Conference hydra::dejavu

         I am a "so-so" dowser.  I can find water, but I can not
         tell you how far down or how much.  I know people who
         can tell you where, how much, how far down, in what kind
         of rock.  They tell me that if you dowse regularly, and
         document what was found everytime you found water (in
         other words the details of each find), that eventually
         you build up a "library" that allows you to "match" the
         *feel* of a find and then apply the appropriate details.
         
         Sooooo....when the rod feels like "a" then the water will
         be 50 feet down, in granite, with 7 gals per minute...and
         so on.
         
         I have never used anything but wood to dowse with.
         Preferably a hard wood like apple or cherry.  I *believe*
         the logic here is that hard woods have less water content
         and are therfore more *drawn* to water than a *water-laden*
         soft wood.  You can use any shape rod....the traditionally
         depicted "V" shape; or a single long branch; or a branch
         held in either hand.  The dowsers I have seen have all
         peeled the bark off at least the tips of the rod.
         
         I have *seen* people dowse with metal rods...for water...
         you got me...I don't know.
         
         When I dowse for water for a well, I quarter the area and
         work each quarter in a criss-cross fashion.  Another person
         keeps track of where we find anything.  Then we go back
         to the strongest strikes and re-do them to make a list
         of which ones are strongest.
         
         I have never been wrong, nor have I ever known any one
         who dowsed regularly to be wrong.  Then again...in New
         England...there is a *&%$( load of water sitting down
         there in the bedrock, and *I* could probably point to
         any square of land and eventually you would hit water.
         
         Then again...(again) the folks who tell you how far down
         and how much water seem to be pretty much accurate in
         my experience with them...that's a bit harder to explain.
         
         When you hold the rod..(this is hard to explain)..you
         have to put *just* a bit of tension on it so that it will
         swing easily but will also hold its mark unless moved.
         Now, I know that did not make a lot of sense in print!
         
         I'll try again.  It's a matter of torque.  It has to be
         wound, but movable.  If you know anything about stringed
         instruments???? it is similar to the torque place on a
         string to achieve the *correct* pitch.  The string must
         be tight but neither over or under to produce pure tone.
         
         As you walk across the ground, water beneath the surface
         will cause the rod to dip.  How hard, how fast, how far
         determins how much how deep how strong.
         
         Sorry this is disjointed, I really have never *studied*
         dowsing...so I have very little organized information
         to fall back on here.  I learned from my grandmother.
         
         Mel

	In the _Time_Life_ series on _Psychic_Phenomena_ (if you consider
	Time_life a reasonable source) they say you can do it with bent
	coat hangers.

	Even though not scientifically supported, I have read (Supernature
	by Lyall Watson) about *major* US corporations that use dowsers to 
	find things (ie, oil, water).  	In the book the author quoted some 
	corporation official as saying something like "We don't care if 
	it's not accepted scientifically, it works." (not a verbatium quote,
	just from memory).

	Terry

    
    I've read a little about dowsing and from what I understand you
    can pretty much dowse with anything for anything as long as it works
    for you.  I've heard of people dowsing with pliers, scissors, metal
    rods, wooden rods or even in one case bare hands.  You can also
    pretty much dowse for anything, including water, coal, metal, lost
    items, etc.  I once heard of a guy dowsing for water in Bermuda
    by dowsing a map of the island from his home which I think was here
    in the northeast.  He had never even been to Bermuda.  One woman
    dowsed the locations of sixteen(I think) subs armed with nuclear
    warheads and sent the results to the Pentagon.  Within a few days
    she had a five man investigative team at her door.
    
         My grandfather tells about how they dowsed for his well.  He
    said that the dowser he got found "a good strong vein" and when
    my grandfather asked how far down it was the guy went to his car
    and got another stick and then stood near the spot counting the
    number of times the stick bobbed, then did some calculation and
    came up with 450ft.  That's what it turned out to be and there was
    always a good supply of water.  He also tells of the time there
    was a leak in the pipe between the house and the barn.  Rather than
    dig up the whole thing he called a dowser in.  The dowser cut a
    notch in his stick and inserted a nickel.  After finding nothing
    the dowser asked my grandfather what kind of pipe it was.  When
    he said copper the dowser said,"Oh! I assumed it was lead."(This
    was a while ago)  He promptly changed the nickel to a penny and
    the leak was found in no time.
    
    I think the basic rule would be to either have or develop the ability
    to "feel" a hit and then experiment with different devices and things
    to find.  Experience does the rest.
    
    I definately want to make the dowsers convention this year.
    
    Guy
    

    re: .0 
    
    > - Where do you begin?
    
    
    You could call the American Society of Dowsers located in Vermont
    at 802-684-3417 and ask for membership information and for information
    about their annual convention. 
    
    	- Bill

    Re .4
    
    Thanks, unfortunately I'm the wrong side of the big blue Sea...
    
    Re .*
    
    Thanks everyone, interesting. So, where does one obtain a dowsing rod ?
    do you go out into the forest and find one, carve it yourself ? get
    someone to give you one ?
    
    Any ideas as to the best material for ley-line dowsing ?
    
    Dave.

	Last autumn I was walking around Avebury stone circle in England,
watching a 'looney' with some copper dowsing rods walking around the stones.
I watched him for some time to see what he was doing and, in the end, he
came up and started a conversation.  He was writing a book about what he
called 'Earth currents' and he was researching Avebury and Stonehenge.  He
told me what he had discovered and let me have a go with his rods - it was
a very interesting experience (all the other people at Avebury were now
looking at this 'pair of looneys' walking around the stones!).

	Basically, the rods detected 'something' connecting the stones.
The nature of this 'something' was what the guy was trying to discover.  
The rods would cross when a stone was directly approached (from any angle),
and would also cross over an approx 1 metre band between the stones:

		+--+  __________  +--+
	       /    \ cross zone /    \
	       \rock/ __________ \rock/
	        +--+              +--+

This was quite a strong pull from the rods (I'd never dowsed before this
and _was_ skeptical about this!).

	Needless to say, after this I became quite interested in dowsing.
I bought some copper rods and have discovered (or re-discovered!) some
interesting ley lines running through old iron-age forts in South
Oxfordshire.  The ley lines I've found all seem to register the same way
using the rods - the rods will cross over a patch of land about 1 to 1.5
meters wide.

In England you can get copper dowsing rods from the gift shop in Avebury
or from any of the stranger book shops in Glastonbury.  They're pretty
cheap - less than �3 I think.

Dave.