DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

When I grab a set of my rods, pass them over a waterline, and theynimmediately cross, forming the "X", and it does that every time, I think that validates the effectiveness of the tool. Oh, and btw, I have never dug a well, but I have certainly drunk from several. Have a nice day.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

That explains it. You know there is water there, and you believe the rods will therefore cross, so you unconsciously move them.

From Wikipedia: "Science writers such as William Benjamin Carpenter (1877), Millais Culpin (1920) and Martin Gardner (1957) considered the movement of dowsing rods to be the result of unconscious muscular action.[59][60][61] This view is widely accepted amongst the scientific community.[8][9][62][63] The dowsing apparatus is known to amplify slight movements of the hands caused by a phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect: people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies without consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing rod susceptible to the diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception; but also to confirmation bias.

That's why science operates as it does. If your rods crossed someplace you didn't know there was water, and it turned out there was water there, that would be evidence. That's why I asked about wells. If you were successful in finding water for a well someplace where people had trouble finding water, that could be evidence. It still wouldn't be a proper controlled science experiment though.

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Not so, I hold the short end of the rods in cupped hands, barely touching the rods, exerting zero force on the piece. I have performed this numerous times, with a zero failure rate. If that is coincidence, that would shake the boots of the science world, for no arbitrary event will occur 100 pct of tries.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

But didn't you do all your tests in the Everglades? The problem there is finding a place there isn't any water.

krmitchell55 Loc: Springdale, Arkansas

It's kind of like santa claus, you just have to believe!

klbuild Loc: Durham, north carolina

A well driller once told me that you hit water 98% of the time. Most of my experience, the health department told me where the well had to go anyway

Sendai5355 Loc: On the banks of the Pedernales River, Texas

I have used divining rods to trace underground electric lines with some success. Also metal water pipes. I have a set of brass rods back home but have used metal coat hangers in a pinch. I have noticed that the rods will swing parallel to operating fluorescent light tubes.

I think one has to be of Gaelic descent for the rods to do their "magic". LOL

Sirsnapalot Loc: Hammond, Louisiana

I've always heard of divining rods for finding water but as a born skeptic just thought it was some sort of witchcraft. Several years ago, in the middle of a severe drought in west Texas, an old game warden friend broke out a set and showed me how to hold them and asked me to walk around the camp yard and when the rods crossed I would be over a "hit". Well I felt like a fool but agreed to tried it and be darn if they didn't cross whenever I passed over a certain spot. I did it over and over and every time I was over that location the rods would cross on their own. There were several other skeptics around who tried it and it did the same thing for them. The old game warden friend proved we were over water when he showed us that the "hit" spot was right over a underground water main that fed the camp!
Now I'm a believer!!

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

I just love the sceptics and the followers of Wikipedia reports.
When I was a youngster involved in farming, we regularly had to locate land drains in fields for a variety of reasons, the common one being to connect new drains into them. Using two copper welding rods bent into an 'L' shape, I could virtually guarantee finding the location of these field drains without fail.
It did not work for everyone, but for me it did every time. I can understand those for whom it doesn't work being sceptical or even ridiculing the process, I've met plenty and their faces have always been a picture when we dug down in the middle of a field and always found the drain at the bottom of the hole.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

When I built my house 48 years ago I had a gentleman witch the well site for me. He used a brazing rod. When he hit the spot he told me to try. It did absolutely nothing. He then cupped his hands around mine without touching my hands and the rod almost jumped out of my hand. That well produced over 75 gallons per minute and never went dry even during extremely long dry spells. I am a believer even if it can't be proven scientifically. The results are what count, not whether the method can be proven to work. My family bathed, washed clothes and drank from that unproven method for 47 years until we got municipal water last year.

Sirsnapalot Loc: Hammond, Louisiana

We used brass welding rods, and when we hit the right location, there wasn't any room for doubt, those rods crossed aggressively!

jjanovy Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I'm a retired biologist with over a hundred scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and 20+ books. I also worked at a field station in western Nebraska for 35 years. Got into a discussion of divining rods with a local rancher, and he showed me the ones he'd made out of a couple of survey flag wires. He also swore they worked, and that he'd drilled wells, successfully, on his property. So he showed me how to hold them and told me to walk a certain direction, which I did. At one point the wires crossed, all by themselves. He laughed and said "that's where the sewer line goes." Never forgot that experience, but I've had no reason to try them since.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

I was a Health Inspector in a rural town where I approved well locations and did soil tests (for septic systems) where underground water location was important. Some well drillers were also dowsers and their success rate was extremely good. However, in Connecticut where I worked you could drill ANYWHERE and eventually hit water so of course dowsed locations provided water. Did their locations result in better yields than random locations? Who knows; we never drilled multiple wells to find out. On the other hand, I was overseeing soil tests for a new subdivision on an old farm field where the owner said there was an old french drain (underground stone culvert) that we didn't want to dig into. The dowser zip zagged across the field putting little flags where his little "L" shaped wires crossed. After about 15 minutes, he had a perfect line of flags across the field and with a little exploratory digging, we found he had located the drain, perfectly. The only explanation I ever heard that has the faintest shred of scientific basis, is that moving water creates a very weak magnetic field and dowsers are sensitive to that field. That's why any sort of dowsing rod system works; it's the dowser, not the equipment, that's doing the job.

TMeitz

I have seen it work many times. Actually seen a off duty laclede gas worker at a BBQ use it to find a sewer line. Made one years ago to find my septic lines. Don't know the science behind it, all I know is it works.

rocket111

I did underground construction for 11 years. I put in fiber optic cable all over the midwest. I know a little about what your talking about. I have even used the two wires. And yes it does work. But I have never seen it work on finding water. If you get close to power lines in the air or underground the wires will cross. I would look around for some electric box, lines above and below ground. Anything with electricity.
As for the folks who don't believe. Just grab two coat hangers. Ya got nothing to loose but two coat hangers.
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