Moontanman Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 I once had a water-diviner come to my farm and point out that there was a line of 50' gums in a mile long line, just under the ridge line.. oh! oh! oh! I am a water diviner, we call them water witches where I'm from, it's an inherited gift. I use a green forked willow branch. It's really an eerie feeling to have that stick twist out of your hands when you walk across an underground water source! freeztar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 oh! oh! oh! I am a water diviner, we call them water witches where I'm from, it's an inherited gift. I use a green forked willow branch. It's really an eerie feeling to have that stick twist out of your hands when you walk across an underground water source!Horatio:O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! Hamlet:And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 oh! oh! oh! I am a water diviner, we call them water witches where I'm from, it's an inherited gift. I use a green forked willow branch. It's really an eerie feeling to have that stick twist out of your hands when you walk across an underground water source! You're joking, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 You're joking, right? No, I'm not, I used to make money that way. It's gift that runs in my family, the more religious members of my family refuse to do it saying it's the devil at work. But it does work, I don't think i ever missed the mark by more than a few feet. I take the green willow branch, has to be fresh, and walk around real slow. As i walk across a water vein the stick will twist out of my hand to point downward. Sometimes the bark will be stripped off the stick it twists so hard. I also get a strange feeling in my head too. I can even judge how deep the water is, I even found an underground pipe that way once. some people use wires and stiff but my family always used green willow forks. I've tried the wires and stuff like that but it didn't work. Just another one of those weird things us hillbillies can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 No, I'm not, I used to make money that way. It's gift that runs in my family, the more religious members of my family refuse to do it saying it's the devil at work. But it does work, I don't think i ever missed the mark by more than a few feet. I take the green willow branch, has to be fresh, and walk around real slow. As i walk across a water vein the stick will twist out of my hand to point downward. Sometimes the bark will be stripped off the stick it twists so hard. I also get a strange feeling in my head too. I can even judge how deep the water is, I even found an underground pipe that way once. some people use wires and stiff but my family always used green willow forks. I've tried the wires and stuff like that but it didn't work. Just another one of those weird things us hillbillies can do. Unless you can cite a scientific basis for this, it should be moved to strange claims. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Unless you can cite a scientific basis for this, it should be moved to strange claims. No need, Not enough to tell for it to be another thread. I haven't done it since i was 16, It doesn't work here on the coast, only in the mountians. Both skeptics of dowsing and many of dowsing's supporters believe that dowsing apparatus have no special powers, but merely amplify small imperceptible movements of the hands arising from the expectations of the dowser. This psychological phenomenon is known as the ideomotor effect. Some supporters[who?] agree with this explanation, but maintain that the dowser has a subliminal sensitivity to the environment, perhaps via electroception, magnetoception, or telluric currents. Other dowsers say their powers are paranormal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 No need, Not enough to tell for it to be another thread. I haven't done it since i was 16, It doesn't work here on the coast, only in the mountians. Dowsing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Well, I moved it anyway as it was off topic for that thread. I don't believe in dowsing, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Here's a good video of a dowsing competition held by the Australian Sceptics: The Mighty Mitta Muster Water Divining Test http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4694530584288972114 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 My main problem with, even though I've done it, is people use it to find every thing from gold coins to lost dogs. I can only find water and then only in special conditions. I can see the possibility of a mechanism that uses distortions in the earths magnetic Field caused by faults that water flows along. I have no idea why someone would be able to find a lost dog with a divining rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jab2 Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Being a scientist and relying on scientific fact to explain things, I should say I do not believe in dowsing. Yet when I was younger I had the "talent" or "power" or whatever you want to call it. I used to use either a bottle of water or a clay brick upright on a palm up hand or a pair of L shaped steel wires. There was a water line crossing our farmyard about 30cm underground with a tap on either side so that the line can be pinpointed quite accurately. I was told of this technique by a friend of my dad, so I tried it and sure it showed the position of the pipe. So right, but what about the taps and peripheral vision, so I did it blindfolded. Still got it right. But it still nagged me that maybe I could position myself quite accurately by remembering my start point before putting on the blindfold, so I had a friend lead me all over to try and confuse my senses. Still worked. There was also no indentation since the line was underground for about 30 years already. A few years later I got to know a blind/deaf person and discovered "seeing" by background reflection and air pressure differences (another story for another day). I went back to dowsing and even tried to exclude that by putting baskets and blanket over my upper body to confuse reflections, yet the bottle or brick still topples, no matter how hard you try to keep it upright as soon as I crossed the water line. I left the farm and forgot about the technique until about 20 years later when visiting the farm with my wife. I wanted to show her and for the live of me could not reproduce the effect, not even with the help of peripheral vision. :D So I have no scientific explanation, but know I could do it and lost the ability. maybe we do not yet know as much about science as we think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litespeed Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 I have seen dowsing work on several occasions. The first was back in 1960's science lab. We decided to test whether "L" shaped coat hangers would cross each other over water. We went out to the school yard and repeatedly had individuals hold these hangers in front of them and walk all over the place. We ended up with two parallel lines about 150 feet long that lead from the building to the street sewer. We then obtained the contruction drawings and found out something quite weird. At the time of construction [early 1900's] sewer lines from the men's and women's toilets were required to be separated for such and such a distance. The coat hangers found it. Recently, relatives were having trouble finding the septic field pipes in their lot where they wanted to put a swiming pool. I joked about the old clothes hanger, and my first cousin said HE had seen it done at his own home 50 years ago! They then bent some coat hangers into "L" shapes and experimented by walking over a known line. THEY CROSSED with both the home owner (a civil engineer) and my cousin. I then volunteered to do it with my eyes closed. MAN, did they ever cross each other right over the known and marked line. And EYE mean strongly! I recommended the home owner not rely on coat hangers, but he was flumoxed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 It really is wild how this stuff seems to work, I've seen it work but I've also read reports that debunked it completely. Personally I am torn as to what to think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFINITLYDISTRUBD Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Mr. Moon Shame shame shame!!! I (as a fello hill type person) am quite miffed you didna invite me! may yer plectrum refuse to tune for three crossings! Lol....hangers work pretty friggin well;) work even better with a tube to pivot within (Ie. pen body, brass tubing, hollow antena section etc.etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Mr. Moon Shame shame shame!!! I (as a fello hill type person) am quite miffed you didna invite me! may yer plectrum refuse to tune for three crossings! Lol....hangers work pretty friggin well;) work even better with a tube to pivot within (Ie. pen body, brass tubing, hollow antena section etc.etc.) Yes but why/how do they work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFINITLYDISTRUBD Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 How do dogs know their owners are comming home long before they get anywhere near home? I shall have to do some lookin;) But I'd place the most weight on long lost sensitivity to our surrounding environment.....enhanced buy addin an "antena" to the system enablin the brain box to pick up signals otherwise missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamela Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 from the skeptic's dictionaryMap dowsers use a dowsing device, usually a pendulum, over maps to locate oil, minerals, persons, water, etc. However, the prototype of a dowser is the field dowser who walks around an area using a forked stick to locate underground water. When above water, the rod points downward. (Some dowsers use two rods. The rods cross when above water.) Various theories have been given as to what causes the rods to move: electromagnetic or other subtle geological forces, suggestion from others or from geophysical observations, ESP and other paranormal explanations, etc. Most skeptics accept the explanation of William Carpenter (1852). The rod moves due to involuntary motor behavior, which Carpenter dubbed ideomotor action. The testimonials of dowsers and those who observe them provide the main evidence for dowsing. The evidence is simple: dowsers find what they are dowsing for and they do this many times. What more proof of dowsing is needed? The fact that this pattern of dowsing and finding something occurs repeatedly leads many dowsers and their advocates to make the causal connection between dowsing and finding water, oil, minerals, golf balls, etc. This type of fallacious reasoning is known as post hoc reasoning and is a very common basis for belief in paranormal powers. It is essentially unscientific and invalid. Scientific thinking includes being constantly vigilant against self-deception and being careful not to rely upon insight or intuition in place of rigorous and precise empirical testing of theoretical and causal claims. Every controlled study of dowsers has shown that dowsers do no better than chance in finding what they are looking for. It is difficult to accept dowsing as being valid, when there is no empirical evidence to support the claim dowsing (a.k.a. water witching) - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 It is difficult to accept dowsing as being valid, when there is no empirical evidence to support the claim dowsing (a.k.a. water witching) - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com I have to agree, any rational person would be skeptical to say the least but I've done it, it works, the green willow branch actually twists out of your grip so strongly the bark is stripped off. If I hadn't done it i would be the first to call bullshit, but I have done it and not with the wires thing but with a forked willow branch. A forked willow branch is real, the wires thing is false :evil: :) That's what i was always told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 The guy who dug my bore said he could find water almost anywhere.-dowsers or not. But he had found a few useless salty bores of late. So if I wanted to part with my money well and good. So I thought -why not? The dowser found water at 50 feet (not enough) and then 200feet (too deep for the pump-always had problems. This could have been due to my crazy Irish electrician's wiring)The dowser said there were two streams crossing where we drilled (At 50 and 200 feet?). He was a very old guy so I showed him around and tried to confuse him about where he was.The spot he found was along a line of 50 foot gums.My next door neighbour dug in the same line and got more water than he could handle.The dowser always found water on that gum-tree line no matter what or how I tried to disorient him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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