A theory I’ve heard is the value of dowsing might be that it is essentially random. If you ask a group of people to find something using their rational facultie

A theory I’ve heard is the value of dowsing might be that it is essentially random. If you ask a group of people to find something using their rational faculties, they’ll tend to restrict their search to certain areas... all of which other people will have already examined for similar reasons. Whereas the random nature of dowsing encourages people to search more broadly. Sometimes a random approach actually produces better results.