Dowsers tap into far more than water at annual convention

Associated Press ^ | Lisa Rathke

[BenLurkin]

LYNDONVILLE, Vt. (AP) — Some journey here to learn an ancient practice. Others to hone their skills. Many return year after year.

More than 300 people — a few from as far away as the United Kingdom — attended the American Society of Dowsers' 55th annual convention and expo, which runs through Monday.

Practitioners use metal rods, forked sticks and pendulums and what they say is their subconscious to tap into a universal natural knowledge to find water or minerals underground or lost objects like a set of keys.

"It's really a fascinating place," said Susan Connolly of Westport, Connecticut, of the six-day convention that includes workshops in dowsing and metaphysical topics like using quantum energy, stone circles, Earth acupuncture and holistic home and business harmonization.

Dowsers know they have doubters.

The United States Geological Survey points out that underground water is so prevalent in many places that it would be difficult not to find water.

Scientists who have studied dowsing say it is no more reliable than guessing and that dowsers subconsciously move divining rods in response to their surroundings, rather than drawn by a mystical force.

[OregonRancher]

I didn’t believe it either, until a friend of mine was asked
to find the water lines buried in the concrete floor of a
huge warehouse. He showed me how to hold the rods and then
told me to just randomly walk back and forth through the entire building. When the rods crossed he marked the spot.
I walked probably for a half an hour, never looking down, just at the far wall, then turning in another random direction and going off again. Finally, he said that’s enough and we stopped.

We started to connect the dots, and found the main line almost instantly. over ten dots in a perfectly straight line from the front to the back of the building.

It works.

[driftless2]

"Royal Dano"

He must have been in hundreds of westerns usually playing an oddball character.

[onedoug]

Also the voice of Mr Lincoln at Disneyland/World.

[Sequoyah101]

I have seen people find all kinds of lines. I saw an old guy pick up two sticks and find water lines. Also saw a guy bend welding rods and do it. The preferred rod seems to be copper rods or brass soldering rods.

[from occupied ga]

Everyone remembers when it “works.” no one remembers when it doesn't, which is why anecdotal evidence isn't significant. It's like the horse player who won $500 at the track today forgetting that he lost $600 over the previous couple of weeks.

[houeto]

Everyone remembers when it “works.” no one remembers when it doesn't, which is why anecdotal evidence isn't significant. It's like the horse player who won $500 at the track today forgetting that he lost $600 over the previous couple of weeks.

Not hardly. My Grandma could do it. I NEVER saw her miss. When she told the hands to "Dig here.", there was good well water every time. If those oldtimers could just dig anywhere, they never would have come to ask Grandma to show them where the water was.

[houeto]

I'll tell you another 'anecdotal' better than that one.

I was a Line Locator for BP for ten years. Another BP Line Locator and I took a construction Superintendent far out into the woods in south Mississippi to show him where we needed his crew to dig up our line for repairs. The Super stood and watched us try to find the line for about 30 minutes. Finally he said, "Hold on a minute guys."

He walked over to his truck, pulled his rods out and within a minute he showed us where to drive in our probe rod. We did and, PING!, there it was. The old line had been in the ground since 1948 and had a tar coating rendering our locators useless. You can imagine how thankful we were. It was blistering hot and we were wore out from shoving that probe rod in the ground.

[LaRueLaDue]

“It works.”

Yes, it does. I saw my Dad do the same thing you described, in a building I know that he had never been in before and didn’t know a thing about how it was constructed. The only difference was that it helped him (he was more accurate) if the water was flowing through the pipes, and he could tell direction of flow also. And it was very accurate. He could pinpoint the exact middle of the pipe if the water was flowing. Otherwise, he was within a few inches either way.

He and the P.E. that I mentioned in the first post (he was a close family friend) tried to talk me into trying it, but I could never bring myself to give it a try. It seemed to me that it put too many things that I learned in college and based my career on in jeopardy; and I was young and just couldn’t do that. Both the P.E. and my Dad have since passed on, and I never did try it.