Has anyone seen a dowser at work, or have evidence of it , say in your family or people you know? My gran always said my uncle could do it, but I never saw it in action. It's a weird phenomenon, I think.

Ren, I can water divine. I found this out at a music/water festival where they had a roped-off area with a water pipe running underground, and you could enter and see if you could find it.

This ability has come in handy a few times, once when I needed to do some deep digging to install a drainage pipe in my garden. The two old farmers who came to do the job were concerned they might hit the septic bed with the backhoe, and therefore cause a lot of damage. Two bent coat hangers and five minutes later, I showed them exactly which way the septic bed seepage pipes lay, and where they ended. The one ol' fellow in particular was quite amazed, and tried and tried to do it himself, to no avail.

I have no idea how or why I can do this, only that I can. I've wondered if I could turn this talent into a money paying prospect, but doubt there's enough people wanting to locate underground water for it to be a viable profession for me.

There seem to be quite a few people who can , and get paid quite well. I am sure they would be needed in Costa Rica! So what happens to the stick/rod/ coat hanger when you get near the water? How does it affect you?

I have seen it used. When we moved into our house which we had renovated the well ran dry so we had to have a borehole sunk, the man from the borehole company came and I watched him checking for the best spot to drill, it was fascinating, the jerking of his twig was very obvious.

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So what happens to the stick/rod/ coat hanger when you get near the water? How does it affect you?

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I curl my fingers round then put my thumb to my forefinger, making a large circle. I then put the L-shaped hangers inside this circle, thus holding them very loosely, pointing ahead of me. As I get near the water source, they start to cross towards each other. When they are pointing to either side of me, (i.e. 90 degrees) I know I am directly over the water.

As for any effect on me, I don't feel any different that I'm aware of.

Not scary then

Not for me, it's never crossed my mind that this is scary or even weird, only that it's handy at times. Is it scary for you?

No , I just wondered if it felt a bit strange when something was controlling your movements without you telling it to. I don't know what I mean really. It must always be a bit of an unexpected thing for a split second when the sticks cross seemingly of their own volition.

My father does it properly using a pendulum, and has both located old road signs on the map I found already and a few I hadn't. One was literally in the middle of nowhere at the other end of Surrey, I looked it up on image search, and the single photo I found had one in it which was in a museum entrance road. Considering how much non-relevant space there is around that spot makes that alone pretty impressive.

I was taught to do it without any tools, I tune in to a particular object and either walk to it in the house or draw a picture of an area. I've found some items so well hidden they were very unlikely to be found using logic, including a number of missing items my tenant had hidden in a cupboard presumably to remove at a later date. I removed them and never heard a word about it. My teaching is everything is connected so by tuning in we draw that to us directly.

So you are saying that anyone can douse? This puts paid to the stories of the 'gift'being passed from parent to child. Although I suppose it could be taught and not thought of as a sort of sixth sense, or ability to divine. Interesting. My Gran was convinced that my uncle was born with a gift.

I don't think it's everyone who can do it, ren. I've tried to teach a few people, some with and some without success. Either you can do it or you can't. I think it's to something to do with electrical fields in and around the body.

Dave, you said your father does it 'properly' using a pendulum. Although I've never heard of a pendulum being used to divine, I would have to say that any tool that does the job properly (divining or anything else) is the 'proper' tool, so I would consider my bent coat hangers and the results thereof just as proper or valid as any other tools and their results.

Thanks Mags, that's what I always thought.

Psychic powers are like every other ability. We all have them to an extent (I've tested enough people to know that as it's my major interest) but a few are going to be outstanding while others can learn to become a lot better. Pendulum dowsing is just using one hand rather than two, you suspend the string over a map or the ground, ask it for a yes (it then moves in a particular way) to demonstrate the yes response, and then slowly move it the same way as sticks. It then spins over the right location (if that's the yes response that time) and you then go and check. Did I say properly? (apparently so)- I didn't intend to, it's just another way of doing it, all ways are equally valid, it's all based on the results and not the method. I must have meant that he's able to do it, rather than the pendulum was proper. It must have been bedtime (I usually do replies then and screw them up).

My method of tuning in is the same without tools. Tarot cards and crystal balls which I started with tune you in through an intermediate indicator, but after a few Tarot readings I found I could do that without any help. It's the same with dowsing, once you do enough you can ask yourself to find things and the yes response comes inside to tell you. In the end anyone who works on it can gradually find they can do more and more without the props, they are useful but we have it all within ourselves to do.

So David, what you're describing is using psychic ability only, to locate things (water, in this case) rather than electrical fields/magnetic fields/effect of water on a body? (There must be a word for that, but I don't know what it is!) I agree with you that everyone has psychic abilities to some extent, but I'd say mine are no more than the next person's. I would say my ability to locate water comes more from a scientific reason, to do with the pull of water on the body, although I could be wrong. I do know that I couldn't locate underground water without either hangers or a forked twig, I wouldn't have a clue where it is.

Just as an aside, I used to have a dog that knew where water was in the house. If we'd be visiting a friend and he was thirsty, he'd go into the kitchen, sit in front of the sink and give me a look that meant "I need water". I put this down to his ability to smell it, though.

I'm with the "anybody can do it" crowd. I use two straightened out metal coat hangars with a 90 degree angle bent about 6 inches from one end. Then place them loosely parallel and horizontal a few inches apart in front of you with the angled ends placed loosely in your hands. Start walking slowly in any direction if you are looking for a buried water supply line. The rods will move away from each other to be in line with the flowing water or copper pipe. If the rods don't move, change walking direction. You will eventually find that the rods line up with the water line at right angles.
Has something to do with the earth's magnetic field... not sorcery.

Psychic ability is one aspect of science we just haven't learnt to measure yet, but dowsers must all be psychic as you have to ask what you're looking for first otherwise how would it only react to water or electric wires? I'm currently learning about the theory that everything is connected so we are just tuning in to part of something not really separate from us. These abilities are natural, I get total beginners to learn clairvoyance in 10 minutes just as I did, and many are amazed when they can see what's been drawn on a piece of hidden paper or do remote viewing. Dowsing is one aspect of all powers, but because the method is so easily demonstrated is a very good one to start with. But even if psychic using an external indicator is far more clear to use for specific searches than intuition alone, whereas if you're doing a general reading then you can often pick up at least as much with no help at all.

I've been studying around the whole area since leaving college in 1991 when free to do so. There are minor powers which extend known science such as transmission and major powers which hardly anyone claims to do and even harder to get any to demonstrate, which go beyond science like walking through walls. You can't get much further from science than that but all have been claimed at some time. My current example of scientific and beyond are when I know exactly what someone's going to say before they do, which is pure telepathy, and read exactly what they say as they say it on the radio or TV, which is 100% supernatural. I do both equally though so I at least have entered the twilight zone, but one described by all the ancient religions as our true nature. There may be scientific explanations for some dowsing, but if you then get someone to bury a few random items you'll often find them just as easily. If you don't believe me just have a go.

I remember many years ago watching a dowser "find" a water source at my grandmother's cottage. The cottage was about forty feet above the lake, and we used that well for many years before it became contaminated. I have no explanation for it, but it must work as the well functioned for years. I am convinced that people do have abilities we refer to as "supernatural",(above or beyond natural) but I think they are simply talents most of us simply don't use or believe in and consequently don't try.