Dowsing

Dowsing is a controversial practice which dowsers claim empowers them to find water, metals, gem stones, and hidden objects by carrying or waving a stick or other apparatus over a piece of land and watching for any movement. However repeated tests under controlled conditions have never provided support for this claim.

Proposed explanations

Skeptics of dowsing, and many believers as well, believe that the dowsing rod itself does not have any special power, but only serves to amplify small, otherwise imperceptible movements of the hands. Such amplification is known as the ideomotor effect. The difference between skeptics and believers is that the skeptics believe the small movements arise from the expectations of the dowser, while believers believe that the dowser has a real although subliminal sensitivity to the environment, perhaps via electroception or magnetoception.

Related Topics:
Ideomotor effect - Electroception - Magnetoception

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dowsing is better classified as a paranormal belief than as pseudoscience. In pseudoscience, scientific sounding jargon is used and explanations sometimes sound farfetched but possible. Dowsers however give no coherent explanation of how it is done, apart from frequent mentioning of magnetic fields and auras. Dowsers 'believe' they can dowse, thus making it more a matter of religion then science. While every dowser who has ever tried to prove his/her claims has failed completely, they invariably continue to believe in their abilities.

Related Topics:
Paranormal - Pseudoscience

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~