Talk to me about "water witching" for a well

[jason_mazzy]

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I have personally seen it done, on my property, by an old black utility worker. I had a water main break on an old 1940's steel pipe. It was underground and did not cause visible flooding. The city came and turned off my water after I ran through several thousand gallons. The older gentleman had not turned off the water yet. He had a thin rusty piece of wire, bent over his finger. He walked my property and said "heres your leak". I said where. he said within a foot or 2 of this wire. I said show me again, he walked back and forth and in the exact same spot the wire turned on his hand. I had him do it several more times. We turned off the water, I dug a hole and sure enough there was a pipe there. I turned on the water and sure enough it was pouring out underground right there. So I am a believer that this is possible.

 

[katie4]

I thought it was some silly supersition or parlor trick that my husband talked about. I had to try it myself over known water lines and ditches. Then I tried witching in some areas that contained waterlines unkown to me but known to my husband. I was astounded when I found the water mains in the unfamiliar area! And had to amit that I was TOTALLY wrong and he was TOTALLY right!

My equipment for witching: Two heavy gauge copper wires each about 24" long with a 4" or so "handle" bent into it at 90 degrees. Hold each wire loosely in your hands. Where the wires cross is the greatest likelihood for flowing water.

My husband says that one theory is the electromagnetic force that is emitted by living or moving things interacting with conductive metals such as high-grade copper. This force is evident to all of us in the buzzing and snapping of very high voltage transmission lines. Some folks seem to be extremely sensitive to it (think "multiple intellingences" for education folks). "Water Witchers" are exceptionally sensitive to these forces.

Keep in mind that the "witch" is only approximate for the water location. It can vary several feet in any direction. And depth can only be sensed by the well bore! Sometimes a witcher can discover the general direction of water flow.

Most counties/cities have a log of registered wells. Often you can check these for trends in location and depth. Sometimes these registered wells are even on-line through your county/city resources. This kind of information is much closer to my comfort level!

Good luck!

 

[breezy]

Peaches, were you thinking od the word "divining"? Thats the only other word I've heard to describe it.

 

[gryeyes]

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Or dowsing. Water dowsing.

 

[CowgirlJules]

gryeyes, my folks had it done for their well in the foothills too. My grampa could do it for wells, as I recall.

I can't do it for wells (that I know of) but I work in the utility business. I sure can do it to find underground lines, and am often more accurate with that than with my very expensive radio frequency locater tool. Things have to conduct electricity for that to work, after all, leaving out sewer lines and PVC pipe. I never try to go too far belowground, and am sometimes foiled by overhead power lines, but I can usually find you a trench or an area of disturbed soil, even under concrete. Most of the people I know in the field can do it, but some are better than others. I'm average with it. I use the welding rods.

 

[WriterofWords]

Remember the most important thing when dowsing is the question. You don't ask "Is there water here?" You ask a specific question or make a specific request: "Please show me potable water within 20 feet of the surface" If you ask to find water you might find the dog's dish!

 

[country lady]

I saw my grandfather do this when I was a kid. Our next door neighbor couldn't find water on his property. My grandfather went all around his yard and said, "it's in your front yard!" I remember seeing him walk around the yard but I don't remember if the well was dug in the front yard or not. I know it sounds crazy but I believe it works. DH said they did this when he worked at the telephone company years ago.

 

[WriterofWords]

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The nice part about science is it is all about questioning and theory, but not always about proof. I am a science teacher, actually a STEM teacher, and I also teach dowsing on the side.
One study has debunked it, one study has proven it. So take a choice it's up to you which one you want to believe or follow.

 

[Matthew3590]

Quote:
The nice part about science is it is all about questioning and theory, but not always about proof. I am a science teacher, actually a STEM teacher, and I also teach dowsing on the side.
One study has debunked it, one study has proven it. So take a choice it's up to you which one you want to believe or follow.

I just want to know how you would try to prove it. Plus if it does work WHY does it work.

 

[WriterofWords]

Quote:
The nice part about science is it is all about questioning and theory, but not always about proof. I am a science teacher, actually a STEM teacher, and I also teach dowsing on the side.
One study has debunked it, one study has proven it. So take a choice it's up to you which one you want to believe or follow.

I just want to know how you would try to prove it. Plus if it does work WHY does it work.

That's hard really, because there are scholarly studies both proving and disproving it. Most of the proof has come from trials where items have been hidden by outside parties and such and dowsers have them tried to locate them using dowsing. Sonograms have been done on pregnant women to determine the sex of a baby and then it has been tested by dowsers with, for example, a group of 25 dowsers. With that one since it is a 50/50 chance of getting it right the larger the test group is the better the proof is. If you have 10 dowsers and 7 out of 10 get it right, there is a huge margin for getting a guess right. But if you have 100 dowsers and 90 get it right, it's a pretty good indicator of the talent of the dowser.

As for how it works, there are many theories, but no proof. It's like the theory of flight; airplanes, by rights should fall out of the sky but don't. We can say it's X amount of miles to the next galaxy, but it's based on speculation and theory, but it's not proven. There are a lot of things we can't prove but believe in, such as God. Who can explain that one? No one can, except for heresy from others that has been passed down generation to generation. The same with dowsing, it's passed down a lot, but no one can prove how it works.