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by goodusername 1547 days ago
Dowsing has in fact not been proven to work. There is instead overwhelming evidence that it does not work better than chance.

Wikipedia sums it up nicely, with citations: -- The motion of such dowsing devices is generally attributed to the ideomotor phenomenon,[7][8][9] a psychological response where a subject makes motions unconsciously. Put simply, dowsing rods respond to the user's accidental or involuntary movements.

The scientific evidence is that dowsing is no more effective than random chance.[10][11] It is therefore regarded as a pseudoscience. -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

For an entertaining time, check out the late James Randi and his debunking of dowsing