/This fork is reserved for experiences of other posters
Does this "fork" thing actually work?
Testing your results in a modern cemetery would not work. Settlers didn't bury people 6 feet deep in a nice padded coffin.
I have tried dowsing with mixed results. I can find the water line that I know is there but the ones I don't know about elude me.
Our City Cemetery caretaker uses 2 metal rods with a 90° bend to find unmarked graves. He is very good with them and it seams to work. He says he can tell if it is a man or woman by the left or right rod movement. We have tested him by covering head stones. He gets it right about 90% of the time. They don't work for me.
Mike
I realize that there are phenomena in this world that we have yet to solve.
Various aspects of quantum mechanics, entanglement for example, really do not fit in with what we are taught about our world.
I think it would be possible, if the search area was limited to a small area. Problem is... the only way to verify would be to dig...
Well, here I offer you some helpful tips about how to actually go about locating graves for your ALTA survey and out of the blue you indicate that the ankle bracelet you're required to wear will throw a metal detector off. How were we to know that this was why you were looking into dowsing in the first place?
/This fork is reserved for experiences of other posters
Some years ago my father and I needed to find a buried plastic water line that ran into the barn. Now he is an educated man (M.S.) and likewise not given to whimsy and moonbeams. But back to the house he went and returned with one wire coat hanger, which we adjusted into a right angle. He held it loosely in his hand, and as he crossed where we later found the water line to be, the wire turned to be parallel with the direction of the water line.
I thought this whole thing must surely be shenanigans, until I was able to replicate it myself at a separate section of the water line.
I remain dumbfounded. I leave water line dowsing ability off my resume.
Have you tested him in a cemetery for which he is not the caretaker?
Folklore, pure folklore. I find it hard to believe that person of science, as a surveyor is supposed to be, would believe something that has been proven by double-blind tests to be bunk.
> Just when you think you've heard it all... along comes dowsing for dead people. SMH!
Is that like bowling for soup? 🙂
> Have you tested him in a cemetery for which he is not the caretaker?
haha !!! exactly.
When you watch it work, you are left with only a few alternatives.
1.)Assume it was a hoax and that the dowser already had inside knowledge of the location of the buried object.
2.)Assume it was plain old fashioned luck.
3.)Believe your eyes - despite what people say about double blind tests and million dollar prizes.
For me, the fact that the dowser is my father (who happens to be an LS), lends credibility to the phenomena.
I don’t think you’re tracking very well on this thread; however I can see how you’d be a bit punchy after working in the hot Tejas sun all day next to the exhaust port of your Acme Weiner Dog Divining Rod/Excavation tool.
A noble use for such a noble beast, but once you’re right with the law and back at the school bus stop perhaps you can glean enough lunch money to get you one of those fancy e-lec-tronic metal locators you've dreamed of for the dowsing part of your field operations. It will save you having to swap dogs out halfway through the day.
> Mike,
>
> I think the preferred method of correcting the head stone monument would be to either set one of your own next to the existing one, (two, three, twenty, or however many) OR if it is SLIGHTLY in the way you could drill a hole in the top where the true centroid is located.
>
> Geezer
You're correct Geez IF you are locating graves in accordance to the BLM manual, which I am. The family is out in the garage chiseling new monuments right now. This weekend we'll take the Tommy Lift and set new ones exactly where they should be and hammer the others below grade.
This begs the question...
Of just HOW do the dowsing rods KNOW what it is you're looking for?
Can a dowser please explain that?
This begs the question...
I know!
It's just like the thermos. The thermos can keep hot things hot or cold things cold, but...how does it know?
Don
This begs the question...
I worked in -20 degree wind chill last week. You'd understand in those temps.
Seriously, though, Andy
It's not the rods.
Like Lee Trevino once said about golf clubs:
"It's not the arrows, it's the Indian."
Don
Seriously, though, Andy
Dowsers or witchers tell me that
"It's a natural reaction in the body's central nervous system, to the water below"
Now, if you are dowsing for a grave, what is your central nervous system reacting to?
Hmmmm
I assume that you're posting in the third person again. I guess that tracking bracelet on your ankle is part of the reason. Really, though, if it throws off a metal detector enough that you couldn't use it to pick up change dropped around parking meters and bus stops, I feel certain that a fellow of your abilities could probably collect enough roadside aluminum cans in a couple of days to finance the purchase of a good tile probe. The custom-made model that I use would probably be something to eventually aspire to, but for now don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Seriously, though, Andy
If it's not the rods, how come some people can't do it?
Clearly it's all complete BS. Until it's scientifically proven, that is my take on the whole deal.
Seriously, though, Andy
Ummm, then why do they even need to use twigs?