Dowsing confirmed as "real" ?

...In 1986, GTZ presented in its series of publications a special report number 183 on a project in the northern dry zone districts of Sri Lanka, where dowsing techniques have been implemented on a large scale for the identification of well sites [1]. The resulting success and the economic benefit turned out to be unexpectedly high, thus justifying this unconventional technique despite all initial doubts and reservations, put forward from various parties ...

The dowsing competence of an expert appointed by GTZ, Dipl.-Ing. Hans Schröter, was checked within a large scientific research program. A detailed final report of the investigation has been published [2]. It contains all practical procedures and results of the project, performed by a team of 14 scientists from 9 different institutions situated in and around Munich; the financing and control of the study was executed by the German Ministry for Research and Technology, along with another scientific group appointed by the Ministry. A series of rigorous tests showed that Schröter was, amongst some 50 tested persons, the most successful participant and his dowsing talent could be proven with a great statistical significance.

GTZ examined the speculation that the dowsing technique may also be of practical usefulness in other representative field programs, namely with respect to the increase of success rates. The results obtained up to now are contained in the following report: despite all possible objections, these results lead us to the conclusion that the said speculation is largely corroborated by the facts.

Within a framework of cooperation between GTZ and a project team from Munich who participated in the above mentioned dowsing investigation, it was agreed to adopt a more scientific approach with regard to relevant future GTZ projects. This includes a field test of particular measuring devices and detailed discussions amongst specialists in the field of earth sciences, regarding the dowsing technique and the corresponding results obtained from GTZ projects. Of course, it cannot be expected that an extremely complex and historically developed problem, such as dowsing in conjunction with its immediate environment, may be satisfactorily solved within a short time and rendered acceptable on a general basis. Nevertheless, it clearly appears that this technique has been gaining more importance for particular, well specified tasks [2]. Former experiences already showed that it could be gainfully and reproducibly implemented in the field of geohydrology, provided that some careful precautions and controls were considered [3]. [continued]

To all dowsers out there:
There's a MILLION U.S DOLLARS to be won; just prove the efficacy of dowsing to the James Randi Foundation!!!

A series of rigorous tests showed that Schröter was, amongst some 50 tested persons, the most successful participant and his dowsing talent could be proven with a great statistical significance.

Without the specifics of the test, its tough to interpret this, but just off the top of my head, it sounds like any other random probability. With a group of 50 people, random chance will give one the highest success rate. Did they take that guy and do a second set of tests just with him to see if the results are repeatable?

Anyone ever hear of "Spook Rods"?
They're used to find 'graves'.....

Wow Ivan_Seeking! Ever tried it?

If such things actually work, I think it supports the theory I proposed in the other dowsing thread, that what the dowser is actually sensing is the disturbed magnetic field of the ferrites in the soil.

This could be tested by digging a trench, filling it back in, letting it grow over, and then letting as many reputable dowsers as you could get to participate to dowse the area without telling them they are dowsing for a trench with nothing in it.

If dowsing for pipes works by sensing the water or metal (in the case of steel pipes) you would expect there to be no "hits" whatever on the empty trench.