"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
On 30/4/07 16:41, in article , "Roy
Omond" wrote:

Sacha wrote:
On 30/4/07 15:41, in article
,
"Des Higgins" wrote:

snip


www.randi.org is not reachable for me either (from Dubbelin). Maybe
the
name is too close to sounding like a dodgy site?

You are a very skeptical man Roy. Next you'll be tellin me you do not
believe in ghosts or horrorscopes.

Des


People for whom dowsing doesn't work don't believe it because they
haven't
experienced it. I'm told that Randi Wotsit hedges his bets so carefully
it's impossible for anyone to win the money, even if they wanted to take
part. Dowsers have been around for centuries, finding water, minerals
and
in the case of one I know, lost jewellery!

Excellent Sacha! So you'd be willing to do a test to show it works ?
Or even put forward your best "dowser", if you can't do it ?

Show it works, how? If you mean walk along a line until the twig bends
showing there's water, anyone who can dowse and dig can do that for you.

And we can leave Randi out of it for the moment, though I'm sure you
wouldn't say "no" to the $1,000,000 (that's 1 *million*), once you show
it works.

You're wrong. I think this sort of thing is a gift that a lot of people
have but some either can't or don't want to use but I don't think it's
something to turn into a publicity circus.

Seems simple to me to come up with a mutually agreeable test protocol.

P.s. it's been tried before ... *many* times, and no-one has ever done
it. [Mrs Doyle voice] Ah, go on, go on, go on ... [/Mrs Doyle voice]

Please let me know, and we (the UK Skeptics) can arrange tests.

P.p.s. would you like to suggest which mechanism, in your view, would
be in play for dowsing to work ?

I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps in 50 years or 10 years or 100 years,
we'll know why some people react and some don't. All I know is that it
works. I really can't understand why it exercises people so much - it's a
perfectly natural thing that's been around forever. One well digger I
knew
was a dowser, too and made his living from finding water for people and
digging for it. To him and to his customers, it was perfectly
straightforward. I'm quite genuine when I say that I can't see what the
fuss is about.


Lots and lots of things work and work very well as far as people can tell
like Horrorscopes, Goat Entrails, Lucky Shoes, Homeopathy, Lay Lines,
Mystical Properties of Crop Circles etc. UNTIL you formally test them.
To test, you need to measure if you do better than random and the testee
must not know the answer.
Lots of people sink wells without dowsing. The main principle is usually to
sink a pipe until you hit water. In Ireland, that usually works sooner or
later.
If you dowse and find water then it looks magic. If you do not dowse and
find water, no one notices.

Des




--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)
Devon County Show 17-19 May
http://www.devoncountyshow.co.uk/