, if you really can detect flowing water via dowsing there is a million dollars just waiting for you to claim it. Seriously. You could be a millionaire this time next year if you send an email to the Randi Foundation right now. Why haven't you?