Last Month, a dirt mine operator accidently discovered a cast iron (ca 1859) casket in the area in which he was digging.  As a State Environmental Scientist, and Mine inspector, I was called to investigate.along with an archeologist from the state (MS) history and archives office.

Also there was a local county historian and dowser (Mr. Emory) who was an expert at locating graves.--He claimed to have located several other graves in the area.  Since I had found some graves myself in an old family cemetery, I talked to the old guy and got some new pointers from him.

First of all I did a test.  I walked up to the coffin that was still in place (the body since removed).  To my surprise, my rods did not respond, despite the IRON (magnetic) nature of the coffin.  the rods did not ctoss over the coffin, until I moved to the HEAD area, at which point they crossed.

Mr, Emory confirmed my observation.  He said that thats where the rods will cross (over the head).  He then proceeded to show me how to determine the sex and body build of a buried corpse. 

Walk up to where the rods cross, and then back off a bit (just foreward above the top of the head) seperate your hands a foot or two and proceed to walk back over the body.  The rods will then close up a bit tracing the outline of the head, narrowing at the neck, spreading wide for the shoulders narrowing at the waist, widing at the hips and tapering off to a point as one moves down the legs to the feet.

A woman's head is usually larger, because of the longer splayed out hair, and her hips are wider than her shoulders.  The difference in a man is obvious--as the width (body build).  In theory, the soil is altered from the decomposition of the body (fluids, etc) The rods respond to the different chemical compounds in the soil (more or less "magnetic" than the surrounding soil)

Another trick Mr. Emory taught me was to find the depth of the grave.  Walk up to where the rods initially cross, and then back off slowly. The rods will swing OUT side to side a few feet from where they crossed.  the distance from there to the swing out point is said to be the DEPTH of the grave.

Of course I have some skepticisim, while I dont doubt that the rods can detect graves(a photon magenetometer can do that too) Determining the sex, body build, and depth buried sorta fringes on the "psychic", less substantiated end of dowsing----I would not bet any money on the results, but STILL, I now know how it is done, and can do it myself for fun anyways.

Mr. Emory has a reputation helping the Sheriff's department with missing body cases and locating historical sites in the area, so he is not to be taken lightly.----I was happy for what he showed me.