Dowsing, also known as divining, doodlebugging, or water witching, is a technique used to locate underground water sources, metal deposits, lost objects, and earth energy lines. Some people use divining rods to assist them in locating these resources. Dowsing involves using a forked stick, pendulum, wire rods, or other tools to assist in locating groundwater, minerals, or lost objects. There is no scientific evidence to support the practice of dowsing.
To try dowsing for water, cut a Y-shaped stick from a tree, ensuring all three sections are between 12 and 16 inches long. Most dowsers still use the traditional forked stick, which may come from a tree. Dowsing is also called “divining”, “water-witching”, “rhabdomancy”, and “scanning”. It is primarily a method of locating underground water using a forked stick (typically a Y-shaped piece of wood).
To use dowsing, grab both ends of the Y in an underhanded grasp and hold the dowsing rod horizontally so that it points in front of you. Keep your grasp somewhat loose and slowly walk around searching for water. Dowsing can be used with a forked tree branch or two bent wires as dowsing rods. If using a branch, look for one shaped like the letter Y so you can hold the rods. Dowsing rods point toward you when you are directly over water, swinging away from you when you walk past it.
📹 Which One is More Accurate: Dowsing vs. Locator | How it Works
In today’s video, we’re here to find out who would win between the dowsing method and modern technology. But what is Dowsing …
📹 Do you know how to find water with a dowsing stick?
Dowsing is a method of locating water that has been used for centuries. It employs a divining rod made of a Y-shaped stick or the …
In high school we did a dowsing rod experiment to see if we could tell which cups had water in. We put water in some opaque cups and left some empty. All cups were covered. Then we had one person mix them up and the other try to find which had water in. No idea why but one guy in my class could get it right every time. We made him do the experiment over and over again for just over an hour with different configurations and amounts of cups, he had 100% accuracy. Baffled the rest of us including the teacher.
im pretty sure where the water pipes were dug, causes a concaving of the ground, because the dirt isnt fully packed down when they bury the pipe. this causes a change in elevation from down to up, and thats what causes them to shift. This also works for finding water because water falls to the lowest spot. when you finally start going back uphill, the rods tilt back to you and the concave pipe line is behind you, on your back heel.
You guys didn’t show us how far off the divining guy was…. I’ve always been very sceptical of that method but I have heard some pretty convincing / crazy accurate stories… I know of an old water bore driller that used nothing but the divining method to pick bore locations, very accurately. Myself as an electrician use that same same electronic locator.
During my first year as a road construction worker at 15 I was taught how to use dowsing rods by an older man who was just about to retire. I honesly didn’t know there was a debate whether “dowsing rods” work or not as I have always known from experience that they do. Although nowadays we use these fancy “cablefinders” that can tell depth/what type of cable too.
It’s NOT at the back of the foot, it’s directly under where they cross. Test at home inside where the carpet meets tile or linoleum like at the kitchen. Right where the dividing strip/cover is that’s where the wires will cross….in front of you directly under the wires. You were literally a foot off the line, and missed by a foot.
I taught my boss to do this (long story, let’s not go there). We dug a nice, big hole to join up to a water main that didn’t exist. Got out the OUIJA Sticks, and he found it in a few minutes. I went over a small rise to see if there was any other places, and found the water box that connected to exactly where he was. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t there. We made the connection, and the rest is history.
My wife gets a kick out of my Doodlebugging. She didn’t believe me when I said the well driller I worked for used coat hangers only to find water, old wells, septic tanks. As a kid id find little treasures with coat hangers the rich kids in my neighborhood had fancy metal detectors but I’d do better with 2 Dempsey metal hangers.
I live in France. We decided to dig a well in our garden. We heard about a dowser and contacted him. He spent about an hour with his wish bone thing and….. he found where water was. So we got a person to come dig the well and lo and behold it was directly under where the dowser said. I think there are surely some charlatans but not all.
I watched dousing be done many times when I was a kid. Only difference is the man used a limb from a peach tree that forked. He held one side of the forked limb in his left hand, the other in his right and the main beam limb was sticking out front. When he passed over water, the end of the limb went straight down pointing to the spot.
Guys…..this is like Big Jims advertising clip. Of course technology will win. I can locate anything with rods and tell you direction they are going ( cables, pipes, buried logs etc.)Only thing I cannot tell You it is depth. It work on disturbance of electromagnetic field of Earth. That mean that any object buried under will disturb it more or less, and this can be detected by rods held by human being. Ps. it don’t work on just anyone but some were surprised that they are able to do it.🤫
My 8th grade science teacher told us that divining works but there is mysticism and folklore to it as well. He claimed it only worked if you were the first son of a first son, so that knocks out a majority of the population right there. Even those that swear by it admit it works for some but not others.
I just watched a guy use the rods and then GPR to verify. He then did a “STOMP DEPTH”. When the rods crossed, he would stop, then using one foot would stomp the ground at one second intervals. When the rods quickly moved each 180 degrees, he knew the depth. It was 1 imperial foot per stomp/second. Did this on high volt electric, low volt electric, water, sewer and gas lines. Both on dirt and concrete. Mind blown…
The article starts out with the premise that all sorts of things can be located using dowsing rods. Then when the “experiment does not match the electronic device it was a failure. I contend there could be a sizable water vein under the point of crossing. i have used this method to locate water and could trace the vein to a spring exiting he ground. I don’t claim to know how or why but it afforded me 30 gal./min well so much so I had to cap it. This endeavor proved little other tryhing to discrecit dowsing. A gentleman I have known is regularly called by a local town to locate old non-mapped pipes and is successful when called upon. I can’t speak for the nuances of knowing what one is finding but I will say it works for water. Finally, the gentleman using the rods said to hold the rods tightly. Right then I was suspect to the reason for this adventure into proving nothing.
Funny how they “don’t” work.. when I was a kid, my dad had professional well drillers come out and drilled for a well based on geological surveys and got nothing. Then he had a waterwitcher come out with his dowsing rods, marked a spot, drilled there and got water at 4 gpm at a shallower depth than the first hole was drilled to. Later drilled deeper and the well had 12 gpm. Multiple people tried it, and no matter how tight the rods were held, they still turned at the same place, all while not knowing for certain if there was water there. But yeah, somehow it didn’t work. 🤷♂️
All the drilling companies around my area all have a handful of dowsing rod guys they have on call. I’ve asked all of them I’ve talked too if they think it’s crazy BS. Everyone I’ve talked to have stories about how they can’t explain it but it works, it’s saved them tens of thousands of dollars over hiring a locating services. I have yet to see it in person, however I don’t know why these drilling would lie about it working for them, it doesn’t help their credibility. I would like to see it for myself to know how much is BS
What about when it starts bending down and you realize it was the same time you peed your pants???😅 How much can you sell these for? Should I include some free water? I recommend not getting the sticks wet😂 Could be a wild goose chase all day! We took these out to the beach and we couldn’t find any water at all. I want my money back so bad! I put two marshmallows on the ending, went and found FIRE😂 I put 2 $100 bills on the end, and found myself a new girlfriend! 😅 Fell into a swimming pool in mine snapped in half. 😁
people need to learn about confirmation bias. when you actually find water, you credit the dowsing and when you get it wrong, you’ll just shrug it off. just think about it. why would professionals spend thousands of dollars on these EMI locators when they can just use dollar store dowsing rods? you can have fun in your home/farm but when there’s money on the line, you start getting serious.
Ive used rods for years to find water lines and always put me real close your walking speed has alot to do with that,what i find amazing is it dont work for some people, so the conclusion ive came to why they work all comes back to the magnetic pull from the underground water just like a compass works and how people have a different magnetic jive to them now i cant wear a watch some reason they quit working within a week and i was told by a watch repairman that its a magnetic charge that messes the watch up,so i think all of tjis plays into whether someone can use the rods to locate.
For context, you have professionals who charge insane amounts of money to come out there with their fancy gadget, then half a million dollar truck that pressure washes and vacuums the hole. Why in the world would they advertise 2 sticks to work at all? Their income depends on charging you a ton. The only way to have done this experiment was to have unbiased comparison. Person 1 who is a completely impartial party (random person on the street) walking a grid and marking places on that grid. Then Person 2 with a fancy gadget walking same exact grid and locating things and marking them off and then compare person 1 to person 2. When perusal this article it was not clear that orange line was 8 meters away from where he found the pipe. If you watch the article and see where person 2 with red hat says “he is skeptical”… that is abouts where his fancy device located the pipe that went perpendicular to fence so he DID locate pipe. Since he started to right of person 1… he kept walking until he found pipe #2…. There is probably pipe #1 crossing where first person found sticks intersecting… just going diagonally or something so he did not find it in same place he started. It is completely not uncommon for underground pipes to go all over the place… I know mine are from well to house to garage shed to previous 3 wells on property so I probably have like 1 kilometer worth of pvc pipe all over my 1 acre lot.
As a comeback and as a open minded individual. The older guy didn’t lose. Neither did the scientific approach win. Both methods are tools to the one who is holding the device and operating it. We contain within us, every substance known to man, that is found in the ground. Obvious fact! We also contain within our DNA, every cell, particle, every atom, every molecule ; the very water that we are fundamentally made up of; our own electrical neurons, electrons and protons; creating electrical and magnetic energy and fields and then we scoff at anything as though we were something! How are we something? How are we someone? Our Breath! Our Life! Neither was created by us, nor is sustained by us! Be thankful! Be grateful! Don’t assume that you know it all! Don’t assume that you are all there is! Don’t assume that because you don’t see it, believe it; it isn’t there, or isn possible. Lighten up with the wonder and questioning inquisitiveness of a little child. For do we assume to know as God/Source knows? Do we assume to direct the actions of our bodies, egos and souls, that we may live and not die? Cheers 🤙❤️❤️❤️🤙
This was just a ‘stitch up’ for Jim’s pumping. I bought a book about dowsing, The Art of Dowsing by Michael Fercik. It was the worst book I’ve ever had to endure on the topic. The thing is so pedantic, repetitive, and convoluted as to defy description. I had to throw it in the bin. It was impossible to read. The diagrams and explanation were almost beyond intelligible. The editing was abominable. I tried to contact the author but he is nowhere to be found on the internet. He said he’d been doing this for 35 years. Well, he doesn’t appear to have learned much because he still hasn’t struck pay dirt with his gold seeking.
Dowsing works. You don’t need the rod. It’s just handy indicator. We can sense when it is about to rain. We can sense all kinds of stuff around us. We are always connected to this universe. But many of us live indoors and hooked to our play stations and simply don’t pay attention to our environment. Farmers learn the land. Native Indians learn that spirit is among us all and in us and in all the rocks and rivers and waters and land. Everything is connected so we can sense where everything is.
If there was a way to find water with two shitty rods in your hand, don’t you think someone would’ve patented an invention of such device??? Maybe improve on it? Oh wait, to patent something you have to prove how it works in the design but since these rods are complete pseudoscience they can’t explain it so therefore no patent. This is like the water powered car articles, if there were such a thing invented so readily and easily, then everyone would know how it works.
The physics involved in dowsing have been reverse engineered in a book that should be read and studied, which is : The Art of Dowsing- Separating Science from Superstition ($14.95). The book explains all of the physics involved in dowsing and how to build the modern light weight ball bearing dowsing rod that uses gravity as a gauge by pitting the energy of gravity against the energizing of the one-tenth ounce dowsing rod load that is attached on the elevated acetylene welding rod, with being five inches away from the hub’s shaft. This precisely gauges the dowsing of all edges, exact center, depth buried with angle of deposition, and most important is grading of the sought element that is contained in the elemental mass that is being dowsed. Everyone can become a professional dowser by practicing the book’s dowsing lessons of buried pipelines and electrical cables, tunnels and voids, precious metal placer and load deposits, dowsing for treasure, dowsing for any element, amplified long distance dowsing from a moving vehicle, and dowsing on water from a boat. I hope dowsing enriches your life and have a safe, healthy, good day.
Wow brother, I have a distinct memory of growing up in rural Maine and when my parents bought their property, an elderly gentleman showed up with his dowsing sticks and told us exactly where to drill…. seemed like magic to my 6 year old eyes and as a 32 year old kid I just got the same sensation! Thanks so much for sharing my friend, much love from Maine
My father was a commercial independent owner of a water well drilling company all of his life in New England. He always dowsed before selecting the well site. You must cut a green witch hazel balanced Y shaped branch, preferably off the land where the new well is to be located. Its also preferable for the douser to be blind folded and walk with an assistant, to cut any possible outside influences. He was able to get great producing water wells for the homeowners even when other contractors came up dry. Some of his wells are now commercial water bottling companies!
I am a Dowser. I have doing it for water lines for years as a landscaper. Plant watering systems underground pipes before digging. It is right on. Grandfather had the Ability also. My dad still has the Apple Y. That did not work for me back in the day. I use the L rod Coat Hanger. For the last seven months I have been just using the ability for Yes and No Answers. 85% percent right on so far. Excellent article. With You.
Great article thank you! My Great Uncle Hubert was able to do this (we called it “witching for water”) and it was not seen as weird or freaky whatsoever. He was a farmer and the whole family (also farmers) and other neighbouring farms all employed his help for decades to locate the best spot to dig their wells. He could even tell you how deep it was and he was never found to be wrong. I know it sounds far-fetched, but it’s just a fact He always only used a willow stick and I believe he told me it had to be fresh. When my parents bought some new land, they asked Uncle Hubert to come water witch and I was lucky enough to see this as it may have been his last time doing so (but I am not totally sure. ) He was a very very old man by then and had nearly totally white eyes (he had developed severe cataracts ) and I remember thinking he looked kind of scary to my 11ish year old self, but he was such an incredibly kind and sweet man and so I really liked him. Anyhow, his near blindness did not stop him whatsoever. He walked around the whole property and found the very best spot to dig for the well. and once again, he was totally accurate. It was quite something to see and I will never forget it so long as I live. Unfortunately, some people don’t believe in this kind of thing and mock it and trust me we could never explain it ourselves, it was just something Uncle Hubert was always able to do, and only one of his sons, and one grandson were able too apparently. I’m not sure if anyone else in his line after that has been able to (as Uncle Hubert and my own Grandparents have passed on years ago) but please believe that this really is a thing.
My father was born in a farm in Italy, and he had the gift. He use to find water from the gardens or land for people in town. A family was perusal my father searching in their garden, and when the stick moved the 6 Years old child got frightened and run away . Water was found in the exact place by the drilling company and a well was built
Interesting blog and topic. I am still pretty new to dowsing. I am in Africa and there is a lot of gold around. I just made my rods from wardrobe wire coat hangers. And started dowsing. I would ask people to hide things and I would look for the stuff with my rods. Then I was refining the process and then wen off to my gold claim on admission to look for the gold veins. The main thing I would do was simply to talk to the rods (after observing some religious practice) and ask it questions and the rods would respond strongly as I would be walking. For example, I would ask, I am looking for a gold bearing being that has a grade of about 20 grams per tonne and the nearest to the surface within this area. Then the rods would point But the thing is when I would ask for the depth, it would say around 25 metres deep and the being about 2 metres wide, going 45 degrees etc. So it was my first time and you know the process and expenses of digging 25 deep and blasting is quite costly. So I just need assurances and testimonies from others that it works. I would be left with an egg in my face if i try it then find nothing! Has anyone ever got that deep? Any thought advices or opinions are welcome
I would love to know why this works but it definitely does. My grandfather showed me with a crotch stick from an apple tree, which he thought worked the best, and also with copper wires. No matter how hard you try to squeeze and hold the branch back it will point to water. Awesome stuff for sure. Take care
I’m a very skeptical person-and was given one of these fruit bearing Y branches and saw it for myself years ago. I couldn’t believe that branch was twisting in my hands like it was-and hard! I mean, we all know trees know where water is/how to find it (that’s why they love to grow straight through our pipes! LOL)…so it makes sense. It’s just surprising that a CUT branch does it. Wild stuff.
Sir, that is only a hole that you showed after dousing. I have used dousing rods and I can “recommend” to well drillers where to drill for “shallow” water. Yes, shallow, meaning about 20 feet up to 150 feet. It is because the dousing twig or rod can detect water running under. How? Plain and simple. You used a twig shaped letter Y. It is naturally made. Of wood. It comes from a plant which is sustained by water. Water that is found below. The plant gets water by means of its roots. How do the roots move underground? Naturally towards water. it is in its makeup or genes. When pressure is applied into the roots, it naturally seeks water, water that is running or “alive”. it is drawn towards running water under the ground. When you used the twig, you applied pressure to it so that it dangles in such a way that a little “influence” on it will make it respond. it responded because there is running water under. How deep? I don’t know. But it cannot be as deep as the hole that you have shown.
You can’t. We’ve done hundreds of large scale tests (oil people invested a lot of money doing theirs as well) with THE BEST dowsers/diviners in the world walking around with their devices, as many times as they want, over terrain under which there is already studied natural flow of water (or oil for those that do that). They do their thing, each has its own whacky method, as long as they need, and they mark the spots. Then reviewers outside the experiment analyze the predictions against the paths of water and clearly conclude that the closest predictions do NO BETTER than pure chance, most being worse than chance logically. Funniest thing is the excuses they come up with to explain why they failed. Pyschological studies have explained this and other superstitious phenomena very easily: we never forget a hit but forget or excuse away all the misses; as simple as that, it’s deceptively easy to fool oneself.
Ive used wire to find water lines with great success. Witched a well years ago that three others witched to the same spot. Ive done two wells in the last few weeks with wire rods. Too bad drillers are a year out to find out of I’m right. Pretty confident but need more wins before i go on. Going to try sticks soon
What do you use for a branch i use apple a buddy didn’t believe me that it works so i showed him one day and tried trueing back on the branches and turned the bark off in my hands. Another friend was building a new house i went up and dowsed for him i found a real good vine but he didn’t want the well head in the middle of his lawn he should have went it the first time because the well driller drilled off to the side and it collapsed then they drilled where i said.
I would be really curious to know how this works. The only scientific explanation I’ve read is that it’s all bogus and voluntary or involuntary hand movements to make the twig move. But us that have actually tried it knows that you can hold the twig as hard as possible and it will still twist against itself, the bark will even come loose while you’re trying to not let it move. I’m not going to claim I know you can find water or not, but there is something that make the twig being pushed down.
Do you know that the physics involved in dowsing has recently been reverse engineered. Read and study the book, The Art of Dowsing – Separating Science from Superstition ($14.95), for learning all of the physics involved in dowsing and how to build the modern light weight ball bearing dowsing rod, which is the only dowsing rod that accurately gauges what is being dowsed by pitting the energy of gravity against the energizing of the one-tenth ounce dowsing rod load that is attached on the elevated acetylene welding rod, with being located five-inches from the hub’s shaft. This precisely gauges the dowsing of all edges, exact center, depth buried with angle of deposition, and most important is grading of the sought element that is contained in the elemental mass that is being dowsed. Anybody can become a professional dowser by practicing the book’s dowsing lessons of buried pipelines and electrical cables, tunnels and voids, precious metal placer and lode deposits, dowsing for treasure, dowsing for any element, amplified long distance dowsing from a moving vehicle, and dowsing on water from a boat. I hope dowsing enriches your life and have a safe, healthy, good day.
What kind of wood is that. I don’t believe a second of this, but I have never tried. There are endless things we don’t scientifically know yet, Science is proven wrong all the time anyway. I was at this hardware store near where I live getting gold pans, and the clerk had a gold necklace held above this map of all of western wa. doin circles and pointed out a spot. My dad knows the spot, we will try it and update if we find anything, in next couple weeks. I came here because of Gavin Mclnnes.
My Grandfather, “Poppy”, (Because he looked like Popeye), owned 3 Cable Tool Rigs and he ran his own drilling business. At the age of five I began spending half of summer vacation with him on the Rig he operated. When we would set up the Rig in some new, remote location, he would cut a stick and douse for the water before deciding where to set up the Rig. I never seen him ever, miss a single call. Poppy could tell you how many feet the well would go, within +/- 5′ . . . whether it was fifty feet, or 500 feet; but more than that, he could tell by the pull on the stick, with like accuracy, how many GPM the Water Well would produce. I watched him do it for 15 years. And setting up a drilling Rig is no small chore, that dousing Rod, never let Poppy down.