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Fortune telling

Nero said:
The strange thing is, he died at 87 and had 4 children. 1 out of three is not a great prediction. We want it to be true, but.....
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If any of *my* life predictions had been half as close I'd be making a fortune on the ftse. There were 5 children, for a start. 5 births is 5 births. 88 out by 2 months? Like I said, he could guess a bit.

I don't actually want it to be true, it's a lot easier to say it's all hokum. It is, then someone comes up with 3 very unlikely events, gets them right enough, and anyone who knows anything at all about stats and probability says "Blimey. If he did that more than once I'd be wondering what the hell was going on".
 
stevec67 said:
If any of *my* life predictions had been half as close I'd be making a fortune on the ftse. There were 5 children, for a start. 5 births is 5 births. 88 out by 2 months? Like I said, he could guess a bit.

I don't actually want it to be true, it's a lot easier to say it's all hokum. It is, then someone comes up with 3 very unlikely events, gets them right enough, and anyone who knows anything at all about stats and probability says "Blimey. If he did that more than once I'd be wondering what the hell was going on".
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Maybe the fortune teller gave all men the same predictions or variations of, so some will fit with reality. Yes, it is all b.....s
 
Vinny said:
Dowsing is real.
Over 40 years ago I worked with someone whose brother in turn worked for a local water company. If they wanted a precise position to dig, out came the dowsing sticks of the ol' boys who'd been on the job for years and sod the metal detectors.

There is probably some very simple science behind it, its just that no-one has studied it enough.
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The Ch4 documentary `The Enemies Of Reason` by Richard Dawkins is worth watching.
 
stevec67 said:
If any of *my* life predictions had been half as close I'd be making a fortune on the ftse. There were 5 children, for a start. 5 births is 5 births. 88 out by 2 months? Like I said, he could guess a bit.

I don't actually want it to be true, it's a lot easier to say it's all hokum. It is, then someone comes up with 3 very unlikely events, gets them right enough, and anyone who knows anything at all about stats and probability says "Blimey. If he did that more than once I'd be wondering what the hell was going on".
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The fortune teller may well have been near enough 'right' in your case. But how many of the tellers other thousands of predictions came right? It could be virtually none! And what about all the pals he was with? did any of those predictions become true?
 
Dowsing - I am a sceptic. But my Grandfather reckoned he could do it and had used it in anger when looking for water sources on the golf course.

He showed me how to do it. I tried - and blow me, those sticks moved - it did not matter how hard I held on to them... they moved, at the same place, every time. I have no idea...
 
mansr said:
Let me rephrase: how does the stick detect precisely what the user happens to be looking for?
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The stick (or pendulum) doesn't detect anything - no-one claims it does. It shows when the dowser makes a small involuntary movement that (supposedly) occurs when they detect whatever it is they are looking for.

Now, as to what the mechanism is behind the dowser detecting the target, that's a different discussion.
 
So far as I know there is no proper scientific evidence that dowsing works beyond what would be achieved by guesswork alone.
 
So you have a talent for finding stuff underground with a couple of sticks and you use it to find water and not buried treasure trove?
And if it’s the dowser who detects it why use sticks at all?
Hmmmm.
It has never worked in a controlled scientific test.
It all sounds a bit Uri Geller to me.
 
@Bob McC - some dowsers don't use any form of stick / pendulum.

Just so no-one thinks I'm some sort of New-Age fruitloop, the idea that a dowser is somehow in tune with auras or energy fields of water or ancient burials is utter hoop.
 
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