Last year I read a November 1980 magazine article about occupations that became obsolete in the 20th century. It still bothers me. The piece listed switchboard operator, elevator operator, iceman, cigarette girl and pinsetter but made no mention of dowsers whatsoever.
I come from a long line of dowsers but the divining rod has fallen out of favor and we’ve had to put our forked witch hazels away. My forefathers used the divining rod in their search for ground water but that was just for show. They already knew where the water was because of their sixth sense.
Explaining our extraordinary faculty to a five sensed individual would be like explaining hearing to a congenital deaf person. People thought we were fakers or psychics but we can perceive hidden bodies of water just like other people can detect sights and sounds. Our sixth sense isn’t extrasensory perception but a physical sense just like the other five. And, like them, it can be lost due to injury or illness. The sense for hidden water is located in our hair. I have a cousin who lost his ability after going bald.
Since water is essential for survival, you’d think evolution would have selected for this trait and that it would be ubiquitous. However, if people knew about our extra sense in earlier times then we would have been burned at the stake as witches. Nonetheless, the ultimatum to keep our ability a secret has never been revoked. I don’t think anyone today even knows who could rescind it or how that could be done. So we all still keep this secret.
Regardless, our sixth sense was once invaluable to humanity until those damn hydrologists put us out of business. It’s awfully disheartening that some people nowadays don’t appreciate all we did for so many for so long but, then adding insult to injury, this hack writer doesn’t even remember us at all.
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Don Nigroni received a BS in economics from Saint Joseph’s University and a MA in philosophy from Notre Dame and worked as an economist for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. He has been published in Ambit, Asymmetry Fiction, Mystery Tribune, 365 tomorrows and 50-Word Stories and has had poetry appear in Candelabrum and Mystery Time.
And now we know the rest of story. Good fun!