Dowsing

[Nose Ma]

Nose Ma,

Something is there and it can be detected. What it actually is remains to be certified.

RAB

That I have sympathy with. I remember at school seeing that plant roots will wrap around a water pipe in preference to open soil. It may be that there is condensation on it, or it may be something else, or it may be a "sense" there is water there.

Dowsing may be about a little "unconscious savvy" so you know where and what to look for, even though you don't know that you know where and what to look for.

It could be something else. Pigeons can detect the magnetic field of the earth to help them get home. Some people may be sensitive to it, and it manifests itself via dowsing. It may be something hereto unknown to science (yet), or it may be bunk.

NM

 

[theeggman]

Just to add to the debate.
In a previous life I was an engineer for BT.
We discovered gas in a junction box in a pavement and went through the procedure of reporting it.
The gas board turned up and a chap got out of the van with 2 sticks of solder and dowsed for the gas pipe.
Where the solder sticks crossed they dug a hole in the road directly on top of the pipe and the leak.
I haven't a clue how it works but they wouldn't have dug up the road if they didn't have previous good experience of it's effectiveness.
Tim

 

[MandF]

There seems to be an assumption that, despite the wiles of science, there *is* something to water dowsing. I would like to see the evidence, and as a banner to hold up against blind science it isn't a very good choice - even though as several of have said, science is anything but blind and encourages new thoughts, ideas and public scrutiny.

There are many many things going on in the world that humans dont (yet) understand, and may never understand. Water may give off some as yet unknown energy, and some people may be sensitive to this. However evidence suggests otherwise, so whilst there may be something in it, the only thing proven so far is that everyone scientifically tested could NOT dowse for water, despite believing they could.

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/testing_dowsing_the_failure_of_the_munich_experiments/

 

[MandF]

Just to add to the debate.
In a previous life I was an engineer for BT.
We discovered gas in a junction box in a pavement and went through the procedure of reporting it.
The gas board turned up and a chap got out of the van with 2 sticks of solder and dowsed for the gas pipe.
Where the solder sticks crossed they dug a hole in the road directly on top of the pipe and the leak.
I haven't a clue how it works but they wouldn't have dug up the road if they didn't have previous good experience of it's effectiveness.
Tim

We arent talking about using metal rods to detect metal pipes here though - we are talking about bits of wood being used to detect water.

Also, it would make for a great wind-up wouldnt it - if you were called out to a site where you already knew where the gas pipe was.. "ere John, lets do that dowsing wind-up on these blokes"..

 

[Davidrf]

Dowsing rods will pick up anything magnetic underground - water pipes (even plastic ones), cables et al. Even buried barbed wire runs. Used to use them all the time on the farm to locate stuff before ploughing, but that's as far as it goes for me. Ley lines etc. is for the birds as far as I am concerned.

 

[Chris Luck]

Ley lines etc. is for the birds as far as I am concerned.

Only some of them use them, not all.

Chris

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I think this thread is a credit to the forum!
Only here could we get from dowsing to the big bang in a few pages.

Also agree that Nose Ma's post was excellent.

I studied philosophy many years ago and could never get past the concept that I can't prove my own existence (or that of anyone or anything else for that matter). Bishop Berkley suggested that all matter was just an idea in the mind of God and Descartes suggested that his entire perception of the world could be being fed into his brain by an evil genius and that no-one and nothing else really exists. Impossible to prove but also impossible to 100% disprove.
My brain hurts.

 

[Drew]

I think this thread is a credit to the forum!
Only here could we get from dowsing to the big bang in a few pages.

Also agree that Nose Ma's post was excellent.

I studied philosophy many years ago and could never get past the concept that I can't prove my own existence (or that of anyone or anything else for that matter). Bishop Berkley suggested that all matter was just an idea in the mind of God and Descartes suggested that his entire perception of the world could be being fed into his brain by an evil genius and that no-one and nothing else really exists. Impossible to prove but also impossible to 100% disprove.
My brain hurts.

I think therefore I am
I'm pink therefore I'm spam!

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I'm pink therefore I'm spam!

 

[Headnavigator]

I've had negligable varroa this year too. Apiguard last Autumn and Oxalic Acid after a very cold November/December might have something to do with it.

Or maybe the varroa count is because all the hives are on ley lines? I think not.

I wasn't for one moment claiming that the value of ley lines was proven in any way by the negligible varroa count, simply the converse, that it was not discredited in my very limited experience.
I neither understand nor care what this is about, but am prepared to take advantage of any possible benefit it just might have for my bees. If we had to understand everything prior to making use of it we'd never have reached the Stone Age.

 

[Luminos]

Dowsing rods will pick up anything magnetic underground - water pipes (even plastic ones), cables et al. Even buried barbed wire runs. Used to use them all the time on the farm to locate stuff before ploughing, but that's as far as it goes for me. Ley lines etc. is for the birds as far as I am concerned.

How are plastic water pipes magnetic?

 

[gatley]

Goodness only knows, poor newbees like me wonder what is real advice and what is hocus pocus !

 

[BBG]

Ouija

Plenty of things that scientists cannot explain,ccd for one, so they have little hope of discovering how dowsing works at this moment in time. They don't know whats at the end of space/forever/infinity,or what there was in the beginning of everything.

Two things

I am wondering if it is mainly the 'city slickers' who have 'lost' their affinity with nature who are the ones arguing dowsing doesn't work.

A simple procedure outlined in my previous post here

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13152&page=5

will illuminate - has anybody done it yet - essential to have a serious band (3/4) of interested participants.

http://www.britishdowsers.org/learning/what_is_dowsing.shtml

A man once said all that we know could be on the head of a nail in the side of a fence post - you can worry about the nail falling out, an animal knocking it out etc, etc to no avail.

Get busy living or get busy dying (Shawshank Redemption by the man who usually plays God MF)

 

[MandF]

I dont think anyone is arguing that it doesnt work - there is scientific evidence that it doesnt work.

Any argument as to man not knowing how it works is moot, because it doesnt.

For those who want to experiment.. try closing your eyes and wandering round the field until you "feel" the water underground.. you are as likely to strike water, and quite possibly be worshipped as a god by the others around you - has to be worth a pint or two ;-)

 

[gatley]

Beer

 

[Nose Ma]

There is, of course, an xkcd for everything (take out the spaces)

h t t p : / / xkcd . com/ 808 /

NM

 

[Luminos]

Beer

 

[Davidrf]

How are plastic water pipes magnetic?


I assume the water in them causes a change in the local magnetic field. My language was a bit loose in saying "magnetic". I used it in the sense that some researchers suspect birds navigate by using the earth's magnetic field - which is pretty undetectable to most of us.
I don't believe in any hocus pocus, untestable stuff but I know I can pick up a couple of bits of wire, put a right angled bend in them and they swing together over pipes and cables of all sorts. But I don't think its magic - there is a scientific answer to what is happening if someone could do enough research into the effect that is created. IMHO.

 

[MandF]

I think someone produced a glorified dowsing rod to detect bombs, and the US started using them.
Of course, they turned out to be useless, not to mention life threatening, and they promptly stopped using them.
Cos they dont work.

 

[Luminos]

I think someone produced a glorified dowsing rod to detect bombs, and the US started using them.
Of course, they turned out to be useless, not to mention life threatening, and they promptly stopped using them.
Cos they dont work.

Maybe they only detect water-bombs