Dowsing

[JahaRa]

*Sigh*

That's not how this works.... I'm not going to explain how scientific investigation works except to say it DOESN'T work by one person trying it themselves.

I'm outta this thread, the discussion is pointless. You can go on hoping, believing, and moving goalposts and stuff. Whatever.

Yes, a good thesis being proven to be correct or incorrect requires funding in order to get peer reviewed analysis of the results, and no one is going to fund that kind of experimentation. And it is true, anectdotes are not proof of anything except that people believe something. Independently many have experimented with dowsing and found it to be a useful tool. It doesn't matter if it is scientifally accepted for them, but that doesn't mean their experiments were unscinetific if they kept logs of the data and had different people using the dowsing rods in different kinds of terrain.

 

[Coal]

Its ok to have your beliefs even if other don't agree with them.

"Well, you know, some people believe that they're Napoleon. That's fine. Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth." Bill Hicks

 

[Carl Grove]

Its ok to have your beliefs even if other don't agree with them. But it is also ok for others to have their beliefs. You don't have to agree with them. I have seen dowsing work, and I was raised in a religion that said anything unexplainable, whether helpful or hurtful is the work of the devil. But I am a thinker and I grew up and over the years I have given up my anger at those who insiste everyone is wrong because... I realized some need what ever belief they cling to just to function in this crazy world. Most of my beliefs are in a realm that even new agers don't want to go. It is how I understand my place in this world and everyone has to have that, a way to understand their place in a human body on planet earth.

Quite right. As far as dowsing is concerned, we need to get away from the ideas of "occult practices", "belief" and the like and just treat dowsing as we do any poorly understood phenomenon that requires systematic study and sound research. Both the New Age folk and the Sceptics have taken on board notions about personal powers and other worldly manifestations, instead of forgetting these and just using systematic experimentation. How lucky it is that Reddish was totally ignorant of the subject and started his studies from scratch, just employing the knowledge he had gained from astrophysics and applying standard procedures of observation and measurement.

 

[Carl Grove]

"Well, you know, some people believe that they're Napoleon. That's fine. Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth." Bill Hicks

As I said in my previous post, let's forget about "belief" and concentrate first on determining the facts!

 

[JahaRa]

"Well, you know, some people believe that they're Napoleon. That's fine. Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth." Bill Hicks

Yep.

 

[JahaRa]

Quite right. As far as dowsing is concerned, we need to get away from the ideas of "occult practices", "belief" and the like and just treat dowsing as we do any poorly understood phenomenon that requires systematic study and sound research. Both the New Age folk and the Sceptics have taken on board notions about personal powers and other worldly manifestations, instead of forgetting these and just using systematic experimentation. How lucky it is that Reddish was totally ignorant of the subject and started his studies from scratch, just employing the knowledge he had gained from astrophysics and applying standard procedures of observation and measurement.

Yes, my dad went through that when my uncle and his friend showed him that it worked, he tested it and then used it when it was useful. He had two college degrees, one in geology and one in ecconomics. It isn't being a scientist (geologist) that keeps someone from labeling something they don't want to understand as occult, it is fear or religious beliefs or stubborness as one with a scientific mind is curious and willing to investigate anything that interests him or her. So, it seems it would be more appropriate to say something like "I don't believe that is useful and I am not interested in that" than saying "it is occult".

 

[rpkemp]

Seems to be working for this chap in Bratislava ...