History Main / DowsingDevice

* In the Tim Powers novel ''Earthquake Weather'', the main characters use a pendulum over a calendar to determine the day they should perform a ceremony that will revive a dead king.

* In the Literature/ModestyBlaise novels, recurring character Dinah is blind and has dowsing as her DisabilitySuperpower. In ''A Taste for Death'', the novel where she first appears, the villains try to kidnap her to dowse the location of a buried treasure for them. She uses the two metal rods.

* Used by a Smurf in a one-page [[ComicBook/TheSmurfs Smurfs]] story who uses it to find treasure, and discovers what he thinks is an underground well of water that makes Smurfs feel funny -- only to not realize that it was an underground distillery Papa Smurf was using to make sarsaparilla wine.

* James uses one in an episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''.

* In what would be hilarious if the implications weren't so tragic, a UK company called ATSC manufactured and sold thousands of, basically, dowsing devices, as a legitimate bomb detector called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651 ADE 651]]. The company claimed that the device worked on the principle of [[TechnoBabble "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction"]], and said that it could detect guns, ammunition, drugs, human bodies and any other contraband you cared to name, over a distance of 1km. They sold these things to 20 countries in the Middle East: the Iraqi security forces alone are said to have spent £52m on them. They cost about £150 to make, and sold for upwards of £11,500 each. They were finally busted after a BBC documentary and other investigations pointed out that the things contained no operating components of any kind and their supposed special component, a "programmed substance detection card" which you inserted into the machine before you used it, was just a plastic card implanted with the kind of security tag used as an anti-shoplifting device. The British government raided the company, arrested its founder and the device's inventor (a retired police officer), he was charged with multiple counts of fraud and sentenced to ten years. The utter failure of these devices to detect explosives of any kind (or anything else) cost many, many lives; given that they were still being used by the Iraqi police in July 2016, they may have helped to make the 2016 Baghdad bombings possible.

* ''Film/WomanInTheMoon'': once he's landed on the Moon, Professor Mannfeldt uses a divining rod to search for water. And you call yourself a scientist!

* In ''VideoGame/Cryostasis'' the Northwinds navigation system is named after the divining rod.

* Lyserg from ''Manga/ShamanKimg'' is called a dowser, a shaman who's spirit specializes in finding people/things. In fact his whole bloodline has that specialty, which makes them particularly notable as detectives. In the manga and the anime, he's shown using a pendant as his spirit medium and weapon in his quest to find and exact revenge on villian Hao.

* Lyserg from ''Anime/ShamanKimg'' is called a dowser, a shaman who's spirit specializes in finding people/things. In fact his whole bloodline has that specialty, which makes them particularly notable as detectives. In the manga and the anime, he's shown using a pendant as his spirit medium and weapon in his quest to find and exact revenge on villian Hao.

This is a very old "folk magic" idea in [[TruthInTelevision the real world]]. In fiction, it tends to be used either as FunctionalMagic or as something for the skeptic to snark at - or sometimes, both at the same time.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: ComicBooks]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' (at least in the movie version) uses one that turns out to be made of poison oak.

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', Inigo prays to his late father to guide his sword -- then successfully divines the entrance to the Pit Of Despair.
* ''Film/TheThingThatCouldntDie'' (a horror film which would have languished in well-deserved obscurity had [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mike and the Bots]] not discovered it) centers around a young girl who can 'water-witch' and consequently discovers the body of a man (justly) condemned to a FateWorseThanDeath.
* In ''Film/TheWaterDiviner'', Creator/RussellCrowe plays a character whose near-supernatural ability to find water sources is a recurring motif.
* ''Film/WomanInTheMoon'': once he's landed on the Moon, Professor Mannfeldt uses a divining rod to search for water. And you call yourself a scientist!

[[folder: Literature]]
* In the ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' trilogy, Oswald Chitter uses a forked hazel twig to dowse for Audrey's missing mousebrass.
* One ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' story had an older boy claiming to have found a way to use divining rods to find gold, and "demonstrated" his ability by using the rod to find a gold brick. Encyclopedia was able to stop his friends from buying rods from the budding con artist by explaining [[http://brownencyclopedia.tumblr.com/post/14528771027/the-case-of-the-divining-rods why the gold had to be fake]].

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

-->'''Grandpa:''' Ah! Here it is! ''cackles with glee'' My radio direction finder. \\

'''Grandpa:''' True, true, heh, but I had it transistorized last month! ''Dials show that the direction finder can be set to find Water, Girls, Metal and Flying Objects.''

[[folder: NewspaperComics]]
* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' recurring character Dinah Collier is an effective pendulum dowser ([[DisabilitySuperpower and blind]]).

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* Since psychic powers, including dowsing, are real in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' you shouldn't assume the person carrying crystals, sticks or globes is just messing around.
* A [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=435392 Dowsing Dagger]] turns up in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'''s GoldenAgeOfPiracy themed expansion, ''Ixalan''. When certain conditions are bet it leads the player (read: flips over) into the "Lost Vale", a powerful land (source of the games main mechanical resource, {{Mana}}) card.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: VideoGames]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'': Ms Sofue has one. One sidequest requires the MC to get special materials for her to build a new one once her old one has "stopped responding to her powers".

* The dowsing rod in ''{{VideoGame/Psychonauts}}'' is incredibly useful, as it allows you to find deep caches of arrowheads (the game's currency), without one you can only pull up one or two at a time, and since there are several mandatory powers you need to buy in the shop, it will save you a lot of time grinding money.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* Rufus Hooter Talltales attempts to use one in Episode 9 of ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures''… and promptly breaks it.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* Used in the first episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama World Tour]]''.

[[folder: RealLife]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Literature]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Used in the first episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama World Tour]]''.

* ''TheSuperHeroSquadShow'' episode "Mysterious Mayhem at Mutant High": The Ringmaster has a divining rod that can find fractals.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has this as a main mechanic, to search for keys, pick-ups and [[DistressedDamsel Zelda]].

* ''Film/WomanInTheMoon''. Once he's landed on the Moon, Professor Mannfeldt uses a divining rod to search for water. And you call yourself a scientist!