Les. Thankyou for taking the time to respond. Very interesting.
So If I'm understanding "mental dowsing" correctly, it is not bound by "science" (as your prior quote says). And it is not mystical/supernatural/religious (as our prior exchange confirmed).
Hence "Mental dowsing" is a
3rd option of explanation. Right ? So I can see you give this explanation/definition for "mental dowsing" :
.... This means dowsers brain and nervous systems are sensing a target's energy transmission from over there and not just from the rods moving by themselves. Therefore. I am going to get a very nice looking lucky charm with a number "7" etched on it to boost my brain and nervous system sensitivity and confidence factors......
You allude to a target's "energy transmission". The moment you say
THAT, is the moment it enters into a realm of something science
can look at. If a target "transmits energy": Fine then: Let's study & measure that. But ... you've already said that it's outside science, right ? Yet you continually use scientific terms. Even the brain (eg.: "nervous systems", etc...) render themselves available to scientific realms. See how this isn't adding up ?
.... You and other skeptics have scoffed at dowsers who use a metal detector to pinpoint for a target underneath where dowsing rods cross. Yet the md'r does the exact same thing by scanning the ground area over there for any unseen target's. When you look at it carefully. you'll see it is all the same thing......
I agree that both the dowser and the MD'r will ... of course, ... go to the
"most likely areas". So I can see why the dowser would cry "foul", if the MD'r points out that the dowser is simply going to the "most likely areas" . And ... presto, surprise surprise, they found metal. Ok, sure, I get that the md'r, in that case, appears to have done a double-standard.
But can't you also see that, if anyone turns on a detector in a "most likely area", and finds metal (maybe even a goodie), that it *might* (
just *might*) be alternatively explained that is in a "most likely area" ? So you can see how the skeptic would scratch his head ?
But I see you anticipated this pushback, and say this :
.... The difference between the two is, by using rods that point in that direction, the dowser gains a better and clearer indication, in advance, where a target is before he takes one step to go verify......
I get that you're saying that you will end up at better ends of fields faster. But this isn't anything that can be measured or shown, as I see it.
And if all it is, is "gut hunches" (ie.: visually looking at the landscape, and walking to the most likely areas), then .... no rods or thumbs were even needed. ALL OF US look at a field, and subconsciously walk to the area we think has the best odds. In which case, I would agree that it's just "instinct". In that case, I guess we agree. And we agree that the rods are not moving on their own, (since you say you are not a subscriber to physical dowsing.)