I have seen these used by some investigators on tv and on the web,

I am of the opinion they suck and are almost next to useless when trying to find some kind of Paranormal energy here is why.

My dad when I was young broke a clothes hanger (a metal one) in two and bent it into 2 L shapes, and he said to me "Son, if you ever want to find water. here is how!"

So we walked alittle bit and they crossed, we managed to turn back and keep the rods cross and managed to find the water line going into the house. Now these pipes are probably (I ain't a plumber) pretty thick pipes going into the house carrying water.

So I find the use of dowsing rods in any kind of place where there could be potentially any kind of running water underneath it highly redundant.

Sorry if I offend people by my statement, but I am interested to hear other peoples views on such instruments as the dowsing rod.

Do any of you guys use them and find them to be an important part of your paranormal investigation toolbox?


Cheers,

Alasdair

I think that they are more like primitive EMF detectors, in that they find surges in the natural EM frequency. Underground springs, wells water pipes etc could very well interfere with that. I am not sure if I would discount them altogether, although personally I regard them as highly as I do Ouija boards and orbs....

The other part of it is, too much human interaction!

I can't really trust things that people can easily manipulate, like ouija boards and the like.

Pictures and Videos I can trust them to a certain degree, but you can't be 100% until you see your own

I mean not all pictures on here are faked if they were, adobe must be making a mint (that or should be filing lots of law suits)

I used to work a lot with dowsing rods and pendulums back during my studies, and although i was quite often amazed with pendulums, dowsing rods just never seemed to work...neither in my hands, nor in the hands of fellow students

My great uncle used dowsing-rods to find water. He was a farmer. This kind of talent seems to be much more prevalent amongst people who live on the land. I remember one day, he demonstrated by locating a water pipe in my grandfather's back yard. He let us hold onto his hands while he did it to see it we could feel anything. We never felt anything, but when my brother held his hands my uncle could no longer dowse. (My brother has Autism and Schizophenia.) ?!?!

It has been suggested that the dowsing rod merely acts as an amplifier for minute handmovements that occur in response to the dowser's sensing of the water stream (or other quarry). Sensing metals and water in this way may be due to a fine electrical sense. Many animals are acutely aware of variations in electrical and magnetic fields. Birds and whales navigate using magnetic fields and fish use electric fields to sense prey and other members of their school. Metal detectors also work on the principle that metals distort nearby magnetic fields. Water is also known to effect magnetic/electric fields.

I read somewhere once about a pair of Australian geological-surveyers who used dowsing to locate mineral deposits. The would then confirm their locations by cross checking with more conventional surveys which they also conducted. I guess they were trying to reduce the amount of area they needed to analyse.

I have no idea whether such methods can be used to find spirits.

I use both dowsing rods and pendulms. Dowsing rods are my tool of choice. Greycoat hit the nail on the head. And incidently, I'm a farmers daughter. My family orginated in the black forest of germany and used dowsing rods as any other tool on the farm. Today I use them as an amplifier and tool to focus me very effectivly. The only problem; ley lines. They do always go to water first!

Are you saying ley-lines interfere with dowsing for water?

They interfere when dowsing with spirits. The rods will always go to water/ley lines first. It's easy to tell that, that's what is going on hen you know your rods, though.

I would have to go with the lot here and state it would probably work for people how work on the land and such. I do, however, wonder why your uncle could no longer dowse when your brother held his hands. I wonder IF the Autism and Schizophrenia somehow effect this ability and why.

I agree with the others, it's difficult to "believe" in such things that humans can have a big influence over. Although It's good to see a topic on this! It's interesting to read what and how they are used, ty!

Why? I have no idea! I mention my brother's mental difficulties on the off chance that such mental disturbances might confuse the signals used in dowsing. That it might influence the ability of a nearby person is certainly hard to credit. Then again the whole idea of dowsing is rather preposterous!

I do remember an episode of Ghost Hunters where they used them in a lighthouse
...which was surrounded by water...
But they kept going crazy. IDK, If water makes them go off then....well...
If i have more time i'll look for it on YouTube.

I don't watch much of Ghst Hunters. I guess I should, but we are so busy with cases that there isn'ttmuch time for TV. Do you know the name of the episode and who was dowsing? I've never dowsed over a lake, so I don't have a personal baseline to compare to. Now I want to set up a lighthouse investigation here in CA, just to see what it's like! Great input!

Interesting, Thanks for your input guys

So, I guess they have the potential to work but you have to use them right, I guess if you know what they pick up and how they pick them up (like for example if the source keeps moving around the room, then I guess its not water pipes )

Maybe someone who knows how to use them should write up some documentation, I don't believe I have seen any around but I haven't looked to be honest.

I have personally never tried dowsing rods, but perhaps if I broke a clothes hanger into and placed it in my hands and headed towards the um, water tank, it'd work? What do ya think? I'll try it tonight, I don't want my family seeing me do that lol

Anything that requires direct physical interaction can be influenced, intentional or not, by the user. Hard to say if dowsing actually works but I've seen various investigations where they have used rods to locate sites of hightened paranormal activity as well as underground water veins. I don't think you can totally discount dowsing but it's hard to totally accept it either.

I've used dowsing rods with the paranormal group that I'm with & strangely, they work but you need to have another piece of equipment to see if that is affected when the dowsing rods cross. Such as an emf detector or take a picture to see if you get anything where they crossed.

Have you ever caught anything on film by doing this?

The people I knew long ago who used dousing rods some of them died in the fifties, and I mention this to say these people were farmers and didn't know or care anything about the paranormal all they were doing was to try to locate water on the land so they could dig a well.
Now as I remember it they used a stick and in this case a young forked stick in the spring usually and they always found water just like todays well drillers have equipment that does about the same thing as far as finding water.
I wanted to mention the stick because someone mentioned a close hangar and I don't know that this would work but I know I have seen the forked stick work.