pendulum dowsing?

December 22, 2005 10:50 PM

has anyone ever tried pendulum dowsing? whats it all about?
posted by deeman to Science & Nature (15 answers total)

Pendulum dowsing for water or for medical diagnosis? It's sometimes used for both.

Either way the answer is the same: It's about small, involuntary motions of the dowsers hands being magnified by the mechanism and the dowser reading whatever he wants to read into it.
posted by Justinian at 10:59 PM on December 22, 2005

My Mom can divine water but she uses a willow stick. Yes, I know it's impossible quackery but she can do it- I've seen her find water pipes enough times to be a believer. She doesn't believe in magic or anything btw, she thinks it's super easy and we could all do it if we just tried. I've never been able to though.
posted by fshgrl at 11:02 PM on December 22, 2005

whats it all about?

Answer: Pseudo-science designed to separate you from your money.
posted by frogan at 11:12 PM on December 22, 2005

fshgrl, if your mom can divine water she should contact the James Randi Educational Foundation and claim the $1M prize for anybody who can demonstrate paranormal skills. More info here. The prize has been around since 1964; nobody's come close to claiming it. Just sayin.
posted by ldenneau at 11:25 PM on December 22, 2005

I remember from grade 1 about" a ring on a string will swirld clockwisde/counterclockwise over the hand of a girl and counterclockwise/clockwise over the hand of a boy."

I could make it do either without anyone seeing me muscle the difference (and people would hold my wrist/fingers/whatever).

Subliminals (the person knows something that they may or may not acknowlege) are likely to be involved. Too lazy for links, so feel free to ignore me.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:49 PM on December 22, 2005

ldenneau she won't do it. She doesn't think it's odd at all and would scoff at the paranormal tag. Besides if I could talk my Mom into anything it would be hitting Vegas- you should see her play cards. We'd be filthy rich in minutes.
posted by fshgrl at 11:59 PM on December 22, 2005

It seems fshmom is a very talented woman!
posted by mr.dan at 12:48 AM on December 23, 2005

Yep, my grandfather was a semi-pro gambler and my Mom can count cards like nobody's business. That or she really is psychic because she invariably takes everyone's money. I still can't explain the water divining thing, it was just something I took for granted as a kid, you know? Need a water pipe found- call my Mom.
posted by fshgrl at 1:04 AM on December 23, 2005

Obligatory Skepdic's Dictionary link for dowsing.
posted by madman at 1:25 AM on December 23, 2005

Justinian nails it with...

...involuntary motions of the dowsers hands being magnified by the mechanism and the dowser reading whatever he wants to read into it.

If you make the connection between subconscious thoughts creating the 'involuntary motions' you can use it to help you make decisions. With a question of 'Should I do X or Y?', you grab a piece of paper, mark answer X on the North/South axis and answer Y on the East/West axis. Then hold the pendulum over it and see if it swings NS or EW for your answer.

The theory being that you'll subconsciously pick the answer you really believe in and make the pendulum swing that way.

There are many many better ways of deciding something though!

In the case of dowsing, there's a good chance it'll find water or whatever if the user somehow already knows the location, even if they don't know that they know (IMO).
posted by Rev Dan Catt at 3:11 AM on December 23, 2005

Here's a great gift for those of you interested in the topic. My friend George has a mother who is a dowser and a father who is a civil engineer. He made a movie about the process and their relationship. Guess what, the Amazing Randi makes an appearance and comes off as a strident idiot.

Take a look see here Divining Mom and draw your own conclusions.
posted by dhacker at 4:13 AM on December 23, 2005

I'm not the Amazing Randi's biggest fan; he does sometimes come off as a strident idiot. That said, there have been plenty of scientific studies that have all shown that dowsers who rate their ability to find water at 90-100% are, in reality no better than random chance.

If anyone is interest, Wikipedia summarizes several of these experiments and provides references for more info so there is no need for me to repeat them.
posted by Justinian at 4:18 AM on December 23, 2005

The truth about dowsing for water is that, almost anywhere in the Continental US except the high plains and desert, if you dig, you will hit water --regardless of whether you are dowsing. The average water table across the east coast is six feet underground. In settled areas, pipes of some kind are easy to find as well, by looking at how house sites relate to the street and other houses in the neighborhood.

You could throw a jart, dig, and hit water. You could see where a dog takes a dump, dig, and hit water. So it's really not a huge mystery. Unfortunately, it means that a lot of people think they're good at dowsing.
posted by Miko at 7:31 AM on December 23, 2005

And here's the Straight Dope on dowsing.
posted by Miko at 7:32 AM on December 23, 2005

I agree with PurplePorpoise, except when I was a kid, it was a variation that I attribute to the power of suggestion. I would give a friend a string with a weight on it and tell them that if they were thinking of a boy it would swing in a line, if they were thinking of a girl, it would swing in a circle. And it always worked, even when I told them, "OK, you're thinking of a girl, now think about a boy." The weight would then switch from swinging in a circle to swinging in a line.

Try it yourself and see... if you think of a boy, it will swing in a line, if you think of a girl it will swing in a circle.
posted by jerryg99 at 2:57 PM on December 23, 2005