I don't appreciate having words put in my mouth. I did not say Einstein's
opinion should not impress anybody; I said his opinion about dowsing was no
better than anybody else's, since he had made no special study of the matter
at all. Indeed, all he said in the quote what that he couldn't say how it
could possibly work, except to speculate on unknown mechanisms.
The fact that dowsing does not work is well documented. But again, if you
are so certain it works, you should be taking advantage of Randi's offer.
It's a simple enough test.
I have held dowsing rods and walked around with them. I learned nothing,
except how easily they wave around. I do say, dowsing doesn't work for
locating anything, unless you already know where it is. To show the power of
the unconscious, you can mark a spot and walk around with the rods, and
observe that they cross when you are over the marked spot (it doesn't matter
what it is- a coin, or piece of tape). But when you do it blindfolded, the
rods don't cross over the object. It is your brain that is working, not the
rods.
If you want to dowse for meteorites, go ahead. That will leave more to be
found by people who prefer to use actual, proven technological methods.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2010 1:17 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] You Naysaying Denialists Are All Wrong,Dowsing
Works!
First off, let me say that all you naysaying dowser denialists need to get
off your high horses, come down from your ivory towers and enter the realm
of simple, reproducible, empirical evidence-based experimental scientific
methodology instead of parroting dogmatic drivel and appealing to the
authority of idiots. I don't think I've ever seen such a display of
psuedo-intellectual arrogance and phony elitism in my life. (Well, ok,
once or twice I have). I never thought I'd live to see the day a List
member would speak thusly of St. Albert, {1} and I quote C.P. : "His
opinion should not impress anybody". {2} As if the puny intellect of
anyone here is but the beginnings of a pimple on the left butt cheek of
Albert Einstein.
The dowser denialist nattering nabobs of negativity owe an apology to
Warren Sansoucie, (also known as Warren Peace), his dad, my dad, grandad
and greatgrandpa (three generations {3} of dowsers and damn proud of it),
and to all the nameless, faceless and voiceless dowsing utility workers
and plumbers everywhere. And a shout-out and word of thanks to that voice
in the wilderness counseling rationality and scientific method, Dr. Vann
from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking of experimental scientific method, I would like to propose a
simple, reproducible experiment that can be performed by any genius,
near-genius, idiot or near-idiot. Now, before shooting off your mouth and
saying: " That Joshua Tree Museum guy knows not of what he speaketh!"
please take an hour or so and do this experiment. Trust me, you will be
amazed.
I will bet dollars to doughnuts that not a single one of the vociferous,
self-important dowser denialists has ever actually dowsed. Your ignorance
is revealed by your words. When I say dowsing, I'm not talking about that
flakey New Age, divinatory, radiesthesia, occult crap. I'm talking about
an objective, observable, factual phenomenon that anyone can see with
their own two eyes. (Unless they're doing it as an actual blind
experiment and are blind-folded.)
Get yourself a pair of L-shaped divining rods. {4} Any kind of bendable
wire will work. I used the first thing I found laying around the shop and
it works perfectly. For purposes of balance, hold the longer part of the
L-shaped rod in your hands with the shorter part projecting forward, or
vice-versa, whatever works for you. The rods must be gripped properly for
this to work. They must be held loosely so they can move freely of their
own accord. If you grip them too tightly, the experiment won't work.
This is the traditional closed-fist grip:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x177/cyphor79/closed-fist.jpg
I came up with this one myself, I call it the claw-hammer:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x177/cyphor79/claw-hammer.jpg
Hold the rods parallel to each other and parallel to the ground. Now for
the fun part: hold the rods over a large iron meteorite, {5}and watch them
cross all by themselves. Approach the meteorite from a different angle and
watch as the rods cross as if by magic. It's as simple as that. You may
have to get down close to the meteorite (depending on the type), for the
rods to cross. Campos, Sikhote-Alines, Diablos and Gibeons will make the
rods cross vigorously and quickly. Muonions will make the rods cross very
slowly. I had my wife and mother-in-law try it and the rods crossed for
them. Oddly, the rods wouldn't cross over one single Campo out of 10
tested. I got no reaction out of pallasites, including a Seymchan that is
mostly iron. The rods wouldn't cross over the few stone NWAs that I
tested. Tomorrow I'm going to test more meteorites and shoot some video of
the experiment.
I then tested a pyrite meteorwrong, a big slab of float copper, and a
dozen or so large crystal cluster with no reaction. I held the rods over
an iron corn stove and they crossed so hard they almost jumped out of my
hands. I walked outside and held the rods over a steel wheel, an iron
fence, several cars, and a pile of scrap iron, each time they crossed
without any help from me. I walked over to a fire hydrant and they crossed
over it. I walked around the hydrant and they crossed over the underground
pipe. I could see the pipe cover in the middle of the street. I walked out
to it and crossed over the underground pipe several times, each time the
rods crossed. Two kids walking a dog asked me what I was doing. I
explained about dowsing and the underground pipe. I asked them to try it.
Sure enough the rods crossed when they passed over the pipe. I then went
up to the gas meter and could detect the underground pipe going out from
the building, under the parking lot and could follow it as it ran between
the street and sidewalk. I then went back into the building and with the
rods I could tell you exactly where the gas, water and sewer pipes are.
I'm going to try this with some blind-folded people tomorrow.
I would like to ask each and every naysayer to try this simple experiment,
then come on the List and publicly tell me it doesn't work. I had four
people try it and it worked for all of them. This is one of the coolest
things I have ever done. I'm totally into it and will be conducting
several more dowsing experiments. All I ask is that you try it yourself
before running your mouth about something you know nothing about. I was
very skeptical until I actually tried it. I honestly didn't think it
would work. I can assure you it does. Anyone can detect underground pipes
with two pieces of wire. You don't need any fancy-dancy equipment to do
it.
And I looked into the Amazing Kreskin's offer. I thought this would be the
easiest million bucks you could possibly make. Amazing Randi is running
a complete con and total publicity scam. It's rigged so nobody can get
past the preliminary tests. If I can detect underground pipes my first
day, there must be thousands of real dowsers that can do it. Try it, it's
easy and it's amazing.
Seriously, I want all the deniers to try dowsing over any large iron or
steel metallic object, buried or on the surface, meteoritic or
anthropogenic, and then tell me honestly it doesn't work. I know it will
be hard to eat crow with all the mouthing off and some of you will be
unable to admit you were totally wrong. The honest ones will swallow their
pride and agree that once again Einstein was right and you mere mortals
were wrong. Dowsing works and nobody knows why. It surely has something to
do with the Earth's magnetic field. The rods are obviously amplifying
minute muscular movements but what is causing the unconscious reactions
and why?
I still am not sure about dowsing for water, but I have no doubt about
dowsing iron. I don't see why this principle can't be applied to hunting
for large iron meteorites.
Phil Whitmer
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