Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy TV - Penn & Teller TV - Richard Dawkins TV - Arthur C Clarke TV - Strange But True? TV - James Randi - Duane Chadwick - Albert Einstein - In Search of … TV -
This led Himmler to establish a top-secret institute dedicated to the ancient occult practice of pendulum dowsing. Over maps of the north Atlantic clairvoyants would swing an object suspended from a string attempting to locate the position of Allied convoys. German U-boat missions were dispatched based on the results. Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy, Discovery 1998
Is dowsing bullshit? ... It’s called the ideomotor response, idiot. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s7e4: Armageddon, Showtime 2009
This state of denial is extraordinary. Even when confronted by hard fact, these dowsers prefer not to face up to truth, but retain their delusion. Richard Dawkins, Enemies of Reason: Slaves to Superstition, Channel 4 2007
Clayton McDowell is a professional oil dowser. From his Cadillac he cruises the countryside of Illinois prospecting from the driving seat. Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers
In this small American town [Danville, Vermont] everyone learns the mysteries of divining from an early age. In this place that calls itself the dowsing capital of the world it’s on the school curriculum. ibid.
In Carmel Valley California the telephone company has a dowser on call. ibid.
On April 2nd three months after the disappearance, the body of Jack Montgomery surfaced in Lake George. It was found barely a mile away from the dowser’s map position. The police were staggered ... The truck had been found by an old man armed only with a stick and a pendulum. Strange But True? s2e6: The Story of Ted Kaufman, ITV 1995
It [tests] would seem to indicate that dowsing as a force simply does not exist except in the imagination and in wishful thinking of people who try it. James Randi, magician & sceptic
23 out of 25 people got a reaction within three feet of that spot ... And we did show that they tended to get reactions where the magnetic field is changing ... There is a possibility that this is a mechanism by which dowsing occurs. Professor Duane Chadwick, Utah State University
I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing 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, unreferenced & apocryphal
Fresh water is not always available to us when and where we need it. Through the centuries however certain people have been able to detect its hidden presence by an ability which has yet to be explained. Water witching, divining, dowsing, whatever name it’s given remains one of the most puzzling mysteries of nature. In Search of s3e4 … Water Seekers, History 1978