Dowsing

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Dowsing

Dowsing is a centuries-old type of divination that involves finding water, minerals, and lost objects, and even diagnosing illnesses. Dowsing (also called "water witching," "doodlebugging," and other names) is practiced with the aid of a forked branch, an L-shaped piece of metal held out in front of the dowser, a pendulum, or occasionally the dowser's bare hands.

Contemporary dowsing has its origins in sixteenth-century German mining communities and probably came to New England during the colonial period. Dowsers were commonly used in the nineteenth century to find minerals, before the rise of geology as a science. Even when geologists were available, some companies continued to employ dowsers because they believed dowsing was more effective. In the twentieth century, dowsing was widely practiced throughout the United States, especially in rural areas and in the West. For most of its history dowsing has been local and loosely organized, but in 1961 the American Society of Dowsers was founded in Vermont.

Before this time dowsing was an uninstitutionalized, rurally based oral tradition. Men and women usually learned to dowse from neighbors and relatives and practiced their art in local communities. In the twentieth century, books, how-to guides, and Internet sites have made the practice more accessible to those who want to learn, though some argue that dowsers are born, not made. In Water Witches, Chris Bohjalian's 1995 novel about Vermont dowsers, dowsing runs in the family. These dowsers find water for their neighbor's farm as well as for a ski resort, and one of them locates a pilot who was lost in an airplane crash. Contemporary dowsers have located water for orchards and golf courses, found archaeological artifacts, and pinpointed underground tunnels and mines during the Vietnam War. Dowsers are also hired to locate objects from a distance using maps and pendulums.

Dowsing does not require belief in any particular doctrine or deity. Believers in dowsing find meaning in a range of explanations, both natural and supernatural. Some dowsers are Christian, while others might be called New Agers, whose interest in dowsing overlaps with other beliefs in phenomena such as ley lines (lines of magnetic force believed to run through the Earth at specific sites) and psychic healing. Some dowsing advocates say that dowsers intuitively know where water flows, while others suggest that they are influenced by electromagnetic or spiritual forces, both positive and negative. Dowsing, according to another explanation, is possible because the world around us is permeated with an undefined "energy," which humans can make use of if they focus their mind on some particular goal, such as finding water.

Twentieth-century critics of dowsing tended to be scientists, but its earliest opposition came from Christianity, beginning with Martin Luther's proclamation against the "divining rod" in 1518. Branded as Witchcraft from Luther's time on, dowsing has often been associated with alternative and marginal religions—most recently the New Age movement—and folk practices. Skeptics of dowsing abound, such as James Randi (the "Amazing Randi"), a stage magician who offers money to anyone who can pass his dowsing tests. Geologists point out that in areas where water is geologically possible, it will appear anywhere a well is drilled. But contemporary dowsers remain unmoved by attacks on their craft. Their evidence for the success of dowsing is based on different criteria—personal experience and their faith that, for whatever reason, dowsing works.

See alsoNew Age Spirituality.