Within the year, *Sceptical Inquirer* published a British article testing
the
effectiveness of dowsing.  The reported results were negative.  (Give me a
day, and I can dig out the exact reference.)

I've only tried dowsing once and failed.  But a number of folks in the
group
I was with got it to work (coke bottles and coat hangers), finding 17th
century
foundations at Flowerdew Hundred.  I doubt that any of them believed in
dowsing before they gave it a try.  So I think it would be mistaken to
claim
that one must believe in it for it to work.  What I find so interesting are
the
displays of emotion by those who assert that dowsing does not and cannot
work.

Brian Siegel