Remote viewer Paul H. Smith (learndowsing.com) spoke about the interplay between dowsing, remote viewing (RV) and ESP. Dowsing was traditionally used to detect water (the dowser holds a Y-shaped twig, an L-shaped rod, or a pendulum), but it can actually be employed for many other purposes, he said.

Recently declassified military research revealed that dowsing was used in a number of projects. Smith described work he did as part of the Fort Meade Military Unit, in which dowsing was used to locate "drug war" targets that had already been remote viewed.

Dowsing and RV could both be considered a type of ESP, as the participant is picking up perceptions that don't come from the normal senses, he explained, adding that the two methods both rely on subconscious processes. Skeptics have claimed that ideomotor response controlled by the subconscious is what directs dowsers' findings. At the Stanford Research Institute it was determined that this does play a role, yet what emerges in the subconscious often taps into the truth, noted Smith.