Early divination and religion libri XII''" book Dowsing originated in ancient times, when it was treated as a form of
divination. The
Catholic Church banned the practice completely.
Protestant Reformer Martin Luther perpetuated the Catholic ban, in 1518 listing divining for metals as an act that broke the
first commandment (i.e., as
occultism). Old texts about searching for water do not mention using the divining twig, and the first account of this practice was in 1568.
Sir William F. Barrett wrote in his 1911 book
Psychical Research that: In 1662, divining with rods was declared to be "
superstitious, or rather
satanic" by a
Jesuit,
Gaspar Schott, though he later noted that he was not sure that the
devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod. In southern France in the 17th century, it was used to track criminals and
heretics. Its abuse led to a decree of the
inquisition in 1701, forbidding its employment for purposes of justice. An
epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from
Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick (1651) runs thus:
Modern dowsing Dowsing practices used in an attempt to locate
metals are still performed much like they were during the 16th century. The 1550 edition of
Sebastian Münster's
Cosmographia contains a
woodcut of a dowser with forked rod in hand walking over a cutaway image of a mining operation. The rod is labeled in Latin and German; "
– " ('Rod Divine, Luck-Rod'), but there is no text accompanying the woodcut. By 1556,
Georgius Agricola's treatment of mining and
smelting of
ore,
De Re Metallica, included a detailed description of dowsing for metal ore. In the 16th century, German deep mining technology was in enormous demand all over Europe.
German miners were licensed to live and work in England, particularly in the
Stannaries (tin mines) of
Devon and
Cornwall and in
Cumbria. In other parts of England, the technique was used in the royal mines for
calamine. By 1638 German miners were recorded using the technique in silver mines in Wales. The
Middle Low German name for a forked stick (Y-rod) was ('striking rod'). This was translated in the sixteenth century Cornish dialect to ( according to William Barrett). By the seventeenth century the English term
dowsing was coming into common use. Towards the end of the century, in 1691 the philosopher
John Locke, who was born in the English
West Country, used the term
deusing-rod for the
Old Latin name . So,
dowse is synonymous with
strike, hence the phrases: to
dowse/
strike a light, to
dowse/
strike a sail. Dowsing was conducted in
South Dakota in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to help
homesteaders, farmers and ranchers locate water wells on their property. The military have occasionally resorted to dowsing techniques. In the
First World War Gallipoli campaign,
sapper Stephen Kelly, of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, Australian Expeditionary Force, became well known for finding water for the British troops. In the late 1960s during the
Vietnam War, some
United States Marines used dowsing when locating weapons and tunnels. As late as in 1986, when 31 soldiers were taken by an
avalanche during an operation in the
NATO drill Anchor Express in
Vassdalen, Norway, the
Norwegian army attempted to locate soldiers buried in the avalanche using dowsing as a search method. Dowsing is still used by some farmers and water engineers in Britain; however, many of the country's utilities have distanced themselves from the practice.
Postulated mechanisms Early attempts at an explanation of dowsing were based on the notion that the divining rod was physically affected by emanations from substances of interest. The following explanation is from
William Pryce's 1778
Mineralogia Cornubiensis: A study towards the end of the 19th century concluded that the phenomenon was attributed to
cryptaesthesia, where the practitioner makes unconscious observations of the terrain and involuntarily influences the movement of the rod. Early investigations by members of the
Society for Psychical Research endorsed this view. Committed
parapsychologist G. N. M. Tyrrell also believed that the action of the rod was caused by involuntary muscular movements and debunked the theory of external influences. Dowsing over maps, prior to visiting the site, was also believed to work, hence some kind of
clairvoyance was proposed. This was believed to act on the
nervous system, rather than on the muscles directly. These various mechanisms remain in contention among dowsers. In consequence of these frauds, in 1999 the United States National Institute of Justice issued advice against buying equipment based on dowsing. ==Equipment==