Detector rods

CHAPTER TWO

Basic Description:

This device consists of either a single stick, rod with a forked end that allows it to be held in both hands or two separate sticks or rods, one of which is held in each hand.

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The device had been primarily used for locating hidden underground objects or materials such as pipes, tunnels, and water. However, some experiments by the author indicate that the device can be used to determine the location of any object the user desires.

The device is grasped in both hands and held in front of the operator. When the device passes over the underground object being searched for, or when the operator faces in the direction of the object being searched for, the device appears to operate with no observable action on the part of the operator. If it is a single, bifur­cated or forked rod, the single end not in the hands of the operator will abruptly swing downwards. If dual rods are being used, the rods will either swing apart if the operator is holding them together or, if they are being held so that they point away from one another, they will swing toward each other. The action is quite strong, and many operators claim that they cannot stop the rods once the swing has started.

Historical Background:

Many readers will immediately recognize this device as the legendary "dowsing rod." Other names include "water rods" or "witching rods." In the form of a branched or forked stick or twig- some operators claim that only a live forked willow branch recently cut will

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work properly - the device has been used in Europe and America for unknown centuries. Its actual source is shrouded in folklore, much of which is considered to be evil or the "work of the devil" because of the inexplicable operation of the device. In recent times, dowsing rods were used by United States Marine Corps soldiers in South Viet Nam for the purpose of locating underground Viet Cong tunnels. However, no official reports of this exist and, as might be expected, no official confirmation of this use has ever been made.

Readers wishing to obtain more information should contact the American Society of Dowsers, P.O. Box 24, Danville,VT 05828.

Author's Experience:

The author built and experimented with his first pair of dowsing rods in 1955 at the rocket research center at White Sands Proving Ground and around his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The basic metal dowsing rods described later in this chapter were used. The au­thor was successful in locating the underground water and sewer pipes leading into his home. At a later time, he found the rods useful in locating misplaced objects, especially books.

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In 1961 and 1962, he witnessed the use of dows­ing rods by the Water Department of the Town of Milford, Connecticut for the precise location of underground water and sewer lines prior to excavation.

On February 2, 1966, the footvalve of the ejector pump failed at the bottom of the 150-foot-deep water well in the back yard of the author's home at 127 Bickford Lane, New Canaan, Connecticut. This required that the well be uncovered and the piping pulled to replace the faulty foot valve. The author had a plat drawing which indicated the location of the well head. But initial exca­vation by well company employees failed to uncover the well head at the indicated location. The foreman took a pair of metal dowsing rods from his truck and proceeded to locate the well head within a few minutes.

In the upper valley of the Arkansas River between Pueblo and Canon City, Colorado, dowsing rods and "water witches" are extensively used for the purpose of locating the proper sites for drilling wells that will pro­duce good water at depths considerably less than would otherwise be required on the basis of the study of geologi­cal structures.

Detector Rods

Figure 2-1: Employee of the Milford, Connecticut,

water company using detector rods to locate city's

water mains. Employee did not wish to be identified

nor would he permit a second photo session.

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Instructions for Fabrication, Economy Model:

This model is an expensive one that may be quickly fabricated as follows:

1. Obtain two (2) coat hangers or clothes hangers made totally from wire. The size of the wire and the type of wire are not critical. However, the wire should be stiff enough so that it doesn't bend when held horizontally by one end with the other end free.

2. Straighten each coat hanger wire.

3. Six (6) inches (15 centimeters) from one end, make a right angled bend in each wire.

4. For safety's sake, make another right angle
bend in the other end of each wire approximately one (1)
inch (2.5 centimeters) from the end; this will prevent the
free end of each rod from sticking into something... such
as another person's eye!

Operate the Economy Model as described in the Operating Instructions below.

Instructions for Fabrication, Deluxe Model:

This model is intended for long life, high reliabil­ity, and good sensitivity, features that are useful when the device is used in the field or when experiments are being conducted with many users. The cost is less than $5.00.

Detector Rods

Figure 2-2: Drawing of dowsing (detector) rod.

The Deluxe Model can be fabricated by anyone using simple tools. The materials may be found in any hobby store or welding supply store.

Bill of Materials:

A. 2 each hard steel wire ("music wire") 1/8"
diameter x 36" long.

B. 1 each seamless thin-wall tubing, aluminum
or copper (material not critical), 3/16" diameter x 12"
long.

Tools Required:

A. Hack Saw.

B. Slip-joint pliers or "Vise-Grips."

C. Bench vise (optional).

D. Small rat-tail file.

Fabrication:

1. With the hack saw, cut the 12-inch length of tubing into roughly two equal 6-inch lengths.

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2. Remove the burrs on the cut ends of the tubing using the rat-tail file.

3. Using the slip-joint pliers, Vise-Grips, or bench vise, make a right-angle bend in one end of each rod approximately 7 inches from the end.

4. Slip a 6-inch length of tubing over the 7-inch bent section of each rod.

5. Using the pliers or bench vise, make a short bend in the free end of the rod sticking out of the piece of tubing. When completed, the rod should rotate freely inside the tubing.

6. Using the pliers or bench vise, make a right angle bend 1 inch from the other end of each rod.

When finished, you will have two nearly identical metal rods bent as shown in Figure 1. The tubing forms a low-friction rotating handle on one end of each rod, permitting the rod to rotate with ease inside the tubing.

The Deluxe Model will last for years if properly cared for and the low-friction handles kept free to rotate. The author's Deluxe Model was built in 1955 and is still in use.

Detector Rods Operating Instructions:

Both the Economy Model and the Deluxe Model operate in the same manner.

Figure 2-3: Holding and using detector rods. To Operate:

Step 1: Decide what you wish to locate. Begin­ners usually choose some easy underground object such as the water or sewer pipe leading to their house. In most cases, the place where the water line enters the house is known, but the location of the sewer line isn't. And, in

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most cases, the general alignment of either underground pipe isn't known. For other suggested items to locate, see the "Experiments" section below.

Step 2: Grasp the low-friction tubing of each rod in each hand.

Step 3: Hold the pivot axis of each rod vertical so that each rod is in a general horizontal position (see photo).

Step 4: Place both of your hands in front of you, holding the rods horizontally before you (see photo). Some people find that their wrists must be touching. Others find that there is no specific way in which they must hold the rods.

Step 5: By tilting your hands, arrange the rods so that they are (a) parallel to one another and pointing ahead of you, or (b) at 180-degrees to one another (point­ing away from one another) to both sides of you (see photo).

Step 6: Begin searching for the object you wish to locate by either turning or by walking slowly.

Step 7: When you pass over the object you're searching for, or when you're pointed toward it, the rods will swing, indicating that you have located the object.

Detector Rods

Operating Hints:

It doesn't make any difference whether the rods are together in front of you or pointing directly away from one another; when they swing, they swing. When you've located what you're looking for, the action of the rods is unmistakable; when they swing, they swing. Operators continually report(and it's confirmed by the author) that there seems to be some sort of definite, positive physical force that makes the rods move. Furthermore, they seem to move in unison.

Experiments:

If you misplace something, try using the rods to help you locate it. Put the rods in hand and simply begin to turn around; when you're pointed in the direction you should go to move toward the object, the rods will swing. You should be able to pin-point its location using the principles of triangulation by taking "sightings" from different locations; where the lines of position cross is where you're most likely to find what you're looking for.

Do not be disturbed if you happen to obtain erratic data from such location experiments. They may only mean that the object is irretrievably lost in such a manner that you have no possibility of recovering it. The author discovered this phenomenon when searching for a misplaced book; the meaningless results finally re-

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minded him that he'd lent the book to a friend while living in Denver and he was at the time living in Con­necticut.

Modern instrumentation should be able to mea­sure the actual torque on each rod as it swings. To the best of the author's knowledge, no such measurements have yet been made.

Modern instrumentation should also be able to detect any tilting of the operator's wrists or other move­ments that may produce rotation of the rods. To the best of the author's knowledge, no such measurements have been made. However, data from such experimental measurements still may not answer the basic question, "How does the operator know when to tilt his wrists to accomplish this?"

Some investigators will want to design experi­ments that will offer incontrovertible proof that this device actually works. Data from such "wild" sources as users or historical data on water witches and dowsers would not normally be acceptable in such controversial and apparently unscientific (scientifically inexplicable) situa­tions such as this.

The biggest problem faced by any investigator when designing experiments in an unknown area such as this is: What should be measured? What measure­ments will be meaningful? And, basically, what is the nature and level of importance of significant data? What is significant data?

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Experiments need to be conducted with a large experimental universe of operators, the larger the better, to determine the percentage of the population capable of working the rods. Double-blind techniques should be used to validate the data. Some experiments, however, will serve only to provide statistical data on the percent­age of the population capable of successfully using the rods. They won't determine why the rods work or what sort of person can make them work unless the experi­ment is structured to determine the specific personality traits of the user.

Other experiments need to be conducted to verify whether or not the rods can be used to actually find an object whose location is truly unknown to the operator, or whether the operation of the rods depends upon some manner of subliminal recall on the operator's part, the rods acting merely as a symbolic crutch.

The influence of mood-altering substances (such as alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) on an operator's ability may well uncover some interesting new data. However, experiments with other mood-altering drugs such as meprobamate should be conducted only by qualified, licensed medical practitioners or under their direct su­pervision.

No experiment yet designed offers any hope of determining the actual operational cause behind the apparently successful use of dowsing rods. At best, most experiments will lead only to experimental confirmation

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of the phenomenon or to statistical data concerning the talented population. However, to the best of the author's knowledge, none of these basic experiments have been done and reported in the open literature. Perhaps once this has taken place, interested parties may be able to proceed further in the design of experiments to deter­mine operational causes.

What If It Doesn't Work?

If you cannot get the rods to work for you, you are most probably one of those people who do not have the unidentified "talent" for them. Not everyone can play the violin. Data to date indicates that whether or not you believe the rods will work has little or nothing to do with your ability to make them work. The author was a con­firmed disbeliever when he first tried using the rods. However, if you can't make them work, don't throw them away. Try the rods on your friends, and you might be surprised at who can operate them and who can't. At this time, the ability or inability to operate dowsing rods does not appear to correlate with any known personality trait, religious belief, level of education, or ethnic back­ground.

Detector Rods Hypotheses:

The existence of the dowsing rod phenomenon has naturally led people to formulate a number of hy­potheses concerning how the rods work. Among the most interesting and the most acceptable of these hy­potheses (another word for unconfirmed, unsub­stantiated, wild guesses) are:

The operators may somehow know, perhaps on a subconscious level, the location of the object they're searching for.

The rods might serve only as a "crutch" to stimu­late the recall of memories concerning the location of the object.

The operators may actually sense the presence of what they're looking for and use the rods only as an "amplifier" or a physical "detector" of the presence of the object, the rods actually being swung by subconscious movements of the operator's wrists.

There are other less-tenable hypotheses involv­ing "psychic forces" or extrasensory perception. At this time, it's impossible to confirm such hypotheses to the level of credibility demanded by scientific peer groups. Such hypotheses must be viewed as "beliefs" or the re­sults of wishful thinking rather than the products of data from carefully-conducted experiments. Perhaps some reader may be able to design, carry out, and validate a repeatable experiment that will lead toward the develop-

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merit of a valid hypothesis. Although the human mind is an incredible device itself, and although we are learn­ing more and more about it every day, the actual existence of "psychic fields" or "mental forces" isn't confirmed. But, in analogy, the nature of the electromagnetic field wasn't known, much less suspected, by the early scien­tists of 1800, either.

Conclusions:

The author has seen dowsing rods used success­fully on many occasions. The use of dowsing rods seems to be a repeatable phenomenon. The author also hap­pens to be one of those who can make them work for him, whereas his wife cannot. Reported observations of the phenomenon from reliable observers abound. The device is simple, inexpensive, can be readily made by most people, and can be used to conduct numerous experiments, most of which haven't been done yet, to investigate the reasons for its operation. The nature of these experiments is such that the basic ones can be carried out by nearly anyone willing to follow the basic guidelines for the design and conduct of scientific exper­iments.

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