The Water Witch

[Mailman]

I knew this fellow that bought a property on a piece of unincorporated land in Prescott Az. He wanted to dig a well and the locals all recommended a local well known water witch.
Well my friend , a man of science scoffed at the idea and hired not one but two professional geological survey companies that specialize in locating water. Both companies came out and did extensive surveys and studies and both came back with the same findings. There is no water under your property, thank you very much, please pay your bill.
Out of desperation more than anything else, he turned to the water witch. The old man showed up with his stick, walked around the property for about 20 minutes and pointed to a spot on the ground and said " You have two underground streams that converge on this spot, place your well here and you'll have all the water you can use."

So he did, and the old man was right. He had the best flowing well in the whole area.
He told me if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he never would've believed it.
My grandfather was a Missouri farmer born in the late 1800's, and my dad told me how he watched him locate water the same way. By cutting a fresh willow branch and walking around with it until it pulled downward.
There has to be some kind of science to all this. These are just two of many of these stories I've heard.

 

[TimeMachine]

Ya, and "spontaneous combustion" stories are just as mysterious ?

 

[TimeMachine]

Isn't it also known how some animals know where to dig for water ?

 

[Downeaster]

All I know is my experience with water witching.

I had a small tractor with a backhoe on it at the time. Feller wanted me to come over and dig up his old well head. He'd had a new well drilled for the house but wanted to reactivate the old one for watering his garden.

He "witched" the location and scuffed a mark in the ground with his heel and said "Dig here".

I did, and about 3 feet later dug up his sewer line.

Rinse and repeat. I dug three holes in three different places and hit PVC each time. We never did find his well. He was not happy, and was even less happy when I handed him the bill for my time.

 

[TimeMachine]

Thats Super funny !

 

[Mailman]

That IS funny!

 

[mrtwowheel]

My dad bought a building lot that had been a corn field for years. Without any prior experience he walked around the property with divining rods made from wire coat hangers. Soon he had the property mapped out where it had been tiled for drainage.

Scott

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Mailman,
just because nobody knows how dowsing works don't mean that it don't, eh?
Like HTF do geese know where to go when they migrate?
Some bright lad worked out that the geese could sense the earth's magnetic field.
Well, they showed that the geese that had little magnets attached to their wings got lost a lot easier than those that didn't.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I'd been curious about "Dowsing" for millennia, and had a chance to take a course about 10 years ago, with about a dozen folks. Fascinating course, with more malarky than you could stand, including all sorts of witch-doctor waving wand contraptions, and a handful of sciency attempts to explain it all.

I tried the various gizmos and gadgets, but settled on my own bent brass rods.

At the end of the course, the instructor took us out to a large 60 acre field, and turned us loose to see what we could get. I trundled off, wandering aimlessly about with my bent rods. After a time, those rods did their thing, and either spread, or crossed. What a bizarre sensation! I made note of where those events occurred, and eventually worked my way back to the starting area.

After everybody regathered, the instructor asked what folks found. When he got to me, I reported the spots where I got 'hits', and that they seemed to form a pair of lines. His response, "Congratulations, you're the only one to find those". One of the 'lay lines' was a known fault line, the other was buried power lines.

Wow.

Two days later I get an urgent call from one of the local ranchers. Seems that he's been trying to find water on one of his 700 acre pastures, and wants to hire me to dowse the area. I tell him that I haven't a clue what I'm doing, I just finished the course. (Turns out that the instructor was spreading the word).

Well, this adventure gets a bit long-winded. Maybe later...

 

[Mailman]

I'd love to hear it if you ever feel like telling it.
I find this stuff interesting. Like I said at the beginning I've heard many stories on this and they always fascinate me.

 

[nj1639]

I've played around with it a bit for locating water supply lines, buried electrical and catv lines.....'course I knew they were around there somewhere.........never witched for water as I've got a couple of springs on the property, though now I'm inspired to see if there might be a hidden cistern up on the ridge.
I was always suspect of the rods being manipulated to turn by subtle tilting of the hands, and anyone who has tried witching with rods know what I mean. I had even cut a couple of pieces of hollow Dow rod for the hand held ends to float in. When you have nothing to gain or prove the results are interesting.

Mysterious world, and now they're linking solar activity to earthquakes. Don't want to get off topic about witching but sometimes lights are seen in pre earthquake zones. I've played around making arrowheads and flint tools. Part of the knapping process is prepping the tools edge for the next round of flaking. Rubbing the flint with a harder stone preps the edge, and, generates light on the edge of the flint while rubbing.

More stories please!

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Hay 2M ! I knew there was something special about you ! you have an open mind ! Good deal !
I don't want to distract you Please continue your story I'ed like to hear it too !
but in all of my Youth I was fastenated by water dousing my Grandfather showed me how to do it and appart from getting the willow branch on the night of the full moon it worked just fine for me..... I later saw the dousing rod's being used and wondered how they could work... made some and had good success with them as well.... I doused our 20 acre Ranch from end to end several times and found springs we didn't even know we had!
the theory.... I subscribe to ,on how it works is fairly simple, the earth is showing a magnetic flow from pole to pole even through the ground we walk on
when water flows in that ground it cast a shadow in the magnetic field....that goes upward out of the planet . as you walk over it YOU, not the rods or stick in your hands react to the shadow.... I have doused water for years and have really good luck with it... it really does work and it's not wichcraft it's how our bodies react!
...... FWIW
Bob.........

 

[Mailman]

I could buy into the earths magnetism theory.
I'm really a man of science at heart. I really do believe that most things have a basis in scientific fact, not some weird juju. Haha

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Well Maginitisum passes through just about anything... and animals can feel it and we're animals too so......
when I'm dousing I try very hard to hold the devining rods perfectly level as I walk along the rods usually both at the same time swing towards each other and together , now weather or not that is maginisum on the rods or not I seriously doubt it because even with a stick ( it don't have to be willow and a fork bent into a cirly-q to unsmap and hit ya in the stomach ! ) I think our bodies react to the shadow or concentration of the magnetic field
Or maybe it's a 6th sense I dunno ! but I know not everyone can do it... which is kind'a weird ! I'm 3/4 spysic as well , so maybe that has somethng to do with it. all I know is that I can do it fairly well every time I try.... too often to be just luck.... and yes I used this method several times to find sewer lines in the yard ! or water lines ! ..... i even found a 6ft barried pipe with no water flowing through it...dry as a bone.... so maybe metal cast a shadow as well ???
one thing for certain...... I do not understand all I know about it !!! LOL
Bob..........

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...you have an open mind ! Good deal !

Hey, Bob. Thanx. Most out here call me borderline 'gullible'. You oughta see all the snakeoil I've collected.

... I later saw the dousing rod's being used and wondered how they could work... made some and had good success with them as well....
the theory.... I subscribe to ,on how it works is fairly simple, ...YOU, not the rods or stick in your hands react ... it's how our bodies react!

That's it, Bob. Hadn't really thought about it like that, but you're right. The rods (or stick, or whatever) are simply the indicator, like the needle of the speedo. The body is the actual detector. I, as well as many others, were transfixed on the action of the rods, thinking that THEY were doing the detection thing.

My dowsing field kit. Two brass rods, and a pack of marker flags.


My preferred holding technique. The rods are supported at the bottom with my little finger, vertical part rests in the inside fold of a knuckle. Very little resistance to movement, quite sensitive.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

i like 1/2" PVC pipe and caps for handles drill a hole just a tad bigger than the rod ( i like copper better than brass) point the handle end of the rod and put a small hole in the bottom cap for the point to rest in.... less friction than being held in the hand....
whe I walk I consentrate on where I'm walking first... rattle snakes being nasty to step on but mainly on keeping my hands level when I get a hit I back off and go over the same area again... then back off and do it from a diferent angle..... usually you can find the line of the reflection going off in a direction that way..... I heard from an old timer when I was younger that he used dousing to find gold he said that's how he found his dirt to pan out.....
we have some gold on our 20 acre ranch but I can't find it with the dousing rods...only by panning the creeks, but it is scarse !
its a very interesting thing that's for sure....but I do know it works !
Bob.......

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... dousing to find gold ...

Uh-oh. Now you dunnit.

The Spaniards harvested gold from this area back in the 1500's.
For sure they didn't get it all.

Now I'll never get to sleep...

 

[Bob Kelly III]

take your wife's gold chain and lay it on the ground and see if you can detect it ...... but for gods sake don't loose it !
i can detect a tow chain...... found our lost one that way ! LOL still hooked to the bush we were going top pull out with the cat ! HAHAHHA!
most metal burried will show up..... its far better than a metal detector and far more sensitive if you practice.....
but the problem is you'll have good days and bad days..... I don't know if Booze helps or hinders but stumbling around can't help being steady with the hands ! but maybe a few beers would loosen ya up enough to where it helps magnify the shadows eh ????
have a beer and go gold prospecting ! ....... But Honny I need it for my gold hunting "Thump !" no really ! "thump ,thump ! " LOL
I could just see that ! HAHAHAHAHAH!
.... hay do you think I should re set those floats in the bike to 22m from 27mm ?
....
Bob.........

 

[TimeMachine]

Being neither or a scientist nor a phsycic I doubt there is an actual explanation. But I can walk in the high desert and "feel" my way around the topography and find an arrowhead far more easily than most people. If you put your mind to it and reason you'd be amazed what you can find ? Wish I lived in Gold country ! -RT

 

[Bob Kelly III]

LOL your more psycic than you realise..TM !!!! I'm sure ! your talking about tuneing in to your suroundings.... a trate few people have or care about
...how much indian blood do you have in you ? my great, great grandmother was full blooded cherokey... i bet your not far off of that ! hehehehe
infact I could get "Indian Money from the goverment " if my grandparents wern't so ashamed of it that they did away with the family bible that was the only proof ! LOL.....
that's a nice find there ! can you imagen the skill that man had to make that arrowhead ? how many thousands of hours he had worked stone so he could make them with that percision ? I've made arrowheads but they do not look that good by any means they have the rough shape but that's about all ! that is perfection out of STONE....its amazing !
at our 20 acre Ranch near Redding ca. there were 3 Hogans built by the indians many many years ago they were just holes in the ground
but I told my teacher about them and all the arrow heads we had found over the years and he came out and identified them for me
that was really neet..... it wasn't on our property but back behind us on unused land there was a year round spring there and next to the water a hole in the stone where for generations Mom indian ground up acorns while Dad was off hunting.... stuff like that really is neet !
and Dinosaur footprints too about 10 miles away another neet place I found on my bike ! told my biology teacher about it and the next year we had a field trip to the place ! HAHAHAHHAHAH!
while we lived in Fernley, NV. for about 15 years you could look out the window and see the shoreline of the acient inland sea that used to be there millions of years ago.... and fosselized seashells all over the place ! . kind'a Kool!!!!!!
....the More I learn about this world the less I find I know ! LOL
C ya !
Bob.........