The most compelling evidence any of us will ever be faced with is personal observation and experience. No argument, no matter how erudite or authoritative, ever defeats direct experience. So, it is wise to keep an open mind and not take the position of the anonymous person who said to Margaret Mead, "This is the kind of phenomena I wouldn't believe even if it were true."
 
Let's explore evidence that reality extends beyond the physical world with something you can experience right now.
 
At one time I was faced with the problem of locating a drain line under a cement floor in the warehouse at my office. The original construction drawings were lost and we needed to plumb into a drain for an expansion. After calling everyone we could think of to see if there was some instrument that could detect pipes under cement, nobody had any better idea than to start randomly breaking out the concrete floor. That was a daunting and depressing prospect, to say the least.
 
A fellow worker suggested that he try to "witch" the drain line. He proceeded to bend some coat hangers (see drawing) and walked about the warehouse until he had mapped out what he claimed was the entire drainage system, hidden under 6 inches of solid concrete! I watched him walkabout as the wires mysteriously crossed as he passed over certain spots. He then chalked an X on the floor everywhere they did.

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Intrigued, but thinking he was probably moving the wires voluntarily, I decided to try it. To my amazement, the wires crossed in every spot he had chalked an X. No visuals were at play since I even repeated it closing my eyes.
 
We broke through the concrete in line with the X's and dug down. There was the line, three feet down.

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On another occasion, after digging for an hour in my yard to find plugged drain pipes leading from my eavestroughs, I remembered dowsing. I bent some coat hangers and walked about the yard. In about two minutes I found the pipe.
 
I had the same experience trying to find a buried electrical line going to an outside light that had become dead. I found some scrap electrical cord and stripped out a small piece of the copper wire in it. Holding this in my hand while I held the dowsing wires, I again amazed myself as I was able to track the line two feet underground.
 
For centuries, dowsing has been used to find underground water; for centuries it has been pooh-poohed by the scientific community. What happens between the wire and the water (or other buried objects) and why the wires turn toward one another is totally mysterious. (Some dowsers use a y-shaped stick that points down over the target.) There is some form of communication going on, but it hasn't been measured, harnessed, defined, or explained.
 
Here is how you can experience this yourself to help open your mind to the mysterious and unseen world. Just lay a hose on the ground and let water trickle through it. Slowly walk across it perpendicularly, very lightly holding your dowsing wires so they can easily swivel back and forth. Hold them body width apart, parallel to the ground, and pointing forward. Keep your elbows tight to your sides to help your hands steady. Feel for the wires' desire to turn toward one another and let them do it. They will do this as you pass over the hose. When you feel them start to turn, slow way down or stop to let them finish their swing inward toward one another.
 
You can also experience coins communicating with one another by putting one coin on the ground and another in your hand as you hold the wires. Then walk over the coin and the wires will cross.
 
If it doesn't work for you, retry by moving very slow and steady, making sure the wires are held VERY loosely so they can do their own thing. Have friends or family give it a try if you can't make it work.
 
On the other hand, if you prefer to not try this for yourself and just doubt, you can do that too and have plenty of support. For example, in a debunking book entitled: Why People Believe Weird Things, the author, the founder of Skeptic Magazine, states, "Some things such as water dowsing . . .  have been tested and have failed the tests often enough that we can provisionally conclude that they are false." (Thanks for "provisionally.")
 
Another author, in the book, Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction – Where Real Science Ends . . .  and Pseudoscience Begins, remarks: "Alleged psychic ability of dowsing . . . Do these events support the hypothesis that dowsers can detect hidden substances better than with chance guessing and without the use of clues in the environment? No . . . Controlled experiments set up to test the abilities of dowsers have shown that dowsers are no better at finding hidden substances than chance would predict . . . What does cause the muscle contractions that move the dowser's rod . . . The movement is caused by suggestion and unconscious muscular activity in the dowser. It has been demonstrated that just thinking about a certain physical action (like a dowsing rod tilting . . .) causes minute reactions in the muscles that would be used for such actions. And, the slightest movement in the wrists or hands will be magnified in the movement of the rod . . ."
 
Reading that, after experiencing what I did in the warehouse and in my yard, gave me the same feeling you would have if you walked into a building after being drenched in the rain, shoes sloshing as you walked, and were met by people who insisted that it couldn't be raining because the meteorologist on the weather station said it wasn't forecast for the day. To believe the Quantum Leaps author, I would have to believe that the results I and everyone at the office had, even blindfolded, were just imagined or we were all delusional that particular day. His take on dowsing and the results of "controlled experiments" would mean everyone at the office happened to agree by just guessing where pipelines were buried three-and-a-half feet under 15,000 square feet of six-inch thick concrete.
 
Decide for yourself. When you do it, you will feel the wires moving on their own. They are loose in the hands and cannot, therefore, be moved by "muscles." It is only if they are totally loose and free to swing on their own that it will work.
 
Notice in the above skeptic's quote the allusion to "thinking about" a particular result making it happen. He may be on to something there, but not for the muscle reactions he speculates. As we have learned, mind underlies reality. It may be that our mind's desire to find water pipes or copper wire is the force that makes the wires move. But it is not your "muscles," it's the wires themselves that move, as you will experience.
 
Please go bend the hangers and create the ultimate proof, personal experience. Do it right now before you venture on through these next chapters. It will help make them seem not quite so unbelievable.