what is dowsing??

Dowsing is used all over the world, by all types of people for many different reasons.   But the one element that remains the same is "Detection".   A Dowser (a person who uses the rods, sticks etc) uses them to detect anything from water, oil, buried metal to even buried bodies.   Although nobody can offer a scientific explanation as to how and why it works, it does, time and time again.  Dowsers nine times out of ten produce what they are looking for.   Described as a form of divination, dowsing has been around for thousands of years, initially seen as a person with a forked stick stomping down a field.  Some people still choose the stick method, but others use rods or pendulums.   When using the stick it is believed to dip ground wards when it has found something.   When using rods, they swing towards each other until they cross.

More info ??

Almost anything can be used as a dowsing tool. Many people like to use pendulums but most prefer some form of dowsing rod. Traditional The most traditional type of dowsing rod, and the one most people are probably familiar with, is the Y-shaped twig. The dowser holds the twig by the two branches of the Y with the stem pointing forwards. When the target is located the twig will vibrate or twitch, sometimes forcefully. Traditional Y-shaped dowsing rods were cut from hazel, a tree with reputed magical properties. Today they are available to buy in many different materials. Modern Another common form of dowsing rod is the pair of L-Rods (also called angle-rods) - these are the sort most often found in a commercial dowsing kit. In this case two rods are used, one in each hand. The small branch of the L is held lightly in the hand, the longer stems facing forwards in parallel. As the dowser approaches the target the rods will begin to turn towards each other and possibly even cross. If both rods turn the same way then this can be a direction indicator. L-shaped dowsing rods are normally made from metal. You can buy rods that have a special "collar" around the short stem which allows the rod to turn freely in the dowser's hands. A lesser known dowsing rod is the Hartmann rod. This is a single piece of metal twisted at the centre to provide an indicator. The rod is held upright with one finger at each end. It is reportedly more sensitive than other devices. 

 Historical Background [Dowsing rods] be meer toys to mock Apes, and have no commendable device [purpose]. - Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584) Dowsing, also known as rhabdomancy, divining, water witching, or doodlebugging, is an old practice of finding water or minerals by the means of a dowsing rod. A dowsing rod is traditionally a forked stick which is held firmly in one's hands in a way that allows the rod to swing up or down at the slightest impulse, supposedly indicating the presence of the sought-after material. The mechanism behind the detection is believed to depend on energy fields hitherto unknown to science. The hypothesis is that these energy fields are emitted by all objects at different frequencies and intensities. The origin of the practice is not clear, but the earliest sign of its usage dates from a 4500-5000 year old grave inscription in Brittany. The first time a dowsing rod was described in the literature was in a 1540 publication on mining, De re Metallica by Georgius Agricola. Several academic theses on the subject followed in the subsequent centuries, among which J. H. Martius' De Virgula Divinatrice is one of the most famous. Though, as the above quote suggests, the questionable nature of the phenomenon arose suspicion early on. Ever since, there has been a struggle between skeptics and believers, each party unable to persuade the other by either reasoning or experiments. Numerous times, dowsing has been tested scientifically without producing any significant positive results. However, testing under less strict circumstances seems to mainly produce positive results, suggesting there is indeed something extraordinary going on after all. There have been many attempts to explain the purported phenomenon, ranging from obscure field theories and mathematical monstrosities to prosaic dittos of mere psychological nature. Mainstream science chose viewpoint a long time ago, but the general public doesn't seem to comply. Therefore, the case is not yet closed and the question is open for you to investigate. While reading, it is useful to keep in mind the following question: How can this claim be tested in a way that excludes all confounding variables and still measures the variable of interest?

 Finding Water or any Other Material Just as there are so-called panaceas (cure-alls) in alternative medicine, the dowsing rod has infinitely many uses. Just tell it, or perhaps the mind, what to look for, and it will obey. Hidden treasures, mineral resources, water, oil, prey, etc. can all be found by dowsing, according to the initiated. The traditional dowser who claims to be successful in finding flowing water by dowsing might just be overlooking a few important facts. First, ground water within reasonable drilling depth is present almost everywhere. Well, the dowser argues, the art is to find the little subterranean streams where the water won't be standing still. The key here is that if there is underground water, originally moving or not, this will start to flow in the direction of the drilling hole, just as it eventually does when one digs a hole in the sand on a beach. The dowser then fools himself to believe that he actually found an underground stream. Now it's time for him to go home and feel he did something great. I'd suggest that the dowser be asked to find a place where there is no water! If flowing water alone causes these obscure fields, then what about rivers? Does the field grow in intensity with the size and speed of the streaming water masses? If so, traveling by boat on a river must be dangerous (especially against the current), not to speak about going in a speed boat or flying in an aircraft above the water. Many dowsers seem to be very confident when they boast their abilities to identify hidden materials. With the powerful tools dowsers possess, would they be willing to serve humanity in a few extremely well-needed tasks such as in the removal of mines in post-war areas? The need is immense and likewise are the potential earnings and fame. Perhaps the confidence in the method is not so strong after all? For humanitarian reasons, I hope this will never be put to a test, but the question is well worth asking. Map Dowsing, Natural Resources, and Missing People Dowsers readily makes use of a map in their search for wonders. The most popular tool for map dowsing is the pendulum (see below), leaving nothing unseen. All one needs to do is to swing the pendulum above the map and ask the right questions. Everything can be found: oil, minerals, water, lost possessions, kidnapped people, etc. If this is so, why do so many dowsers spend time looking for water when there are more interesting things lying around untouched, such as gold, oil, dropped wallets, etc.? And why are dowsers so eager to share their powerful methods with others if it can cost them a gold mine?

 Noxious Energy Fields and Medical UsesDowsing rods are said to be efficient tools in detecting auras, the imagined multi-layered energy field surrounding every living creature. The aura is a reflection of the beings physical and mental health. Not only does the aura change when the creature's well-being changes, the well-being itself can be changed by manipulating the aura! (Direct aura balancing as a healing form is beyond the scope of this article.) Since the aura is believed to diminish when exposed to E-rays, it is desirable to avoid spots with high intensity. Many kinds of diseases, cancer and chronic fatigue being favorite examples, are blamed on prolonged E-ray exposure. Hence the dowsers' strong recommendations that no beds or other furniture of long-time use be placed over Curry or Hartmann crosses. For example, screaming babies have been moved away from crosses, with claimed positive results. Of course, all babies like being attended to when screaming, but let's hope the experimenters took that into account. Similar experiments have been conducted at hospitals, where patients who were moved away from the noxious crosses recuperated quickly. I think the reader can see the potential powers dowsers could aquire, and to a certain extent have aquired already, by claiming to possess such simple remedies and preventions for various afflictions. The Swedish architect Dick Sjöberg, founder of the Institute for Biophysical Construction (Institutet för byggbiofysik), makes big business by claiming to know how houses and offices should be built in order to minimize E-ray exposure and thereby illnesses and absence from work. He also claims to have invented a scientific instrument that measures E-rays. Though, "invented" might be the wrong word, as the instrument is a regular radio transmitter emitting waves of variable frequency. It is used together with a dowsing rod to see at which freqencies the E-rays are cancelled by destructive interference. Sadly, the apparatus is no more scientific than the dowsing rod itself, as the detection system is totally dependent on the dowsing rod. Sjöberg also claims that E-rays can be responsible for divorces, car accidents, runaway horses, stopped clocks, etc. Presently, he is trying to make the car industry aware of every car's need for his (?) little frequency neutralizer, which efficiently cancels out the sleep-inducing varying Curry fields at speeds around 90 km/h. The little device is called ELMAG MK 75 and is sold for 1280 SEK (ca 160 USD). It seems to me as if Sjöberg is mixing apples with pears as he tries to cancel out an oscillating field of unknown character (i.e. the E-rays) with regular electromagnetic waves. This confusion of mixing physical quantities arbitrarily is in principle comparable to cancelling sound waves by the use of radio waves, or maybe even cancelling a tsunami with a trumpet. Good luck!