Wet hands and dowsing sensitivity.

lesjcbs

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I thought this is interesting.


Washing hands in hot water appears to cause dowsing sensitivity to increase, even for those who claim not to be able to dowse. The following measurements of electrical resistance between left and right palms may indicate a correlation between electrical resistance of the human body and dowsing ability. The two columns in the table below are for dowsing-sensitive persons and non-sensitive persons (Tromp 1949):

Degree of wetness of palms.

Sensitive Persons. Non-sensitive Persons,


Wet hands 10 50

Quickly-dried hands 22 250
Toweled hands 38 400
Hot air-dried hands 50 500 (3000?)


Sensitive persons have lower resistances at all times than non-sensitive persons by a factor of about ten. But it is just possible that non-sensitive persons with wet hands may approach operating conditions of sensitive persons, and under these conditions may be able to dowse.
 

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Darke

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Increasing the conductivity between user, power load and bait chamber is how I built my rods. Users always tended to notice the rods with conductive filler were more sensitive than the rods that just had loose power loads or loads with high resistance filler. These were experienced dowsers though. Never tried it with noobs or people with no experience but stands to reason increasing the conductivity between rod and person would also increase sensitivity.
 

aarthrj3811

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Divining rods and all common dowsing devices, are the simplest forms of electroscopes. The bent rod for example is just a variation of Gilbert's straw needle electroscope.

The divining rods are charged with static electricity from the dowser's own body. This static electricity can be seen quite adequately with a simple millivolt meter. This voltage is measured between the hands of the dowser,
 

Darke

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That's another reason I offer both 3/4" and 1" handles too. People with big hands couldn't hold smaller handles easily and they made very little contact with the body. When the big guys switched handles they found the rods more responsive but that could be more of a comfort response than a larger contact area or a combination of both.
 

signal_line

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The old days they used a cloth soaked in saltwater and pumice.
 

Terry Soloman

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Actually, it was Whale Oil and Pumice. :coffee2:
 

signal_line

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Never heard of that one, but I know they used whale bones--one male and one female--for the Y-rods. Tied together at the tip.

I got the saltwater pumice thing from the book "Psychical Physics". Think that was written in the 1940's. Said it only lasted a very short time.

Al Rossmiller used a jar of saltwater with the cloth soaked to rub on the hands.

Just rubbing the palms of your hands together for one minute will increase sensitivity.
 

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