My own test results

[jb7487]

I call myself an "open minded skeptic". I really WANT dowsing to work (who wouldn't?) but I don't really think it does. With that said I have been reading a lot of information out here about dowsing and trying to test the theories out myself.

I had been practicing with my homemade dowsing rods for a couple of weeks. I was getting pretty excited that they seemed to cross about 75% of the time when I passed them over a gold ring whose location was known to me. I was really trying hard to explain it and simply wasn't able to. There are lots of theories about why this happens so I won't go into the details.

Excited by my positive results, I was finally ready for the blind test. I took four plastic cups and put them on the counter (in the same place where I had done my other testing). I told my kids to hide the ring under one of the four cups while I was in another room. I then came out and tried to locate the ring. Well... you can imagine what happened. I couldn't find it at all. I tried about 20 times (until my kids were just begging to be allowed to quit and watch cartoons). I would have done better if I had been guessing. I scored WORSE than 25%.

So far my own experiments tell me that dowsing doesn't work. If it does work then it has to be through some psychic means. And if that's the case then I'd be better off honing my psychic abilities and throwing the rods in the garbage. After all, if the rods aren't the key to finding stuff then there is no sense in using them. So I'm still open minded about it but my own experiences tell me that it doesn't work for me. I know that the dowsing believers can produce all kinds of excuses for why it didn't work for me. But the bottom line is that it didn't work. Period.

 

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[ClonedSIM]

Excellent job, jb, and excellent response, SWR.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hi JB,

There could be many reasons why your experiment failed. I am by no means an expert on dowsing, however I do have success using dowsing rods to find what I am looking for. Some days I have more success than others. Why that is, could be attributed to many factors, usually mental, but could also be physical, such as some kind of electrical interference, etc. Practice is the key as well as learning the proper technique. I guess I was fortunate that my first practice sessions involving a gold nugget hidden under one of several dinner plates were successful. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,205759.msg1472144.html#msg1472144

I thought well this is easy, and I went on to experiment trying to find the nugget hidden anywhere in the room at random. Much harder, my first "hit" discovered a lost gold earring under the corner of a dresser, not the nugget but it was gold. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,205759.msg1476854.html#msg1476854

With more and more practice I was able to find the hidden nugget regularly. Next came a harder test where the nugget was hidden outdoors, kind of like an Easter egg hunt but with using dowsing rods.
Had several false "hits" but I was always able to find the nugget. As time went on I learned the different feel that the false hits had, (I later guessed were probably due to overhead power lines?), and I became more consistent at finding the nugget. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,208107.msg1487235.html#msg1487235

Then along came a real test of my dowsing skills, an actual lost diamond in a very large overgrown yard that had been abandoned for several years. All I knew was that a 1.5 caret diamond had come out of it's setting in an engagement ring, while the lady was playing with her dog in their backyard several years earlier.

The first time out to the property I spent several hours walking around with my rods until my arms gave out. No Hits. Well I wasn't sure what went wrong so I posted on here and was given very good advice by many expert dowsers, through posts and e-mails. Turns out I had been concentrating too hard on finding the diamond, instead of clearing my mind and allowing it to happen naturally, along with not having even practiced finding a diamond with my rods. I had only practiced finding gold.

So the next few weeks were spent practicing on finding a diamond with the rods, and I found it much harder to do than finding the nugget. I was then given the advice to use a "witness" so I took a small diamond out of one of my wife's earrings and taped it onto one of my rods and practiced some more.
Big difference! I was way more successful practicing that way, so with renewed confidence I returned to the property several weeks later to give it another shot.

I spent several more hours dowsing and as I was walking my grid, the rods started turning to the right until they swung pointing behind me so I stopped walking and followed them several steps until they crossed. I kept walking back and forth and crossways around that area and the rods kept crossing at the same spot so I marked the spot with a surveyors flag as it was too late in the day and way too cold to start the excavating process.

In the meantime I continued my practice and once the weather had warmed I returned to the property to re dowse the area and was prepared to use my archaeological skills to screen the dirt and recover the diamond. The overgrown yard had previously been mowed except for the area I had flagged. I then used my dowsing rods to re dowse and double check my previous "hit" and they still crossed where they had before.

So I carefully removed the weed and grass overburden and began my excavation In a 12"x 12" square 3" deep and sifted the material through my screens. After several screenings of material, a tiny glint caught my eye, it was covered in a layer of dirt and was coated with a film but I knew instantly that it was the diamond! I cleaned it off with my fingers and then washed it in my mouth.
Dirt never tasted so good.

JB, I do not know why some people have success with dowsing while others do not. I just know that it works for me.


GG~

 

[EddieR]

Hi JB,

There could be many reasons why your experiment failed. I am by no means an expert on dowsing, however I do have success using dowsing rods to find what I am looking for. Some days I have more success than others. Why that is, could be attributed to many factors, usually mental, but could also be physical, such as some kind of electrical interference, etc. Practice is the key as well as learning the proper technique. I guess I was fortunate that my first practice sessions involving a gold nugget hidden under one of several dinner plates were successful. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,205759.msg1472144.html#msg1472144

I thought well this is easy, and I went on to experiment trying to find the nugget hidden anywhere in the room at random. Much harder, my first "hit" discovered a lost gold earring under the corner of a dresser, not the nugget but it was gold. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,205759.msg1476854.html#msg1476854

With more and more practice I was able to find the hidden nugget regularly. Next came a harder test where the nugget was hidden outdoors, kind of like an Easter egg hunt but with using dowsing rods.
Had several false "hits" but I was always able to find the nugget. As time went on I learned the different feel that the false hits had, that I later discovered were due to overhead power lines, and I became more consistent at finding the nugget.

Then along came a real test of my dowsing skills, an actual lost diamond in a very large overgrown yard that had been abandoned for several years. All I knew was that a 1.5 caret diamond had come out of it's setting in an engagement ring, while the lady was playing with her dog in their backyard several years earlier.

The first time out to the property I spent several hours walking around with my rods until my arms gave out. No Hits. Well I wasn't sure what went wrong so I posted on here and was given very good advice by many expert dowsers, through posts and e-mails. Turns out I had been concentrating too hard on finding the diamond instead of clearing my mind and allowing it to happen naturally, along with not having even practiced finding a diamond with my rods. I had only practiced finding gold.

So the next few weeks were spent practicing on finding a diamond with the rods, and I found it much harder to do than finding the nugget. I was then given the advice to use a "witness" so I took a small diamond out of one of my wife's earrings and taped it onto one of my rods and practiced some more.
Big difference! I was way more successful practicing that way, so with renewed confidence I returned to the property to give it another shot.

I spent several more hours dowsing and as I was walking my grid, the rods started turning to the right until they swung pointing behind me so I stopped walking and followed them several steps until they crossed. I kept walking back and forth and crossways around that area and the rods kept crossing at the same spot so I marked the spot with a surveyors flag as it was too late in the day and way too cold to start the excavating process.

In the meantime I continued my practice and once the weather had warmed I returned to the property to re dowse the area and was prepared to use my archaeological skills to sift the dirt and recover the diamond. The overgrown yard had previously been mowed except for the area I had flagged. I then used my dowsing rods to re dowse and double check my previous "hit" and they still crossed where they had before.

So I carefully removed the weed and grass overburden and began my excavation In a 2'x2' square 3" deep and sifted the material through my screens. After several screenings of material, a tiny glint caught my eye, it was covered in a layer of dirt and was coated with a film but I new instantly that it was the diamond! I cleaned it off with my fingers and then washed it in my mouth.
Dirt never tasted so good.

JB, I do not know why some people have success with dowsing while others do not. I just know that it works for me.


GG~

Excellent post!

 

[aarthrj3811]

Hey GoodyGuy….Practice Practice Practice….and jb7487…

I had been practicing with my homemade dowsing rods for a couple of weeks. I was getting pretty excited that they seemed to cross about 75% of the time when I passed them over a gold ring whose location was known to me. I was really trying hard to explain it and simply wasn't able to.

I don’t understand the method you are trying to use. I know that some people use that method to map dowse but I know no one who uses it to find treasure. Give these methods a try http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,19537.0.html...Art

 

[aarthrj3811]

Hey Dell….I have not had time to check out the whole board but I found the one I wanted. Looks like it has been put in the main topic board…Art

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey GoodyGuy….Practice Practice Practice….and jb7487…

Yes Sir Art

I need to get back into it, I sort of quit practicing after finding the diamond.

A few weeks ago I managed to find my sons misplaced ring at his house, he had turned the place upside down looking for it. I used my rods and in less than 10 minutes found it down in the dirty clothes hamper.



GG~

 

[Goldminer]

Oh but Goodyguy, "dowsing doesn't work". Yeah, right.

 

[LX Kid]

Thanks GoodyGuy! That is a great story. I especially like it when expected target is mentioned, methods getting there and pictures of results being posted. This really gives the novice some mental reinforcement. I visited Dell Winders, Haines City, Florida last month and he gave me a lot of help and things to think about. I bought a couple of books to study and am going to try some recommended experiments. Just seems like I'm getting distracted at every turn and can't get down to some serious experimentation. (Probably cause I've been buying too many metal detectors lately and playing with them too much! LoL) I'm going to give map dowsing a try cause my next door neighbor lost his gold wedding band in his yard last fall. He also indicated the former property owner said she had lost her diamond solitare ring in the yard several years ago. Thank you very much for thinking of me and please do so in the future. LX Kid

 

[Goodyguy]

Thanks GoodyGuy! That is a great story. I especially like it when expected target is mentioned, methods getting there and pictures of results being posted. This really gives the novice some mental reinforcement. I visited Dell Winders, Haines City, Florida last month and he gave me a lot of help and things to think about. I bought a couple of books to study and am going to try some recommended experiments. Just seems like I'm getting distracted at every turn and can't get down to some serious experimentation. (Probably cause I've been buying too many metal detectors lately and playing with them too much! LoL) I'm going to give map dowsing a try cause my next door neighbor lost his gold wedding band in his yard last fall. He also indicated the former property owner said she had lost her diamond solitare ring in the yard several years ago. Thank you very much for thinking of me and please do so in the future. LX Kid

The good thing is, if you are having trouble finding them with dowsing, you can always fall back on using the metal detector or vice versa.
We will be reading your story next, so take pictures.

GG~