2.4 Water Detection by Three Successful Dowsers

Critical observers repeatedly assert that dowsers generally perform so badly in practical field work that they do not deserve serious attention; moreover, a careful analysis of the activity of "famous" dowsers is claimed to reveal mainly failures, except for a few successes obtained by accident. This assessment, in fact, is probably correct as regards the majority of dowsers; nevertheless, it can be shown that an absolute generalization of these statements is completely erroneous. At all times, there have been dowsers who produced continuous and unusual successes with respect to water detection—and, nevertheless, have been commonly ignored. This fact may be demonstrated by means of three examples related to active water prospectors in Germany whose dowsing activities have been the object of a more thorough analysis. The abundance of available information and results allows description of some of the spectacular and well-documented cases.

Fig. 16 Schematic sketch of the supposed origin of the 200 m deep mineral water source detected at Tegernsee according to predictions provided by Emmy and Georg Kittemann. In agreement with dowsed information and contrary to geologically substantiated assumptions a further deepening of the drilling did not provide a higher yield.

E. Kittemann. This lady dowser, active for over decades in the southern part of Germany, has solved most difficult problems referring to water detection; no one has ever heard of any serious failures. Her most spectacular achievement consisted in an unusually precise prediction of a mineral water source in Tegernsee (Germany). By means of the dowsing technique, Kittemann located a drilling point and gave indications of the depth and the mineral composition of the supposed water source; the predictions were totally opposed to what one would have expected from geoscientific knowledge about the area and, therefore, were considered as being extremely improbable. Finally, after difficult and lengthy debates, drilling took place and confirmed all the dowsing predictions in detail, contrary to all expectations. That particular case, as well as many other unusual performances of Kittemann have been reanalyzed and are generally well documented [3].

I. Grönig. For a number of years, a geoscientist of the University of Bonn has observed the activities of this lady dowser. She repeatedly succeeds in indicating very exactly the depth, quantity and quality of the water she detects by means of the dowsing technique. For example, in the village of Kaltenburg she predicted mineral water in a depth between 80 and 90 m, with a yield of 4 l/sec and a mineral content of more than 1200 mg/l; actually, water was encountered in a depth of 86 m, yielded 4.2 l/sec and showed 1400 mg/l minerals.

In the village of Bodenfelde, a well with a mineral content of about 1200 mg/l had to be found. The chance for success existed because it was known that salt could be present in the underground. However, two former borehole drillings resulted in water with a too low (800 mg/l) and a too high (8000 mg/l) content of minerals. Mrs. Grönig immediately located a well point where the desired drinking water was available at a predicted depth of 25 m, with 1200 mg/l minerals and a required yield of 1 l/sec.

Particularly impressive is the siting of three drinking water wells with a minimum percentage of arsenic near the village Wulften. The local wells had to be given up because the underground of variegated sandstone sediments led, through a natural process, to a too high percentage of arsenic in the catchment area. Mrs. Grönig indicated two underground streamlets coming from another direction (supposedly originating from a geologically different region) which have been drilled at two indicated positions. In both cases good drinking water was found (without arsenic), and the carefully protocolled predictions referring to depth (between 43 and 66 m) and available quantity (14 l/sec) were absolutely correct.

In the village of Einbeck she succeeded in making exact and useful predictions for three drillings ordered by the city. For the first case, she predicted water at depths of 100, 160 and 230 m with a yield of more than 30 l/sec. Along term pump test actually yielded some 28 l/sec at a depth of 230 m. In order to increase the yield further, the responsible geological state office (Bodenforschungsamt) proposed to deepen the borehole; Mrs. Grönig, though, denied the usefulness of such an action. In fact, deepening to 314 m did not lead to any increase of the water quantity. For the second drilling, she predicted a yield of 26 l/sec at a depth of 113 m; an artesian spring with 25 l/sec appeared at 115 m; pumping at ground level delivered at least 70 l/sec. For the third case, the prognosis was 29 l/sec at 180 m; the actual drilling to 240 m provided 33 l/sec.

K. Isken. Since 1980 Mr. Isken has been locating drilling points in Germany and neighboring countries in co-operation with a deep drilling company, exclusively by means of the dowsing technique. Particularly convincing is the fact that he guarantees the success of his water detection: no costs are charged when the actually obtained water yield lies below the predicted minimum yield. That remarkable guarantee, which is never given by conventionally operating companies (and, in view of the existing prospecting possibilities, cannot be given with a generally high degree of certainty), has not brought the dowser to ruin, but steadily increased his business. His clients are especially communities and agencies which already had experienced unsuccessful drillings or other difficulties with water prospecting. Therefore, it cannot be argued that these incontestable and repeated successes have trivial explanations, such as the availability of abundant, extended ground water aquifers in the respective prospecting areas.

Astonishingly, no unsuccessful drillings are known, as a result of Isken's method of well point location. However, the required water quantity could not always be provided by a single drilling; in most of these cases the dowser succeeded in carrying out a second drilling not far away from the first well, so that supplementary water quantities could be supplied without affecting the yield of the first drilling. In 1991 the author arranged for a particular water prospecting at the request of a small town in southern Germany. Two purposes had to be served: first, the town needed a new well with a yield of some 7 l/sec with a sufficiently low content of nitrate; three drillings had already been tried, which were failures despite well-performed geological surveys. Second, the dowsing performance of Schröter and Isken could be carefully checked in one and the same predetermined area. The existing holes had been drilled to depths between 30 and 60 m in a subsoil with significant layers of clay; one drilling was totally dry, and the other two boreholes delivered less than 2 and 3 l/sec, respectively, too little for the required supply of the town. Moreover, one had to comply with the regulation that Tertiary formations should not be exploited, which occur between 30 and 40 m depth.

Under appropriate supervision Isken scanned the terrain; he indicated a point where he guaranteed water, but to attain the desired quantity he said that deeper drilling down to some 100 m would be necessary; otherwise, a second location had to be determined. At a later time, Schröter visited the same area, but without being given any knowledge concerning Isken¹s indications. He determined two drilling spots, where he expected as much as 8 and 6 l/sec in a depth of 40 and 34 m, respectively (supposedly above the Tertiary formation). The supervising geologist had to state that Schröter's first point coincided with Isken's one — quite a surprise, given the relatively large prospecting area. This point was drilled and produced on the spot 6 l/sec good drinking water at 30 m; since the Tertiary formation began at 30.5 m, the advised drilling depth of 40 m could not be realized. Initially, the pump test was satisfactory, but then an abrupt decline to 4 l/sec occurred; this points to a clogging of the influx.

Two clear facts emerge: first, two dowsers agreed in terms of drilling points, and second, the drilling accordingly performed resulted in a higher yield than obtained with three drillings previously carried out on the basis of quite extensive geological surveys.

A detailed discussion of these numerous results and the steadily increasing data base is not the aim of this report and should be conducted in a constructive way within the responsible scientific community, especially since hydrogeological interests with, perhaps, far-reaching consequences may be touched. The aim of this report is to document clearly the existence and activity of continuously successful dowsers, whose performance is not reliably known, neither in science nor in public. This documentation seems to be even more justified, because the disclosed features are not only demonstrably real but are also of significance both from an economical point of view, and with respect to a fundamental scientific search for the truth.