# Dowsing for underground water: permissible or Biblically prohibited?



## Tim (Jan 30, 2009)

A while back, I was on a farm in the golden yellow center of South Africa. The owner-farmer there was telling me how he decided where to drill for his water-well. Because of the price of exploratory drilling was prohibitive, he found water by the 'old way' of dowsing with a stick. He used the term 'divine', which I took to mean 'divination'. 

This got me thinking as to whether this would therefore be Biblically prohibited. A subsequent internet search also revealed another term: 'water-witching'. Yikes.

Comments?

By the way, I tasted the water. Superb.


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## lynnie (Jan 30, 2009)

Finding Water With A Forked Stick May Not Be A Hoax - Popular Mechanics

The devil loves to take credit for things God made.

There is plenty of science research out there on this if you google it. Some people probably have a much more finely tuned perception of electromagnetic fields. Sort of like perfect pitch. I had heard for years how it was all demonic spooky magic and then a while ago I read some great science on it and realized how both man and the devil don't want to give glory to God for things.


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## Mushroom (Jan 30, 2009)

Here's an old thread about the subject:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f103/dowsing-divining-witching-36520/


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## PresbyDane (Jan 30, 2009)

I have done it ones and it actually works, how I do not know but it does work


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## SRoper (Jan 30, 2009)

I think the weight of the evidence strongly suggests it's biblically prohibited. It's really in the same category as astrology (which is explicitly prohibited in scripture) in that it is a form of divination that simply doesn't work.


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## turmeric (Jan 30, 2009)

I have heard that willow-trees, (a wood commonly used for this) will actually seek and puncture underground pipes for water! Very thirsty trees. If I had a farm and planted them I would put them near a stream so they wouldn't do this. Conceivably a willow-branch might bend for water. They will take root easily, so if they're still alive when used, they might do this.


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## PresbyDane (Jan 30, 2009)

That is the kind of wood you use for this action


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## VictorBravo (Jan 30, 2009)

turmeric said:


> I have heard that willow-trees, (a wood commonly used for this) will actually seek and puncture underground pipes for water! Very thirsty trees. If I had a farm and planted them I would put them near a stream so they wouldn't do this. Conceivably a willow-branch might bend for water. They will take root easily, so if they're still alive when used, they might do this.



What really happens is the pipe, usually a drain pipe of some kind, gets a bit corroded and develops a slow leak. The leak reaches the roots, which are encouraged to grow in the presence of water. Their growth can further expand the hole and actually grow into the pipe.

But I can guarantee that willow roots will not go through dry ground looking for water. Instead, the roots shrivel up and die. Countless hours of trying to establish willows to stop stream erosion confirmed this to me first hand. That, and numerous moisture tension experiments I did as an undergrad in a research greenhouse.


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## Tim (Jan 30, 2009)

I just read the older thread. In light of the things mentioned, I don't think that Christians should participate in this. There is just too much connection to the occult.

-----Added 1/30/2009 at 12:34:58 EST-----

Not that I was thinking of doing so...


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## Contra_Mundum (Jan 30, 2009)

There's so much mystery in this world.

When you stop and think about it, we operate on the basis of so much faith, it is incredible. We believe countless things because someone put it in a book, because it was vetted by "authorities" and put in a textbook, and taught to us as school-children.

Example (and one I completely believe without reservation; I don't question it at all): the makeup and structure of the solar system. How do I "know" this? Because someone told me the system is heliocentric, that there are 9 planets (no wait, isn't that only 8 now?), that Jupiter has ___ how many moons now?

I don't know any of this except on faith. The information changes, and I accept the different news from the authorities. I change my beliefs based on their say-so. The solutions are based in a belief in the reliability of these authorities to use the "approved method" of hypothesis, testing, observation, reformulation, conclusion (are they using it? that's what they told me!) to come to "approved" conclusions.

What about things that "work" but we don't know why? They produce the results we desire, but we can't connect the prior-action to the outcome. So, some in the past have called some such things demonic. Idolaters would have done this second nature, but should the Faithful reject helpful things because they don't know the answer to "why"?

Do you know the answer to "why" aspirin works? The doctor (or wikipedia!) gives you some technical jargon, and says its all about vascular dilation. _Strip away certain presuppositional overlay, and there is no difference between this faith, and faith in the astrologer who says his potion works because the stars are aligned._ In both cases the patients are agreeing with the framework in which the diagnosis is presented. In the former case the *ultimate *answer is "in here", in the latter case the ultimate answer is "out there".

It doesn't matter that in the case of the modern doctor and aspirin, the "why" has greater explanatory power down three or four more steps into the foundation. The foundation keeps on going, but we quit, and say "I have enough information to proceed comfortably."

Why does it seem like dowsing works sometimes? I don't know. It's hard to argue with success, but if that success is turned over to the glory of God, then how can it be gainsaid? Paul says to receive all things with thanksgiving.

By the way, this is no endorsement of promoting any activity that actually does invoke demonic aid. But "science" is put into service of Satan every single day, and no sensible person questions its utility separate from its misuse.

Problems with "alternative therapies" and such like come from people finding things that "work", and then starting from faulty premises create other "solutions" out of thin air. So, there's no way to tell the difference between a "witch's brew" and a legit herbal remedy, according to the paradigm from which both emanate.

But the SAME forces are at work in our "scientific" world as well. Wouldn't you like to know how many of our store shelves and pharmacy bins are filled with "government approved" snake oil? Just because something has been through a "laboratory", giving it a scientific veneer and a cool sounding name doesn't make it "good for you." That's what some would like you to think, because they've buried their own uncertainty (or duplicity) under several layers of respectability, plausible deniability, and government protection from lawsuits.

Still, someone will mistake what I'm saying for some sort of rejection of "western medicine" or "modern technology" or some other baseless impugning of my motives. No, I'm recommending that we simply do more relying on God, trusting HIM before we trust the gurus of our own day and time. Find helps and treatments, ancient or modern, that WORK for YOU and your family. Don't worry too much if they are "out of the mainstream," because the majority is wrong as often as it is right. And stay away from "the table of demons."


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## Kevin (Jan 30, 2009)

Around here it is called "witching for water", and I have seen it done with a wire coat hanger (!) and not just with wood.


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## LawrenceU (Jan 30, 2009)

You can use welding rods as well.


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## TsonMariytho (Jan 30, 2009)

I agree with what some others above have said or implied, that:

- It is a non-understood phenomenon (if it is indeed a real phenomenon).
- If a Christian regards it as demonic, he should stay away from it for the sake of conscience.
- But if a Christian regards it as some natural, yet non-understood ordinary physical effect, I personally have no problem with his experimenting with it.


As for my own opinion, I regard it as an illusion. I think those who find water that way, would probably find water just as often if they dug at random or based on experienced guesses from the surface topography and features. If the best you can say about water-witching is that it gives you better than even odds of finding water, and you already have better than even odds... well...

I also think it is easy by collecting anecdotal evidence to support just about any idea you want to, including false ideas. Furthermore, I have read of scientific studies employing self-professed "water-witchers" that statistically failed to show anything unusual going on.

So that's why I'm skeptical. :^)


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