It is often used to look for water, and farmers in California have been known to ask dowsers to find ways to irrigate their land. Yet despite many anecdotal reports of success, dowsing has never been shown to work in controlled scientific tests.

What do dowsing rods detect?

In water divining, dowsers use two rods or a single forked stick to detect underground water sources. They believe that when they walk over a water source, the rods will spontaneously cross or the stick will suddenly jerk downward.

How do you test dowsing?

In the classic method of using a forked stick, one fork is held in each hand with the palms upward . The bottom or butt end of the "Y" is pointed skyward at an angle of about 45°. The dowser than walks back and forth over the area to be tested .