Rhabdomancer
Dowsing, which is also called divining, witching, and rhabdomancy (from the Greek rhabdos, a rod, and manteia, divination) is a form of supposed divination-to locate water, treasure, or the like-by using a forked stick, an L-shaped copper rod, a pendulum, or similar instrument serving as an indicator. I have tried my hand, as it were, at the practice on several occasions: once for example in 1976 when I tested a group of gold dowsers in the Yukon Territory (see my Secrets of the Supernatural, 1988, pp. 89-102), and more recently on November 23, 2009, at the "haunted" Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, where fellow investigator D.J. Grothe and I watched a ghosthunter dowse for spirits, then tried it ourselves. (See Dowsing Skeptic for an explanation of the phenomenon.)
