A dowser gives a demonstration of his professed powers and fails. Dowsing (also known as ‘divining’ and ‘water-witching’) is the claimed ability to locate water, oil, minerals, objects, locations, missing persons etc. using such objects as a metal rod, a pair of bent wires, a forked stick, a pendulum or the open hands. In controlled tests, dowsing fails every time. Dowsing is actually nothing more than an example of the ‘ideomotor effect’ – a known psychological phenomenon in which the dowser moves/tips the dowsing apparatus entirely unconsciously, giving the powerful illusion that the device moves of its own accord. This is also the explanation behind the ouija board and automatic writing. The effect is clearly visible in this video. At 1.48 you can actually see his hand shaking the rod from side to side. Since this is happening unconsciously, he isn’t aware he is doing it and so firmly believes that the rod is moving on its own. From episode 4 of ‘James Randi – Psychic Investigator’ (1991)
James Randi
James Randi Tests a Dowser
James Randi Gives a Lecture to Google
James Randi gives a lecture to the folks at Google.
James Randi is an internationally known magician (as The Amazing Randi), psychic debunker, and winner of a macarthur Foundation “Genius Grant.” He was a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He is perhaps best known for offering $1000000 (via the James Randi Educational Foundation) to anyone who can successfully demonstrate psychic powers under conditions mutually agreed on by the challenger and himself. Starting with a $10000 prize over 25 years ago, no claimant to psychic powers has ever won the money. Randi has pursued “psychic” spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water “with a memory,” and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public’s eyes in the name of the supernatural. This event took place August 6, 2007 at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA.
James Randi Exposes Uri Geller and Peter Popoff
James Randi is a leader in the skeptical community who has been debunking paranormal and supernatural claims for most of his life. A magician himself James Randi is excellent at exposing the frauds that make up the paranormal and psychic communities. He offers a one million prize to anyone who can prove a paranormal claim scientifically and to this day nobody has won the money. Sylvia Browne has been ducking him for quite some time.
