Dowsing, scientifically known as radioesthesia, is the interaction of the mind of the dowser and the energy of the object of interest.

Dowsing is the action of a person - called the dowser - using a rod, stick or other device - called a dowsing rod, dowsing stick, doodlebug (when used to locate oil) or divining rod - to locate such things as underground water, hidden metal, buried treasure, oil, lost persons or golf balls, etc. Since dowsing is not based upon any known scientific or empirical laws or forces of nature, it should be considered a type of divination. The dowser tries to locate objects by occult means.

Earliest recorded instance of locating water with a stick.
Numbers 20:11 (New International Version)
11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

Dowsing, reported to date back approximately 7000 years but with origins still unknown, is most commonly used to locate water or minerals, but has also been used to find missing persons and lost objects.

In fact Dowsing can be used to find anything as long as the dowser has something to use to 'tune in' to the object under question.

The ability to find people, artefacts or substances by use of maps, pictures or physically being in a place are currently the most popular applications of Dowsing.

[Dowsing rods] be meer toys to mock Apes, and have no commendable device [purpose]. - Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584)

Most dowsers use two 'dowsing rods' and/or a pendulum. The rods, traditionally known as 'Wishing Rods', are formed into an L shape and are usually made of copper although the oldest known material was wood, usually forked Hazel branches along with Apple, Beech and Alder. (It is said that metal coat hangers work just as well!). One rod is held in each hand and you have located what it is you are looking for when the rods cross.

Does dowsing work?

Of more interest than why the rods move, however, is the issue of whether dowsing works. Obviously, many people believe it does. Dowsing and other forms of divination have been around for thousands of years. There are large societies of dowsers in America and Europe and dowsers practice their art every day in all parts of the world. There have even been scientists in recent years who have offered proof that dowsing works. There must be something to it, then, or so it seems.