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[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Wikipedia agrees with you. Commonly viewed as a psuodoscience. The equipment is very good at amplifying subtle hand movements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing?wprov=sfla1

[-] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

I can see a little grain of truth in finding depressions and soft ground as the dowser shifts their body to stand level, which may indicate geological features associated with ground water.

Humans also have a really good sense of smell for petrichor, which might also be related to ground water, with dowsing just being useful to focus on suble things like smell.

Anyone who thinks dowsing can detect water directly is clueless or lying though, and dowsing has absolutely been used as a grift before.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

i have a much more expedient method called "stick a very long hygrometer into the dirt every hundred meters in a grid, and move towards increasing moisture"

this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
405 points (100.0% liked)

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