Went mding at a school today and met another mder who...

[Roscue2]

had, at least to me, a weird mding set up. As I got out of the car at the beginning of the hunt I could see him from about 100 yds off walking around and looking at the ground with what appeared to be something in his hands. His md (Garrett Security) was about 20 feet away from him. I walked over to ask him how the hunting was and realized what he was doing. He was using directional rods to locate targets. As I talked to him he told me the details, but all I really got out of it was that he was using the rods to find targets, putting a flag over them, and then using his md to find the target. To me this seemed like a huge waste of time to do. What say you? And also, what are your opinions on directional rods? I know many say they don't work, but I don't know.

HH!!!

 

[John-Edmonton]

This topic has been debated for hundreds of years. Some people claim to be able to find metal pipes, water, abandoned graves, dollar bills simply by walking over an area and waiting for the rods to cross, where they claim the target is. These same people can not find targets buried and known to the person who buried them. This has been proven many times.

Why so the " L" rods cross? One theory suggest what's called the ideomotor effect.

What is the ideomotor effect?

Ideomotor actions are unconscious, involuntary motor movements that are performed by a person because of prior expectations, suggestions or preconceptions.

The classic example is that of dowsing. Dowsers usually hold their rods out in front of them so that they are parallel. When they come across whatever it is they are trying to detect (usually water), the rods will cross over at that point.

A complete novice who is told that water is beneath the ground at a certain point will find that as they cross the point, their dowsing rods will deflect or cross. This is because they know where the point is and they subconsciously move their hands slightly, which crosses the rods.

The important point to stress is that this is done unconsciously. The person who is crossing the rods does not realise that they are themselves doing it; in fact, it feels as if some external force is acting upon the rods, which makes the experience even more powerful.

This can be shown to be ideomotor action by:

Blinding the test subject as to where the water is. They perform no better than chance at dowsing water if they don't know where it is beforehand.

Suggesting to the test subject that water lies in a certain place: perhaps with a false demonstration. It is found that if they believe water to be present, the dowsing rods will cross whether water is there or not. This shows that it is the preconception that causes the effect and not the presence of water.
The same effect is achieved by asking a pendulum to swing north-south to answer "yes" and east-west to answer "no" to a question. It is the subconscious moving of the person's hand that dictates which way the pendulum will swing.

 

[Roscue2]

n/t

 

[slingshot]

Ok. Ya'll know I'm gonna come up with something. I was maintenance at a large apartment complex. We had a huge problem. FIVE of the complexes had the sewers backed up and you can imagine the dilemna-some with stained carpets. We called the plumbing company-Daniel's plumbing- in our area. They had to come out with backhoes as the building plans showed the pipe layouts and they were trying to find the stoppage. What became readily apparent was that one cleanout was gone-or not showing at a key junction. I went over to check progress and they told me about this one complex. I looked down on the ground and there was a forked stick. I picked it up and jokingly said that I would find it. Much to my surprise it dipped , the bark ripped off in my hands and cut my palm and it bled! The other maintenance guy had a sharpshooter and laughingly asked if I believed I had really found it. Imagine his surprise when he rammed the sharpshooter in the ground and at about 6" he heard a lound clank! When my manager asked how I found it, the other guy said "you don't wanna know."

 

[mudpuppy]

I dont know Slingy, i'm not calling BS on your story, I consider you a friend and a great detectorist, but what I'd like to know is, can a forked stick find out WHO in the apartment complex flushed that diaper down the crapper in the first place?
And Roscue, you should know better than to talk to crazy people! He probably didn't even have batteries in the detector! You could have maybe sold him some magic beans at that point, or a magnetic bracelet!
Mud

 

[BigCatDaddy]

I've never tried dowsing for water or looking for coins with a dowsing rod but I know for a fact that I can witch and locate areas of disturbed earth, such as buried pipelines and gravesites. In the oilfiled, a lot of companies use poly pipe and do not lay a lead wire with them for locating with a pipe locator. I can easily find them with a pair of bent wire flags. I've located more than a 100 of them and the backhoe always finds them right where I say they are. I can also locate gravesites in cemetery plots. A lot of times, people were buried and for whatever reason, no stone or marker was placed. Many, many years later, relatives want to know where open areas are in their family plots, but don't know where all the folks are buried. My bent wire flags will easily locate the perimeter of the exact rectangle of the dug grave from over 100 years ago. I started looking at cemeteries back several years ago when my father died and our own family plot had this problem. I knew I could locate pipelines, but had never even thought about anything else. We were desperate, so I gave it a try. My brother knew who and how many were buried in the plot but only a few had markers. Within an hour, I had located all of the burial spots and found we needed to move a grave of a small child from a poor family that my grandfather had donated a space to back in the '30's. We knew it was the child's grave as it was the only small rectangle that I found. After getting the proper permissions, we hired some men to manually dig up the remains, and we found her exactly within the rectangle I had marked out. The old wood coffin that my grandfather had made for her had mostly disintegrated, but her remains were mostly intact and were reverently moved to a new spot within the plot so we had room for my dad and my stepmom to be together when she passed a few years later. Creepy, but true. Now, not all people can do this. I've seen a lot of people try but nothing happened. The rods just lolled around in their hands. Mine go on point like a bird dog!! Maybe one day I'll find that buried treasure chest!! Yeah, right!!

 

[mudpuppy]

I do believe in "Spidey sense" some people have it, and some dont, like BigCat said, just never tried dowsing myself..but I DO have a great deal of spidey sense, so maybe I'll give it a go.

 

[slingshot]

Do I just have a gift for finding sewage?

 

[gordygroover]

I had to have my septic tank inspected a few years ago. Had no ides where in my lot it was located.
A local resident was leaning across the fence chatting with me as I filled him in on how I was going to find the darn thing and he said he would be right back.
He returned in a few minutes with the typical brass rods each having a 90 degree bend in them.
Are you guessing where I am going with this?? Well, you're right.
Just walking from the fence to the other side of the lot and the rods crossed right over the tank. A bit or probing and I could determine the outline of the tank perfectly.
Never did it before and never tried it again.
Don't know how or why this method worked for me...May not work for you.
Sure won't try it for finding things like coins or Bigfoot, but next time I am hunting for a septic tank I sure won't be a non=believer when I start searching with a couple rods.

 

[MrGee]

My Dad could find water that way. I don't think he ever tried anything else, but it always worked for him but he didn't use any metal rods.....he used a Peach or a Willow fork (looked like a slingshot). I've tried it a few times when he was demonstrating it but nothing ever happend for me.

MrGee

 

[John-Edmonton]

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[GoGoGopher]

LOL at John...that made my day my friend...

As far as I go..I can't find (that other word for sewage) with dowsing rods....

I did try em once, and could only find the water mains lines...nothing smaller...

HH,

 

[BigCatDaddy]

n/t

 

[Roscue2]

n/t

 

[Orion42]

BCD's post references a deleted comment.

John

 

[Roscue2]

BCD's post references a deleted comment.

John

I know, I was commenting on the same comment he was commenting on.

 

[GoGoGopher]

For a second I thought it was aimed at me, and I was like ducking and weaving...lol

HH,