tiompan wrote:
It's nice to see any hobbyists working with archaeologists , but it doesn't provide any more credibility for dowsing than that of a group of spiritualists diggers would for contacting the "ancestors " .
Credibility is something ‘believable or worthy of belief or support’. ‘Believable’ is something (correct me if I’m wrong) that you would want proof of before you could believe in it. Something ‘worthy of support’ however is different. Worthy of support can rest on many things - eg its efficacy, distribution and history of usage. Willow (bark) is a good example: it was known to relieve pain long before the active element was understood and synthesised (and aspirin was born). Ditto many herbal remedies, materials and techniques from around the world (I’ll tell you all about astringent persimmon juice if you’d like me to :-) There are early woodcuts from China showing dowsing and a mid-sixteenth century English print showing miners looking for ore deposits. Elizabeth I had miners from Germany come to England to teach dowsing to their miners.Efficacy, distribution and history of usage does not categorically ‘prove’ that dowsing works of course but it does show that the practice has been around for a very long time, and right across the world (there are supposed to be cave paintings showing it somewhere).
Just a personal opinion, but until it can be shown categorically not to work perhaps we could keep a respectful open mind on the subject.
