---
category: Esoteric & Historical Concept
created: 2025-07-23
description: Dowsing is a divinatory practice used to locate water, minerals, or other
  hidden objects using a divining rod or pendulum.
summary: Dowsing is a divinatory practice used to locate water, minerals, or other
  hidden objects using a divining rod, usually a forked twig, but also a pendulum
  or one's hand.
tags:
- concept
- divination
- psi
title: Dowsing
updated: 2025-07-23
---

[Dowsing](/concepts/dowsing/) is a divinatory practice used to locate water, minerals, or other hidden objects using a divining rod, usually a forked twig, but also a pendulum or one's hand. It is an ancient practice, with drawings of men with divining rods found in prehistoric cave paintings dating back to 6000 BC.[^1]

In the context of psychic research, dowsing, particularly "map dowsing," was explored for its potential applications in intelligence gathering. [Uri Geller](/people/uri-geller/) reportedly used map dowsing to help General Moshe Dayan locate ancient artifacts in [Israel](/places/israel/). The U.S. military also experimented with dowsing during the Vietnam War, with Marines using dowsing rods to locate Viet Cong tunnels.[^1]

Despite its historical use and anecdotal successes, dowsing is largely considered pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific community, as its effectiveness has not been consistently demonstrated under controlled conditions.[^1]

---

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.