"Douglas de Lacey" wrote in message
...




That's why I am interested in things like dowsing. There does seem to be a
lot of anecdotal evidence that it "works"; but excitingly it doesn't fit
our current theories of how things work. So we should either find out
where it doesn't work (testing to destruction the understanding of the
believers) or how we can incorporate it into a new theory of how things
work (testing to destruction the understanding of the sceptic). (Or
rather, the best approach will be a both-and, and hopefully done by both
sides together.)

Tony (if you bother to read this) doesn't that strike you as a worthwhile
thing to do?

Only if you want to do it. To some of us the why of many things isn't
important. We accept them and don't feel the need to challenge what we
experience (that includes a lot more than dowsing).

Of course, meanwhile there will be awkward facts we don't understand but
must live with: Heaviside said "Why should I refuse a good dinner simply
because I don't understand the digestive processes involved?"

Or not hang a picture or not smell a flower (when the scent is incidental to
human perception).

Quite.

"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 could also be expressed as, "Each *dowsing sceptic* 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."

I sometimes wonder why people who know everything bother coming on news
groups and trying to prove people wrong when they could be saving the world
:-)

But I don't spend much time on that wondering, there are more satisfying
things to do. I don't understand them but Life's good and too short to
waste.

Mary