Dowsing: real or fake?

I worked for a utility company for years, have seen it done multiple times. I have even done it myself a few times. Had a few coworkers that were pretty good at it. Water lines, power lines, sewer and gas sometimes. Supposedly some can find unmarked graves. Have heard all kinds of explanations, divine, gifted, magnetic fields. I have no idea.
 
Being a well driller for nearly 50 years, I have more experience with underground water than most. When I started in business in the early 70's, maybe 25% of wells were witched. By the 2000's maybe 3 in a hundred were witched. I have seen everything under the sun used by witchers to douse for water, from the forked peach branch, plumb bob, brass rods, transparent plastic lines filled with bird seed and one of the funniest was a stark naked Native American that stomped the ground and chanted to the sun god. One witcher even talked to his stick and the stick would talk back to him. To see if witching was real, an Internation conference of engineers and witchers was held in Italy. An underground grid system of water filled pipes was laid in conjunction with the witchers, all agreed that they could follow the course of the water. Ten different pipes that could be either left empty of flooded. Then the piped were covered in 2 feet of soil. A $10,000 reward was offered for anyone who could find and follow the flooded pipe. The reward was never claimed and eventually the land was tilled up and returned to an orchard. Another similar type test area in Spain IIRC is in existence with similar reward and has yet to be claimed. On my property I had 7 different witchers , witch and none found the same area, but all found some water. I went to where no witcher found any sign of water and drilled a 12" diameter well to 72' and it was producing 1,200 gallons per minutes. A side note the naked Native American that stomped the ground and chanted to the gods must have been having a bad day as I drilled in the spot he found, and no water was found. One of the reason many people believe is what I call the favorite Auntie situation. We all know such a sweet person and she witches and has always found water, however in my area you can throw a rock in any direction and drill where it landed and find water. So, when sweet Auntie finds water with her forked stick and a well is drilled and water found then it must work. No engineer or geologist use or believe in them. I have experienced over 200 witched sites with mixed results to say the least.
 
Here in cornfields and cows country, a water department superintendent for one of our major cities believed in it and used metal rods that crossed to detect water. I've seen him do it but no clue why it worked or if it actually did or if there was some other reason he could find the water.
 
The bent clothes hangers that are used to detect water lines is interesting. As water travels through a metallic pipe a small electrical field is produced. A very very small charge. However, many use brass rods and both brass and water itself are not magnetic, then any validity to their powers, I feel are not valid.
 
I had my doubts about water witching until I saw Ed Begley Sr. witch for water on Gunsmoke in 1968 with nothing but a wishbone shaped stick. Dodge City was in a drought and he found water. Made me a believer. 😁
 
As a kid I tried it with a forked willow branch. There was one spot where, each time, the branch pointed down with a will of its own.
Weird.
 
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If all else fails you can always hire company to come out with an x-ray set up. He can find 'em. I worked in a refinery and that is how we kept track of the unger ground lines.
 
Many wells up here have been found by dowsing. I have been present and seen it done.

My property, the well was installed in the 1930s. It is about a 100' deep and produces plenty of good water today!

When I bought the property the rods were hanging on the garage wall. The man I bought the property from was there when the well was located and subsequently drilled for water. He also told me those rods were used at a few other locations and had a decent success ratio.

My kids in the course of their playing appropriated the rods and of course lost them.
 
I’ve done it. Worked for me.
A guy at work showed me how.
We had a crew out front of work trying to locate water lines under the sidewalk, and was having no success.
Earl took 2 gas (copper plated steel)welding rods and made a 90 degree bend about 4”-5” from the end. Had one in each hand, about a foot apart.
He walked around back and forth a couple times and every time the wires crossed over one spot.
He declared the line was there.
He was right.
 
Copper wires always worked best for me, although it was still a 50/50 deal. Some days it worked, some days not. I never thought there was anything "supernatural" about it
 
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30-30remchester said:
The bent clothes hangers that are used to detect water lines is interesting. As water travels through a metallic pipe a small electrical field is produced. A very very small charge. However, many use brass rods and both brass and water itself are not magnetic, then any validity to their powers, I feel are not valid.
Click to expand...

Last year I found my PVC water line with bent clothes hangers....It works.
 
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