The Science of the Paranormall
Dowsing
Dowsing is the "mysterious ability" of people to find or "sense" the (usually) underground presence of substances and objects. Dowsing is not "mysterious" at all, however. It is Simple Physics.! Those who are Skeptical about ordinary Dowsing simply do not know enough about it.
It is no co-incidence that what dowsers do can also be done with a device used by Geologists and Archaeologists called the "Photon Magnetometer". This device is able to measure minute changes in local geomagnetic fields and thus be able to find water, mineral deposits and buried foundations and even postholes. It is obvious that the dowser is a human who is able to detect these fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field without the aid of a magnetometer. But how can he do that? The photon magnetometer is a sophisticated, sensitive instrument. The dowser appears to use only a pendulum, a forked stick or a pair of "L- rods".
Obviously, a forked stick is not sensitive to subtle magnetic field variations---Something ELSE is involved.---But of Course ! the actual Sensor is the dowser's own brain. The brain is an electrochemical biological device. It is full of microscopically fine electrical circuits. Magnetism has the ability to alter the flow of electrons (electricity), thus it stands to reason that changes in one's magnetic environment will affect the way in which electric current flows in the brain. Obviously, the effect is so slight as to be practically unnoticeable, but there ARE changes. These changes affect, primarily, our sense of limb position and muscle tension. The dowser's tools simply amplify these effects so that they can be seen. The "L-rods", for example, indicate when the dowser's wrists rotate slightly, while he is trying to hold them in a vertical position. Passing through a magnetic anomaly causes the dowser to "feel" that his wrists are moving out of position, so he unconsciously compensates--causing the rods to move. The forked stick (tension spring) works in a similar fashion, the slight movement in the wrists causes a big movement in the stick. The wrist movement can also change the plane of oscillation in a hand held pendulum.
Thus there is NOTHING really "paranormal" about ordinary dowsing, it is just a obscure natural principle that seems "magical" somehow--as is MOST of what we call "paranormal".
Map dowsing
As we have seen above , common dowsing makes use of familiar Scientific principles. Map dowsing, on the other hand has a more "paranormal" aspect. Here the dowser will take a MAP of the search area, run his pendulum across it and find the location of what he is looking for on the map. The magnetic field theory won't work in this case. What is going on in the case of map dowsing, appears to be a kind of "psychic" reading where the map is a focusing device and the pendulum is being used as a "Psychic Amplifier"---see ESP amplifiers.
--- To be continued later---