Divining

Divining (or dowsing) is the ancient method of finding hidden things. It has been used to find anything from underground water to buried treasure. Despite it's popularity, there is still much controversy as to whether or not divining actually works.

The basic method of divining is very simple: using a divining tool - a stick, a rod, a stone, etc - one is led to whatever one wishes to find. The most common divining tool is a forked stick. The diviner walks around with a stick that when it is over hidden water points toward the earth. A Pendulum is also a common divining device. The diviner would still the pendulum then ask it what direction to go in order to find whatever is being sought. The pendulum would then swing in that direction.

Historians have traced dowsing and divining back to early Egypt, where images of divining rods appear in hieroglyphs and paintings. Kings have used divining to determine the appropriate building sites for their castles and farmers around the world still call upon diviners to help them dig wells.

Scientists believe that divining is a sham and have performed experiments to discredit it. In the late 1980's five hundred people participated in over ten-thousand blind dowsing tests in Germany. Though somewhat inconclusive, the results indicated that divining is ineffective. Despite this fact, people the world over still practice dowsing and divining.