Talk:Divining rod

To do
- Add a reference to the articel about divning rods in German http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wünschelrute in the side bar "Languages" on the left. Sorry I don't know how to do this myself. User:Quax 3 Mar 2009

- Include scientific theories about how divining rods might work--Vsb 22:50, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

Address its possible uses in measuring auras and other such phenomenon.

Scientific theories
I have been reading a book by a scientist called S.W. Tromp - The Religion of the Modern Scientist. This book was is rather out of date scientifically as it was written in 40s just after the war. I has a chapter on divining rods and the author claims to have done extensive experimentation with the phenomena. Briefly the theory was that the human body is such a complex system that small differences in electro magnetic fields actually enter the nervous system and cause muscle movements. The rod amplifies these charges, causing muscle movements large enough to be observed. Tromps experiments (they are not fully detailed in the book and I can not vouch for their rigour) showed that if the dowser washes his hands in electrolytes (eg. salt water) the affect increases which supports the theory. He also did experiments that involved insulating the rod (he used a single curved wire) from the dowsers hands and instead connecting both ends to what he calls a string galvanometer, which is the same device used for early electro encephalogram experiments. This allows a paper readout of the potentials. The measurements across the wire seemed to support the theory here too.

The existence of these very fine electro magnetic fields around organisms, water, and metals are I think supported by modern scientific knowledge, but some verification is needed as to wether dowsing is actually detecting these fields or not.

I would suggest removing the line: "Expert dowsers are allegedly not limited to any specific time and space, claiming the ability to dowse any material at any given time from any location." As I find the claim absurd, and I believe it was put in by a sceptic wanting to give the article a more absurd tone so it wouldn't be taken seriously. I believe the claim may have stemmed from a less general phenomenon, that sometimes residual electro magnetic fields were observed in objects that had come into contact withother objcts that produce such a field. This means in theory a dowser could detect something a limited time in the past if they measured an object that it had come in contact with.

Places to find verification: Tromps book doesn't detail the experiments as an actual report of the experiments, it simply discusses them for a chapter in support of some other ideas. I imagine the publication is out there though and as I have found no research since the 1940s about this it would be the most current research we have. I have no access to relevant libraries but hopefully someone can pick this up and write a proper article. Tromp was apparently the professor of Geology at the University of Cairo in Egypt. The book was printed in the netherlands though which I believe is the place of his birth and possibly where the experiments were done. Tromp also refers to two publications from a man named W.F Barret called The divining rod and On the so-called divining rod or 'virgula divina' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.178.6.128 (talk) 01:01, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

General Discussion
I also used two copper L shaped rods to follow a water pipe running underground at my grandparents. It wasnt incredibly accurate, but when we dug it was within a foot or so. its pretty uncanny really, you just hold them with the long part pointing straight ahead and as you walk over the pipe they swing inwards. so yeah, i'd advise a bit more research before dismissing them. Qleem 04:16, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

"....Include scientific theories about how divining rods might work--Vsb 22:50, 25 May 2004 (UTC)...."

I didn't realize there were scientific theories about how divining rods worked. ;-) Nonetheless, whoever made the suggestion about the virgula divina has my agreement.  --TPB 01:06, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Scientifically? i believe that dowsing rods are nothing more but another form of Ideomotor responses just like spirit boards and pendulums allot of the new age paranormal investigators are using it to show hauntings. MLuedtke 06:18, 10 May 2007 (UTC) Mike

Divining rods are used professionally by Surveyors. They are especially handy in winter when snow is too deep or in older parcels of land where drainage was not recorded by the city and has to be found. I have personally used two 'L' shaped wires to find and follow a pipe that ran more than one quarter mile. I don't claim any knowledge on how it worked because the road it was near had long since been removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

Is it customary to simply delete entire edits rather than add citation requests? Especially when the addition in fact cited another Wikipedia article? My addition added information also found (and allowed to stand) under Dowsing. This article uses an occassional "allegedly", but in tone and content is extremely POV in that it contains no refutation or criticism of the belief in this unproven witchery. The "allegedly"s are simply qualifiers about the extent and power of practioners, they do not act as qualifiers to warn readers that the entire subject is superstition. 204.13.195.226 (talk) 00:32, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Lengthy sweeping statements lacking sources can be removed. Refutation and criticism are fine, but should be sourced. Read WP:RS and WP:CITE. Articles can quickly turn into garbage over time, and the primary cause of this (from longtime editors' experience) are random large insertions of unsourced sweeping statements by many anonymous drive-by-editors. &mdash; BRIAN 0918 • 2008-04-15 15:49Z