To search for underground water, minerals, etc, using a divining rod.
From Wikipedia:
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials without the use of scientific apparatus.
Dowsing is also known as divining (especially in reference to interpretation of results), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum) or (when searching specifically for water) water finding, water witching (in the United States) or water dowsing.
A Y-shaped twig or rod, or two L-shaped ones—individually called a dowsing rod, divining rod (Latin: virgula divina or baculus divinatorius), "vining rod", or witching rod—are sometimes used during dowsing, although some dowsers use other equipment or no equipment at all. Dowsing appears to have arisen in the context of Renaissance magic in Germany and it remains popular among believers in Forteana or radiesthesia.
The motion of dowsing rods is now generally attributed to the ideomotor response. The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. In less complex terms, dowsing rods only move due to accidental or involuntary movements of the person using it.
As early as 1518 Martin Luther listed dowsing for metals as an act that broke the first commandment (i.e., as occultism).
The Middle Low German name for a forked stick (Y-rod) was schlag-ruthe (striking rod). This was translated in the 16th century Cornish dialect to duschen (Middle English, to strike or fall).
In 1691 the philosopher John Locke, who was born in the West Country, used the term deusing-rod for the old Latin name virgula divina. So, dowse is synonymous with strike, hence the phrases: to dowse/strike a light, to dowse/strike a sail.
In 1662, dowsing was declared to be "superstitious, or rather satanic" by a Jesuit, Gaspar Schott, though he later noted that he wasn't sure that the devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod. In the South of France in the 17th century it was used in tracking criminals and heretics. Its abuse led to a decree of the inquisition in 1701, forbidding its employment for purposes of justice.
A study towards the end of the nineteenth century concluded that the phenomenon was attributed to cryptesthesia, whereby the practitioner made unconscious observations of the terrain and involuntarily influenced the movement of the rod.
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.
In the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, some United States Marines used dowsing to attempt to locate 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 by water engineers in the UK.
Traditionally, the most common dowsing rod is a forked (Y-shaped) branch from a tree or bush. Some dowsers prefer branches from particular trees, and some prefer the branches to be freshly cut. Hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel in the United States are traditionally commonly chosen, as are branches from willow or peach trees. The two ends on the forked side are held one in each hand with the third (the stem of the Y) pointing straight ahead. Often the branches are grasped palms down. The dowser then walks slowly over the places where he suspects the target (for example, minerals or water) may be, and the dowsing rod is expected to dip, incline or twitch when a discovery is made. This method is sometimes known as "willow witching".
Many dowsers today use a pair of simple L-shaped metal rods. One rod is held in each hand, with the short arm of the L held upright, and the long arm pointing forward. When something is "found", the rods cross over one another. If the object is long and straight, such as a water pipe, the rods may point in opposite directions, showing its orientation. The rods may be fashioned from wire coat hangers or wire flags used for locating utilities. Glass or plastic rods have also been accepted. Straight rods are also sometimes used for the same purposes, and were not uncommon in early 19th-century New England.
Dowsing studies from the early 20th century were examined by geologist John Walter Gregory in a report for the Smithsonian Institution. Gregory concluded that the results were a matter of chance or explained by observations from ground surface clues.
Science writer Peter Daempfle has noted that when dowsing is subjected to scientific testing, it fails. Daempfle has written that although some dowsers claim success, this can be attributed to the underground water table being distributed relatively uniformly in certain areas.
Dowsing is considered a pseudoscience and there is no scientific evidence that it is any more effective than random chance, and dowsers often achieve good results because random chance has a high probability of finding water in favourable terrain.
ed note: My father has seen a water witch in action in rural California.
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