DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:

The reason why dowsing appears to work is well understood.

ok, tell us why I got 12 answers out of 12 right when I tried it. I
sure dont know. It could be chance, but from that data the odds appear
to be just 0.5^12 that it is.

Like a kid who claims he saw Santa's sleigh one Xmas eve it isn't
possible to respond to this meaningfully without information on the test
conducted and the observed results.

I'm not arguing with dowsing, merely asking for evidence that it works.
To date none exists. The fact that $1m is up for grabs and still no-one
can prove that it works suggests that there are major problems with the
concept.

Undoubtedly. But depite that, many people have successfully dowsed for
drains, water pipes and so on. Thats the mystery.

I don't think it's a mystery at all; dowsing isn't a profession and you
won't find anyone in the Yellow Pages offering it. That's because if you
tried to sell it with the promise that it worked you'd likely be
prosecuted for fraud. Under observed test circumstances it has not been
shown to work.

Coincidence is probable, not unusual.