Part two of post:

But what are the signals picked up that way? There's no doubt that water can be picked up. I've done it, and I heard some very interesting stories when I worked for a water company for several years. But I'm also pretty sure that much of what I've picked up isn't water.

I've dowsed a location in Wales on two occasions, once on my own with rods, and once by intuition with a similarly gifted friend. The results were very close on both occasions, and probably identical, though I didn't map the area. It's a small enclosed space, though, with landmarks. At that site there's a well, and the line of flow of the water can be seen simply by looking where it breaks surface and by using common sense and knowledge of water flows. The energy lines are different, and I'm pretty sure they're not water.

Similarly at other sites, water just isn't a sufficient explanation for the sheer number of lines and the courses they take.

I'd like to be more skilful at differentiating the different energies so as to be sure what's water and what isn't. Sense and knowledge tells me quite a bit, but there's a real skill in tuning in to different kinds of energies. Even skilled dowsers have to detune at times to move from one energy line to another.

Once at Avebury someone asked me what I was picking up, and I answered honestly `I don't know.' Calling it energy seems to be a convenient label for saying it's `something.' But there does seem to be some kind of energy flow that follows generally permanent lines as well as fluctuating in power. It can be measured and mapped, and it isn't water, though water is often taken to be part of the pattern, and it really needs to be differentiated out of the mappings, or at least mapped separately.

Those, at least, are my findings.