I have reported upon the test in the German "Skeptiker" No. 4, 1989. This is a
paper based upon a talk I gave (in English) at the European skeptic conference
at Bad Tölz, (West) Germany, in May that year. The paper contains all
relevant information about the test, I think.

This test was run by a detachment of the Norwegian Army which at that time
took an active stand _for_ dowsing. The major organization in Norwegian mountain
rescue is the Norwegian Red Cross Auxiliary Corps - a voluntary organization,
where the dowsing idea originated. The chief proponent, who is a charismatic
person, was also responsible for winter survival training of career
officers, and in that way the technique was introduced into the army. I
became aware of the dowsing propaganda in April 1986, and used a lot of time
against dowsing the following 2 years. I checked arguments presented by the
Red Cross about international acceptance of the method and about purported
research, contacted all relevant authorities that could be involved - the
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI - a state-run institute in charge of
avalanche protection), the Department of Justice, the Commander-in-Chief of
the Norwegian armed forces, the International Commission of Alpine Rescue
(IKAR - an organization run from Switzerland), and of course the Norwegian
Red Cross.

I don't have time to tell all about it. I had support from NGI where some people
already were concerned about the issue. The Department of Justice, although
in charge of rescue work, had no command over techniques used by voluntary
organizations, they said, the Army and the Red Cross were in the hands of
the dowsers. IKAR, thanks to NGI and me, took a luke-warm stand against
dowsing in September 1986. They made it stronger later.

The major break-through was a report on the issue in the semi-weekly magazine
of the armed forces, where the army people and the "chief proponent"
defended dowsing with very weak arguments. This was in February 1987. The
test was made in May that year. We were more than 30 people involved, officers,
soldiers, Red-Cross people, and two critics, Steinar Bakkehøi from NGI and
myself.

The report was written by army officers who believed more or less strongly
in dowsing, at least before the results of the test were known. Before the
test, they had made preliminary plans how to introduce dowsing into the regular army
training, and a new edition of the army avalanche manual was to have a section describing
the use of dowsing in avalanche rescue.

With the help of somewhat faulty statistics (none involved knew statistics
very well) the claim was made in the report that there was a tendency in the
material that showed that there might be something in it after all, but the
technique was too unreliable to be used until the Red Cross could make a
better demonstration. A face-saving operation and a conclusion that Betz
might agree with.

Thus instead of giving you this official statement I will tell you about the
results.

Test 1. A dowser is to locate a person hidden in a 3-5 m high snow wall. The
digging was from one side, the dowsing from the other side. The test distance
was 40 m. A hit was counted within 2 m from the target. Thus 10 % probability
of a random hit. The hiding was done 6 times, 4 dowsing experts tried, giving
a total of 24 experiments. 5 were hits. This is not significant.

Test 2. A dowser was to locate a person buried under 2 m of snow in a field
approx. 50 x 50 m. A hit was counted in a 5 x 5 square centered around the
target. There were 3 hidings, 4 dowsing experts and 2 soldier teams tried.
The dowsers were allowed to report more than one spot. In that way a total
of 24 results of dowsing were reported. Chance of a random hit was 1 %.
There were no hits at all. The closest anyone came was more than 5 m away.
Average distance between dowsing signal and target was 19 m.

The Red Cross Auxiliary Corps did nothing until December 1987 - the chief
argument was that they had not got the official report through official
channels. Their representative had got it directly from the army detachment who wrote
it, and that did not count. In any case, their decision was suspend
temporarily teaching and using the technique. An investigation was to be
made by a knowledgeable rescue
leader whose then wife was one of the "expert dowsers" of the Red Cross.
This investigation has never been made. The failure of the test has been made
public through the magazine of Norwegian armed forces - in June 1987. The
Red Cross has never mentioned it in their official statements. In April 1988
they made the decision known to the general membership and then the Secretary
General inserted a reference to military tests but without telling any details.

The only accounts generally available are mine - in Skeptiker as mentioned
and in the Norwegian popular scientific journal "Naturen", later also
reprinted in "Bre-Posten" the newsletter of a glacier-hiking club. I have
also written a short article in an American avalanche rescue newsletter - at
the suggestion of people at NGI.

Best wishes,

Rolf

Rolf Manne  manne@langeskogen.no
Professor of Theoretical Chemistry
Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen
N-5007 Bergen, Norway
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