StickyEnd
LE
theslayerofmen said:so sceptics could be foolong themselves too?
Yes, absolutely.
Their only advantage is that they know this and try to take counter-measures.
theslayerofmen said:so sceptics could be foolong themselves too?
theslayerofmen said:nice one. me too. if i am wrong then i shall just pretend to be clinicaly insane. win win either way.
further to (and back on thread) dowsing for mines would work (and make perfect sense). Just send an extended line of dowsers through a suspected minefield. everytime one goes bang pop a mine marking cone next to the hole. See. I have proved it works (in theory - which is good enough for many scientists ). Whats the prize for this?
thegimp said:Some one explain the scientific reasoning behind dowsing...............
Alba58 said:Hmmm Well, being naturally curious about everything............I tried it once...and totally freaked myself out when it worked.
The thing is, this theory of all these thousands of people "fooling" themselves for all these years? I find that almost as hard to believe as the fact that dowsing does actually work. I have an Uncle out in Oz who apparently was well known for going out in the bush and finding water ( and no he didn't work for the water company or anything related). As has been said...maybe it's an intuitive thing, maybe only some people can do it, for whatever reasons........
However, as a mere civvie...not sure I'd like to depend on it to fin mines though! Big difference between finding water, elec cables etc etc...and big (little) metal things that are going to blow me or others to smithereens!!!!!
StickyEnd said:Alba58 said:Hmmm Well, being naturally curious about everything............I tried it once...and totally freaked myself out when it worked.
The thing is, this theory of all these thousands of people "fooling" themselves for all these years? I find that almost as hard to believe as the fact that dowsing does actually work. I have an Uncle out in Oz who apparently was well known for going out in the bush and finding water ( and no he didn't work for the water company or anything related). As has been said...maybe it's an intuitive thing, maybe only some people can do it, for whatever reasons........
However, as a mere civvie...not sure I'd like to depend on it to fin mines though! Big difference between finding water, elec cables etc etc...and big (little) metal things that are going to blow me or others to smithereens!!!!!
Go for the prize then.
ref. Your uncle: There was a good documentary I saw a few months ago. It was about a guy who was a pioneer doing original mapping of Oz. He was good at finding water too, used binoculars a telescope and knowledge though.
Blogg said:Well this is what Dowsers think:
No magic just "....an intuitive art and discipline used in all parts of the world in both ancient and modern times. A technique for bringing information from the intuitive or subconscious senses to the attention of the rational mind.."
Sounds possible: the rods are just a way of giving a physical indication of what many people would term gut feelings
http://www.britishdowsers.org/learning/dowsing_fact_sheets.shtml
big_les said:That million Septic shekels is a real sum of money. Why has no dowser yet won it?
The testimonials of dowsers and those who observe them provide the main evidence for dowsing. The evidence is simple: dowsers find what they are dowsing for and they do this many times. What more proof of dowsing is needed? The fact that this pattern of dowsing and finding something occurs repeatedly leads many dowsers and their advocates to make the causal connection between dowsing and finding water, oil, minerals, golf balls, etc. This type of fallacious reasoning is known as post hoc reasoning and is a very common basis for belief in paranormal powers. It is essentially unscientific and invalid. Scientific thinking includes being constantly vigilant against self-deception and being careful not to rely upon insight or intuition in place of rigorous and precise empirical testing of theoretical and causal claims. Every controlled study of dowsers has shown that dowsers do no better than chance in finding what they are looking for.
auscam said:Not strictly to do with dowsing, and nothing to do with the Falklands, but I can assure readers that there is another world/plane/dimension/whatever you want to call it, that we normally cannot perceive (nothing to do with religion, either)
Oddbod said:Neither of these were previously known & therefore a pretty good test of something to which I applied a high degree of scepticism.