Editing Dowsing (section)

{{Short description|Pseudoscientific attempts to locate underground objects}}
{{About|the divination method}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2022}}
[[Image:18th century dowser.jpg|thumb|right|A dowser, from an 18th-century French book about superstitions]]

'''Dowsing''' is a type of [[divination]] employed in attempts to locate [[ground water]], buried metals or [[ore]]s, gemstones, [[Petroleum|oil]], claimed radiations ([[radiesthesia]]),<ref name="OhhXf">As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in Germany ''alone'' can generate a conservatively-estimated annual revenue of more than 100 million DM (US$50 million)". [http://www.gwup.org/psitest/ ''GWUP-Psi-Tests 2004: Keine Million Dollar für PSI-Fähigkeiten''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410205142/http://www.gwup.org/psitest/ |date=April 10, 2005}} (in German) and [http://www.phact.org/e/z/kassel.htm English version] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814114138/http://www.phact.org/e/z/kassel.htm |date=August 14, 2007}}.</ref> [[Grave (burial)|gravesites]],<ref name="Sxu9Y">{{cite news|last1=Pellwel|first1=Calvin E|title=What Is Dowsing? - The Ancient Practice For Treasure Hunting|url=https://straightforwardguidance.com/what-is-dowsing/|date=May 19, 2022|access-date=June 19, 2022|archive-date=March 26, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326152055/https://straightforwardguidance.com/what-is-dowsing/|url-status=live}}</ref> malign "earth vibrations"<ref name="rFVBG">{{Cite web |date=2015-08-20 |title=Bad vibrations: what's the evidence for geopathic stress? |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/aug/20/bad-vibrations-whats-the-evidence-for-geopathic-stress |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326151937/https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/aug/20/bad-vibrations-whats-the-evidence-for-geopathic-stress |url-status=live }}</ref> and many other objects and materials without the use of a [[Scientific instrument|scientific apparatus]]. It is also known as '''divining''' (especially in '''water divining'''),<ref name="inglis245"/> '''doodlebugging'''<ref name="JUTfP">{{cite web |url=http://www.readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Category:Dowsing,_Doodlebugging,_and_Water_Witching |title=Dowsing, Doodlebugging, and Water Witching |work=Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers Wiki |access-date=11 October 2011 |archive-date=12 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012224700/http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Category:Dowsing%2C_Doodlebugging%2C_and_Water_Witching |url-status=live }}</ref> (particularly in the United States, in searching for [[petroleum]] or [[treasure]])<ref name="hGZYC">{{Cite journal |journal=Keystone Folklore Quarterly |last=Lyman |first=Thomas G. |title=Water Dowsing as a Surviving Folk Tradition |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000108623236&seq=165 |volume=12 |page=137 |date=1967 |via=[[HathiTrust]] |access-date=2022-06-25 |archive-date=2023-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311055757/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000108623236&seq=165 |url-status=live }}</ref> or '''water finding''', or '''water witching''' (in the United States).

A Y-shaped twig or rod, or two L-shaped ones, called '''dowsing rods''' or '''divining rods''' are normally used, and the motion of these are said to reveal the location of the target material. The motion of such dowsing devices is generally attributed to random movement, or to the [[ideomotor phenomenon]],<ref name="Zusne 1989">Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. pp. 105–110. {{ISBN|978-0-805-80507-9}}</ref><ref name="Novella 2002">Novella, Steve; Deangelis, Perry. (2002). ''Dowsing''. In [[Michael Shermer]]. ''The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience''. ABC-CLIO. pp. 93–94. {{ISBN|1-57607-654-7}} "Despite widespread belief, careful investigation has demonstrated that the technique of dowsing simply does not work. No researcher has been able to prove under controlled conditions that dowsing has any genuine divining power... A more likely explanation for the movement of a dowser's focus is the ideomotor effect, which entails involuntary and unconscious motor behavior."</ref><ref name="a5FaR">Lawson, T. J; Crane, L. L. (2014). ''Dowsing Rods Designed to Sharpen Critical Thinking and Understanding of Ideomotor Action''. ''[[Teaching of Psychology (journal)|Teaching of Psychology]]'' 41 (1): 52–56.</ref> a psychological response where a subject makes motions unconsciously.

The [[scientific evidence]] shows that dowsing is no more effective than [[random chance]].<ref name="Vogt1979">{{cite book |last=Vogt |first=Evon Z. |author2=Ray Hyman |author-link2=Ray Hyman |title=Water Witching U.S.A. |publisher=Chicago University Press |location=Chicago |year=1979 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-226-86297-2}} via {{cite book |last=Hines |first=Terence |title=Pseudoscience and the Paranormal |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |year=2003 |edition=Second |page=420 |isbn=978-1-57392-979-0}}</ref><ref name="D55qx">[[Brian Regal|Regal, Brian]]. (2009). ''Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia''. Greenwood Press. pp. 55–57. {{ISBN|978-0-313-35507-3}}</ref> It is therefore regarded as a [[pseudoscience]].