Sam Smith - We
needed to find a part of the pipe from our house in rural Maine to the septic
field some distance away. After logic, and lengthy digging based upon it, failed
to produce results our contractor called a guy who knew how to locate such things
using a dowsing rod. And before I had finished breakfast, the pipe had been
located.
Readers aware my preference for fact over fiction may find
it odd that I allowed such behavior on my property, but this wasn’t my first
experience with dowsing.
There was that day in the 1950s, when the actress Bette Davis came to help
my parents find water on their farm.
Actually, she really just came along for the ride as did the Maine
novelist Kenneth Roberts, both neighbors and friends of then famed water dowser,
Henry Gross.
One of the reasons that Gross was famous was that in 1950 he had found
three water sites in Bermuda just using a map and dowsing rod while sitting in
Kennebunkport, 800 miles away. Bermuda had no wells at the time and Gross'
efforts proved successful.
The most typical way to dowse was with a Y-shaped small branch. Dowsers
held the two tops of the Y horizontal in their hands with the palms pointed up.
If they found water, the rod descended despite the best efforts of the dowser
to keep it level.
Scientists have never thought much of the technique. Wikipedia describes
a "three-day test of some 30 dowsers [that] involved plastic pipes through
which water flow could be controlled and directed. The pipes were buried 50
centimeters under a level field, the position of each marked on the surface
with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell whether water was running through
each pipe. All the dowsers signed a statement agreeing this was a fair test of
their abilities and that they expected a 100 percent success rate, however the
results were no better than chance."
Some attribute any dowsing success to "a phenomenon known as the ideomotor
effect: people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies
without their consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing
rods a conduit for the diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception." In
our case, for example, the pipe, was near a small stream where it was easier to
dig.
Martin Luther had a far less kindly opinion, calling dowsing a violation
of the First Commandment.
This teenager, as best as I can remember, thought along the lines of
"Hey, whatever works," but later, as an anthropology major, I was
struck by the prevalence in cultures around the world of what I came to regard
as proto-science: coming up with right answers without the right explanations.
Henry Gross had made me far more tolerant of shamans in distant lands.
Whether by chance or by skill, Gross found a number of well sites that we
would use for decades. Some of these were flush to the ground, one of which
(minus its top) may have been the culprit the day my father had to call the
local veterinarian, Russel Pinfold, at a party to tell him a cow had fallen
into a well. Dr. Pinfold put down his drink long enough to tell my father:
"Is it head up or head down? Because if it's head down I ain't comin'
over."
Other wells extended above ground thanks to a stone and cement cylinder around
the hole several feet high and about five feet in diameter. That width was
large enough to send a young teenager down to finish digging but not so
comfortable for adults, which is how I learned how to make a well.
To this day I still find drilled wells somewhat strange and a little
boring. Besides there's nothing to lean against or rest your soda can on.
As for my parents, when my father died and we were walking to the grave
with the minister, he awkwardly informed my mother that while digging the hole,
they had struck water and it was still mushy down there. What the minister also
hadn’t expected was for the entire family of the deceased to break out
laughing.
As for Henry Gross, I have come to accept the wisdom of that great
scientist, Albert Einstein. A friend was surprised to come to his house and
find a horseshoe over the door. The friend asked, "You don't believe in
that, do you?" Replied Einstein, "Of course not, but they tell me it
works."
5 comments:
about as opposite to woo-woo crapola as a person can be (although i also keep in mind 'there are more things in heaven and earth...), but had an old explosive ordinance guy who told me as a last resort they would get a dowser involved to locate buried explosives... sure i was skeptical, then he had me try it in a building i had no familiarity with, and i located a water pipebelow the concrete slab... kind of weird how it worked, it REALLY felt like a subtle force was actually pulling -in this case- the two ell-shaped wire rods down... at this point, i am keeping an open mind on that phenomenon...
(but doing it to a map, does sound like woo-woo bullshit...)
We knew a grove manager who employed the 'L' shaped rod technique. His method was a bit different, the rods would be held one in each clenched fist, pointing forward and in such a way that they could rotate parallel to ground. As he approached an area near a water pipe the rods would draw closer together, eventually crossing each other in an appearance of an 'X'. His accuracy was astonishing and especially appreciated by farm hands who were saved from digging up any more ground than necessary when needing to repair broken irrigation pipe.
So, Sam, was the cow head up or head down?
I watched with dubious countenance as my new neighbor
helped me locate septic lines.
He used the L shaped coat hangers in each fist.
Held with virtually no pressure.
They are pointed forward, when you detect a disturbance
underground, they each take a 90 degree turn to the inside.
He found every one of them. There was no surface
evidence as these had been dug 20 years ago.
Later, as I was finally verified as a worthy neighbor,
he presented me with a set of my own.
I've used them. They work.
They do work test it and see for yourself.
Most construction workers will agree with me and since it works it does not matter why or how.
I have used hangers but I prefer using copper wire since copper seems more believable or acceptable than coat hangers.
It is easy to test and hard to disbelieve after testing
flip
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