Dowsing

Dowsing is the use of a Y-shaped stick, two L-shaped rods, a pendulum, or even your own body to discover hidden items or information.  There are probably many other variations on the technique of dowsing; these are just the ones that I'm most familiar with.  Personally, I prefer the L-shaped rods as they are easy to use, easy to read, and don't require a lot of effort or material to make a basic set to practice with.

I've had mixed results with dowsing rods though, to be honest, and I've yet to do a thorough test of my dowsing ability.  It is my opinion that the rods only amplify the unconscious motions of the individual and these motions can carry information from the subconscious mind, hence acting as a kind of psychic amplifier.  This explanation depends on the belief that the subconscious mind has access to abilities and information that the conscious mind does not.

Historically, dowsing has been used to find water under the ground or to find minerals.  "Water witches" were used to determine where a well should be dug.  Allegedly, some people still use dowsing to find buried water pipes when maps are unreliable.  I've never seriously tried to find something that was underground as I usually have little desire to dig holes in search of things, but if I find that my dowsing ability is pretty good I may change my mind and go looking for buried treasure or something.

Dowsing can apparently be used to find a lot more than water and minerals.  As long as the dowser can focus on what they're trying to find then it seems like the rods will amplify that signal.  This has been my experience.  Recently I used my rods to try to find a missing cat.  I seemed to have problems from "interference" at first as the rods kept leading me back to the cat that isn't missing.  Once I was able to break away from that it became a matter of what about the cat I was specifically focusing on.  I didn't find the missing cat because the rods were leading me onto an adjoining property and it was getting dark, so I decided to call off the search for the day.  However, I think I may have some idea of where to look now.

Honestly, I'm hoping the cat just comes back on its own.  Dowsing for cats is one of the more absurd things I've ever heard of.  Here's the Wikipedia page on dowsing.