On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:26:17 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

To dismiss dowsing as unscientific because there is only anecdotal
evidence, is to say nothing.

However to state that dowsing has not been proved to work because it's
proponents producing nothing but anecdotal evidence is correct.

"Each dowser goes away from any trial of their powers, dismayed by their
failure, puzzled at the reasons for the failure, but always capable of
coming up with a reasonable to them excuse. That excuse may be any one of
many. It may be an unfortunate arrangement of the planets, improper
temperature or humidity, a problem of indigestion, too much ambient noise
or too much silence or a poor attitude on the part of the observers. These
are not invented excuses; they are all drawn from my personal experience in
testing these folks.

"I must say that of all those who have ever tried to win the Pigasus Prize,
and of those who I have otherwise tested in every part of the world, no
claimants even approach the dowsers for honesty. These are persons who are
genuinely, thoroughly, self-deceived. In only two instances one in
Australia and the other in the U.K. did I ever encounter any cheating being
tried by dowsers. And those cases were easily solved and immediately
terminated."

-- James Randi.
http://www.randi.org/library/dowsing/index.html