Dowsing and Divining Rods
I want to preface this by saying that I’ve used dowsing rods multiple times and own a pair of 97% copper ones myself. It’s a practice I embraced early on in my search of all things paranormal. However, my success rate in using them has been less than stellar. In my experience and time researching and learning about them, I’ve found that the history of dowsing is far more interesting than the practice itself.
Dowsing has always seemed to have a bit of a safe reputation. General thoughts have never been far-right into “snake-oil” territory nor have they been accepted as hard fact. It seems the practice has straddled healthy skepticism and possibility fairly well.
Dowsing has been around for a long, long time. The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned it in the 5th century and the Chinese were experimenting with it 3,600 years ago.
It was used as a tool throughout Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries by the common folk as a means to look for water. Apparently, the success rate was high enough that the Catholic Church banned it proclaiming it to be a form of divination. Even Martin Luther (founder of Lutheranism) condemned it in 1518 saying it broke the first commandment.
Up into the 1600’s, mainly in Germania, divining was considered to be occultist, superstitious and in more religious circles, even satanist. In fact, it was even banned by the Inquisition as a tool to look for heretics and criminals (I imagine religious fundamentalists were probably at pains with that decision).
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, dowsing had expanded into mining. Areas like: Cornwall, Devonshire, Cumbria and Wales used dowsing as a tool in hopes it would lead to underground discoveries of ore, mostly copper and silver. Again, it’s anyone’s guess if its use was actually successful, but it must have been somewhat in order to have the practice keep its staying power.
The term ‘dowsing’ is somewhat new given the timeline. In Latin, the practice was referred to as, Virgula Divina (Rod Divine). In Germanic, it was called Glück-Rüt (Luck Rod). Eventually, the Latin was dropped. Even the original Glück-Rüt had morphed into Schlag-Ruthe (Striking Rod).
During the later decades in the 16th century, the Germanic term started to fall out of use and a Cornish expression came into popularity; ‘duschen’ took on a life of its own as its use spread. A few decades later and with the help of colloquialism, the world had adopted dowsing and it’s remained as such.
So, we know dowsing can be used to find water and minerals underground, even unmarked graves. Eventually, divining rods were used in paranormal circles with varying success, but why? How do divining rods work? To start, there is no scientific basis in dowsing. It’s typically thought of as a pseudo-science, a practice that’s akin to random chance.
An early explanation by William Pryce in his 1778 treatise, Mineralogia Cornubiensis states…
The corpuscles... that rise from the Minerals, entering the rod, determine it to bow down, in order to render it parallel to the vertical lines which the effluvia describe in their rise. In effect the Mineral particles seem to be emitted from the earth; now the Virgula [rod], being of a light porous wood, gives an easy passage to these particles, which are also very fine and subtle; the effluvia then driven forwards by those that follow them, and pressed at the same time by the atmosphere incumbent on them, are forced to enter the little interstices between the fibres of the wood, and by that effort they oblige it to incline, or dip down perpendicularly, to become parallel with the little columns which those vapours form in their rise.
There has never been a satisfactory explanation about why dowsing is supposed to work. Early attempts said that the rod was physically altered or manipulated by emanations from the ore or water. With water, hydrogen bonding and covalence do give off miniscule hydrostatic charges, but certainly not strong enough to have an effect on something 6’-12’ away. And underground water is typically going to be found in an entire area, not in small pockets. So, any dowser can get lucky through chance. With hidden graves, perhaps it is the spirit that’s attached to the body…who knows. One early explanation offered up something called cryptothesia (basically ESP). And if minerals and ore gave off ‘emanations’ that effected other [organic] substances, what about the matrix that they’re encased in? If a ‘stable’ substance is emanating something, by definition, it’s also being depleted. Dowsing has even been used in Vietnam by soldiers looking for weapons caches and tunnels.
Also known as water-witching, divining, doodle-bugging or willow-witching, the current habit is thought to be the result of something called the ideomotor phenomenon. Basically, the practitioner while walking around is subject to unconscious movements in their arms and hands. This also holds true for ghost hunters who are sitting still looking to commune with spirits. There is an unconscious bias to positively affect the rods towards what one is looking for.
And since dowsing rods are basically extensions of one’s arms, miniscule movements (muscle) have a greater effect. Combine this with walking over undulating terrain, confirmation bias and sensory cues, and bingo…ideomotor effect! Even the Society of Psychical Research has adopted this theory.
When dowsing, one is going to want to have a Y-shaped branch and hold it by the fork. Any vestigial branches should be snapped off. Peeling the bark off may or may not help. Typically, willow or hazel branches are used for their pliability. While holding the branch, preferable one that is ~19” (foot and a half), point the end of the stick upwards at a 40°-45° angle to the ground. Slowly walk around the area and note of any movement in the stick. If there’s buried ore, water or dead people, the end of the branch will sharply bend downwards.
Modern dowsing uses two L-shaped rods that are usually metal (bronze or copper). When the practitioner encounters something, the rods can be manipulated by crossing or even pointing in the same direction. But the premise of the ideomotor effect still holds no matter what style one uses.
I’m convinced that dowsing has maintained its innocent and even innocuous reputation due to their simplicity and that no Hollywood director has tried to make them into direct communication tools for the devil. Plus, they’re just not as sexy as Ouija boards and they lack the romanticism of Victorian age vampires.
As for myself, of all the times I have used dowsing rods for paranormal reasons, I’ve only had one experience that REALLY left me scratching my head and others in the room, on the verge of tears. I was co-leading an overnight paranormal investigation at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. It was late, probably around 1:00 am and I was in ‘Paul’s Room’ with a mother, her two daughters and one other separate individual. We all took turns using the wands I had brought. But it wasn’t until the mom’s eldest daughter (maybe 12 years old) did anyone in the room receive anything close to direct communication.
She started by asking some common-sense questions such as, “Am I talking to Paul?” “Can you point to our guide?” “Can you make the wands cross?” But when she asked, “Is Sarah here?” Then the wands crossed almost immediately. The single guy and I knew nothing of course. Then she asked to point the wands towards her mother, myself and the door. The wands obligated. Sarah was her dead older sister who died in a automobile crash a few years prior. In short, we used crossed wands as ‘yes,’ and opposite wands as ‘no.’ The next 15 minutes were very emotionally charged for everyone in the room. At one point, two people opened the door, observed us for a few seconds and left, probably feeling they were disturbing something important.
At the end of that evening while I was walking back to my room (I lived in the dorms on property), I couldn’t decide if what I witnessed was real, direct communication with this girl’s dead sister, or if she was unintentionally affecting the wands in the way she wanted. She knew enough by way of my explanations of static electricity and metal and that spirits, being energy, could manipulate these metal rods to their choosing. Either way, the belief that she was actually talking with Sarah was real. The tears from her younger sister and herself were real. From what I remember, mom was holding it together pretty well. The single guy was absolutely dead quiet, barely even moving.
I can’t say if what I witnessed was legitimate. But considering those women left for the night back to their room, satisfied that the events were real and that their sibling was doing OK, does it matter?
So while there’s absolutely no rational science behind dowsing, I believe it’s a safe activity where the user can take away from it anything they want. Whether that be finding underground springs, talking with a spirit trapped in a house, finding iron or copper deposits interspersed in bedrock…it doesn’t matter. Because confirmational bias will always validate the findings.
https://www.hobbyfarms.com/water-dowsing-works-dont-know-why
https://quora.com/how-does-a-dowsing-rod-work
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/dowsing
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-dowsing#science
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/entertainment-general/2012/02/historical_treasures_dowsing_r.html