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Dowsing by a Skeptic

Hungry81 said:
Your claims are:
1. you used to be a "skeptic".
what were you skeptical of? Just dowsing or any alleged paranormal activities? Are you still skeptical of other alleged paranormal activities? Why?
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Claims of a god, claims of supernatural abilities, claims made by Gypsy Rose Lee. etc etc Because I thought it was all bull, and I still think the vast majority is.

Hungry81 said:
2. Your dowsing rod can detect many substances.
How many and which ones? What is the success rate? Why aren't you getting the rods studied? Why aren't you rich and famous? Why don't you have any proof other than anecdotes?
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Water, empty plastic pipes ( never had water in them ) underground telephone lines, purposely hidden cell phones etc etc etc I have only been doing it for a little while and I am still learning.

Hungry81 said:
3. Your dowsing rod can comprehend tasks and questions asked of it.
Questions same as number 2
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My rods can answer questions.

Hungry81 said:
Yeah I'm skeptical of those claims.
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Hungry81 said:
If your rods worked they would be worth millions and scientists such as geologists and physicists would be lining up to study them. Private resource exploration corporations would be buying your rods and services and you would be winning every skeptic challenge and the prize money ever. You would be a billionaire and revolutionise physics as we know it and your magical comprehending sticks would open up hundreds of new technologies that would advance humankind into a new era.
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My rods are made from an old coat hangers, I have made six in total and they all work the same. Clue.. It's not the rods that do it. The rods are just a visual indicator.

Hungry81 said:
None of that will happen though because your sticks don't work how you say they do.
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OK :D
 
AdMan said:
Please detail the protocol for the double-blinded tests you have done and the results.
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I made a 2 1/2 minute video and posted it on youtube. I now have 16 posts and think I will be allowed to post a link.

I will say right now that it is not a very professional and it was done on the spur of the moment. I made it to try to demonstrate to a weird kind of dowsing that I never knew existed. Yes I could be a fraud, but it's not.

Stand by:D:D
 
SaskMick said:
I made a 2 1/2 minute video and posted it on youtube. I now have 16 posts and think I will be allowed to post a link.

I will say right now that it is not a very professional and it was done on the spur of the moment. I made it to try to demonstrate to a weird kind of dowsing that I never knew existed. Yes I could be a fraud, but it's not.

Stand by:D:D
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Based on your limited posts (and not having watched your video--is it of a double blind test? I'm guessing not), I would not guess you're a fraud, just probably genuinely deluded.
 
AdMan said:
You have no idea what a proper protocol for testing dowsing should be, apparently.
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You are quite right, I know nothing about the proper protocol. It was a spur of the moment video made to show my friends:)
 
AdMan said:
You have no idea what a proper protocol for testing dowsing should be, apparently.

But you're far from the first, and nowhere near the last, who believes they can actually do this.
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Far ?

The rods are not precision instruments, they are nothing more than a visual indicator.
 
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AdMan said:
There have been countless people who have deluded themselves into thinking they can actually dowse, and none has proven it scientifically. Clearer?
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I can see by your post count that debunking deluded people is likely to be important to you.
I invite you to come and stay with me at my house. I am confident that you will go home a changed man. Please accept my invitation. It is sincere.
 
SaskMick said:
I have since discovered that the pendulum is not necessary. I am still learning.
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Why would you have thought that a pendulum--another element that would add confusion to any test given it also demonstrates the ideomotor effect just like the dowsing rods--would have helped in the first place?
 
SaskMick said:
I can see by your post count that debunking deluded people is likely to be important to you.
I invite you to come and stay with me at my house. I am confident that you will go home a changed man. Please accept my invitation. It is sincere.
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Thank you for your invitation, but you, as an ex-uber-skeptic, can surely understand why I would ask for evidence of your claims before I accept it.
 
SaskMick said:
Einstein on dowsing

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery.
There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or
what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't
know how or why."

"The truly valuable thing is the intuition."

-Albert Einstein-
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Oddly I can find the quote in the context of how he came up with theories but not for dowsing. Source?
 
AdMan said:
Thank you for your invitation, but you, as an ex-uber-skeptic, can surely understand why I would ask for evidence of your claims before I accept it.
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As an ex uber skeptic I can only assume that you are worried of being shown that dowsing does indeed work.

"I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology, as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, however, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time." Albert Einstein

Was Albert Einstein deluded too ?
 
Ah, here it is. It was on Doubtful News.

“At first I was skeptical” is a convincing ploy, unless you are wise to it

Relevant excerpt:

The first experiment showed that the listener of a narrative regarding a potentially paranormal event (telepathy) was significantly more likely to judge the event as attributable to the paranormal cause rather than just coincidence when the narrator used the “skeptic” technique. By stating “I was skeptical of this at first”, followed by a description of an anomalous occurrence, then conversion to belief, the narrator produced a more convincing narrative to support their paranormal causation.

...

In the second experiment, the audience was informed about this avowal technique. Just like when you read the questions to be answered before reading text, when you are primed to see what to look for, you SEE it. And it turns out that this avowal of prior skepticism backfired when the audience was on to it. The audience then saw this as a manipulative ploy to sway their acceptance of the article and were less likely to buy into the paranormal explanation – the opposite results from experiment 1.
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This might help you to craft your message next time.
 
Tomtomkent said:
Oddly I can find the quote in the context of how he came up with theories but not for dowsing. Source?
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What he describes is exactly what happened to me. One day I suddenly found that I had the intuition. I don't know where I got it from exactly, ( the quote :) ) but it was from a dowsing website.

It's not really that important as in the next quote he does mention the word dowsing, and that he thinks it's not BS.
 
SaskMick said:
As an ex uber skeptic I can only assume that you are worried of being shown that dowsing does indeed work.

"I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology, as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, however, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time." Albert Einstein

Was Albert Einstein deluded too ?
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Please source that quote. It's mostly on pro-dowsing websites, so I'm doubtful of its authenticity or its context. In any case, it's at most an appeal to authority. Einstein was not an expert on this topic.

Having said that, I am not worried at all about "being shown that dowsing does indeed work."

It doesn't, and I am not worried. Many, many properly done tests have demonstrated over the years that dowsing doesn't work. Many tests have shown that dowsers are deluded in believing it works, and that it fails in properly blinded tests.

Are you the first dowser to show otherwise? Let's see.
 
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AdMan said:
Please source that quote. It's mostly on pro-dowsing websites, so I'm doubtful of its authenticity or its context. In any case, it's at most an appeal to authority. Einstein was not an expert on this topic.

Having said that, I am not worried at all about "being shown that dowsing does indeed work."

It doesn't, and I am not worried. Many, many properly done tests have demonstrated over the years that dowsing doesn't work. Many tests have shown that dowsers are deluded in believing it works, and that it fails in properly blinded tests.

Are you the first dowser to show otherwise? Let's see.
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Read the entire thread and you will see why I can demonstrate it to you in person. It most probably would fail a scientific test.
 
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