According to Wikipedia (our source for all things!), dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, grave sites and many other objects and materials. It dates back to Renaissance magic in Germany. Traditionally, a dowsing rod was a "Y" shaped branch from a tree or bush. Today, the most common dowsing rod is made of of two metal "L" shaped rods. To date, there are no scientific reasons for the accuracy of dowsing, nor are there any studies showing it's effectiveness and accuracy.
Why do I know so much about dowsing? Because for several days, Jeff has been trying to locate a water pipe that runs across the backyard. Truthfully, he's been trying to locate it for a few months. Since we're having the drain line dug in the next week or two, it was imperative that we find it so we didn't destroy it (and the septic system) when digging. Yesterday, Jeff took to digging in the yard by hand, in an attempt to locate it. All with no luck.
So when he came out this morning with two metal rods, Will and I laughed at him. I laughed for some time, explaining how ridiculous he was going to look, wandering through the yard, hoping the metal rods would direct him to the pipe. Will followed him around, laughing the whole time. Let me tell you, we only laughed for a minute. When the rods crossed, we were a little taken aback. And when Jeff dug in the same spot and the pipe was right there...we were a little creeped out. Hunter thought it was awesome when it worked the second, third and fourth times too.
I don't know what to think about it. I would like to think there was some scientific explanation....but since the scientists can't find one, I can't either. Maybe he just had a little Renaissance magic working for us today.
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