Dowsing

[Tallguy88]

Or as we call it, "divining".

Anyone ever had any experience with it? I have. It works. A lot of the old timers in my family used to divine for water to dig wells on their homesteads. In more recent years, divining was used to find certain unmarked family graves.

Every year when we'd go up the family cemetery, we'd have to divine to find one long-dead infant's grave. Her mother was poor so she wasn't able to afford a headstone and being that it was on flat, open ground without any nearby landmarks, we'd have to get the metal rods out and divine for it. Every year, I'd see my old country uncles do it and find the grave. I even held the rods myself and they crossed (on their own) over the grave. Never could explain it. Maybe something in the bones affects the rods.

Now all the old timers are dead (may they rest in peace) and they've finally put in a headstone for that baby, sixty or more years after she died. So the skill of divining will probably die off in my family within the next generation.

Sorry for the macabre story, water divining was far more prevalent in my family in the old days, but is largely unnecessary today, so grave divining was my primary experience with it.

Has anyone else had experience with dowsing or divining? I hear some people think its evil, but it's just a survival skill like any other.

 

[MikeK]

I don't believe that it exists. I suspect that the fact that it is generally used in areas where one might expect to find water (or graves) is what makes people believe in it. Random guesses in an area where water vanes are known to exist have been shown to be as effective as divining.

 

[bill5]

Yeah - IMO it's not "evil" but it's not valid either, pardon any offense. It's right up there with healing crystals and "miraculous" cancer cures.

 

[Tallguy88]

I don't believe that it exists. I suspect that the fact that it is generally used in areas where one might expect to find water (or graves) is what makes people believe in it. Random guesses in an area where water vanes are known to exist have been shown to be as effective as divining.

All I can say is that "something" pulled those rods together when I was holding them. Almost felt slightly magnetic.

 

[GoingByzantine]

Don't think it is religious, or scientific. Just an interesting hobby by the sound of it.

 

[bill5]

All I can say is that "something" pulled those rods together when I was holding them. Almost felt slightly magnetic.

The force, Luke!

Hey whatever works for ya, again just IMO.

 

[S.ilvio]

Divining is a gift that's still in existence throughout rural Ireland...

 

[Chrystal-J]

All I can say is that "something" pulled those rods together when I was holding them. Almost felt slightly magnetic.

It has the same feel/reaction to it Ouija boards do. I wouldn't mess with it.

 

[bill5]

I've tried Ouija boards (when I was young and curious). I never felt any "pull." They are also pure hokum IMO.

 

[Tallguy88]

It has the same feel/reaction to it Ouija boards do. I wouldn't mess with it.

I don't believe in ouija boards.

 

[AMDG]

I've tried Ouija boards (when I was young and curious). I never felt any "pull." They are also pure hokum IMO.

Sometimes, but then there is that ONE time when things aren't quite right. Happened to a friend. Was no longer a fun game. From that moment, she destroyed the "game". Better not to mess with it.

Dowsing or divining for water, I have heard of--but not for graves. (And yes, we too had a close family member buried without a gravestone. Mother finally was able to give her one--60+ years after this family member passed. Know of others too, since have communicated with the cemetery, but since all are in the family plot, the cemetery keeps track of these unmarked graves.