Dowsing is a method for predicting the location of water for a well. The dowser walks over the area where the well is desired holding an object, usually a forked stick, loosely balanced in the hands. The dowser claims to be able to tell where water is by the way the stick moves when it is close to water. The well is dug at the spot designated by the dowser, and sometimes water is found there. Dowsers may be seen as people with special abilities and dowsing as a mysterious process.
When dowsing is put to experimental tests, however, the mystery disappears. When dowsers are asked to find water in an area unfamiliar to them, they either succeed at a rate no better than chance or at a rate no better than non-dowsers who are familiar with hydrology and the formations where water is located.
What accounts for the reputation of dowsers as effective water finders? A dowser with practice will eventually learn through experience the kinds of places where water is likely to be. The dowser will also have some lucky hits, since underground water is widespread. When a dowser is over a spot where he or she thinks water will be, subconscious movements make the lightly balanced stick shake. The dowser's reputation may grow as promoters tell only of successful finds. Experience, luck, reputation, and the wide availability of underground water are what makes dowsing successful, not special forces acting on a forked stick.
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