A dowser, or water witch, is a person perceived to have a skill for discovering underground water with the use of a divining rod, usually a small, forked limb cut from virtually any fruit-bearing tree or willow. Repeat for the second rod, and you have yourself some homemade copper dowsing rods! Not a drop. It was a strong well and He was only off by 5 feet.darndest thing I ever saw. They just KNOW it works. Amber Kanuckel is a freelance writer from rural Ohio who loves all things outdoors. It works for some people and some people cant do it. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Although most would say that dowsing is nothing more than a myth, there are quite a few people today whobelieve in this practice. Some researchers believe that humans can detect the presence of water by some trace amount of energy that it releases. getting clear responses with a forked willow branch and with L-shaped metal rods .more. I would not drill a well without the advice of a witcher. In other areas, underground water sources are few and far betweenjust streams, some large, some smallcoursing through the layers of rocks. Any type of tree branch can be used for dowsing (water). As a practice dating back to the ancient Egyptians and . Love this kind of folklore. Our back yard was our an acre and our front was probably around a quarter. Nothing to lose for $200-$400. The wire is magnetically attracted to that point. Dont know anyone who ever used it for bombs, gold etc, but seen it work for water. He said he knew of those locations and there were others on my land. I cant find septic to save my life. The Dewey Decimal classification system places dowsing in 133.323 in the neighborhood of fortune-telling, parapsychology and occultism. And you dont need a doctor to go and buy yourself a cheap heart rate monitor and blood pressure cuff. Handy having 2 rods. My dad would swear by the witching sticks. It was life changing for me . When he walks over a location that has the potential of yielding water, the dowsing rod will rotate in his hands and point toward the ground. Most expertsother than dowsing experts, that isclassify this art to the realm of pseudoscience. You can use just one rod, and it works just as well as if you use two. Walk across slowly a couple times snd you too will be a believer, I had a friend show me how to douse for water. I can't find a water vein underground, but I can find underground wires and pipes. More for local enjoyment. Only some people have this ability. Hope that helps you David. I put a 1500 gallon surface tank and a pressure tank. The most common divining rod is a Y-shaped branch cut from a tree or bush. Yesterday the young driller cut a y shaped limb from one of our fruit trees, and used that to witch the drill site. I have no idea as to the reason why, but I seem to be more adept at finding lost graves than water. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, however in quantum physics we DO know that what we can sense with our 5 basic senses, can only perceive about 5% of reality, while the 95% is super-natural or beyond the 5 senses. My father was really good at finding water for people he used wires i prefer a forked stick dowsing doesnt have to be proven to me i know without a shadow of a doubt it works i havent figured out how to scientifically prove it but i can make anyone feel what i feel as long as im touching the stick you will feel it to there has to be a way you could measure the force being put on my stick its so strong if i try to hold the stick and keep walking the stick will break. After about the the 5th or 6th dry test hole they come to me. Please give more detail on that method. my wife and i had a water witch find water for us to put a well in at our northern pa cabin,he was spot on and the depth also spot on. My father in law, Lowell, was held in high esteem within our county as a master dowser. I acquired the skill and it workssometimes. He does it by holding a fresh wishbone-shaped branch, preferably from a willow tree, and in doing this with his hands . Water Dowsing Works (Even If We Dont Know Why), Geologists may have an idea, but this still doesnt tell you, where the seams of water might be, he says. Most successful water wells are drilled without the advice of a hydrogeologist. But on occasion there might be more.. It was the same driller who saw my success locating water just a few feet from a dry hole. Dowsing is a type of divination specifically for the location of objects, most notably water or treasure of some sort, but any item can be the subject of dowsing. I have a place in Pigeon Mi. The well driller drilled 120 feet at that spot and got 18 gallons a minute. Some people use hazel wood, but it doesnt grow where we live. I use welding rods first, to see if theres water, and where, or several possible locations on the property, he says. Cant find any. He always witched or dowsed before drilling. He'd had a new well drilled for the house but wanted to reactivate the old one for watering his garden. Many took him up on his challenges but none were ever able to prove their mystical claims. I forgot to mention if a person is mentally distraught then not to bother trying to find water. 1. Not sure about the tree branch and wells, Ive never seen anybody do that. This is widely known.. Water-witching, 1907. Lots of info out there on his tests and such if you want to research. An old well striker gave me the cut coat hangers l shaped said walk around. After finding a spot, I use a forked willow to see if thered be enough water for a good well. Might be something to that theory. I dont have much luck finding water veins consistently. Our well depths in our area vary from 60 ft to 400 plus and can be from a gal/min to enough to run an irrigation well. Two attempts to drill, both dry holes. The people buried there are relatives of his. I was sitting here thinking about this. If you have ever been to underground caverns theres places where water swirled and made these huge pools, I always picture in my mind thats whats going on and that might make sense why its a good spot. The guy told him the water is 160ft below us. In Sri Lanka alone, drill teams drilled 691 wells under the supervision of dowsers and found water 96% of the time. I cant pull a rabbit out of a hat. Use a length of 1 inch (2.5 cm) dowel rod, with a hole through the center. I didnt know what I was doing and no one told me anything, I just held two bent coat hangers loosely as instructed by my father who was skeptical (and had heard the advice from a friend and thought it was a put-on), I walked across the yard and when I passed the pipe, they crossed. Forked sticks held in front of a dowser will be deflected toward the ground, a pair of L-shaped rods held lightly in the dowser's hands will cross one another, and a pendulum suspended on a string will deflect from vertical as the dowser moves over a good location. But if the stick only swings side-to-side a couple times, you know there isnt as much water there. I read about a technique using what was referred to as a bobbing stick to help determine the depth of to the water and then the depth of the vein of water. I had a well driller witch a location and put a rock about as big as my fist at the location in the grassland area, he said get a second opinion from mr Powell, I called him, he came, I told him I wanted a well somewhere in that 2 acre area, he stumbled around as he was about 90 years old, using about 8 ft of a grape vine in a horseshoe shape, he said you see that rock, your best water is about 1 ft from that rock and 3 tiers of water, the well proved to have 3 levels of water per the driller. Many of us may have fond remembrances of watching someone perform this noble and ' respectable ' form of divination when we were young, or at . My boss blindfolded a witcher, put him in a pickup and drove him around the city he correctly predicted every water pipe under the streets as they drove over them. My great grandmother would take a fresh twitch off of a weeping willow, shaped like a "Y". 100% of wolf cubs could do it after 30minutes training. And don't fall for the people using welding rods, they work for water lines but not aquifers. Even willows cut in the winter work fine. I use wires but only one will move. The idea was to count how many times it would swing and that was supposed to relate to the depth. If I can teach 9 yr old to do it anyone can do it following this simple technique. The wires cross, or separate, when I walk over underground water pipes or electric pipes. Water witching, practiced all over the world, involves using a Y-shaped stick, a "divining rod," to find underground water. That situation was interesting because the rancher had already hired a well driller who drilled 400 feet and didnt hit water. Then I drilled were it was most convenient (my pick) and we hit 20 gallons a minute at 132 feet. flag 1 like . Note ,the side to side movement helps to determine if the water is sufficient to develope. Start by holding the dowsing or divining rods steady and straight in your hands, at an arm's length from your body. Desperate farmer using a willow branch to locate a place to drill a new well. I havent tried finding pipes and cables but think it would be fun to try. Its the disruption in the earth that does it. No problem. No scientist or anyone else is telling me its nonsense! Alternately, glue several cotton reels together into a cylinder. A friend used it to find a mortar damaged buried cable under a runway in Vietnam. When I found out witching would work for me an old well witcher told me that if you cant find water on the top of the hill go to the bottom or vise versa. It is not easy for adults to do, apparently, because they tense up. Has anybody heard of the Mansfield automatic water finder? My email is djcwhite@comcast.net I would GREATLY appreciate any help in locating one around here. Never works for me but it did for him. You can use virtually any kind of tree, but Y-shaped sticks from willows, witch hazel, and various fruit and nut trees seem to be the most popular. He said he wished he would have quizzed this guy more to learn as this witcher has been gone for some time already. Where are you located DryCreek? My husband cannot. Second well a mille away on a different piece of strata was less stron and pulled 30 gpm at 150 foot depth. and water witching. Farmer wipes the sweat off his head after removing a cowboy hat. He smokes a lot of dope, that maybe helps. Some call it the gift. Others refer to it as dowsing, doodlebugging, or water witchingthe practice of locating water underground using a forked stick. Or at least the volume and depth of a vein. When holding the willow branches, your arms are close to your body with elbows resting against your hips. Eventually got mad when Im starting to laugh some and him yelling at me to do something to help and go flush a d%#n toilet! Ive only had to sit down to laugh and catch my breath like that a couple times in my life. They want to drill a successful well, close to their house, where the cost of installing water lines and an electrical conduit will be minimal and where a drilling rig can be easily driven. Farmers will soon have a new tool for getting the most out of their fields. I also can use a pendulum to find water on a map. As walking back and stick started going down placed a second flag. I never pushed it in more than twice to hit clay tile. He was born in Pipestone, Manitoba in 1933. Kind of like some people have success wearing copper bracelets and such. Scientists were surprised to find that many of the dowsers were spot-on. Long story short Dad drilled a bunch of test holes anyway that turned up little to nothing at best. I use 2 lengths of number 9 wire, with about 4-5" bent down to form a handle, which is how my dad did it as well. When I see a dowser clearing minefields, I might start giving it some credibility. It can be very difficult to drill successful wells in some areas underlain by thick cavernous limestone. George Casely uses a hazel branch to find water on his farm, 1942. Water witching, also known as dowsing, has been around for a long time but has never been fully accepted as a legitimate tool by the scientific community. senior writer. I sit in a chair to steady myself while holding the large end about 6 inches from the ground. Looks like a lot of potential millionaires amongst us *****I think he has passed on now but there was a guy named James Randy, who used to appear on the Johnny Carson Show. My job was to push in the tile probe. In Europe and northeastern US, it is known as dowsing. Cant even understand why anyone would vote Democrat. Dowse a spot and hit the numbers we need. I was a golf course irrigation foreman for many years and whenever we couldnt find a system or branch of the main line, I would think pull out 2 metal pieces of wire and locate the missing irrigation line before the other guys even got their high tech (expensive) locators out of the box and powered on. Has been within a foot every time. Thank you, Michael, Hi, I am a 3rd Generation Water-Witch. At 20 to 30 feet from where the water comes to or near the grounds surface, by holding the wire (bent on a 90 degree angle) I get a magnetic attraction to the point of the start of the water vein. Havent been successful at it myself but Ive seen it done and it does work. Water is not always where youd expect. I have drilled 2 dry wells now and would like to hire a dowser but I cant find anyone in the area by word of mouth or internet search. There is a local guy here who claims he can determine the sex. It depends on the location and the severity of the drought, but usually it's between $75 and $200. In the cellar was the old hand dug well beneath the living room floor.When that branch points down it will nearly break if you try to hold it back,,strange as strange gets..Have not tried in decades but I am sure it will work still.. Maybe the liberals could through a multimillon$ grant out there to research the issue or outlaw it ? We can determine male or female, how deep the grave is and by determining the length of the grave figure if its a child or adult. So the roots branch out in all directions seeking water and will grow more dense in areas where water has been found. Not sure if I do agree as a Master Naturalist and geologist helper but Granpa did use Dowsing to dig a well in Jefferson County Illinois to supplement the family cisterns. Scary. I'm a bit skeptical of it but mainly because I've tried it myself numerous times over the years with absolutely zero results. Yes he dosed and found and also claimed underground rivers! I can find water lines and electrical lines. Sounds like an older neighbor I had growing up, especially the part about finding old Indian burial grounds and knowing what direction they were laying. Of course, this can be estimated by looking at the neighbors well logs available at the county office. One practicing water witching holds the two branches of the stick in his hands, while pointing the rod upward and outward. The dowser walks through the field with the dowsing rod. If it stops going side-to-side and starts bobbing again, you can count the bobs to see how deep it is (when it stops, There are usually only two levels, because Ive located, where they cross. 62 years later I still recall the weird experience of the willow branch twisting the bark as it pulled down. She has said if there is flow. Our current well is very high in sodium. Remain still after it stops bobbing and the stick will start to move side to side. Southeast Idaho. You may have seen the water witch in popular culture. I tried it and found it would work for me. When I was young I helped an old neighbor track a tile line all the way across his farm. Willow or apple was used to create the strongest 'pull' to the water. If theres more water on down, it will start over and seek the next one. Do you think any one of them could agree on a location???? My Gramma, who passed earlier this year, witched the well for her and Grampas house when it was built. Kelly Rogers: I know in the past too they used willow rods, like willow sticks. Not a lot of call for it in the big city. After locating water with the coat hangers I used a willow branch about 3 foot long and about a quarter inch dia. The more times it bobs up and down, the deeper the water.. Surprised to find water on down, it will start over and seek the next.... I know in the tile probe too they used willow rods, like willow sticks do apparently. 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