Does this ancient theory hold water?

[Carol]

It's a mysterious technique which has been used to find water for centuries, but city scientists now want to really put dowsing to the test.

The Inspire Discovery Centre today made an unusual appeal - for experienced dowsers to take part in an experiment in Norwich.

The Oak Street hands-on science centre wants people who have the ability to find water using rods to get in touch and take part in the study of whether the ancient practice actually works.

As part of the BA Festival of Science, which runs from September 2 to 9 with events throughout the city, the centre is organising a mass test of the strange ability to detect water.

James Piercy from Inspire said: ?I had a go at dowsing a couple of years ago and something weird happened - the rods moved. ?Generally I'm very skeptical about things but something seemed to happen so for a long time I've wanted to do some investigations into it.

?The science festival seemed a great opportunity to give it a go.?

The investigation is supported by The Society for Psychical Research and there will be two events designed to investigate the phenomenon.

The first will take place in Queen Street, Norwich, on September 2 and 3 from 11am to 4pm, when dowsers will be invited to demonstrate their skills and talk to the public about the uses of dowsing. Members of the public will be encouraged to try their hand at locating water under the street.

Then on September 9, from 11am to 5pm, experienced dowsers will be invited to participate in a controlled experiment conducted by Goldsmiths College London. Dowsers will be asked to locate hidden water at the Inspire centre in Oak Street and their success rate will be measured against that of chance.

The BA Festival of Science is one of the UK's biggest science festivals. Each year it attracts about 400 of the best scientists and science communicators from home and abroad who reveal the latest developments in research to a general audience.

The week-long event is held at a different location each September and this year it is being hosted by Norwich Research Park.

Dowsers interested in participating should contact James Piercy by writing to the Inspire Discovery Centre, St Michael's Church, Oak Street, Norwich, NR3 3AE, calling (01603) 612612 or emailing James@inspirediscoverycentre.com

http://new.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/ ... 3A05%3A907

[PhenomInvestigator]

I find this humerous to say the least. The gentleman has clearly not done his research. I am pleased he finds dowsing a subject of interest, but he would do well to look into the history of dowsing research for he would find experiments he can replicate and theories already proven.

In brief, in the late 1960s a Phd working in the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) became interested in the dowsing effect. For those not familiar with DARPA, they work on some of the most technologically advanced projects in the U.S. Government. DARPA conceived the concept of a network that could not be irradicated by nuclear war at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s. That network transformed in the mid-1990s to become the Internet we know today. (No, Al Gore did not 'invent the Internet', sorry.)

This individual lived in Lorton, Virginia, just across the river from Washington DC and a bit South on a property on the Chesapeake River. He hypothesized there were three centers in the human body responsible for the so-called 'dowsing reaction' which is best thought of as a slight muscular twitch. When he tested master dowsers by blocking these areas of their bodies in blind tests, (they literally were blindfolded btw) every single dowser ceased to be able to dowse. They could not find dowsing targets at all. When the blocks were removed, they were again able to find targets. Because this was a blind test, the dowsers didn't know when they were wearing material that would block their dowsing ability and when they were not.

This research was published in several peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Physics. Anyone who is well-read in that field should have encountered this material. Likewise it was made known in the dowsing community. Anyone who has been a member for example of the American Society of Dowsers is likely aware of this research.

What has been less well-researched, and was a research interest of the Phd in question before his passing, was the mechanism that made map dowsing possible. Unlike field dowsing, map dowsing is performed at a distance, somewhat reminiscient of remote viewing. Those map dowsers I have worked with operate more like remote viewers than conventional field dowsers. I believe there are two different mechanisms at work here based on my limited investigations.

Anyway, this should be interesting. We shall see if this gentleman effectively replicates the former's work.