Your definition of dowsing leaves much to be desired. Your present definition is seriously flawed. As far as your reference to map dowsing as "pseudoscience" is concerned, the author of the current definition evidently doesn't realize that a 'physical' connection is actually not necessary! Strange, admittedly, but that happens to be the way it is! I happen to be a professional water dowser. I have located over three thousand satisfactory water wells over the past thirty years (by the dowsing method). Many of these locations were on sites where numerous dry holes had been drilled previously, and where well drillers and geologists had given up all hope of encountering such supplies, so I do speak with some experience.
James Kuebelbeck St. Joseph, Minnesota USA
- So have you applied for James Randi's challenge? there's a million bucks up for grabs! -- Tarquin 10:37 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC)
What scientific test have been made on dowsing? I know only about the test at Gotland. Could dowsing be considered protoscience since there have been at least one scientific test of the method and there are electronic dowsing equipment available (even if skilled human dowsers still are considered to be better). // Liftarn
That "explanation" for how dowsing works with magnetic fields is bollocks. Dowsing is a case if the idiomotor effect.
more on the idiomotor effect & dowsing: http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/divining.htm
- But how does the idiomotor effect work in electronics? // Liftarn
- For the sake of argument here, let's pretend there is some other explanaton for dowsing than the idiomotor effect, ok? In that case, the people building the electronic devices that dowse, would need a deeper knowledge of that explanation, or they wouldn't be able to build them. Let's say they built such a device. All they would have to do then is demonstrate that it works, and explain how it works (what inputs it registers, with what, and so forth) in a way that is testable by others. Then they would have another explanation of dowsing... proven! Or the shorter version: I assert such devices are humbug. Feel free to provide more information here on the Gotland experiment, though (e.g. who did it, who verified the results and other relevent things) if you like.
- The tests were reported in "Detektering av underjordiska vattendrag - test av tre geofysiska metoder (slingram, VLF, georadar) samt biofysisk metod (slagruta)" by Leif Engh at The university of Lund, the natural geographics institution in 1983. Since it's in Swedish it may be of little use to you, but I managed to find a description in English at http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/betz/14.html I wouldn't call the test that good. The dowsers should probably have been blindfolded, but it's interesting because as far as I know it's the only test that has been carried out on natural ocurring water as opposed to hoses with water.
- http://www.dklabs.com/ seems to sell an electronic dowser and I also found it mentioned at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dowse/message/831 don't know if they are any good tough.
- Btw, you should look at the definition of protoscience. // Liftarn
- It would be useful to me actually, as I happen to be Swedish myself. However, I couldn't find the report you mentioned. Not through google, and not at the local university library :-/
- Sorry about the protoscience thing. I didn't know what it was at all, so I glanced at the article and only read the first paragraph, that it is something on its way to become science. Maybe that paragraph should be reworded...
The DKLabs device was debunked by Sandia National Laboratories: see http://web.archive.org/web/20011127184744/http://www.nlectc.org/services/dklanalysis.html. -- Heron
- That doesn't sound like any dowsing device. // Liftarn
- Except that it consists of two parts, a pointer (containing the "electronics") freely swivelling on a handgrip, with no mechanism to make it move except the idiomotor effect. See http://skepdic.com/refuge/dkl.html. -- Heron
Who invented dowsing would be pretty hard to figure out, it has existed in various forms for thousands of years.
- I didn't know that... :) Martin
- http://personal.adiis.net/rosstech/rpt01.htm contains some of the history of dowsing. It may be used for the article. It's also interesting read in general altough it does uses some straw man arguments. // Liftarn