Divining Rod?

[Bettina]

I was at the park, when a man from the water company drove in. He began using an orange instrument which looked like those metal detectors I've seen people using. It had a box with a meter on top, only instead of a flat pickup plate at the bottom, it didn't have anything. It just ended with a cap. My friend began talking with him and we found out he was looking for a metal cover that was buried. The instrument was beeping at different rates as he passed this "wand" over the ground but he became frustrated when he couldn't find it.

 

As we watched, he got another instrument that was similar (but yellow) and looked more like a cane without a box on top. It didn't do anything that I could see, and again he seemed frustrated. He went back to his truck and began calling someone.

 

When he came out, he had two copper rods in the form of an "L" with the part he was holding in some sort of tube. I think the tube was acting like a bearing. He began walking very s l o w l y along the footpath holding them out like a pair of guns. I watched close as we followed him and what I saw next stunned me....I saw the rods move until they faced each other. He moved about three feet back and did it again. At that spot, he sprayed some paint then went back to the truck and got the "metal detector" and came back to that spot.

 

It didn't beep, but I think he knew where he was going now, and as he walked a few feet, the instrument began a high pitch sound...he drew a round circle with paint, then the letters "W/E". My friend asked him more questions and he said they all have those rods. When he showed them to us, they looked professional, not like a cheap pair.

 

I'm a little shy talking to strangers, so I called my dad and told him what I saw. He laughed and said the guy was just joking and dismissed it as a prank the guy was pulling on us. I don't think so. He looked dead serious when he was doing it. I looked it up on the web, but there are many pros and cons and most are made of wood.

 

I understand the operation of the magnetic field in the metal detector changing when it encounters metal......but not the rods. What is the process. (or were we (I) conned).

 

Bettina

 

Update: Some friends and I tried to make some of these with different kinds of rods, but nothing worked.

[Mokele]

Dowsing and divining have been proven to be hoaxes/fake. Even the most "accomplished" dowsers fail to achieve anything more than chance rates in a properly controlled experimental setup.

 

Mokele

[John Phoenix]

Dowsing and divining have NOT been PROVEN to be hoaxes or fake. To be fair the most you can say is that Modern Science cannot explain this phenomena. There are MANY people who swear by it's working, where dowsers have found water when modern surveying equipment has failed.

 

Your claim that " Even the most "accomplished" dowsers fail to achieve anything more than chance rates in a properly controlled experimental setup.' is simply made up off the top of your head and is Not a provable fact.

 

All expert dowsers the world over have Not been tested. You have no way of knowing if the dowsers tested were really "accomplished" or not. This is just another tragic case of science bashing something it cannot explain or understand. True science would not presume to make the statements you have made about divining.

 

To be fair you can say "It hasn't been proven yet or science can find no proof to explain it" but you cannot say it is always a hoax since science cannot prove this.

[UC]

Dowsing and divining have NOT been PROVEN to be hoaxes or fake. To be fair the most you can say is that Modern Science cannot explain this phenomena. There are MANY people who swear by it's working, where dowsers have found water when modern surveying equipment has failed.

 

Your claim that " Even the most "accomplished" dowsers fail to achieve anything more than chance rates in a properly controlled experimental setup.' is simply made up off the top of your head and is Not a provable fact.

 

All expert dowsers the world over have Not been tested. You have no way of knowing if the dowsers tested were really "accomplished" or not. This is just another tragic case of science bashing something it cannot explain or understand. True science would not presume to make the statements you have made about divining.

 

To be fair you can say "It hasn't been proven yet or science can find no proof to explain it" but you cannot say it is always a hoax since science cannot prove this.

 

Substitute every word about dowsing or divining for something about homeopathy, telephone psychics, prayer, etc.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I believe James Randi held a test of divining rods used to find water and found that they were no better than chance.

[swansont]

To be fair you can say "It hasn't been proven yet or science can find no proof to explain it" but you cannot say it is always a hoax since science cannot prove this.

 

For there to be an explanation, you have to first establish that there is a phenomenon. If dowsers cannot do better than chance when tested, then there is no phenomenon to explain.

[DrP]

I don't understand it, but a very reputable person I know claims he can dowse. He is a scientist and an excellent computer programmer and doesn't take any nonscense. He can't explain it scientifically but claims that he demonstrated this effect on holiday in Arica. He asked the owners if they had a plan of the hotel and that they should get it ready. He then drew his own plan out and dowsed round untill he had built up a map of all of the pipeworks running through and arround the building. His map overlaid the building plans exactly. He doesn't know HOW he does it - it just works he says. The people in the hotel made him an honory witch doctor.

 

I've tried it and can't do it - it seems that some can and some can't so you would have to do an exeriment with people that claim they can do it.

 

We've been thinking about possible explanations - they all involve some kind of electric field set up by the free electrons in the running water being detected by the rods. This would be VERY small, too small to deflect the rods, but maybe if you know what you are "feeling" for then the subconscious may amplify this efect - who knows?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Let him know that he can win $1 million from James Randi if he can repeat that test successfully.

[DrP]

Cheers - I'll let him know. It'll be interesting to see if he can reproduce it and what he'd come up with as a test to prove it.

[Externet]

There is some followers for this dowsing stuff :

http://simmonsscientificproducts.com/universal_antenna_rod.html

 

I do not know where the 'scientific' part fits in.