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  #1  
Old 05/16/07, 07:32 PM
busybee870's Avatar  
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: NC Arkansas
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dowsing for water!!

we have been having little tiny streams even without raind. we did some research and decided to make divining rods and try them out. IT is SO COOL!!! we used them over the trickel of water it didnt do much, we went about 15 feet above the trickle and thos rods started swaying and then they crossed each other. WOW!! what a rush. I had heard about it but, never believed it really worked. It is so amazing, my kids did it too, you should have seen the looks on their faces. I just had to tell ya. Ill let you know if we find a good stram, maybe an aretisian.
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  #2  
Old 05/16/07, 08:05 PM
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
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Isn't it cool!!

My Dad was joking around one day and came in with a couple of rods pretending to dowse. He got quite a shock when they suddenly crossed! I tried it and the same thing happened in the same spot, right in the middle of the livingroom!

p.
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  #3  
Old 05/16/07, 08:11 PM
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Thumbs up

It works! And older friend taught me over 30 years ago. I have done it to find water.....but also to find water pipes, gas pipes, and other similar things.
I don't know why or how it works, but it does!

Perhaps it has something to do with "magnetism".

Certainly worth knowing!
Bruce
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  #4  
Old 05/16/07, 08:25 PM
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Diggers hot line doesn't think so much of dowsers, but I have also seen it work, looking for a buried electric wire that they (Diggers Hot line) couldn't find.
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  #5  
Old 05/16/07, 08:57 PM
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Location: Crawford County, Georgia
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I have actually seen it worth myself. A local well drilling company follows the advice of a "dowser" - they have never failed to find water within ten feet of the depth where he says it will be!
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  #6  
Old 05/16/07, 09:09 PM
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: maine
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You can hide money and dowse for that too. Nice if you have buried treasure.
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  #7  
Old 05/16/07, 11:16 PM
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Location: NC Arkansas
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it's cool huh, almost wish i didnt have to work tomorrow so i could dowse and dig!lol
couple of metal clothes hangers gave us a full day of excitement!! If i hit good water ill be thrilled maybe i wont have to pay thousands for a well after all.
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  #8  
Old 05/17/07, 12:37 AM
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 77
Have been thinking of dowsing in regard to a piece of land I'm interested in. There is no well, no mains and it's on higher ground.
So the only water would be rainwater which falls in plenty usually. But with the changing weather patterns it's not something to rely on so that's where the dowsing came to mind.

Could there be a watervein on the outskirts of lower mountains? It's something worth looking into.
I'm confident a dowser could find it, just not sure if this particular geography would supply any.
Does anyone here have experience in that?
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  #9  
Old 05/17/07, 09:46 AM
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smallhold, youre in the same position im in i live on a moutain, but i have found a ling line where the rods cross alot, so im wondering what it is, its very strong energy, and its not going from up to down, so maybe we have something here
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  #10  
Old 05/17/07, 09:58 AM
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,963
For water, I use a live-cut, fresh Y branch from a fruit-bearing tree, myself. My FIL showed me how. He used to witch for underground springs, and then install tile spring wells with a backhoe for a living. He said to hold on to the branch as hard as I could...and when it pulled down, I had it held so hard that it twisted the wood near my hands! It is amazing, and shows how little we actually know about the state of things.

My favorite witching story: 6-7 years ago, during a hot dry summer, I witched the place in an area where I wanted to drill a new well. I found two hot spots, but one was not located in a good spot.

2 years ago, also during the hot dry summer, I finally had the driller come out for a look. I told him, "Here is where I want the well." To my surprise, he then went to his truck and pulled out a branch! He walked around, and BAM! When he hit the edxact spot I told him to drill, it pulled down hard.

Only then did I tell him I had already witched that spot 4-5 years ago. So it was twice-confirmed. The resulting 70-foot well produces 15 gpm in summer and over 60 gpm in winter, with the pump at 50 feet. After he drilled it, he told me, "You will never run out of water."

I've seen guys witch for buried wires and water lines, using the 2 rods you all describe.

About the line lines in the mountains, that is likely a spring line you are following. A fracture or fissure in the rock is directing water flow. It's what my FIL used to look for to set his tile wells. He would use a backhoe to make a pretty big hole, probing around til he found the vein, then dump in real coarse gravel for the water to come up through, then stand up the concrete tiles, and backfill it.
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Last edited by Jim S.; 05/17/07 at 10:02 AM.
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  #11  
Old 05/17/07, 10:12 AM
Pig farmer
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 156
It always makes me unpopular to be the guy that rains on the parade, but the fact is that dowsing does not work.

James Randi lets dowsers or witchers attempt his Million Dollar Challenge for paranormal abilities, and the fact is that every one of them has failed to prove their ability, even when using testing guidelines that they help design. They do come up with very clever excuses, though.
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  #12  
Old 05/18/07, 08:24 AM
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Western Washington
Posts: 181
Thumbs up Finding water

I knew a gentleman that was very good at finding water and minerals! He could even tell you the depth and quality of the water. This gentleman found water on two different pieces of property we owned and told us the depth correctly and one was 147 feet deep. He spent a lot of time using his skill at finding water and many people here got help from him. He could find keys easily that were dropped in tall grass by just using his skill. I guess that you would have to see it to believe it but I saw it and I believe in his skills! This man believed that this was a God given skill and he would not abuse it.

Philbee
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  #13  
Old 05/18/07, 08:45 AM
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
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I also know an old guy here who witches for old grave sites. I'd never heard of that before.

I think he's documenting all the graves and cemeteries for the local historical/family history society.

P.
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  #14  
Old 05/18/07, 11:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Argent Farms
It always makes me unpopular to be the guy that rains on the parade, but the fact is that dowsing does not work.

James Randi lets dowsers or witchers attempt his Million Dollar Challenge for paranormal abilities, and the fact is that every one of them has failed to prove their ability, even when using testing guidelines that they help design. They do come up with very clever excuses, though.
I agree! I drilled water wells for two years, alot of them had been "witched", by different dowsers. As many dry holes as water in them. Some would make claims as to depth and production.
Knowing the lay of the aquafier was of more help in determining the depth and water production.
Also looking at the drainage areas for shallow wells will in all probability be more decisive than dowsing.
Yes.... there is a pull on the wires or stick. What can make that happen, I don't know?
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  #15  
Old 05/18/07, 11:44 AM
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Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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My Father dowsed our well in Vermont in 1990. They dug it right where it pointed and they hit an artesian. It started spraying 30' in the air. Wonderful water!
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  #16  
Old 05/18/07, 12:17 PM
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
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I wondered when the detractors would log in! LOL. I think whether it works or not depends on the person doing it, too. Not everyone can do it, but it is an easy thing to fake, especially if it is being faked on a paid basis. I also don't think it is a "paranormal ability." I think it is quite normal. Just my opinion.

James Randi is a board advisor of a group called the Bay Area Skeptics, a group dedicated to proving all manner of unexplained phenomena and certain philosophies wrong. (I think they call that a bias in scientific circles.) I have read a number of their "challenges," and each one is about some guy who claims to find money or gold or some such. They always trick the person in some way during the "test" (which could skew the result, right there, and so is not scientific method). There is no control experiment also undertaken at the same time (also unscientific.) So I can debunk that group's debunking, too.

I don't claim that witching does anything for me but find water.

My FIL did his witching for water in an area of Connecticut where it runs in cracks and channels in rock. He paid off his backhoe and made money at it for years. You don't do that if you are turning up dry holes.

In my original post, I said my FIL had taught me how to witch. (I wonder if learning from someone who is successful at it helps?) That was at the height of summer in a backyard in Williamsburg, Va. I was a skeptic. I could not believe it when the branch twisted down so powerfully. The spot where the branch twisted out of my hands was right next to a corner of my house. Unknown to me at the time, my house had a problem where water would rise and sit in winter in the crawlspace. It made a mold problem in the walls. When I found that out later, it turned out that a wet weather spring rose in that spot where I had witched water, and was coming up under the house. A sump and pump solved that.

I mentioned that it was real dry when I witched for my well here in Tennessee, and I came up with two spots for the well. The one I did not use came up a wet weather spring several years in a row when we had a lot of rainfall. Made a permanent puddle all winter long, then receded in spring.

Like I say, I don't know about finding treasure or whatnot, and I don't advocate people using it if they think it is bunk, but it worked for me a couple times. Oh, and when the driller got that branch out of his truck? As far as I was concerned, he had the job right then!
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  #17  
Old 05/18/07, 02:52 PM
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Location: N. Ontario
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I learned to witch for water from my dad. He was very good at it. All the wells he found came up with lots of water. He never witched for anything else. just water. Who knows, maybe he was just lucky - but that was some streak of luck he had
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  #18  
Old 05/18/07, 03:42 PM
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Location: NC Arkansas
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its basically i think about energy, i dont know i got some books from the library to seehow they figure the depth. It could be a spring, this is alot of rock, mostly rock ledges, im gonna think positively and optimistically and think its an underground river. LOL all i know is its fun and amazing. I dont care who believes. You have to do it to know its for real.
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  #19  
Old 05/18/07, 07:54 PM
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posts: 442
My DGF witched (dowsed) a well on his homestead back in 192??. He then started digging by hand, putting in cribbing as he went. At the depth of 8 feet he broke into an underground spring. It was a mad scramble to get himself out of there, leaving the shovel and pickaxe behind.

The water came to within 2 feet of the top and it hasn't changed to this very day! It is the sweetest, cleanest water anywhere. No matter how much they pumped, the water level never varied.

He used a forked branch from a willow as a dowser. No matter how tight he would hold that branch, it would point downward, peeling the bark right off it.

Last edited by tinda; 05/18/07 at 08:00 PM.
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  #20  
Old 05/18/07, 10:01 PM
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Location: Ontario, Canada
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I did a job attempting to find a sewer line. The BEST dowser in the area came out and located it, this guy is supposed to be so good that the cops use him to help them find buried bodies.

I was a sceptic to begin, but dug down 12 feet, over three feet into virgin dirt and never found the sewer line. I dug 10 feet in both directions from where he said it was. I don't believe it existed.

They are crackpots, every last one of them. The only thing that determines how good or bad they are is how much money they manage to swindle out of the new suckers that are born every minute.

Pete
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