Animal Instincts and the Skill of Dowsing

Animal instincts and learned behavior is something we’re all equipped with. Creatures of the Earth and even man has some form of instinct, some may even call it common sense. The skill of dowsing is something of an instinct itself. If you’ve not heard of Dowsing, it’s a instinctive way of finding water underground by use of a special tool. This tool has been known as the witching stick.
 
How is it that a sea turtle can swim for thousands of miles and still find its way back to the beach it was born on many years prior? Sea turtles do this instinctively and on que every season. They will return to their birthplace island to lay their eggs.
 
Birds are also well known for their animal instincts. They will migrate South during the winter in order to find warmer climates. Some suggest this may all be a matter of skill, or is it instinct?
 

Dowsing for Water

The Skill of Dowsing was originally invented as a way of finding underground water sources. Mainly in areas that were otherwise dry to the naked eye.

The skill of dowsing is often referred to as witching for water, or water witching. Dowsers will use many different dowsing tools. The most common is a forked stick, carrying it with the Y formation facing their bodies. Holding one end of the Y in each hand. When water or a water source is discovered, the opposing end of the witching stick will dip or bend downward pointing out the location.

Some dowsers have even used metal rods in the shape of an L. They will carry one rod in each hand by the short bent end while the long ends of the rods sway back and forth. In some cases dowsers have even used a pendulum to make their discoveries. This is often referred to as pendulum dowsing, imagine that…lol

The earliest known practices of dowsing were done by the ancient Egyptians and ancient Chinese, believe it or not, dowsing is still quite popular today.

It’s not well known exactly how this skill of dowsing works, but what is known, is that most discoveries located by dowsing are in fact legitimate. It has often times been used in discovering not only water, but metal, oil and other buried items.

Animal Instincts of Migration

There are many different species that will migrate during different seasons of the year. Birds, turtles, toads, butterflies and even reindeer are known migrating species.

Many of these animals will instinctively travel either to different nearby areas or even as far as going to other countries in search of warmer climates. Their search may also be cause for locating a better food supply, a mating place or a place to lay eggs or give birth to their young.

Some of these migrating practices can cover extremely long distances, but it’s not very common for them to get lost regardless of the distance. So how do they do this?

Is it possible they could be navigating by the wind, stars, moon phases, by scent, or sound? Maybe they are going forth using only their memories that have been inherited by their ancestors.

In the 1950s, a study at Frankfurt zoo in Germany revealed that some bird species that were known to migrate to the southwest during the winter, would actually huddle in the southwest corners of their cages when it was their normal migration season.

This discovery led science to believe the birds were responding to the Earth’s magnetic fields. Upon completing further studies, there were many other animal species that displayed similar traits and abilities.

The Magnetic Fields and Migration

It is said that the Earth contain molten iron in the center of the planet. When this molten iron moves it creates electrical currents that extend outward and upward. This is believed to create the Earth’s magnetic fields.

All living creatures have tiny traces of magnetite in their brains. This magnetite will react to the Earth’s magnetic fields similar to the way a compass does. It’s said the human brain also contains this magnetite, but we apparently do not use it. Do you think it’s something we could learn to use? And if so, what could this allow us to do?

 
Animal instincts and the skill of water dowsing are similar concepts. Some believe that migration is nothing more than a skill rather than instinct. What if water dowsing were an instinct instead of a skill? Maybe both of these actions are a little bit of both. We may never know simply because we will never be able to fully understand the thought patterns or complex behaviors of other animal species. All we can do is continue to explore and expand on the possibilities of the animal we can relate to, ourselves, the humans.
 
Any thoughts on these animal instincts? Have you ever used a witching stick or known someone that has? Spew forth the information so we may all learn in the comments below.