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**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:25 AM

Are Dowsing Rods Attracted to Disturbed Soil

One of the more-plausible explanations for dowsing is that the rods are somehow attracted to disturbed soil, perhaps because disturbed soil has slightly different magnetic properties than surrounding soil. To test this hypothesis, I went to a nearby landscaper’s yard where soils and gravels of different types were piled. Standing still next to a large pile of soil, the rods would not
point at it or away from it any more than they would point to any other direction. I tried this on several sides of the pile, and on several different soil and gravel piles, both while walking and standing still, and the only consistent result I obtained was that the rods tended to point away from the breeze

I then walked up and over the soil piles with the dowsing rods, and concluded that the rods tended to cross or diverge as I walked up the soil pile, but this was caused by the difficulty of keeping the rods level while walking up and down slopes. On the level tops that occurred on some piles the rods would not automatically cross in
any predictable manner, and behaved the same as they did on level ground

Conclusion

While dowsing rods do not appear to be affected by the presence of large amounts of disturbed soil, they do make passable weathervanes.

**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:29 AM

Are Dowsing Rods Attracted to Human Bodies or Coffins

Since I could not get the dowsing rods to become attracted to disturbed soil, I then experimented with trying to get them to be attracted to coffins and bodies. I briefly considered testing this by obtaining a pig carcass and burying it six feet deep in a wooden box, but abandoned this effort on account of the time, expense, and damage it would do to our lawn. Furthermore, some dowsers
would object to using a pig carcass, since dowsing seems to only find human remains, as discussed above. While I possess neither coffin nor corpse, we do own a nice old wooden chest with metal hardware, and I have a perfectly-alive wife. While I could not get my wife to get in the box to test my theory because of concerns that it would damage the chest, she was willing to lie on the floor while I dowsed over and around her and the box. In both cases, the dowsing rods were not attracted to either my wife or the chest when I held the rods still, and when I walked around them or passed the rods over them they would only cross when I intentionally made them as discussed above

Conclusion

Dowsing rods do not appear to be attracted to coffin-like boxes or humans lying on the ground, possibly because they do not have a powerful magnetic field. This is strong evidence that dowsers cannot detect buried humans or coffins, although it is not proof, since the manifestations of magnetic fields are likely to be different underground than on the surface.

**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:32 AM

Do Dowsing Rods Cross when Exposed to Magnetic Fields

The fundamental premise of the most-plausible explanation for dowsing is that exposure to changes in a magnetic field cause the rods to cross. Experiments with refrigerator magnets indicated, not surprisingly, that the wire coat hangers were attracted to the small magnets when they were held less than an inch from them. However, this experiment with small magnets is not the same as a large, six-foot long anomaly such as a coffin, which would have a much larger, but
relatively weaker, magnetic field radiating around it. Foulkes (1971)demonstrated that dowsers are incapable of locating a buried electrically-magnetized cable, even one that produced a magnetic field far stronger than would be expected in nature.

A simpler experiment, one that most of you probably did in middle school science class, is to use a bar magnet and iron filings. Put a bar magnet (representing a highly-magnetic coffin) flat on a
table. Elevate a flat piece of glass a few inches above it (representing the ground) and sprinkle iron filings (representing the dowsing rods) on the glass. You will notice something very interesting and important: the elongated iron filings line up parallel with each other, curving in graceful arcs from one magnetic pole to the other. They do not cross each other when exposed to the magnetic field. If a coffin or burial or patch of disturbed earth was strong enough to affect dowsing rods (a dubious premise, given the earlier experiments), the rods will always run parallel with each other and never cross

An even simpler experiment is to observe a hand compass. A hand compass is far more sensitive to magnetic fields than dowsing rods; a hand compass will reliably detect the subtle magnetic field emanating from the earth’s core, while dowsing rods will not. However simple experiments with a hand compass in a cemetery reveals that hand compasses do not point at graves, even modern ones with metal caskets

Conclusion

The premise that dowsing rods cross when exposed to a large magnetic field created by a subsurface anomaly runs contrary to basic scientific understanding of magnetic fields, and does not hold up under simple experiment

From the experiments above, it appears that dowsing for burials is based on premises that do not appear to hold up under simple household trials. Perhaps I was not dowsing in the correct manner maybe I should have spread my elbows out instead of keeping them in, or I should have used brass rods, or I should have meditated on what I wanted to find, or I should have held a penny in
my mouth, etc., etc., etc. It may be that my skepticism of dowsing has prevented it from working this is referred to as the “Tinkerbell Principle” – if you don’t believe in it, it doesn’t exist However true scientific instruments work whether you believe in them or not; a metal detector will find metal regardless of the beliefs of the operator, a radiograph will show bones whether you believe in x-rays or not. Belief in the efficacy of a system should not be required for the system to be effective.

**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:38 AM

Conclusion: The Perils and Limitations of Dowsing for Graves

Earlier researchers have demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that water dowsing does not work. As for grave dowsing, simple household experiments demonstrate that the fundamental principles of grave dowsing are probably incorrect. On the basis of the results from actual sites in Iowa, dowsing is, at best, only as good as common sense intuition at finding graves. One could
speculate that dowsing is worse than common sense intuition, since I suspect that most cemetery caretakers have a pretty good sense of where graves are and could do better than the dowsers tested here, but I have no way of quantifying this suspicion

Having met numerous dowsers I can assure you that none of them are intentionally deceptive; to the contrary, dowsers are a very earnest group, providing what seems to be a vital service to people who desperately need answers. The problem is that the answers provided by dowsing are

very often wrong, and this can lead to legal and financial problems for everyone involved. If a burial is missed by dowsing and the plot is sold to a family that then damages the existing grave while digging a new one, the cemetery officials who approved the sale on the basis of dowsing could be held liable by either family. What legal defense does the cemetery caretaker have when there is no scientific basis for dowsing? In addition to the legal and financial trouble, caretakers need to be aware of the emotional pain this could cause both families, as well as the public embarrassment the caretakers would be subjected to when it is revealed that folk superstitions such as dowsing were used to determine the location of graves

My final recommendation is for cemetery caretakers to stop using dowsing. I realize that this seems extreme, but working with incorrect information is worse than working with no information. The evidence that dowsing does not work is strong enough that any conclusions derived from dowsing are extremely suspect, and use of dowsing results in cemetery planning could put your organization at risk. Your best strategy is to use the alternative methods described in the companion report

Locating Unmarked Cemetery Burials (Whittaker 2005), and to make it very clear in all transactions that there is a possibility that unmarked graves exist in parts of the cemetery that lack grave markers.

Some day geophysical technologies will improve in cost and effectiveness and make dowsing a quaint relic of the past, in the same way modern medicine replaced the quack cure-alls of the early twentieth century. Until then, it is better to avoid simplistic pseudo-science that provides quick answers that at best do not help, and at worst can harm; cemeteries, and their caretakers deserve better.

**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:46 AM

References Cited

Barrett, William, and Theodore Besterman

2004[1926]

The Divining Rod: An Experimental And Psychological Investigation. Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish ,

Montana.
Carpenter, William B.
1852 On the Influence of Suggestion in Modifying and Directing Muscular Movement, Independently of Volition.
Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 1852

. (1)147-153.

Carroll, Robert T.
2003

The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions

Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey.
DeVore, Steven L.
1993

Quest for the Latter-Day Saints at Garden Grove: Archeological Reconnaissance at 13DT110. National Park

Service, Denver, Colorado. Submitted to Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail Coordinator, Division of
Planning and Compliance, Rocky Mountain Regional Office National Park Service.
2003

Geophysical Investigations of Alleged Historic Mormon Cemetery Near Montrose in Lee County, Iowa. United

States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Lincoln, Nebraska
Enright, James T.
1995 Water Dowsing: the Scheunen Experiments.

Naturwissenschaften 82(8):360-369.

1996 Dowsers Lost in a Barn.

Naturwissenschaften 83(6):275-277.

Feder, Kenneth L.
1998 Frauds, Mysteries and Myths. Third Edition Mayfield, Mountain View, California.

**blackmoon** · 2010-03-27, 12:52 AM

thanks my brother blakmoon

Thank you too much for your reply ...................dear brother

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Grave Dowsing Reconsidered

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