T.G.G. Moogly
Traditional Atheist
Right you are Fwl. Then it works!
In the 1980s the UK Ministry of Defence spent a great deal of time and money studying dowsing, which has potentially huge military applications, from extending the capability of forces in arid regions by making it easier to find water, to the detection of mines, IEDs, and other buried ordnance.
At that time, my father was employed by MoD as an explosives expert, and he had copies of the classified report that resulted from these studies, which I had the opportunity to read. I never signed the Official Secrets Act myself, I no longer live in the UK, and it seems reasonable that these reports are largely now declassified under the thirty year rule, so it's probably not unlawful for me to say that these extensive, expensive, and comprehensive trials, using a large number of dowsers in a large number of double-blinded trials (many configured to specifications written in advance by the dowsers themselves) demonstrated conclusively that dowsing is no more effective than guessing.
But dowsing works for Learner and many other people, some of whom apparently do this for a living. Are you suggesting that the scientific study should be believed over the anecdotes of so many people that say otherwise?
(Sorry, couldn't resist).
You just reminded me that for quite some time we've neglected to cut the hearts from sacrificial victims to appease the gods. Interestingly the world hasn't ended. Something is wrong, I must consult the gods on this.