Can a skeptic dowse?

[thatguywhojuggles]

When JREF, or other skeptical groups test dowsers, they usually do a test run to make sure that there is no kind of interference that will get in the way of the dowser being successful. This is usually done by making the target visible to the dowser. From what I recall, when the target is visible, the dowser is usually 100 percent successful.

Now I'm assuming that in that trial run, the dowser is experiencing the ideomotor effect, and
that as a result of seeing the target, they make small movements (of which they are unaware) causing the dowsing rods to move.

So my question is this; would a person like myself (who believes dowsing to be bunk) be able to dowse? And what I mean is, if I did the trial run and could see the targets, would I unconsciously move my hands enough to make the dowsing rods move?

[bjornart]

Well I think I can, but I can't really prove that I'm being "completely relaxed" and doing it by ideomotor effect and not just tilting my hands on purpose...

And there's no possible protocol to rule out me cheating. :D

[In My Spare Time]

It wasn't dowsing, but I tested myself with a pendulum once (actually a wallwart power adaptor). Eventually it did get going through no consious attempts on my part. Ideomotor is a pretty powerful effect.

[genesplicer]

Let's put it this way. You can dowse with as much success as a professional dowser!

[Tricky]

Absolutely. All you need is the proper equipment. My tool of choice is a metal detector.

[Big Les]

I'll see your metal detector and raise you a Fluxgate Gradiometer (http://www.geoscan-research.co.uk/page34.html). Coat-hangers are so twentieth century, don't you think?

[tkingdoll]

Oh yes, you can absolutely dowse. One of the cool things about the ideomotor effect is that it still works even if you're aware that's what's happening.

Test it with a pendulum at home first to save setting up the rigmarole with the dowsing.

[LTC8K6]

Impossible. Everybody knows that the woo just won't woo unless you believe.

[tkingdoll]

Impossible. Everybody knows that the woo just won't woo unless you believe.

Heh, not at all. The ideomotor effect is nothing to do with woo. It's the explanation for a lot of woo, though.

[Apathia]

Oh yes, you can absolutely dowse. One of the cool things about the ideomotor effect is that it still works even if you're aware that's what's happening.

I can now, but for some time after I figured it out, I couldn't.
I say "figured it out," because in the process of using the pendulum, I sussed it out that I was making it go clockwise or counterclockwise by my own subtle movements. It was a a few years later that I read about the ideomotor effect as such.

So since my personal debunking of it came hands on, at first I was too self-conscious or something to be able to carry on as before. It took some effort to let myself go with the trick again.