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The Divine Dexterity of Dowsing

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Believers in nth -hand hearsay claim Albert Einstein dabbled in water divining. Pickier minds insist that Einstein’s only devotions were physics, Zionism and the violin, and to locate water, he first found a faucet.

Another argument: U.S. Marines, stated an eyewitness report from Vietnam in 1968, used divining rods to locate Viet Cong tunnels. The rebuttal: A British army experiment set experts (equipped with plumb lines and forked rods) against duffers (recruits going on guesswork) in a 1971 search for inert land mines. Victory went to the boots.

Therefore, dowsing to discover broken water mains, oil wells, the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and Jimmy Hoffa remains a no-win world of diametric opinions. Its only real acceptance stems from acknowledgment that divining frequently works, nobody knows why, but don’t scoff until all juries are in. In that, divination may be paralleled with other activities based on faith--hypnosis, UFOs, astrology, drinking herb tea, ghost busting, acupuncture and Jim and Tammy.

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Alvin Kaufman is one of dowsing’s odd ducks. As an electrical engineer (Lockheed, Litton and Hughes) he once disbelieved anything that defied physical laws. He became a believer when a fellow engineer whispered that a wire coat hanger located water pipes more efficiently than a $500 metal detector.

Kaufman of Woodland Hills is currently president of the Southern California chapter of the American Society of Dowsers. When discussing his retirement pastime he does not speak with forked twig.

He has little time for closed minds that abandon divination “because it doesn’t agree with standard scientific dogma.”

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He’s also leery of empty minds that connect dowsing to parapsychology and crackpot hypothesis “until those with any intellect are driven to despair.”

Of the nation’s estimated 8,000 dowsers, Kaufman said, fewer than 500 may be considered “of professional quality.” About 2,000 are “intermediates” with an understanding of the magnetic disturbances and gravitational gradients “detected by some part of the mind that triggers some energy to move the rod or point the twig.

“But why, what force, what energy. . . ? I’m in the dark.”

So are members of his chapter and similar dowsing groups in Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego. They are largely recreational dowsers, weekend wagglers scouring the Mission San Fernando for water domes and ancient troves (“dowsers locate,” explained Kaufman; “they don’t dig”) and converting their regular meetings into hunts for planted treasure.

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Dowsing is more exciting than bridge, Kaufman believes, less expensive than golf and nowhere near as dangerous as cycling. It’s also a grand conversation piece and a great party trick for those willing to bet a host where water pipes run under his living room.

“You offer to dig up the floor and if there are pipes, he pays for the damage,” Kaufman explained. “If the pipes aren’t there, the dowser pays to fix the floor. So far, nobody has accepted the bet.”

Nor has Kaufman dowsed a winner at Santa Anita or called the night when the Clippers might win a game. He has been involved in family searches for three missing persons. But nobody has been unearthed.

Still, he believes in his pastime, is putting together a field trip to spot a well for a property in Malibu and wants a mass search for one missing person “because group effort creates a boost, a magnification that makes the mediocre dowser much more successful.”

There is, of course, one old question to be raised. If oil, gold and water dowsing is so reliable, why isn’t every dowser a millionaire?

“The best surgeon in the world will not operate on someone in his own family,” Kaufman said. “His judgment will be clouded.

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“Same thing with dowsing. Anything you do for your own welfare will fail because your emotions are involved and you won’t get reliable results.”

Right.

Southern California Chapter, American Society of Dowsers, 22420 Philprimm, Woodland Hills 91367. ( 818 ) 340-8945.

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