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Double blind study comparing dowsing to metal detecting silver coins

maxxkatt

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Joined
Sep 20, 2015
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Location
North Atlanta, GA
I decided to do the double blind study on dowsing that Tom in CA suggested.

Since I decided that by setting up a double blind study the rules were that none of the participants knew that the study was being conducted.

Me as the researcher had no influence over the study. I simply looked a lot of Youtube videos of people claiming to find coins by dowsing and actually made an unedited video their dowsing session from beginning to end. With the end being digging a coin out of the ground with no breaks in the video or any editing of the video observed).

Then I compared it to videos of metal detectorists who filmed the detection and digging of the silver coin with no video breaks or edits.

The results:

Number of valid dowsing videos revealing actual dug silver coins or coins of any type: Zero.

Number of valid metal detecting videos revealing the use of a metal detector resulting in an unedited video showing actual silver coins being dug: hundreds or more.

There you go folks now be prepared for the excuses from the dowsing crowd.
 
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HAHAHA...no one wants to touch this one first...so allow me...:)
Magic divining rods are REAL!!! But only if you have the FORCE. I have the FORCE, and I have more treasure than I can allow anyone to know. I can never divulge my secrets, so you just have to trust me on this. I may allow a few special people into my circle, but I will need all your bank account information in order to deposit money into it. PM me with your credit card info and bank acc. info ready. This is a limited time offer...so act fast! The first 50 applicants get a gift!
 
....There you go folks now be prepared for the excuses from the dowsing crowd.

Maxxkatt, you are much too hilarious. :laughing:

You'll probably not get that crowd's push-back here. Since the advocates of wands don't tend to populate this forum. I can think of other md'ing forums where they populate though.

Maybe I'm wrong, and you'll get someone to take your bait here though ? :?: We'll see :p

.... but I will need all your bank account information in order to deposit money into it. PM me with your credit card info and bank acc. info ready.....

I did the EXACT SAME "tongue-in-cheek" poke on another forum, and was sternly warned that I shouldn't make fun of people. Shame on me and you, eh ? :roll:
 
there are a few on this forum who have stated that they believe or know dowsing works. I figured we would put the question to bed once and for all with this post. So far it seems that the minority pro dowsing faction are remaining quiet. But give them time, they might still find some reason why there is no video proof available. Something along the lines that the dowsing individual are too sensitive to make videos that the video camera gives them head aches and they don't wish to go around wearing tin foil hats.
 
... they might still find some reason why there is no video proof available. Something along the lines that ....

I'll bet you that I can do a better job of answering your challenges, than they could. I've got the play-book memorized. :cool:
 
Maxxkatt, you are much too hilarious. :laughing:

You'll probably not get that crowd's push-back here. Since the advocates of wands don't tend to populate this forum. I can think of other md'ing forums where they populate though.

Maybe I'm wrong, and you'll get someone to take your bait here though ? :?: We'll see :p



I did the EXACT SAME "tongue-in-cheek" poke on another forum, and was sternly warned that I shouldn't make fun of people. Shame on me and you, eh ? :roll:

Lol, BAD TABDIGGER....BAD. Got to have a little humor.
 
Lol, BAD TABDIGGER....BAD. Got to have a little humor.

I think our screen names must be related. I wonder if Georgia or Florida pull tabs are the worst? At least on the beaches of Florida the current, tide, winds organize the light pull tabs and place them together in the wet sand. In GA, they just are sprinkled randomly in our parks and field and never seem to go anywhere unless we dig them and remove them. So far pull tabs here score:1,373,299,361 and me: 479.
 
Number of valid dowsing videos revealing actual dug silver coins or coins of any type: Zero.

Number of valid metal detecting videos revealing the use of a metal detector resulting in an unedited video showing actual silver coins being dug: hundreds or more.

I love it! However, having just read some on statistics and confidence levels, we need to know the number of dowsing videos analyzed...

Or more likely, you've CLEARLY proven the RFI from GoPros and other recording devices interferes with the dowsing mojo. And you've shown that it interferes with dowsing much more than metal detecting... and I suspect the result would be similar for any dowsing or metal detecting done with any type of Bovine Scatometer present...:)
 
I love it! However, having just read some on statistics and confidence levels, we need to know the number of dowsing videos analyzed...

Or more likely, you've CLEARLY proven the RFI from GoPros and other recording devices interferes with the dowsing mojo. And you've shown that it interferes with dowsing much more than metal detecting... and I suspect the result would be similar for any dowsing or metal detecting done with any type of Bovine Scatometer present...:)

Ever studied how scientists came up with the 'MultiWorlds Theory'? They fired particles through a grate with a detection plate behind it to see if the particles acted like a wave. The particles would hit behind the grate fingers like a wave until they turned on the cameras to watch it in real time and they quit hitting behind the grate fingers and went in a straight path. It's been quite some time since I read that...so things may have changed, but very odd.
 
.....Or more likely, you've CLEARLY proven the RFI from GoPros and other recording devices interferes with the dowsing mojo. And you've shown that it interferes with dowsing much more than metal detecting....

Correct . No amount of testing-of-claims is sufficient to prove or disprove the matter. It merely means that *THAT* particular test was faulty and inconclusive. It NEVER shows that the claimed-ability failed.

You're starting to understand now. :roll:
 
I think our screen names must be related. I wonder if Georgia or Florida pull tabs are the worst? At least on the beaches of Florida the current, tide, winds organize the light pull tabs and place them together in the wet sand. In GA, they just are sprinkled randomly in our parks and field and never seem to go anywhere unless we dig them and remove them. So far pull tabs here score:1,373,299,361 and me: 479.

I dig them all up and get rid of them so the places I hunt don't have many of the old ones left. I dug one up yesterday which was the first in quite a while...of course I just started back detecting after a long break. Now the square ones people detach from the cans really irks me and they always get replenished.
 
That is not the way dowsing works. Until that is understood you will never find valid evidence.

Dowsing, if it works, is said to be an "involuntary response". Involuntary pretty much eliminated the ability to scientifically test it. How do you verify that an involuntary response happens? That fact it does happen. Unexplainable, unpredictable and not something that can be reproduced at will

The only reason I defend the idea that something unexplaiable happens is that having witnessed it personally. If it were not for that I'd be right there with the rest as a nonbeliever. Having been witness to such an event I have no choice but to say something happens.

I see it like a ghost. Until you have witnessed it for yourself, you can never believe it, and I don't blame you.
 
If someone pays my airfare and hotel rental or gives me a place to crash on either the right or left coast I'll prove that I can find water on any shoreline beach with a set of dowsing rods. This holds true for inland lakes and rivers as well. I may even be able to do it blindfolded and long as the water is moving. I make no claims for coins of any sort though. That is beyond my ability.
 
A few months back our LA news had a bit about dowsing for our drought. I think the bit was in central California in wine country. They had a guy who would dowse for water in this vineyard. The owner who hired this guy said he has never been wrong in 25 years finding water. But to me , when they camera panned the valley , it looks like he could have drilled anywhere for water. It was an interesting story.
 
That is not the way dowsing works. ....

Are you referring to maxxkatt's opening post tally-comparisons , where he studied/compared show & tell videos ?

If so, there's a problem with your above quote : Because dowsers *DO* claim that it works. They claim this all the time.


.... unpredictable and not something that can be reproduced at will....

There is another term for this : This is otherwise known as : "eventual random chance odds".

What I'm trying to get at detector is : That you can't have it both ways : If someone says vehemently : "It works, I can do it, and I've seen it", yet in the very next breath says :

"I can't show it, it's un-predictable, and can't be tested", (but rest assured, it happens all the time) then : Can you blame skeptics for doubting ? :no:

And BTW : There is other more-plausible explanations for the seeming-successes that dowsers can cite, in their anecdotal subjective testimonials. Thus, no one is questioning their "finds" and their sincerity. It's : To WHAT do we attribute these finds ? Eg.: subtle terrain clues (and subconscious tilting of the rods via hand-movements) ? Eventual random chance ? Pointing it at likely looking ruins, and Digging enough holes , and using a detector to "pinpoint" (that's the ticket) ??

If I'm wrong, and the rods are actually doing something : I'm totally game to see it ! The world will beat a path to your door ! Thus : Bring it on ! Let's see it !
 
... They had a guy who would dowse for water in this vineyard. The owner who hired this guy said he has never been wrong in 25 years finding water. But to me , when they camera panned the valley , it looks like he could have drilled anywhere for water. It was an interesting story.

Finding water to drill for is easy : It's "anywhere leaves fall" :roll:

That video that you speak of, was discussed in-depth on FB :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/560087347359679/posts/4579948655373508/
 
dowsing (in my opinion) is a lot like fortune tellers. In Georgia you see them around in small unkept homes along the highway with big signs about Madam this or madam that.

Hmmm, why don't they pick the power ball number or even cash5 every week?

The only fortune teller I would if someone would invent time travel like in the "Back to the Future" movie series. Of course now someone will tell me that time travel does indeed exist for a few sensitive individuals but they cannot share their secrets with us for this reason or that reason.
 
There are only 2 things this thread proves, 1 is there are people who have way too much time on their hands, and 2, those people usually feel the need to prove themselves right.
 
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