The so-called PHENOMENON

[Theseus]

Hi Theseus,
You have applied your concept of a trigger to "ideamotor response". I presume this means the dowser is holding rods without making any kinds of thoughts that involve deciding things or arriving at conclusions. He is only allowing responses to happen when some "trigger mechanism" compels his hands to respond.

This could work for any of the senses. ie: a person driving, while not thinking about anything in particular has a sudden response to slow down. He then realizes he has spotted a black and white car with lights flashing on top of it (before he had any conscious thoughts about it, he responded). This principle also works when you get too close to a fire, or sit on a needle that you can feel, etc.

Other times, we use our senses while making conscious thoughts and decisions. ie: you are lost, so you look for landmarks, where do you see the sun in the sky, street signs, etc. You think about the things you see, and process this data consciously and purposefully. Then you arrive at a conclusion of where to go.

With dowsing, either of these mechanisms could be used. In the case where you don't have a clue what you are doing, you may be using pure ideamotor guessing responses, and digging lots of empty holes. Or you may be processing information you read at the library, and on maps that give you some ideas about the treasure when you decide where to dowse at. Perhaps thinking and arriving at conclusions constitutes part of the "trigger" for this manner of dowsing.

But what about the possibility that there are more sensory mechanisms than the 5 common senses? Suppose a dowser has some sensory input that tells him to feel nervous and causes his arm muscles to twitch when he walks in certain locations. Suppose he also has a certain "recognizable feeling" that he has learned to associate with different kinds of anomalies he finds when he is dowsing. None of this has been confirmed, but it haas been reported by some dowsers. If it is true, then what about determining the source of this "sensory input"?
Best wishes,
J_P

First, I am confused about your use of, or the spelling of the term we are discussing. You consistently talk about ideamotor response. Ideamotor apraxia is the inability to carry out a command from the brain to mimic limb or head movements performed or suggested by others. Conceptual apraxia is similar to ideamotor apraxia, but infers a more profound malfunctioning in which the function of tools or objects is no longer understood.

I am speaking about the trigger for an ideomotor response. Are we talking about the same thing?

I'll assume we are. Then, certainly, there could be some other sense, other than the five we know about. And, yes it could be the trigger for an ideomotor response that could accurately reflect the location of a sought after target. Hypothetically speaking, that could be a possibility to explain "accurate dowsing". However, no matter where the source of the trigger is located, (ie. sixth sense, etc.) the operator can never tell for sure the source of the trigger, which is all I'm contending.