3 ms·

I've seen conjecture that there is a real science behind this, but it doesn't involve the sticks per-se. In order to use them, there must be a focus on the thin

by hajile 5y ago

I've seen conjecture that there is a real science behind this, but it doesn't involve the sticks per-se. In order to use them, there must be a focus on the thing you desire to find. This creates a sort of meditative trance with the sticks as the "focus" when in reality, the meditation is freeing up the conscious mind to not ignore the very subtle signs of an area being disturbed. The fact is that they do indeed find bodies this way. The chances of randomly digging up a body by pure guess are vanishingly rare. We're talking at most around 10 square feet (often just 4-5 square feet) while there are 43,560 per acre or 27,878,400 per square mile. Even if you buried 1000 bodies in that square mile, your chances of finding one would still be a fraction of a percent.

bqmjjx0kac 5y ago
A horrifying alternative explanation is that some killers masquerade as magical corpse finders, contributing to that effectiveness statistic.
ceejayoz 5y ago
> Even if you buried 1000 bodies in that square mile, your chances of finding one would still be a fraction of a percent. Only if burying a body left no trace. I can spot where deer have pooped in my lawn because there's a tuft of greener grass. Digging a big hole and putting 150 pounds of flesh into it is going to change stuff that's likely visible to an experienced tracker.
- musingsole 5y ago
  > that's likely visible to an experienced tracker And the GP's point is that this technique is little more than a focusing meditation for an experienced tracker.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    If that's the mechanism, we should figure out ways of meditating that don't involve charlatans or $60k fake devices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651).
    - musingsole 5y ago
      I'm not so sure. Athletes in particular spend ungodly sums on performance aids, many of which have no scientific basis -- but, if it helps the athlete get into a winning mindset, what grounds do you really have to tell them to stop?
      - josefx 5y ago
        Athletes that win spend ungodly sums on performance aids which have scientific basis, however getting caught would get them disqualified so they will pretend to have other tricks up their sleeves. For the police this is called parallel construction where they use some highly illegal means to get information and then hire a guy with a stick to "find" the corpse officially.
        bqmjjx0kac 5y ago
        Neat, I didn't know that was called parallel construction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        Athletes don't have the power to detain, arrest, or shoot me. If the local football player wants to use a dowsing rod in search of treasure, go for it. If the local cops want to dig up my backyard because they got a hit off one, they can fuck off.
staticassertion 5y ago
> The chances of randomly digging up a body by pure guess are vanishingly rare. If your "guess" is a random walk, sure. But it isn't. You're going to walk around, see disturbed dirt, bias towards a trail, or where it makes sense, etc. I don't really but the trance thing.
whodunnit 5y ago
It’s probably just a way to access subconscious pattern matching in a way that bypasses the neocortex for output. An intuition magnifier.
pmarreck 5y ago
This is what I was going to suggest. The rods are merely a catalyst to free your "intuitive senses" or whatever; noticing subtle depressions in the dirt, the arrangement of foliage being "off", etc. might be more apparent if you weren't looking directly at them (as counter-intuitive as that sounds, no pun intended... But tell me this- How many times have you come up with a solution to a problem long after you were directly thinking about it and while doing something entirely different? Because that has happened to me MANY times, I'm sure it's happened to many people who will read this, and is JUST as difficult to "prove scientifically")

by hajile 5y ago

bqmjjx0kac 5y ago

A horrifying alternative explanation is that some killers masquerade as magical corpse finders, contributing to that effectiveness statistic.

ceejayoz 5y ago

> Even if you buried 1000 bodies in that square mile, your chances of finding one would still be a fraction of a percent. Only if burying a body left no trace. I can spot where deer have pooped in my lawn because there's a tuft of greener grass. Digging a big hole and putting 150 pounds of flesh into it is going to change stuff that's likely visible to an experienced tracker.

musingsole 5y ago
> that's likely visible to an experienced tracker And the GP's point is that this technique is little more than a focusing meditation for an experienced tracker.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  If that's the mechanism, we should figure out ways of meditating that don't involve charlatans or $60k fake devices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651).
  - musingsole 5y ago
    I'm not so sure. Athletes in particular spend ungodly sums on performance aids, many of which have no scientific basis -- but, if it helps the athlete get into a winning mindset, what grounds do you really have to tell them to stop?
    - josefx 5y ago
      Athletes that win spend ungodly sums on performance aids which have scientific basis, however getting caught would get them disqualified so they will pretend to have other tricks up their sleeves. For the police this is called parallel construction where they use some highly illegal means to get information and then hire a guy with a stick to "find" the corpse officially.
      - bqmjjx0kac 5y ago
        Neat, I didn't know that was called parallel construction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      Athletes don't have the power to detain, arrest, or shoot me. If the local football player wants to use a dowsing rod in search of treasure, go for it. If the local cops want to dig up my backyard because they got a hit off one, they can fuck off.

staticassertion 5y ago

> The chances of randomly digging up a body by pure guess are vanishingly rare. If your "guess" is a random walk, sure. But it isn't. You're going to walk around, see disturbed dirt, bias towards a trail, or where it makes sense, etc. I don't really but the trance thing.

whodunnit 5y ago

It’s probably just a way to access subconscious pattern matching in a way that bypasses the neocortex for output. An intuition magnifier.

pmarreck 5y ago

This is what I was going to suggest. The rods are merely a catalyst to free your "intuitive senses" or whatever; noticing subtle depressions in the dirt, the arrangement of foliage being "off", etc. might be more apparent if you weren't looking directly at them (as counter-intuitive as that sounds, no pun intended... But tell me this- How many times have you come up with a solution to a problem long after you were directly thinking about it and while doing something entirely different? Because that has happened to me MANY times, I'm sure it's happened to many people who will read this, and is JUST as difficult to "prove scientifically")