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© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
Water dowsing seems to find water fairly often. Does this mean that dowsing is valid? No. It means that there is a lot of water down there. People who drill for water without dowsing find water just as often. The people who drilled a well for my parents found water, but it was too shallow (deeper water is safer from disease and mud). They drilled on deeper and found more water. They continued drilling and found a third pocket of water, which apparently was just right (Baby Bear water).
A dowser often uses a forked stick, which is held by the forks. A strong mysterious force seems to pull the other end down, and the dowser claims that water is below. This mysterious force is so strong that the dowser is powerless to resist it. In fact, resisting can tear the skin of the dowser's hands. Amazing, isn't it? What is this mysterious force? It is just the dowser's subconscious. A very small amount of force, probably unnoticed by the dowser, produces a huge amount of torque. You can demonstrate this (but please don't tear your skin) by consciously applying a small amount of force to a similar forked stick. You will find that your grip cannot stop the downturning of the stick.
Another popular dowsing tool is a wire that is free to rotate and point in any direction, and supposedly point toward water. This is much like a ouija board, which is also controlled by your subconscious. A little pendulum is similar.
Since dowsing is controlled by the subconscious, dowsers probably believe in the validity of dowsing. It is not an intentional scam. Some may actually be experienced enough to recognize geologic clues to finding water, and maybe have a slightly better success rate than chance. That is not likely, though.
Incidentally, sometimes dowsers will claim that they have found several "underground rivers" under your property. There are underground rivers in the world. But they are extremely rare. It is very very unlikely, that a dowser has found one underground river in an entire lifetime, let alone several in one small area.