The Science Behind Waterwitching
Back in the day when the only hydro geologist we knew was the local rainmaker who made the occasional animal sacrifices to the “gods” for rain when the drought came calling, my favorite sport was the infamous mud sliding. I used to pray for the rains just to get that smooth feeling of sliding down a slope, my behind smoothly moving my entire body gently down a slippery slope and rushing back in replay motion over and over again.
Mudsliding for those who don’t know what i’m talking about (Source)
Now the worst part of that was the beating i got when my brother and I got back home, all covered in dirt (like these Bukusu boys when back from a circumcision ceremony) without a care in the world. Needless to say Back then DIRT WAS BAD!! I enjoyed water for different reasons, many others wanted it for a different reason. My dad once told of how these rainmakers went looking for water when the dry season was upon them. Now later on when I became of the “Learned Friends” I later realized it was called “dowsing”. Look at the photo below and tell me if anyone of you has ever tried this after being told you could find water using this method.
Dowsing/Waterwitching(John Lund/Blend Images)
If you did not, you had a boring childhood 🙂
So second question how many actually found water or anything for that matter?? I would bet the 3 of you that said yes to my first question did not!
So what is dowsing? For one its a Music Band from Chicago, but that’s not what is important here. Dowsing in lame-man terms, is the art of finding hidden things. Also known as divining, water witching, doodle-bugging e.t.c. So dowsing, the dowsing that most of us are familiar with is water dowsing/ water witching, in which a person holds a Y-shaped branch (or two L-shaped wire rods), walks around in confusion, until they feel a pull on the branch, or the wire rods cross, at which point water is allegedly below.
HOW DOES DOWSING WORK?
The quick answer is that no one really knows – not even experienced dowsers. Some theorize there is a psychic connection established between the dowser and the sought object. If dowsing could be proven to work, what could the mechanism be? How could a twig or two metal wires know what the dowser is looking for (water, money, minerals, a lost item, etc.), much less where it could be found? The proposed mechanisms are as varied as the dowsers themselves. Some sources claim that strong psychic energy is radiated by the object and detected by the dowser; others believe that ghosts, spirits or mysterious Earth energies direct the dowser to their targets. I will leave it at that because I don’t want to look mad writing about “witchcrafty” things.
Albert Einstein, however, was convinced of the authenticity of dowsing. He said, “I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology, as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, however, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time.”
SO DOES DOWSING REALLY WORK?
Simple answer? NO!!
My professional advice, go look for a professional hydrogeologist if you need to find water.
If you want to know more you can read All About Dowsing , Dowsing: The Pseudoscience of Water Witching aaand because we also have first world problems American Society of Dowsers
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