[jboot]

Here's a fuller version of the story. One of the congregation witnessed dowsers in action and was troubled because it didn't seem natural. The pastor believed that when something appears to be spiritual, that it is a good idea to know if you are dealing with God or the devil. So they prayed for the dowsing spirits to be bound and silenced if they were servants of the devil. Unsurprisingly the dowsers immmediately lost their gift. When they found out why they retaliated against the church.

I have seen dowsing in action and it does appear to work. Can I gurantee that the operators weren't charletans? No, I can't. But I can say that in order for the map dowser in particular to fake his findings he whould have needed to be very familiar with the site he was dowsing, more familiar than a survey crew that had spent weeks on that site.

I'm also not saying that the dowsing "gift" is always from Satan. But such gifts need to be considered with caution.

[ZX12R]

I'm also not saying that the dowsing "gift" is always from Satan.

"The devil went down to georgia,
he was looking for a soul to steal,
he was in a bind he was way behind,
he was willin' to make a deal."

[Brookhaven]

I have seen dowsing in action and it does appear to work

So does fortune telling and communication with the dead...until they attempt to perform under controlled, scientific conditions. Then (for some strange reason) the skill disappears.

And, dowsing is no different.

Below is a link to the Simthsonian Institution that contains of video of dowsers attempting to reproduce their skill under controlled conditions. And, they totally fail. Like fortune tellers and people that "talk to the dead," when push comes to shove, when facing an actual controlled test, their skill disappears.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2009/02/debunking-dowsing/