Dowsing

[poliphilo]

Ailz has a witchy party trick where she dowses the number and sex of a person's children (already born or to come) by swinging a pendulum over their open palm. It works with both men and women- and I've never known her get it wrong. Here she is performing it with our niece, Jenny.

Comments

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I used to do something similar when a teen. A friend had a pendulum and a pice of string that came in a DIY dowsing kit that he'd bought in a novelty shop or something. I tried it out by covering photos and seeing what it said about the sex of people in the photos. It was supposed to swing backwards and forwards for one sex, and in circles for the other (I forget which).

It was remarkably accurate. A bit like spinning a coin and having it come up heads each time. I can't recall that it ever got one wrong.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

These things work in real life- but when they're tested under laboratory conditions they almost always fail. It's a weird old world.