Bud, my husband and I needed to know the location of our well water line before we installed a new metal carport. Especially since the carport building involved driving long steel pins in the ground.
I called a local plumber to ask if he had to way to locate the water lines. He said there's a device but it's easier and cheaper to use two coat hangers. He called it “dousing” and said he locates water lines with his dousing rods all the time.
Intrigued I stammered, “Okay, tell me how.”
He told me to bend two metal coat hangers into an L-shape with two short arms. Then to hold the the two short-arm rods upright and point the two parallel long-arm rods forward. He said the rods cross over one another and make an “X” over water.
I thanked him and made a dousing rod with two coat hangers from my closet.
To my delight the two parallel rods did cross and make an “X” when I held them over the water at our creek.
Bud and I were amazed when the rods made an “X” along a narrow line on one side of the carport area. We attached red ribbons to small stakes to mark the water pipe. Digging down with a shovel we were stunned to find the water pipe under the stakes. A few days later our new carport was secured to the ground without event. We even traced, marked off and verified the track of the entire water line from the house to the well.
A few months later the water in our toilet and shower had difficulty draining and began to back up. Thinking the septic tank needed pumping we called a septic tank service.
Not knowing the location of the septic tank I used my dousing rods again. Sure enough the rods crossed over a rectangular area near the kitchen window. We again marked the area with with red ribbons.
When we told the septic tank service men how we used a dousing rod to find the tank they rolled their eyes and asked if they could look around. The men used a small rod to poke the ground before returning. They took up their spades and silently began to dig in our designated area. There was a loud crunching sound when the spade of one of the men hit the septic tank. They were amazed.
Unfortunately, we ended up not only having to pump the septic tank but also replace the field lines.
Our friend Tom expressed skepticism when we told him about our dousing experiences.
He did some research and asked if we would do a series of dousing experiments using above ground buckets. The goal was to see if the dousing rod made an “X” when held over the buckets containing water. Bud secretly rotated the empty and full buckets while Tom and I did the dousing.
To Bud and my surprise our dowsing rods did not show which of the buckets contained water.
Curious about the discrepancy I did my own research. It came as a shock to read Wikipedia's statement that there is no accepted scientific rationale behind dowsing and no evidence that it's effective. Their website says dousing goes back to the 16th Century and none of the numerous scientific experiments performed were more reliable than chance.
Bud and I have pondered the discrepancy between our experiences and the “evidence” of the scientific community.
All we know is ground water dousing worked for us. It's a mystery.
Perhaps someday we'll know more about the Earth's great mysteries.
