Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, gemstones, buried metals or ores, oil, grave sites, claimed radiations, malign "earth vibrations,” ley-lines, the heartland grid, missing jewelry, missing car keys, buried treasure, underground pipes and many other objects and materials.
Dowsing is considered a pseudoscience by some, attributing the movements to the “ideomotor” phenomenon.
Dowsing has historically been linked to occultism and, at times, considered a form of “witchcraft,” although many dowsers believe they are tapping into unseen natural energies, magnetic fields, one’s bio-electromagnetic field, one’s higher self or cosmic consciousness to detect and gain insight & access information stored within etheric energy fields.