Witching water

Is it real?
Can you do it?

What do you use? I have my Great great grandfathers copper rods.

It has worked for me on several occasions. :-)

Best “wicher” I new used a willow stick

He would tell you how deep and the flow. God rest grandpa Ike!!!!!!!

My grandmother could, she always used a willow limb in a Y shape, most everybody in my parts would get her to witch water wells , i have seen the bark twist off in her hands as the dowser would twist down. kinda scary and exciting at the same time.

I always have used the force.

To me it is crazy how some can and some
Can’t!

My grandfather could find a dry drainage tile in the summer in Iowa

Yup!, Willow stickin' works real good. The strangest "witcher" thingy I ever saw was shown to me years ago by an old timer and he used was two empty "Bic" ink pen casings one held in each hand with two 90 degree bent metal coat hangers. Walked until they both crossed like an "x" and dug down or used a "missile". Deepest was approx. 27'. :-)

I saw an old guy do it with brass rods too. I don't know if it worked our not, but he drilled a really nice well. It was kind of cool to watch.

I've done it though I can't say I understand it. Peach forked branch.

I do it all the time to verify locates, or find utilities that aren't located. It ain't perfect, but it pinpoints ares to avoid. I use a couple pieces of wire from locate flags with the plastic flag removed and "handles" bent on one end that I keep in the truck.
For those that have never done it, give it a try on a utility line you know the location of. It works!

My friend in the drilling business liked a peach branch.

Guy who showed me how, used welding rods with flux knocked off. The quality of the metal was the reason.

Same here trapdog. Wire bent so it has handles and I can find a lot of stuff. Not sure how it works but it does

I’ll add if you’re looking for water think water

Weather stick. It dips when foul weather is approaching and raises during fair weather. Similar idea?

My Grandpa had a plumbing business and used stripped copper electric wire. I have used the same and had it work as well. When I helped him there were a few times I did a fair amount of hand digging when he thought we were close enough with the backhoe and found nothing. Usually this was in very hot or cold weather while I contemplated its usefulness and tried to reason with him for us to stop.

I do believe it. I've seen it done by some old timers and think it is legit.

I also believe in the changing of the seasons and a "Time for Everything " though.

My dad and grandad could do it with bent clothes hangers, doesn't work for me. They said they generation before them used grape vines also

Copper wire. Walk til they cross. Definitely works.

My mom was good at it using a fresh cut willow. She witched a spot on our family farm back in 1957 a month before I was born. The driller hit good gravel and lots of water.... down around 100 feet maybe to 150 feet. That well is still pumping and going strong (now with a pivot instead of flood irrigation) as it's the same age as me.... 64 years ! She witched for many over the years and usually found water if it was there. In some areas of my county water is hard to find...... just ain't there. I have not witched for irrigation or house wells.... but I can use two #9 wires bent with a 90 degree elbow and walk slowly with the wires pointed straight ahead in my extended straight forward hands. When I come over a water line the wires slowly turn to the side till they are parallel with the water line. Steel, pvc, plastic or clay pipe...... it doesn't matter. I've found many water lines on farmsteads for friends who wanted to dig or hook into a line . It works.... how I don't know. I am sure there is an explanation somewhere.

Like

I think some can and some cannot, this will be a lost art…..

Yes it is real.

Yes I do it and have for years. I go in about a 150 to 200 mile radius to try to help people find water for their homes and family use. I will not try to witch a well for weekenders or some timers to pump into dirt tanks for wildlife.

I usually use #12 galvanized wire, just one piece, about 30" long with a bend to fit my hand and a flat washer on the end. I have also used #9 galvanized wire as well as brass. The #12 is just easier for me to keep up with and I can just use baling wire if I can't find anything else.

I also have and still do witch for unmarked graves.

Love the old story. Thanks!!!!

Dobbins????? Can I change my name to the bichen witchen????lol

I look like this when I go water witch - ing.


Plus I get to drive the truck real fast when I do it

For those that can its the real deal.

Willow was very popular

WS

I would like to learn the grave thing, never looked
Send me a message
I use two copper rods

I have used bent pieces of copper wire to find metal. Kind of spooky!

Moosetrot

Until someone can explain the science behind it, I'm a skeptic.

Plus, if you go down deep enough, you'll find water almost everywhere. Often if you pay attention to the terrain, it will tell you where water is likely to be.

Not calling anyone a fraud, just saying I'm a doubter.

Jim

I dig graves and have found old unmarked graves using copper wire rods. Most of the time it works

41 years ago when I first found it worked for me, I asked an old well driller why I could witch or douse as some call it.
His response was " do you believe in God " and my reply was yes I do. He said "well just consider it a God given gift and leave it at that." That is exactly how I have left it all these years.

I have had some experience with deep wells.

I have been involved in the drilling of oil and gas wells all across the United States and several foreign countries and have encountered water as deep as 25,000'. But most landowners are looking for drinking or livestock water and to service their household. They can't afford the $100,000 price tag to just move in a drilling rig to go to the deeper water in some places in this area. I will not recommend going any deeper than 600'.

I have been called a fraud, an idiot and a fool, but when some have drilled 4 or 5 dry holes and they have called me and I found 25 gallon well at 50 or 60 'that was 40' from a dry one, they changed their minds and have referred me to others. Most streams or cracks I find that have water are from 50' to 350' deep.

And another thing is I believe in passing it on so I do not charge a fee for any services but do accept payment for expenses such as gasoline and meals.

I am not going to say anything about you being a doubter. There are many like you out there, but if you were in a situation where you did not have water and someone witched you a well and got water, I believe you would change your mind.

James, would you also correlate this skepticism to believing in God?

Like ^^^^

Doesn't matter what tool you use. Try different things and use what works best for you for the job at hand. Whatever you use, it is just an extension of your own energy, or what ever makes it work. L- rods, plum bobs are mainly what I use. Coat hangers will work in a pinch. Interesting phenomenon to experiment with. Water and pipes are just the beginning of things that can be dowsed.

Ive done it to find quite a few under ground lines. It definitely works. I was a doubter until I tried it. Wire rods for me. I've seen others that it gives a lot stronger signal for than me. Seen one guy that would witch with a pair of pliers or channel locks. I've seen guy do and it wouldn't work but when a guy that it would work really good for but his hands over theirs it would work.

I didn't believe it until I saw Drifter do it. I most definitely cannot do it, but he can. We bought this place, and it has a 3/4 mile long driveway. It also has a 3/4 mile long water line hooked up to city water. The water line crosses the driveway back and forth several times. Having no idea how the waterline ran, he set out with a couple of pieces of bent wire, never having witched before. Within a couple hours he had the whole waterline witched out and marked. We've since done dozer work on the driveway, and his markings were right.

It's pseudoscience at best. It's caused by ideomotor response.... you're unconsciously moving the sticks yourself, not due to any outside force. Multiple studies have shown that it's no better than random chance.

So if I witch a previously unknown water line I somehow subconsciously already know it's there? Huh.

Yet I know a guy who has witched over one hundred wells in the last year since he retired, and he tells people how deep the water will be. He always talks to the driller after they drill to see what they came up with. The farthest he has been of is 6', usually within 1-2' on depth. And this is wells ranging from 100-600 feet deep. He has also told at least 2 guys that I know of that there wasn't any water he could find anywhere on their place, and they went ahead and drilled dry holes.

I was taught to do it this way when I hired on as an equipment operator with a residential excavator.

It does work with metal wire to locate buried electric lines.

Everything produces an electro-magnetic field. In theory, that's how it works when using metal wire lightly balanced in on your fingers.

I am skeptical of water-witching with a wooden stick though. I've seen it done many times here in PA. Mostly by owners we were building new homes for that were looking for the best place to drill their wells on their new properties.

In most of this state You will hit the an aquifer at around a hundred feet, some areas deeper, some areas much shallower and get good flow. Having a property water witched is really unnecessary.

Posco - sent you a pm

You're unconsciously using clues around you......tell tale marks in the terrain, essentially. You're doing it without even knowing it.

I was a doubter until I was blindfolded and held a pair of braising rods bent at 90 degrees. Was led around a yard and the rods pointed at each other when I was over an axe on the ground. Also found a cast iron drain pipe a few minutes later.

Hard to accept that iron and water would do the same things, but it seems to.

Yup. I don't know why it works, but it does. That's good enough for me.

Must be the season of the witch

Did you already know the location of the axe? Did you see the axe before you were blindfolded?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I'll simply say this is one topic that is proven true ...... to me anyway. I purchased an acreage back in 2015. I needed to find the water line to disconnect an old house and hook up a hydrant and my cabin. I knew where the shut off from the neighboring towns supply was (1/4th mile away) and where the house was. If I would of dug from where I thought the line should be I'd still be looking and digging. The line zigged and zagged and curved a bunch ..... probably by at least 100 foot. I took my wires and found the exact spot where I needed to dig. Took a spade and sand shovel and a couple hours later I was standing in a 5 1/2 foot deep hole with the line at my feet. I never been on that acreage before and no one ever told me where the line was. Just knew it was somewhere under the ground. Sometimes you just can't explain everything !!

I never tried with water, but using 2 bent coat hangers I've "found" cesspool pipes, and buried electric lines... read about it and decided to try.... it works, and I think most people can do it, at least on the easy stuff.

I do the same thing. I've never tried to locate a well, but works on gas, electric and water lines. Graves also. Doesn't matter to me if folks don't believe it, it works for me, that's all I care about

Peach tree limbs were very popular for witching where I grew up.
Truth is not dependent on belief. It already exists.

Is it possible that you unconsciously move the rods yourself when testing over a glass of water?
Is it possible that you found the leak because you unconsciously noted a wet or soft spot in the ground, or perhaps the grass was just a little bit greener, and you unconsciously moved the rods yourself without realizing it?

LG
Plenty of people (even on this thread) who have witched lines that they didn't even know was there, on ground they had never been on, that had been in the ground so long there was zero physical evidence as to its location. I've done it and it works even when doubted it was real.

I knew an old fella that used his pocket watch to find water. I knew him well enough not to doubt him.

Isn't witching water practicing magic, which the Bible somewhere (I forget where) attributes to Satan?

Isn't that why they used to burn or drown witches?

Jim

Seriously?

I believe at one time you were right and probably still is to some. It's just some energy force that we don't understand. As a Christian that has the Holy Spirit with him I doubt Satan could or would use me to find underground lines.

I doubt the water-witching-Satan thing would hold up in court.

Some "energy force" that attracts to non-metallic objects, plus iron, plus water?

Which can't be reproduced or tested in the lab?

Sorry, I took too many science courses in school.

Jim

Well, just because pain doesn't show up on an X-Ray, MRI, or CT Scan doesn't mean it isn't there. :-)

James are you saying science has discovered everything there is to know. Because if your not then your statement above is blatantly flawed at the simplest level. As far a witching goes I've done it, it works whether you or I can explain it.

Ever have that feeling that someone is watching you and when you look over, they are?

I think a tiny part of our brain is involved in our consciousness. There is a big chunk of our brain in the back room that does all sorts of stuff outside of our consciousness and it just passes information up when it's needed. I tell my hand to throw the basketball and somewhere in my brain an engineer calculates the initial velocity, launch angle, considers wind resistance, and the hardness of the backboard and tells every muscle in my body how much to retract, when, and how fast so that I can get the ball through the hoop. I'm not conscious of any of this, it happens in the back room.

There's also a security guard who watches the video from the edges of my vision. I'm only aware of what happens in front of me but when there's danger on the edges, this security guard notifies my consciousness. Eyes watching us used to mean lions, or bears. Now it's just the creepy guy in the next car but security is still doing it's job in the back room.

I believe that witching for water is possible but I think there's a guy in the back room of our brain who recognizes signs that our consciousness isn't aware of and passes the info up when we're in the right spot.

I think it's real - but I think it's just us.

My grandfather used wire rods or a y stick from a tree. I watched him do it many times. He couldn’t explain it. Just said here is the water

We do it every day to verify located lines. I will not dig until I wand it. It seems to be that anything that breaks the earth's magnetic field will turn the rods.

I'm a man of science. Having said that i have no understanding at all how it works, but I know with 100% absolute knowledge that it does work. At least for some.

At my brother's recommendation I got an old man by the name of Harold Livingston to "douse" a well for me. He was 85 years old, could barely walk and had such bad rheumatism in his hands that they were in a permanent clinch. He took a dead forked willow and found a spot he liked and then asked if "I had the gift". So I walked over his spot with the sticks and they didn't move a bit. Then he asked me to take one side while he held the other. He told me to clinch it as tight as I could. We each held our part of the stick palms up. As we walked up to the magic spot I could not keep the stick from twisting through my palm and pointing down. So for what its worth... and old man with bad arthritis or rheumatism in his hands can make a stick point down with his palm up? Me holding the other side and I can't stop it from twisting through my hand?

By God. It does work!!!! And we drilled that well and it got 55 gallons at 98 ft when he said 60 at 90. He used a different switch and bobbed for those answers. Heck if I know how it works..... but it absolutely does.

My brother who is a Jehovahs witness did not "witch" his well site because the elders of his congregation advised against witchcraft. He got about 12 gallons at 140 ft at the spot he gave the well drillers. On the same farm about 450 ft to the south my another bother got 45 gallons at 120 ft. Another 450 ft due east of that my father got our original irrigation well at 60 gallons at 138 ft. My well came in at 55 gallons at 98 ft 425 ft NNE of brother Ken's well. All of the successful wells witched. Oh, and my oldest brother put in his well where it was convenient, next to his garage (300 ft east southeast off my 55 gallon well and got 8-9 gallons at 130 ft and kept the rig drilling until they went 285 ft where they it hit 25 gallons of sulfur water.

Summary: You choose the site...crappy results. Witched? Good wells.

The old guy I know who does it uses copper wire he says it works better for him than the willow stick, the local tiling boys just pull a locating tool out of the pickup and start scanning the ground.

Might as well put doubters on ignore, they're wrong on a lot of other subjects.

They only burn the bad witches. Bad witches are ugly. Good witches are pretty.

Of course I'm not saying that science has discovered everything.

Did you watch the Amazing Randi video? The witcher was only able to match random results.

Do you really believe someone can detect water with a stick through a hundred feet of rock and soil?

Jim

I admit I didn't watch it.... and I know it sounds foolish...... I'll believe what I experience myself first hand over what I see on a video. And to the stick, water and a hundred foot of rock I can't speak first hand because I've never tried that but coat hangers, water line and 8 foot of dirt I can say it works with utmost confidence.

James, the "Amazing Randi" was a debunker of so called "psychics", magicians, and con men etc. . . e.g. Urie Geller types. He was not however a man, as most aren't, that can explain the "Unknown Laws of the Universe". :-)

I know I can detect water with a single piece of wire and a flat washer on the end through at least 600' of soil, rock, shale, chert, and sand. I have been doing it successfully for 41 years. I can detect the approximate depth but will not predict how strong the well will be but if I think it will be less than 5GPM I will tell them I think it will be a weak well and it is up to them if they want to take a chance or if that will be enough.
I will keep doing it as long as I am able to move around.

Yes as a matter of fact I do believe that. Doesn't mean I can explain it. As far as your other comment about witching wells being witchcraft and warned against in the Bible; that is an argument that has been made at times by different churches and religious people, I don't believe it is witchcraft from Satan, but some do. I always felt more like it was a gift from God, I can't really see how it is used for evil. That is however why some people insist on using the term dousing, rather than witching, because 'witching' emplies witchcraft and evil forces while 'dousing' does not.

Y'all ever hear that if you're looking for graves that the wires will cross on a man's grave and swing wide on a woman's?

JIm! We must be brothers from another confused transgender binary mother!
I concur completely, and I am not cringing at the thought of it. Weird.

LOL!

Jim

I've seen dousing done. Not sure I believe it but maybe. I still think it's most likely our own subconscious recognizing some sort of clues.

I understand that a positive hit results in wires crossing or a stick twitching down. For those who have done it: how is depth and flow rate determined.

So ...to get this Straight

You will find water

But could hit unmarked utility lines or A Body?

As I explained in my earlier post, locating underground water lines and other utilities with metal wires is about detecting the electro-magnetic field they emit.

I have no idea how water witching with a non-conductive or non-magnetic stick could work and I'm very skeptical that it actually does.

Most land has an aquifer under it at some depth. If you drill far enough, you will hit water.

So it isn't hard for a water-witcher to be always right.

I found deep well water water when I built my home 30 years ago. Still running to this day. I used divinity rods to find it . Our well driller used them also. I use bent coat hangers. When they cross they have found it.

My friend drilled eight wells for his dairy, one well out produced the other seven. The idea that you can hit water anywhere is not true.

I don't know how it works, but it sure does.

Hate to be the devil's advocate but have seen water withching fail. I have also seen it work. I have never done it myself, so I'm on the fence.
I believe in God but have never tried to find Him with a witching stick

All people are ignorant, only on different subjects.

I have seen my late FIL locate iron pipe under the surface on new property he had purchased in NC. But I have never had any success at it. He was using braising rod at the time.

What I suspect may be possible is that metal rods are affected by the greater density of iron pipe than the surrounding terrain. Same principle as locating ore bodies from the air with the use of a magnetometer. That is fairly common here. They sling the instrument under a chopper and fly grid patterns over the area they are prospecting.

Ever use a compass near a metal object ?? Most compasses are very sensitive to even small pieces of ferrous metal nearby.

I do not have any idea how a stick would fit into this equation

My water company guy used a metal rod that had a plastic Handel at 90° that alowed the rid to spin freely and it had a magnet on the other end similar to those sold on the extending rods at part stores for getting stoped bolts.

He was marking the lines before I put in my outdoor wood boiler. He let me try and it worked very well. He said some people can't do it?

A guy at work let me use his, it had copper tubing for handle. It works for me also. It's amazing!

My uncle and an old man that lived two miles west of me both used a steel bar. It was balanced on four fingers and they walked along and when they went over water it would bob. The old man told me that each bob equaled 10 feet. I was going to have a well drilled and he came and witched. When the driller showed up he checked for water with two steel rods bent in a L. He found water in the same location and I never told him the old man checked. I tried it with the bar and got nothing. It worked for my wife.

To equate finding the essence of life - water - as something other than what it is, a blessing, is to park on weird ground.
I've watched witchers but they are not the same as witches who I've met. Big dif.

Men have tried to explain God's creations and the gifts he can give to us since the beginning of time and we obviously are not all that good at it.

It would be my luck to end up digging up a bunch of dead people, and underground high voltage lines.

I heard of a guy who had his dog run away and a local witcher pointed his dousing sticks up in the air and proclaimed his dog was off to the northwest in a big field. Turned out to be right,

Well if that don't clinch it, what do?

All right, suppose you go dousing for water, and your sticks twitch, or whatever they do... and you turn up an old piece of iron or long-dead corpse?

It seems these sticks or bent wires twitch for whatever it is you're looking for. Why doesn't it work for gold? You could make millions in a few days.

This is just magic we're talking about, guys.

Jim

Some people do use them for hunting gold.

Are they rich?

Jim

James FWIW, there are some "specialized Divining Rods" made for precious metals, and some can cost $1000's. I personally know several experienced professional metal detectorists that have tried using various systems of these "rods" and have determined they're "snake oil" companies / salesman and I agree, but please don't correlate with water witching. One works, the other does not. :-)

SJA, if it really worked, don't you think every well-driller would use one?

Jim

No, not necessarily, many well drillers would prefer to "search" at with an hourly fee . . . meaning by drilling.

A well-driller with an accurate douser would have a competitive advantage, I would think. Charge more for less work.

Jim

. . . and I'm sure some that use that "secret method / special employee" do!

If I were an enterprising dowser (douser?), I'd make a deal like this: "I'll find you water under 100 feet (or whatever depth), or you don't have to pay me, and I'll pay for the drilling after that depth."

I bet a dowser who made that deal could charge good money for his services.

Jim

I'm sure they could. I've never had an issue with them. :-)

Man, you really don't have a clue.

Well, how about if they just said, "I'll find you water under x feet, or you don't have to pay me"?

Jim

James, here's the bottom line. You either believe it is possible or not. I don't know how, or if it would work in AK with permafrost or frozen Mastodon carcasses getting in the way. Have a nice evening:-)

You have a nice evening too, SJA. It's been fun.

Jim

90+% of well drillers I'm aware of do recommend having your well witched, most even recommend a specific person to do so.