Dowsers in Big Demand During California Drought
Some call it dowsing, water witching or divining. Others call it flaky.
Whatever it's called, the ancient method of discovering water underground is finding new life in drought-ridden states such as California.
"I've found at least eight wells for our vineyard, and hundreds of wells for farmers and homes," said Marc Mondavi, who not only helps run the family-owned Charles Krug Winery in California's Napa Valley, but is also a dowser for hire.
The 59-year-old Mondavi said he's been dowsing for 40 years, but the extreme drought in the Golden State is generating at least 50 percent of his customer base these days.
California is now in its third year of severe drought. Mondavi claims that the state hasn't developed any new water sources since the 1960s, so the calls for dowsing are only increasing.
Dowsing is the technique of searching for underground water, or even minerals or oil, by observing the motion of a pointer. The pointer can be a forked stick, or bent wires or brass rods. They are often referred to as divining rods.
Dowsers walk over a parcel of land and let the rods guide them to a spot or spots where water lies underground.
Not all dowsers use rods.There's no official certification for the process, and while it can be taught, anyone can call themselves a dowser. And they don't actually drill for the water.
The practice goes back at least 5,000 years, say experts. There's even a group dedicated to promoting and teaching the practice, called the American Society of Dowsers.
What makes a good dowser is listening to what nature is telling you, said 68-year-old Gregory Storozack of Edgewater, Colorado, who's been dowsing for 32 years.
"For me, it's knowing that when you are over a target, it's just there," said the retired municipal recreation worker.
Bill Getz of Schoharie, New York, said he's found more than 1,000 water wells, locating his first at the age of 13.
"I use an apple or willow Y branch," said the 71-year-old, who's retired from his job at the New York state education department. "I look for where water accumulates."
The cost of dowsing can vary. Some dowsers offer their services for free and just want their expenses covered. Others ask only for donations. Mondavi said he charges $500 per site visit.
Dowsers don't offer guarantees of finding water, but most stand by their work.
"I missed on a well once, and that was a long time ago," Mondavi said.
However, skeptics of the method, who often include professional water drillers, say there's little scientific basis behind dowsing.
The United States Geological Society said in a report about dowsing that what accounts for "successful" water dowsing is that in "many areas underground water is so prevalent close to the land surface that it would be hard to drill a well and not find water."
"I thought it was the biggest bunch of bull I ever heard in my life," said Greg Storozack, who explained that it was his cousin who turned him on to the practice in an effort to find water for the family years ago. "I tried it, and I pictured an underground stream in my mind, and I started walking and the rods opened up. We found water."
As for the drought that's roasting much of the Southwest, Storozack said he's working on getting dowsers from across the country to offer their services to towns and ranches in the hardest hit areas.
He would ask only that their expenses be covered.
Bill Getz, who said he's not against the idea, would prefer to see dowsers get paid for their services. Getz charges around $300 plus travel time.
"It makes it more legitimate in people's minds if our services are compensated," he argued.
Krug Winery's Mondavi said the agricultural community has always believed in dowsing — but more so now in what seems to be a never-ending drought.
"Most farmers won't drill a well unless a dowser has been there," he said. - NBC News
Dowsing: The Ultimate Guide for the 21st Century
The Pendulum Kit
Dowsing for Beginners: How to Find Water, Wealth & Lost Objects (Llewellyn's Beginners Series)
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Strange Apartment
Some background, so I've been living in this apartment for about a year now and to be honest I'm happy to be out of my childhood home for the reason I always felt on edge in my bed there.
So it all started with a case of sleep paralysis something I haven't had since I was a kid. I awoke one night in my bedroom and it appeared the sun was shining through a slit in my blinds so I tried to move and have a look at the weather when I found myself unable to move I could look around but when I did my vision started to close from the sides like a narrowing corridor, until there was just a spec of light then I was awake and it was dark outside, I was slightly confused but passed it off and fell back asleep.
Now fast forward about a month, I went to sleep about 4am like another night but this time I woke up outside my room panting with my palms and back flat against the wall looking down the hallway into the kitchen and through the window where I could see it raining. I didn't want to move but I could, my room door was closed and I was anxious about opening it so I stayed in that position for about 2 minutes trying to figure it out in my head. I don't remember leaving my room I've never sleep walked until this point.
A week later I woke up around 5am and had the urge to leave my room I was semi awake and aware of my intentions to leave my room. (The best way to describe it is if you wanted to take a piss you kinda shamble to the bathroom and get it done) But this time I walked into my living room where I was looking through my window (I'm on the third floor and my window has a clear view of the horizon) when my sight caught this star I couldn't help but stare, until it kinda just dropped for a second then moved off like a shooting star. At this point I had no clue if I was still dreaming or not so I stood there transfixed on the point where the star was. I was fully conscious.
Now onto last night, I had a vivid dream of being in my apartment it was completely empty like a void, I was alone but I had the feeling I wasn't welcome. There is more to the dream but I don't know how relevant it is. But when I got up my face felt like it was burning and when I went to the bathroom I found intersecting scratches on my face. I could of done it in my sleep but never had done so before. - Reddit.com
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Making 'The Blair Witch Project'
Ed Sanchez remembers the night in 1998 when he walked through desolate Maryland woods at about 3 a.m. with The Blair Witch Project co-director Dan Myrick. Sanchez, a first-time filmmaker, says he had an epiphany.
"We were carrying flashlights, batteries and food to the actors" of the $60,000 movie, Sanchez recalls. "I told Dan, 'This is either going to be a great movie, or we're going to be the joke of the year.'"
The joke, it turns out, was on the movie's skeptics. Hollywood's first "found footage" flick, which turns 15 years old Wednesday, launched a sub-genre in Hollywood horror.
Sanchez, 44, who is directing episodes of the upcoming BBC paranormal series Intruders, says he and Myrick knew their fictional story of three missing student filmmakers, told through grainy footage, was a novel idea, but had no notion it would resonate to the tune of $141 million, the highest-grossing found-footage film of all-time.
Instead, he says, the directors simply wanted to emulate the true pioneer of found footage, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy hosted In Search of..., the documentary television show dedicated to mysterious phenomena, from 1977 to 1982.
"We loved those," Sanchez says. "Those grainy pictures of UFOs and Bigfoot? Those were a lot scarier than the movies." Read more at USA Today
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Amazing UFO Sighting in Fayetteville, Arkansas
The following UFO sighting report was submitted to Open Minds on July 11, 2014 - It was forwarded to me by a reader:
8:00 p.m. July 10th 2014 Fayetteville, Arkansas . Daylight. My son Rocky was outside when he observed a strange blackish colored object that seemed to come straight into the atmosphere. At that moment he yelled for me to come outside that he was seeing something strange. As we observed the object it was hovering at this point at or around 1000 ft. The object appeared to be shaped like a stop sign. The object makes a sudden movement north at a speed that was just amazing. It disappeared in just a flash. Standing there in amazement we continued to look in the sky for a few mins. and then the object was then right above us at around 500 ft. It moved to the west slowly and then hovered and then it started to glow this huge round amber light. It was enormous. If I was to hold up a newspaper you could not cover the object from end to end. It glowed like this for approx. 1 to 2 min then began to fade and rotate and as it rotated counterclockwise we could see what looked like a huge square glowing amber orange window on the side of it. It remained still for maybe another min then just disappeared. I have been a flight attendant for 12 years and my son is ex military. I have no idea what we saw.
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