talkmagic.co.uk

It's just a bit of fun, anyone else up for entering?

No guesses posted in the thread, please.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146414041

When we visited Laycock Abbey in Wiltshire ( http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w- ... illage.htm" target="_blank" target="_blank ) last year, they had an area outside the house where dowsers could try their hand and see if it worked or not. Our group consisted of six ladies and six gents and we all had a go. Five of the women seemed to be natural dowsers and ‘detected’ the underground stream or whatever it was, one lady kept losing her dowsing rods and couldn't stop laughing, and none of the men detected anything. Not sure what that proves but the five ladies were well chuffed at their hitherto unsuspected ability!

Well looking for natural features or archaic remains of civilisation makes more sense to me than finding a pop bottle full of water buried in a sand barrel. Although this particular test is for the craic, it's more in keeping with what real dowsers attempt to do than the kind of tests often devised by skeptics.

Archaeologists will look at aerial photographs in order to determine possible dig sites, and often the clues of where to dig come across loud and clear. I'm sure it's within the realms of possibility for someone on the ground to access their subconscious (or whatever!) in order to make a similar reading of the landscape.

Mandrake wrote:... Five of the women seemed to be natural dowsers and ‘detected’ the underground stream ..... and none of the men detected anything. Not sure what that proves...

isn't there some theory about witches and running water ?



....i'll get my cloak.

Discombobulator wrote:isn't there some theory about witches and running water ?



....i'll get my cloak.

Now you come to mention it.....

Mr_Grue wrote:I'm sure it's within the realms of possibility for someone on the ground to access their subconscious (or whatever!) in order to make a similar reading of the landscape.

I've discussed this at length with believers I know (some are family) and this the ONLY way I can see it working. And I use the term "working" loosely as I don't see that it works the way people claim.

Many (many) years ago, someone in my family dowsed to find the right spot to sink a well and made a believer of a few people I know. They don't want to hear that the well could have been sunk anywhere that suited and still find water.

I know some beekeepers who believe in dowsing to find the right spot for their hives to go. I've spo?en with the pioneer of the method and I'm convinced he just doesn't realised he knows so much about bees and has had so many hives that he instinctively knows where to place them (right amount of shade, sun and shelter) and is selecting from stock he's left untreated for any diseases for decades. Hardy bees with a brilliant beekeeper... or magical lines of vibration? Not a tough call, I don't think.

Mr_Grue wrote:Well looking for natural features or archaic remains of civilisation makes more sense to me than finding a pop bottle full of water buried in a sand barrel. Although this particular test is for the craic, it's more in keeping with what real dowsers attempt to do than the kind of tests often devised by skeptics.

Archaeologists will look at aerial photographs in order to determine possible dig sites, and often the clues of where to dig come across loud and clear. I'm sure it's within the realms of possibility for someone on the ground to access their subconscious (or whatever!) in order to make a similar reading of the landscape.

You're quite close to the most common theory; that the dowser's intuition aids them in finding the sweet spots. The subconscious mind absorbs details in the landscape which get translated and thus, triggers the ideomotor reflex. . . or so goes one version of the tale. Unfortunately there is no logical explanation for those dowsers that find minerals, lost items and "buried treasure".

I come from a very long family line of dowsers and was first put into the role at around nine or ten years of age; long story short, I've yet to find an explanation for those times when the yoke physically bends and you get pulled by the "source". . . there are even incidents in which the "yod" gets pulled out of the dowser's hands. All of which pretty much shakes off the whole ideomotor theory... BUT ONLY PARTIALLY, that is still a viable and most logical explanation for at least 90% of dowsing phenomena.

As to women having a stronger penchant for it. . . well, they tend to be more right-brained in how they process information and so they aren't filtering out the natural (subconscious) in-put such as males are notorious for; we tend to think mechanically and want to figure things out rather than accept happenstance as it presents itself.