Dowsing

[Shaker]

I'll lay a pound to a pinch of pig-shit that Miss Sally Le"it's all bollocks"Page won't take them up on it - she'll just reject outright not having the balls to put-up-or-shut-up!

It would be a shame if she did - as a professional scientist you'd think she'd jump at the chance of an experiment.

If she's a no-show, however, I'll gladly take Anglian Water up on the offer. I'm taking Rhiannon as she's making sandwiches.

[Nearly Sane]

From Anglian Water

From Severn Trent

I'll lay a pound to a pinch of pig-shit that Miss Sally Le"it's all bollocks"Page won't take them up on it - she'll just reject outright not having the balls to put-up-or-shut-up!

And that would be relevant to showing that dowsing worked how?

[Nearly Sane]

It would be a shame if she did - as a professional scientist you'd think she'd jump at the chance of an experiment.

If she's a no-show, however, I'll gladly take Anglian Water up on the offer.

Are you qualified to design a suitable experiment?

[Rhiannon]

Are you qualified to design a suitable experiment?

Sandwiches.

[Nearly Sane]

devops is a natural outgrowth of agile, as far as I understand.

just as Sellafield grew out of Windscale.

[Shaker]

Are you qualified to design a suitable experiment?

Formally? Hell no. I've a decent grasp of the scientific method though and I've got some chums at Leicester Uni who I'd take along.

[Nearly Sane]

Sandwiches.

as long as there is some plain bread.

[Nearly Sane]

Formally? Hell no. I've a decent grasp of the scientific method though and I've got some chums at Leicester Uni who I'd take along.

Message board outing? (With sandwiches)?

[Rhiannon]

I'll do one of those big loaf things stuffed with mozzarella and roasted veg.

[Shaker]

In that case I'm definitely in.

[Nearly Sane]

I could pair that with the hollowed out cob with two pounds of mushroom that are cooked in two bottles of red.

[Shaker]

I'll bring the bottle of tepid Lucozade with the bits of crisps floating in it.

[jeremyp]

Do you think then that a decision to employ dowsing is one taken by an individual alone or perhaps a very small group (3 or 4), or would it be one that would need the rubber stamp of quite a lot of people collectively? (Cards on the table: I think it's hugely more likely to be the latter).

Thinking about it, I think it's more likely to be the idea of a head of a department and then everybody else goes along with it.

[Nearly Sane]

I'll bring the bottle of tepid Lucozade with the bits of crisps floating in it.

With this you are spoiling us.

[Shaker]

There are often subtle signs on the surface that the diviner might pick up subconsciously and transmit to his or her rod via the ideomotor effect.

I've long suspected (but can't test and therefore prove or disprove) that what people airily call 'intuition' operates much like this - subtle things that individually are too small and/or fleeting for the conscious mind to be aware of, but are nevertheless there.

[jeremyp]

Because it isn't the 'dowsing' that is working, it's the person's expertise on other levels. Let's say a good spiritualist can cold read people better than a random person who hasn't done any reading of people. Does spiritualism work then ?

As I said, we need to define what we mean when we say it works. If water divining is about detecting water by means of watching a pair of rods you are holding, you could say it works (assuming it does detect water better than just looking at and walking around a field). On the other hand, I've never heard anybody before you try to define spiritualism as finding stuff out about people and their dead relatives by any means. An essential part of the definition of spiritualism is communicating with spirits.

[Nearly Sane]

As I said, we need to define what we mean when we say it works. If water divining is about detecting water by means of watching a pair of rods you are holding, you could say it works (assuming it does detect water better than just looking at and walking around a field). On the other hand, I've never heard anybody before you try to define spiritualism as finding stuff out about people and their dead relatives by any means. An essential part of the definition of spiritualism is communicating with spirits.

But if they find out things about people by unconscious cold reading, where is the difference in that 'working' than dowsing?

[Robbie]

I'll do one of those big loaf things stuffed with mozzarella and roasted veg.

Oh can I come? (Don't know much about dowsing.)

[Owlswing]

And that would be relevant to showing that dowsing worked how?

The two water authorities have stated, in the quotes I posted, that dowsing is as accurate as more scientific methods and asked Madam to go along to see that it does so work.

[Owlswing]

I should have known better than to expect any kind of sensible discussion of anything that can be dismissed as witchcraft or pseudo-science on this Forum and gone with the picnic with Lady Rhiannon idea - at least then I could dsicuss the pompous way thta any non-scientific is dsmissed without any kind of scientific investigation.

Shaker - I'll brimg the mead - which do you prefer, light of dark in colouir, and how strong do you want it - a slight buzz after a couple of bottles or the one that carries a label that warns that the contents of the bottle are in breach of several international nuclear test-ban treaties?

[Robbie]

I could pair that with the hollowed out cob with two pounds of mushroom that are cooked in two bottles of red.

Wouldn't that be soggy?

[Nearly Sane]

The two water authorities have stated, in the quotes I posted, that dowsing is as accurate as more scientific methods and asked Madam to go along to see that it does so work.

So their methids are non scientific? The point which you seem to have missed is if she doesn't accept a 'challenge' it shows nothing about the claim being true.

[Shaker]

Shaker - I'll brimg the mead - which do you prefer, light of dark in colouir, and how strong do you want it - a slight buzz after a couple of bottles or the one that carries a label that warns that the contents of the bottle are in breach of several international nuclear test-ban treaties?

I'll go for (b) please Bob 

[Nearly Sane]

Wouldn't that be soggy?

The mushrooms and wine are combined outside. Takes a lot of of reducing but it becomes like pate

[Walter]

But if they find out things about people by unconscious cold reading, where is the difference in that 'working' than dowsing?

I cant believe this thread has made this many pages .

To all you doubters ; of course it works . Its results are as reliable as planning a bar-b-q in the middle of a British summer and not getting rained on

and of course the earth is flat and  a fart with a lump in it isn't shit