Dowsing has been used for a long time, but it just doesn’t work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some people think that you can find underground water by waving around a y-shaped rod (dowsing), as shown above. The Wikipedia article say that:

 

“Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia), gravesites, malign ‘earth vibrations’ and many other objects or materials without the use of a scientific apparatus.”

 

More generally, another Wikipedia article says that Divination is:

 

“the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual.”

 

There is an article by Jonathan Jarry at the McGill Office for Science and Society on March 17, 2023 humorously titled Dowsing: Dowse It Work? Seriously his answer is no, it does not. Jonathan mentions Leroy Bull, who appears in an article on August 24, 2016 at the Encyclopedia of American Loons titled Tommy Hanson, Leroy Bull & Craig Elliot. Mr. Jarry also links to a BBC Newsnight article about a fake bomb detector. That topic also is discussed in a Wikipedia article on the ADE 651.  

 

There is another 21-page historical article by John D. Norton titled Dowsing: The instabilities of evidential competition which is chapter 13 from his book titled The Large-Scale Structure of Inductive Inference.

 

Still another article by Michael A. Easter and Angi M. Christensen at the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin on January 2, 2022 is titled Forensic Spotlight: Dowsing for Human Remains – Considerations for Investigators.

 

The image of a dowser came from one at Wikimedia Commons.