How to Scientifically Test Dowsing
Dowsing has never been tested, not scientifically. Yes many claim that it has been but I defy anyone to defend such a claim with details.
Below is how to scientifically test Dowsing.
What is shocking here is that all these steps seem obvious but I'm not aware of a single "Scientific" test of Dowsing that took any of them. And I have read studies. I’ve looked for and read studies and none of them actually test Dowsing, despite claiming to have refuted it. So, without further ado this is how you can prove or falsify Dowsing...
#1. Pick a theory and by theory I mean hypothesis
You're not testing people, you're testing explanations. You're testing the "Theoretical" means by which it works while most tests, including those by Randi & company, are testing PEOPLE as if they claim to be magical.
They don't.
I have never met or heard of a single Dowser who claimed that it was a magical power. Many or most if not all (I never took a poll) insist that anyone could learn it, though perhaps with allowances for variances in success, just like anything else.
Hearing isn't magic either, but some people can hear better than others...
The most plausible explanation or hypothesis -- what people refer to in the vernacular as a “Theory” -- is Electro Magnetic Fields, EMFs. Pretty much everything that Dowsers claim to be able to find/detect would either produce or alter an EMF, so if humans have any sensitivity at all to EMFs then Dowsers could just be "Finding" those changes. As a matter of fact, simple devices you can buy in any hardware store find nails hidden in/behind your wall in a similar fashion.
So that's our hypothesis, the explanation that we’re testing. Our #1 task here is to pick an explanation for Dowsing, something we can test, and our explanation is EMFs: Dowsing works because the Dowsers are detecting EMFs or changes to EMFs or perhaps even the absence of EMFs. So, having completed Step-1, now that we know WHAT we are testing for we can move on to how...
#2. Map out the EMFs.
Literally make a map of the EMFs in a given area; where they are, their strength and/or other characteristics. Water, cables, pipes, mineral deposits -- basically anything that a Dowser might claim to be able to detect -- all impact on the EMFs. As our hypothesis is that Dowsing is real AND that it works by detecting EMFs and/or changes thereof, we have to know where they are, how intense they are and how they change over an area. Otherwise, we have no way of judging if their responses aligns with those EMFs.
#3. Replicate the EMFs of the material being detected
If the presence of ground water alters the EMFs differently than the way a buried power cable would, and your Dowser claims to be able to find buried power cables, You need to find or create EMFs that look like buried power cables.
#4. Come up with a reasonable definition for success.
You need a reasonable definition for success, perhaps with a little help from a statistician, because the human element is rotten. People tend to confirm there biases unless and until you take away that option. So, BEFORE starting you need to decide was is and is not a successful result.
If your Dowsers report hits that correspond with EMFs 90% of the time, is that a success? What about 80% or even 70%?
#5. Don't test just one Dowser.
The more the merrier, right?
Just as it's important to come up with a reasonable definition for success, you've got to come up with a statistically valid number of occurrences of that success. I mean, one person succeeding may just be a fluke, while 100 people succeeding looks like a proven fact.
But, what if only 90% of your test subjects meet your definition of success? What if its 80 or 70%? Would you consider that a success? What about skeptics?
The simplest test anywhere is the coin flip. No, not actually flipping a coin but are your results as accurate as a coin flip? More so? Less so?
#6. Publish your methodology.
Don't just make your test results public, make everything about your testing public. Give as much information as you can. Like, HOW you mapped out the EMFs for a given area. How large of an area? How did you find your Dowsers How did they perform their Dowsing?
Your goal here would be to not only perform the very first scientific test on an explanation for Dowsing, but to have others be able replicate your testing and your results.
