Questioning The Conclusions Of Science

[naomi24]

This question arises from the discussion in R&S on the dubious practice of Water Divining. Sometimes the conclusions of science result not from positive evidence that the subject is invalid, but from absence of evidence. Whilst I know the scientifically minded will say ‘until evidence is forthcoming, I won’t consider the possibility’, but the question is do those who accept the conclusions of science ever waver and consider the possibility that evidence could exist that science has missed – or has overlooked – or is currently technologically incapable of recognising or testing?

[jim360]

Hypo, it will depend on what exactly is reacting to the presence of water:

-- if the wires could react just as well if a human were not holding them, they would react in the same way and not cross.
-- If it's the human reacting, and the wires merely amplifying that reaction, then I'd expect that the wires should cross.

One of Naomi's papers quoted earlier describes the human as the receiver and the wires as the amplifier. One of the rational explanations for dowsing is that it's the human subconsciously getting the idea that water is where they are standing, and moving the wires accordingly. Either way, the wires should cross.

[Hypognosis]

Indeed. If the same stimulus impacts both hemispheres of the brain at the same strength and at the same time, with the net result that a specific muscle in both forearms contracts, the result would be that both wrists rotate inwards, thanks to the mirror-image layout.

In a roundabout way, I was trying to say that mirror-image behaviour of the wires is the reason that electromagnetism must be thrown out as a theoretical cause/mechanism of detection.

Having said that, in geophysics, it is soil resistivity that senses differences in moisture level at depth. To emulate that, the human body would have to be generating an electical field AND detecting fluctuations impinging upon it. Degree of contact between the feet and the soil would become a factor. Wet grass, rubber boots all kind of variables could interfere with the doswer's success rate.