Editing Dowsing (section)

==History==
===Early divination and religion===
[[File:Georgius Agricola Erzsucher.jpg|thumb|right|Dowsing for metal ore, from 1556 "''[[De re metallica]] libri XII''" book]]
[[File:Divining Rod.jpg|thumb|Use of a divining Rod observed in Great Britain in the late 18th century]]
[[File:Curious Myths p 81 rod.jpg|thumb|right|An illustration of a divining rod]]
Dowsing originated in ancient times, when it was treated as a form of [[divination]]. The [[Catholic Church]], however, banned the practice completely.<ref name="inglis246">Inglis (1986) pp. 246–247.</ref>

Reformer [[Martin Luther]] perpetuated the Catholic ban, in 1518 listing divining for metals as an act that broke the [[I am the Lord your God|first commandment]] (i.e., as [[occultism]]).<ref name="inglis246"/><ref name="ogD4W">''Decem praecepta Wittenbergensi populo praedicta'', Martin Luther</ref>

Old texts about searching for water do not mention using the divining twig, and the first account of this practice was in 1568.<ref name="spooky">{{cite web |last=Hill |first=Sharon A. |author-link=Sharon A. Hill|title=Witching for water |url=http://spookygeology.com/witching-for-water/ |website=Spooky Geology |date=19 March 2017 |access-date=2017-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320072306/http://spookygeology.com/witching-for-water/ |archive-date=2017-03-20}}</ref><ref name="15-credibility">{{cite podcast |url = http://doubtfulnews.com/2017/03/15-credibility-st-13-some-particular-place-to-go/ |title = 15 Credibility Street #13 |website = Doubtful News |host = [[Sharon A. Hill]] |date = 2017-03-26 |access-date = 2017-04-07}}</ref>
[[William F. Barrett|Sir William F. Barrett]] wrote in his 1911 book ''Psychical Research'' that:
{{Blockquote|...in a recent admirable Life of St. Teresa of Spain, the following incident is narrated: Teresa in 1568 was offered the site for a convent to which there was only one objection, there was no water supply; happily, a Friar Antonio came up with a twig in his hand, stopped at a certain spot and appeared to be making the sign of the cross; but Teresa says, "Really I cannot be sure if it were the sign he made, at any rate he made some movement with the twig and then he said, ' Dig just here '; they dug, and lo ! a plentiful fount of water gushed forth, excellent for 'drinking, copious for washing, and it never ran dry.' " As the writer of this Life remarks: "Teresa, not having heard of dowsing, has no explanation for this event", and regarded it as a miracle. This, I believe, is the first historical reference to dowsing for water.<ref name="Barrett_Psychical Research_p171">{{cite book |last1=Barrett |first1=William |title=Psychical Research |date=1911 |publisher=Henry Holt & Co. (N.Y.), Williams and Norgate (London) |location=New York and London |page=171 |url=https://archive.org/stream/psychicalresear00barr#page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=2 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="LaCEG">{{cite book |last1=of Avila, Saint |first1=Teresa of |title=The book of the foundations of S. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of our Lady of Carmel, with the visitation of nunneries, the rule and constitutions |date=1573 |publisher=London, Baker |location=University of Toronto – Robarts Library |page=116 |url=https://archive.org/stream/bookoffoundation00tereuoft#page/116/mode/2up/search/water |access-date=14 February 2018}}</ref>}}

In 1662, divining with rods was declared to be "[[Superstition|superstitious]], or rather [[satan]]ic" by a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]], [[Gaspar Schott]], though he later noted that he was not sure that the [[devil]] was always responsible for the movement of the rod.<ref name="IrMOB">[[Michel Eugène Chevreul]], ''De La Baguette Divinatoire du pendule dit explorateur at des table tournants au point de vue de l'histoire, de la critique, and de la méthode expérimentale'', Paris, 1854. "''Le père Gaspard Schott (jés.) considère l'usage de la baguette comme superstitieux ou plutôt diabolique, mais des renseignements qui lui furent donnés plus tard par des hommes qu'il considérait comme religieux et probe, lui firent dire dans une notation à ce passage, qu'il ne voudrait pas assurer que le demon fait toujours ''tourner'' la baguette.''" (''Physica Curiosa'', 1662, lib. XII, cap. IV, pag. 1527). See [https://books.google.com/books?id=kzsAAAAAQAAJ facsimile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905184129/https://books.google.com/books?id=kzsAAAAAQAAJ |date=2023-09-05 }} on [[Google Books]]</ref> In southern France in the 17th century, it was used to track criminals and [[heresy|heretics]]. Its abuse led to a decree of the [[inquisition]] in 1701, forbidding its employment for purposes of justice.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Divining-rod |volume=8 |pages=333–334}}</ref>

An [[epigram]] by Samuel Sheppard, from ''Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick'' (1651) runs thus:

{{poemquote|title=''Virgula divina''
|Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod,
Gather'd with Vowes and Sacrifice,
And (borne about) will strangely nod
To hidden Treasure where it lies;
Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine,
For to the Wealthiest (ever) they incline.}}

===Modern dowsing===
Dowsing practices used in an attempt to locate [[metal]]s are still performed much like they were during the 16th century.<ref name="jf6Of">{{Cite web |url=http://archive.org/details/curiousmythsofmi00bariuoft |title=Curious myths of the Middle Ages |first=S. (Sabine) |last=Baring-Gould |date=May 26, 1876 |publisher=London, Rivingtons |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The 1550 edition of [[Sebastian Münster]]'s ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]'' contains a [[woodcut]] of a dowser with forked rod in hand walking over a cutaway image of a mining operation. The rod is labeled in Latin and German; "{{Lang|la|Virgula Divina}} ''–'' {{Lang|de|Glück-Rüt}}" ('Rod Divine, Luck-Rod'), but there is no text accompanying the woodcut. By 1556, [[Georgius Agricola]]'s treatment of mining and [[smelting]] of [[ore]], ''[[De Re Metallica]]'', included a detailed description of dowsing for metal ore.<ref name="QzIoT">William Barrett and [[Theodore Besterman]]. ''The Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation.'' (1926) Kessinger Publishing, 2004: p. 7</ref>

{{Blockquote|...There are many great contentions between miners concerning the forked twig, for some say that it is of the greatest use in discovering veins, and others deny it. ... All alike grasp the forks of the twig with their hands, clenching their fists, it being necessary that the clenched fingers should be held toward the sky in order that the twig should be raised at that end where the two branches meet. Then they wander hither and thither at random through mountainous regions. It is said that the moment they place their feet on a vein the twig immediately turns and twists, and so by its action discloses the vein; when they move their feet again and go away from that spot the twig becomes once more immobile. ...<ref name="2PIKl">{{cite book|last1=Agricola|first1=Georgius|title=De Re Metallica |date=1556 |location=Basel |pages=38ff |edition=tr. Herbert Hoover, 1950, Dover Publications, New York |url=https://archive.org/stream/deremetallica50agri#page/38/mode/2up |access-date=11 May 2018}}</ref>}}

In the 16th century, German deep mining technology was in enormous demand all over Europe. [[Mining in Cornwall and Devon#Early modern period|German miners]] were licensed to live and work in England;<ref name="qEKXa">{{Cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215 |title=Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape |access-date=2019-12-26 |archive-date=2020-08-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802132748/http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215 |url-status=live }}</ref> particularly in the [[Stannaries]] (tin mines) of [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]] and in [[Cumbria]]. In other parts of England, the technique was used in the royal mines for [[Calamine (mineral)|calamine]]. By 1638 German miners were recorded using the technique in silver mines in Wales.<ref name="JWG">{{cite book |last1=Gough|first1=John Weidhofft|title=The Mines of Mendip |date=1930 |publisher=Oxford University Press|oclc=163035417|page=6}}</ref>

The [[Middle Low German]] name for a forked stick (Y-rod) was {{Lang|gml|Schlag-Ruthe}}<ref name="oWZXw">{{cite web|title=Wiktionary entry for schlag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schlag|access-date=13 January 2018|archive-date=28 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128190531/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schlag|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="cTZej">{{cite web|title=Wiktionary entry for ruthe|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ruthe|access-date=13 January 2018|archive-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129004249/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ruthe|url-status=live}}</ref> ('striking rod').<ref name="Barrett_Psychical Research_p170_2">{{cite book |last1=Barrett|first1=William|title=Psychical Research|date=1911|publisher=Henry Holt & Co. (N.Y.), Williams and Norgate (London) |location=New York and London|page=170|url=https://archive.org/stream/psychicalresear00barr#page/n5/mode/2up|access-date=2 January 2018 |quote=Now, the colloquial German word for the rod was then ''schlag-ruthe'' or ''striking-rod''; this, translated into the Middle English became the ''duschan'' or striking rod, and finally "deusing or dowsing rod".}}</ref> This was translated in the sixteenth century Cornish dialect to {{Lang|enm|duschen}}<ref name="4EoeB">{{cite book |last1=Stratmann |first1=Francis |url=https://archive.org/details/middleenglishdic00stra |title=A Middle-English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1891 |pages=182 |quote=duschen, v., ? = M.L.G. duschen; =dweschen; strike, beat; dusched {pret.) Ar. & Mer. 5624; A. P. ii. 1538; dusched a doun ... hure fon Fer. 3068; see daschen, dusching, sb., tumbling; ... dinning and dusching of sinfulle PR. C. 7350. |access-date=15 January 2018}}</ref>{{Clarify|reason=Unclear what in the source refers to a 16th-century Cornish translation|date=July 2023}} ({{Lang|enm|duschan}} according to William Barrett<ref name="Barrett_Psychical Research_p170_2" />) ([[Middle English]], 'to strike, fall'<ref name="MyVtk">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Dowser and Dowsing |volume=8 |page=461}}</ref>). By the seventeenth century the English term ''dowsing'' was coming into common use.<ref name="Inglis"/>

In the lead-mining area of the [[Mendip Hills]] in [[Somerset]], England in the 17th century the natural philosopher [[Robert Boyle]], inspired by the writings of Agricola, watched a practitioner try to find "latent veins of metals". Boyle saw the hazel divining rod ({{Lang|la|virgula divinatoria}}) stoop in the hands of the diviner, who protested that he was not applying any force to the twig; Boyle accepted the man's genuine belief but himself remained unconvinced.<ref name="c2rlI">{{cite book |last1=Boyle |first1=Robert |year=1661 |title=Works |volume=One |publisher=[[Thomas Birch]] |pages=342–343 |edition=1743|chapter=On Unsucceeding Experiments}}</ref> Towards the end of the century, in 1691 the philosopher [[John Locke]], who was born in the English [[West Country]], used the term ''deusing-rod'' for the [[Old Latin]] name {{Lang|la|virgula divina}}.<ref name="eMgCy">{{cite book|last1=Locke|first1=John|title=Some considerations of the consequences of lowering the interest, and raising the value of money. In a letter sent to a Member of Parliament, in the year 1691|year=1824|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EM1AAAAIAAJ&q=deusing-rod&pg=PA78|access-date=15 January 2018|quote=That four per cent. is not of the nature of the deusing-rod, or virgula divina, able to discover mines of gold and silver, I believe will easily be granted me.|archive-date=5 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905184130/https://books.google.com/books?id=_EM1AAAAIAAJ&q=deusing-rod&pg=PA78|url-status=live}}</ref> So, ''dowse'' is synonymous with ''strike'', hence the phrases: to ''dowse''/''strike'' a light,<ref name="4nCYf">{{cite book|last1=Skeat|first1=Walter W.|title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language|date=2005|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc.|location=Mineola, NY|page=181|isbn=978-0486317656|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeeGAAAAQBAJ&q=dowse+strike+a+light&pg=PA181|access-date=19 January 2018|quote=DOWSE (3), to extinguish. (E.) A cant term; '''dowse''' the glim, i.e. to extinguish the light. Probably only a particular use of '''dowse''' (1), to strike. Possibly suggested by ''dout'', to extinguish.|archive-date=5 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905184150/https://books.google.com/books?id=jeeGAAAAQBAJ&q=dowse+strike+a+light&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref> to ''dowse''/''strike'' a sail.<ref name="Barrett_Psychical Research_p170_3">{{cite book |last1=Barrett|first1=William|title=Psychical Research|date=1911|publisher=Henry Holt & Co. (N.Y.), Williams and Norgate (London) |location=New York and London |page=170 |url=https://archive.org/stream/psychicalresear00barr#page/n5/mode/2up|access-date=19 January 2018 |quote=To dowse or " strike " the sail is still a common expression in Cornwall}}</ref>

Dowsing was conducted in [[South Dakota]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to help [[homesteaders]], farmers and ranchers locate water wells on their property.<ref name="vfJcb">Grace Fairchild and Walker D. Wyman, Frontier Woman: The Life of a Woman Homesteader on the Dakota Frontier (River Falls: University of Wisconsin-River Falls Press, 1972), 50; Robert Amerson, From the Hidewood: Memories of a Dakota Neighborhood (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1996), 290–298.</ref>

The military have occasionally resorted to dowsing techniques. In the [[World War I|First World War]] [[Gallipoli campaign]], [[sapper]] Stephen Kelly, of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, Australian Expeditionary Force, became well known for finding water for the British troops.<ref>Inglis (1986), p.248</ref> In the late 1960s during the [[Vietnam War]], some [[United States Marine Corps|United States Marines]] used dowsing when locating weapons and tunnels.<ref name="washpost">FIX ME (could not access entire article) {{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1225953.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022114938/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1225953.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-10-22 |title= Divining Ways; Dowsers Use Ancient Art in Many Kinds of Searches |newspaper=Washington Post |date=1989-11-30 |author=Claudia Sandlin |quote=[Louis Matacia] worked as a Marine Corps analyst at Quantico during The Vietnam War teaching Marines how to dowse...}}</ref> As late as in 1986, when 31 soldiers were taken by an [[avalanche]] during an operation in the [[NATO]] drill Anchor Express in [[Vassdalen]], Norway, the [[Norwegian army]] attempted to locate soldiers buried in the avalanche using dowsing as a search method.<ref name="IQrrg">{{cite web |url=http://docplayer.me/3872115-Psevdovitenskap-og-etikk.html |title=Ønskekvist i snøskred – psevdovitenskap i praksis? |work=Pseudovitenskap og Etikk, published at Norwegian University of Science and Technology |page=45 |year=2005 |author=Rolf Manne |access-date=2018-01-25 |archive-date=2018-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126012657/http://docplayer.me/3872115-Psevdovitenskap-og-etikk.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dowsing is still used by some farmers and water engineers in Britain; however, many of the country's utilities have distanced themselves from the practice.<ref name="abcnews">[https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-farmers-hire-dowsers-find-water-22737878 California Farmers Hire Dowsers to Find Water] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302224746/https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-farmers-hire-dowsers-find-water-22737878 |date=2014-03-02}}, ABC news</ref><ref name="collectorsweekly">{{Cite web|url=https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-water-witch-of-wyoming-how-dowsing-works/|title=Our Dad, the Water Witch of Wyoming|first=Ben|last=Marks|website=Collectors Weekly|access-date=2021-05-26|archive-date=2021-04-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422013438/https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-water-witch-of-wyoming-how-dowsing-works/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bbc2017">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42070719 Scientist finds UK water companies use 'magic' to find leaks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614224121/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42070719 |date=2018-06-14 }}, BBC Oxford, 21 November 2017. (retrieved 21 November 2017)</ref><ref name="guardian2017">Matthew Weaver, [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/21/uk-water-firms-admit-using-divining-rods-to-find-leaks-and-pipes UK water firms admit using divining rods to find leaks and pipes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121230040/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/21/uk-water-firms-admit-using-divining-rods-to-find-leaks-and-pipes |date=2017-11-21 }}, ''The Guardian'', 21 November 2017.</ref><ref name="DmOKI">Camila Domonoske, [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/21/565746002/u-k-water-companies-sometimes-use-dowsing-rods-to-find-pipes U.K. Water Companies Sometimes Use Dowsing Rods To Find Pipes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122001433/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/21/565746002/u-k-water-companies-sometimes-use-dowsing-rods-to-find-pipes |date=2017-11-22 }}, The Two-Way, NPR, 21 November 2017.</ref>

===Postulated mechanisms===
Early attempts at an explanation of dowsing were based on the notion that the divining rod was physically affected by emanations from substances of interest. The following explanation is from [[William Pryce]]'s 1778 ''Mineralogia Cornubiensis'':

{{Blockquote|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.}}

A study towards the end of the 19th century concluded that the phenomenon was attributed to [[cryptesthesia]], where the practitioner makes unconscious observations of the terrain and involuntarily influences the movement of the rod.<ref name="ByO0k">{{cite journal|last1=Pass|first1=A.C.|last2=Tawney|first2=Edward. B.|title=The divining rod|journal=Proceedings|date=1876|volume=I|pages=60 et seq|publisher=[[Bristol Naturalists' Society]]}}</ref> Early investigations by members of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] endorsed this view.<ref name="inglis254">Inglis (1986), pp.254-5.</ref>

Committed [[Parapsychology|parapsychologist]] [[G. N. M. Tyrrell]] also believed that the action of the rod was caused by involuntary muscular movements and debunked the theory of external influences.<ref>Tyrrell, G. N. M. (1938). ''Science and Psychical Phenomena'', Methuen, London.</ref>

Dowsing over maps, prior to visiting the site, was also believed to work, hence some kind of [[clairvoyance]] was proposed. This was believed to act on the [[nervous system]], rather than on the muscles directly. These various mechanisms remain in contention among dowsers.<ref name="inglis254"/>

===Fraudulent security devices===
{{Expand section|with=See talk page for refs that can be used|talk=Explosive Detectors|date=February 2022}}
[[File:RandiNYC10.10.08ByLuigiNovi3.jpg|thumb|right|Skeptic [[James Randi]] at a lecture at [[Rockefeller University]], on October 10, 2008, holding a [[United States dollar|US$]]800 device advertised as a dowsing instrument]]

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries a number of dowsing-like devices were marketed for modern police and military use, primarily as explosive detectors, such as the [[ADE 651]], [[Sniffex]], and the [[GT200]].<ref name="justnet.org">[http://www.justnet.org/Lists/JUSTNET%20Resources/Attachments/440/moleeval_apr02.pdf Double-Blind Field Evaluation of the MOLE Programmable Detection System], [[Sandia National Laboratories]] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104173209/http://www.justnet.org/Lists/JUSTNET%20Resources/Attachments/440/moleeval_apr02.pdf |date=November 4, 2009}}</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html |title=Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless |first=Rod |last=Nordland |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 4, 2009 |access-date=February 15, 2017 |archive-date=October 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015141410/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In consequence of these frauds, in 1999 the United States National Institute of Justice issued advice against buying equipment based on dowsing.<ref name="ncjrs.gov">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/178913.pdf |title=Guide for the Selection of Commercial Explosives Detection Systems for Law Enforcement Applications (NIJ Guide 100-99), Chapter 7. Warning: Do Not Buy Bogus Explosives Detection Equipment |pages=71–72 |date=September 1999 |access-date=2022-02-25 |archive-date=2022-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227205831/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/178913.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>