Water (and other things) Divining

[Adam W.]

I can find pipes and cables ok, but I am a little sceptical about some of the other claims.

 

[Cabinetman]

I can find pipes and cables ok, but I am a little sceptical about some of the other claims.

That’s understandable and I would probably have agreed with you if I hadn’t been there and done it myself, we all were getting the same readings, and as I said earlier I drove home in a daze thinking of the possibilities and what it all meant. Ian

 

[Daniel2]

It doesn't work for hidden treasure hoards. I've tried it.

 

[Cabinetman]

Can you remember the title / author of the book please?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Stones-Geoffrey-Crockford/dp/0956292100Sorry took a while to find it

 

[Trainee neophyte]

This may be of interest: Finding Water With A Forked Stick May Not Be A Hoax

Researchers analyzed the successes and failures of dowsers in attempting to locate water at more than 2000 sites in arid regions of Sri Lanka, Zaire, Kenya, Namibia and Yemen over a 10-year period. To do this, researchers teamed geological experts with experienced dowsers and then set up a scientific study group to evaluate the results. Drill crews guided by dowsers didn't hit water every time, but their success rate was impressive. In Sri Lanka, for example, they drilled 691 holes and had an overall success rate of 96 percent.

"In hundreds of cases the dowsers were able to predict the depth of the water source and the yield of the well to within 10 percent or 20 percent," says Hans-Dieter Betz, a physicist at the University of Munich, who headed the research group.

It isn't that I don't believe it works - I just can't do it reliably. Watching someone wander about with a stick and suddenly say "drill here - twenty metres down you will find a stream with 1,000 litres per minute" is mind - bending. However, if I get a drilling rig in, they will drill 80 metres, because they get paid by the metre, not by the amount of water. Which means I will have to drill 20 metres myself, by hand. Doable, but hard work. Easier is to run run a pipe to my neighbour who gives me unlimited water free of charge, as long as we dont fall out, that is.

 

[Cabinetman]

This may be of interest: Finding Water With A Forked Stick May Not Be A Hoax

Researchers analyzed the successes and failures of dowsers in attempting to locate water at more than 2000 sites in arid regions of Sri Lanka, Zaire, Kenya, Namibia and Yemen over a 10-year period. To do this, researchers teamed geological experts with experienced dowsers and then set up a scientific study group to evaluate the results. Drill crews guided by dowsers didn't hit water every time, but their success rate was impressive. In Sri Lanka, for example, they drilled 691 holes and had an overall success rate of 96 percent.

"In hundreds of cases the dowsers were able to predict the depth of the water source and the yield of the well to within 10 percent or 20 percent," says Hans-Dieter Betz, a physicist at the University of Munich, who headed the research group.

It isn't that I don't believe it works - I just can't do it reliably. Watching someone wander about with a stick and suddenly say "drill here - twenty metres down you will find a stream with 1,000 litres per minute" is mind - bending. However, if I get a drilling rig in, they will drill 80 metres, because they get paid by the metre, not by the amount of water. Which means I will have to drill 20 metres myself, by hand. Doable, but hard work. Easier is to run run a pipe to my neighbour who gives me unlimited water free of charge, as long as we dont fall out, that is.

That was interesting thank you, that’s quite something when they have a success rate that high.

 

[Sandyn]

Easier is to run run a pipe to my neighbour who gives me unlimited water free of charge, as long as we dont fall out, that is.

If you think that's easy.......the stuff just falls out of the sky in Scotland....regularly.

 

[PeteHB]

I was introduced to the art by an old excavator driver when we were working in a quarry with adjacent factory. He picked up water, gas and electricity supplies then gave me his rods and I walked with my eye closed over new ground and found an old victorian culvert. The sensation when the rods move and cross is magical . To this day I have a set of rods and use them occasionally.

 

[slavedata]

Back in the days of Yuri Geller spoon bending I tried this and was suprised to see that it works and I could do it with no effort. ( 2 right angled sticks or metal rods loosely held in fists on verticals horizontals pointing forward) Sticks swing round with no effort from myself as you walk over a watercourse. Since then have used it successfully several times.

 

[Jacob]

Actually had experience of an acclaimed water diviner, looking for a well in Wales.
I had ideas on where would be best and his choices, with a bit of fiddling about with sticks, seemed to coincide closely with mine and with a sceptical water engineer pro who was also on the case.
Big margin of error anyway, dug several holes, so I think there's simply a near "subliminal" bit of common sense judgement going on, based sometimes on barely apparent indicators

 

[Cabinetman]

Actually had experience of an acclaimed water diviner, looking for a well in Wales.
I had ideas on where would be best and his choices, with a bit of fiddling about with sticks, seemed to coincide closely with mine and with a sceptical water engineer pro who was also on the case.
Big margin of error anyway, dug several holes, so I think there's simply a near "subliminal" bit of common sense judgement going on, based sometimes on barely apparent indicators

It’s a bit more than that Jacob, when it happens it’s a very strange sensation, and as I said we didn’t know what we were going to find in that field in Sussex, it wasn’t one person that found all the postholes from the roundhouse we all were doing it and marking what we found, and before we knew where we were there was a perfect circle marked out.
I suspect the presence of a sceptical doubting Thomas puts the kibosh on it. Ian

 

[Jacob]

I have brought this over from another thread in case anyone is interested in the arcane mysteries of Divining.
Nobody really knows but it’s suspected in our long distant past we could use this sense to detect all sorts of things in our daily life much as we do with sight and smell, probably for finding underground foodstuffs and safe drinking water, and that since then it has fallen into disuse. I believe in it from personal experience, but as soon as you try to prove it works your brain shuts off the ability- very strange indeed and frustrating.
I went on a one day course once to learn how to do it and it was "literally stunning", the two guys were, as I’ve since found out, the leading experts in the UK and I bought their fascinating book, since lent and lost! It seems that virtually everybody has the ability to Divine but some have it more than others.
The equipment needed is very simple, some use a Y shaped hazel twig but I use two Bic pen tubes each with an L shaped bit of metal wire, the short ends drop into the tubes and the longer bits (about 15” ) you have sticking out in front of you. Think about what you are trying to find, say your water supply, as you walk across it’s path the rods that were parallel swing towards each other and may cross, the pipe will be under your feet not the rods.
You have to concentrate on what it is you’re trying to find, this can be helped by having a sample in the palm of one hand as you detect, we were told that a lot of what we find isn’t still in the ground in a physical form but the chemical elements are still there to be detected.
About eight of us novices were sent out on our own with our rods and little flags to see what we could find in a field in Sussex and fairly soon a perfect circle of flags showed the post holes from a round house, wood ash in the centre, two lines of fragments of bronze from the wheel rims of carts, with reindeer droppings in a straight line between them – no I hadn’t realised that they used reindeer instead of horses in the bronze age either, on both sides of the bronze tracks we detected the run off from thatch on buildings and elsewhere an underground stream, the banked lane leading past the site was we were later told, from the period.
Once whatever you’re looking for has been detected it’s possible to then try again with the thought in your mind of how deep is it? and as you walk away from the source, the distance moved before the rods cross is how deep the item is.
It isn’t an exact science and confusing misinformation can send you off in the wrong direction sometimes.
It’s also possible to find objects by detecting the direction that the object is in and then doing it again from a different direction and where the lines cross is where the object is, though I haven’t done this.
I’m told it’s possible to divine over huge distances by using a map of the area where are you are trying to find something but I’ve never tried it, - stories of finding missing people.
I still have my rods and used them not so long ago to find the exact line taken by the water supply to my house.
Btw it isn’t the rods picking up whatever it is, it’s you, the rods are only there for your brain to move your hands slightly which makes the rods move.
Ian

Are you saying that this site was previously unrecorded and then excavated with all these items and details scientifically identified by archaeologists?
It sounds an astonishing achievement and presumably the work is on display somewhere now? Where is it?

 

[Cabinetman]

Here we go, I knew I shouldn’t have poked you.

 

[Jacob]

Here we go, I knew I shouldn’t have poked you.

So that's a "No" then?

 

[doctor Bob]

This could be a first, me and Jacob seem to have common ground. I'm quite happy to state that I'm a total non believer.
Maybe my non believing spirit aura means it doesn't work around me.
I'm not convinced magicians saw those women in half either.

 

[Sandyn]

I tried dowsing today. Didn't work. I just couldn't make myself believe it would work and too focused on whether it would work or not. Wrong state of mind.

 

[Cabinetman]

Oh well, for those of us who can do it we’re just glad that it does work, and as we will never convince you there’s no point trying, just leave you to your 5 senses whilst we enjoy our 6th. Ian

 

[Jacob]

Oh well, for those of us who can do it we’re just glad that it does work, and as we will never convince you there’s no point trying, just leave you to your 5 senses whilst we enjoy our 6th. Ian

Easily convinced - just need evidence!
Did your spectacular find get written up anywhere it sounds very newsworthy and must have taken up some weeks of painstaking excavations and analysis. Would have made a good TV prog by the sounds of it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had an acquaintance years ago who bored wells for a living - he used a diviner for every one. He was certain on one occasion that they wouldn't find water at all and after quite a while the diviner said he'd found some. This was a Friday afternoon, and on the Monday the property owner rang him up. Oh, don't tell me it's already run dry? he said. No, the chap said, I've got water down through the garden and hundreds of yards down the road. He'd hit an artesian well. The diviner's name was Donovan Wilkins, he was well known in the area.

 

[Jacob]

I had an acquaintance years ago who bored wells for a living - he used a diviner for every one. He was certain on one occasion that they wouldn't find water at all and after quite a while the diviner said he'd found some. This was a Friday afternoon, and on the Monday the property owner rang him up. Oh, don't tell me it's already run dry? he said. No, the chap said, I've got water down through the garden and hundreds of yards down the road. He'd hit an artesian well. The diviner's name was Donovan Wilkins, he was well known in the area.

Yes there's lots of stories like that Divining an Inspiration – Ann Foweraker
I don't believe any of them!
Next time you see your water board man outside in the street ask them if they use diviners. What they do sometimes use is sounding rods with an ear piece so you can hear running water leaking under the road.