Can anyone dowse?

Certainly. I have no special psychic skills and I have been dowsing for years...though not for water...I prefer to use a faucet for that. :)

If you check out this Wikipedia link, you will see that there are other kinds of dowsing equipment than just divining rods, which is what you are hinting at with your water references.

I have often used pendulums to dowse for answers to questions. You simply dangle a pendulum of some material - I have used wood and crystal - between your thumb and forefinger and ask a question. If it spins one way the answer is yes, if it spins the other way the answer is no.

You simply check which way is yes or no by asking test questions like Is Stingray's car red? It is red, so that spinning direction would indicate yes. Notice that it generally helps to ask questions about yourself in the third person (instead of Is my car red?) because it keeps you more emotionally-detached.

Some people suggest that with dowsing equipment, you ask the equipment itself if it will work for you. So, when choosing a new pendulum, I will often hold a few and think of that question (Will you work with Stingray?). If the equipment responds strongly in any way, I know I've found something good for me.

As I said, I've been doing this for years and I don't believe there is anything mysterious or supernatural about it. Sometimes we are just resistant to hearing answers to our own questions from within but our bodies are often less resistant.

So asking a question with a physical instrument, like a pendulum or divining rods, can allow your body to communicate a response. So, for example, a pendulum magnifies enormously the tiny movements in your hands in response to a question. So even if I don't consciously know what the answer is, my broader self can communicate it through imperceptible hand movements causing the pendulum to eventually spin in one direction or the other.

So, to me, dowsing is really quite a natural phenomenon.

One thing I have also been using (successfully) for a few years now is dowsing with my head...yes, head. :)

I got the idea from listening to an Abraham recording where Abraham said Esther Hicks would ask a question and if her head felt like it was tilting forwards (like nodding yes) then the answer was yes. If her head felt like it was going from side-to-side (like shaking your head to say no) then the answer was no.

So when I am driving and I want to know which way to go, or which way to avoid any traffic snarl-ups, I think of a direction and try and feel whether my head is nodding or shaking to indicate whether the broader part of me agrees with the direction or not. It works surprisingly well.