Blind Dowsing Experiment - Disappointing Results

Experiment Description

On the 20th January 2023 I took nine volunteers to a location on featureless undisturbed moorland where results had been experienced previously using dowsing rods.  For the purpose of this experiment I had marked out a 16 metre square split into quarters. 

Some volunteers brought along their own rods and others were was given a pair of bent welding rods. All participants used simple 'L' shaped metal rods though the size and material varied.

Each dowser walked a pre-defined path through the grid and at the end turned and followed the same track in reverse. The pattern helped disorientate reducing the risk that on the second pass the first pass locations would be remembered. Each time a rod cross was reported the position was measured and recorded by a neutral observer with no feedback given.

Volunteers were kept at a distance until their turn so that they had no knowledge of previous dowsers' responses.

Study Site

This area of moorland is known to have been drained around 1870. The type of drainage is unknown, but it is believed to be either clay tile or mole ploughed. 

If mole ploughed, then it is uncertain whether anything would remain after 150 years; However, there is the possibility that some of the holes made by the mole plough bullet remain functioning as pipes carrying water off the moor. 

The surface is uneven peat covered in tufted grass and soft rush. There is no trace of anything that could give a clue to drainage patterns underneath especially given that it is 150 years since the ground was disturbed.

We do know that the water collects into stone-built culverts running underneath the bottom of dry gullies. These can be seen exposed higher up the moor where collapses have occurred.

Previous Dowsing

This moorland has been walked with dowsing rods on previous occasions and has repeatedly appeared to indicate a 5 by 10 yard grid pattern which recurs over several areas of the moor. No excavations of sufficient depth have taken place to confirm or deny the presence of drains coinciding with rod crosses. These previous studies were random in nature and not recorded in sufficient detail to confirm by repetition.

Ground Conditions

In the weeks prior to the experiment torrential rain had fallen on the area over several days and it is probable that the subsoil was saturated. In the final three days before the experiment sub-zero temperatures were present for most of the day and there had been overnight snow falls. The previous day the sun shone melting most of the snow leaving just a scattering of frozen snow over the study area.

Results

The 9 dowsers’ results were tabulated in 1 metre groupings for both outward and inward walks and unfortunately look no more than random. Not even an individual reacting at the same point in the two passes.

Conclusions and Next Steps

These results are especially disappointing and puzzling as they appear so different to previous visits.

Taken as a single test this would suggest that dowsing simply does not work as results were completely random. However, on previous exercises a great deal of commonality was seen between individual dowsers and results had been repeatable. 

My personal thinking is that if dowsing works, it does so by detecting one material contained within another, e.g. pipes of all materials and contents or cables running though soil, concrete etc. The popular connection of dowsing and water is looking for underground channels where water passes through rock, clay, sand etc. 

Could it be that the drainage is mole ploughed but the level of saturation of the ground on this occasion has disguised the difference between a tube of water in a ‘soft’ earth pipe and the saturated peat around it? 

It would be great to repeat this experiment after a dry period.