E-meter

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A Scientology E-Meter

Template:Scientology sidebar The E-Meter (also electropsychometer and Hubbard Electrometer) is an electronic device used in Scientology that allegedly "registers emotional reactions".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After claims by L. Ron Hubbard that the procedures of auditing, which used the E-Meter, could help heal diseases, the E-Meter became the subject of litigation.<ref name="skelley"/><ref name="scribd.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="CanTimesJun1964"/> Since then, the Church of Scientology publishes disclaimers declaring that the E-Meter "by itself does nothing", is incapable of improving health, and is used solely for spiritual purposes.<ref name="insideVII">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

MathisonEdit

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Volney Mathison built an EDA meter based on a Wheatstone bridge,Template:Efn a vacuum tube amplifier, and a large moving-coil meter that projected an image of the needle on the wall. He patented his device in 1954 as an electropsychometer or E-meter,<ref name="singh">Template:Cite book</ref> and it came to be known as the "Mathison Electropsychometer".<ref name="freeman">Template:Cite book</ref> In Mathison's words, the E-meter "has a needle that swings back and forth across a scale when a patient holds on to two electrical contacts".<ref name="singh" /> Mathison recorded in his book, Electropsychometry, that the idea of the E-Meter came to him in 1950 while listening to a lecture by L. Ron Hubbard:<ref name=Garrison>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

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and

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Hubbard told of that encounter in a 1952 recorded lecture:

This machine, the electropsychometer, has been acting as a pilot since about the first of January 1952. Very early I wanted a pilot; I had to have some method of metering preclears which was not dependent at all upon opinion or judgment. And I went out and looked at the existing lie detector equipment and I could not find anything which would do a job of work. Now, Volney Mathison out on the Coast heard a talk out there one day, and I mentioned this fact. ... I had one of the fanciest electroencephalographs made and it didn't do anything very much, police detectors didn't do anything very much, and Mathison went to work and he floated a current within a current. This machine is relatively simple, but it's a current floating inside another current ... And I am, by the way, very much indebted to Mathison just on this basis of all of a sudden having a pilot.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Mathison began working with L. Ron Hubbard in 1951<ref name=":5">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and that year filed application for his first E-meter patent, U.S. Patent 2,684,670. After the partnership broke up in 1954, Mathison continued improving his E-meters with additional patents ({{#if:2736313 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:2736313 }}|2736313}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|2736313}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}, {{#if:2810383 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:2810383 }}|2810383}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|2810383}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}), marketing them through his own company and publications, retaining many of the concepts and terms from his time with Hubbard.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In a separate line of development, EDA monitors were incorporated in polygraph machines by Leonarde Keeler. Rigorous testing of the polygraph has yielded mixed results, and some critics classify polygraph operation as a pseudoscience.Template:R

HubbardEdit

Template:Multiple image The E-meter was adopted for use in Dianetics and Scientology when Mathison collaborated with Hubbard in 1951.<ref name=":5"/> Some sources say the E-meter was "developed by Volney Mathison following Hubbard's designs",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or that Hubbard invented it.<ref name=robbers>Template:Cite book</ref> Hubbard falsely claimed to be the inventor of the E-meter, a claim which is in keeping with the Scientology stance that Hubbard is the "source", or "the only originator of all Dianetics and Scientology material".<ref name="asrr201662323">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The E-meter was not part of the early days of Dianetics and Scientology. Auditing was composed of conversation and not led by a mechanical device. Hubbard introduced an E-meter prototype during the 1952 Philadelphia Doctorate Course but did not introduce his transistorized version until several years later. The E-meter became "the principal material artifact" of Dianetics and Scientology from the 1960s onward.<ref name="Cowan 2014">Template:Cite conference</ref>

In the book, L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?, Bent Corydon wrote:

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Though it seemed for a while that Scientology's more advanced techniques would serve without an E-meter, a few months later in May 1955, Hubbard wrote:

And here come E-Meters back into the picture. The HASI is, at this moment, building a new and better E-Meter than has ever been built before, under the trademarked name of Physio-galvanometer, or O-Meter. It has very little in common with the old type E-Meter. Nevertheless, an old type E-Meter can be utilized.<ref>Template:Cite book On page 195 in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, Volume II, 1954–1956, (1976) Template:ISBN Template:OL</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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The Scientology meter was smaller, based on transistors rather than vacuum tubes, and powered by a low-voltage rechargeable battery rather than line voltage.

From then on, the E-meter was a required tool for Scientology ministers. The "Hubbard Mark II" E-meter was christened in 1960 and the Hubbard Mark III shortly after.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On December 6, 1966, Hubbard won a patent on the Mark V version under the name "Hubbard Electropsychometer". Corydon wrote that the Hubbard E-meter was actually developed by Scientologists Don Breeding and Joe Wallis,<ref name="Corydon313" />Template:Efn though the patent ({{#if:3290589 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:3290589 }}|3290589}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|3290589}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}) does not list other developers.

The Scientology E-meter has been redesigned and re-patented several times since its first introduction to Dianetics (e.g.: {{#if:4459995 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:4459995 }}|4459995}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|4459995}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}, {{#if:4578635 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:4578635 }}|4578635}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|4578635}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}, {{#if:4702259 |[{{#ifeq:|uspto|http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=%7Chttps://patents.google.com/patent/US}}{{#iferror:{{#expr:4702259 }}|4702259}} U.S. patent {{#ifeq:Template:Replace|Template:Digits|Template:Replace|4702259}}] |{{US patent|123456|link text}}}}).

Earlier similar devicesEdit

Electrodermal activity meters were first developed in 1889 in Russia, and psychotherapists began using them as tools for therapy in the 1900s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="andersonreport">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (HTML version)</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Use in ScientologyEdit

File:Scientology Auckland Org auditing machine 20170121 160007.jpg

Demonstration of auditing, showing position of e-meter—auditor in foreground, preclear in background

File:Scientology Free Stress Test.jpg

Using an e-meter to perform the stress test, a recruiting tool

E-meters are used by Scientology practitioners known as "auditors". Scientology materials refer to the subject as the "preclear".Template:Efn The auditor gives the preclear a series of commands or questions while the preclear holds a pair of cylindrical electrodes ("cans") connected to the meter, and the auditor notes both the verbal response and the activity of the meter. Auditor training includes familiarization with a number of characteristic needle movements, each with a specific significance.Template:R Religion scholar Dorthe Refslund Christensen describes the e-meter as "a technical device that could help the auditor locate engrams and areas of change when auditing a preclear".Template:R

Scientology concepts associated with the E-meter and its use are regarded by the scientific and medical communities as pseudoscience, as the E-meter has never been subjected to clinical trials as a therapeutic tool.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

Scientologists claim that in the hands of a trained operator, the meter can indicate whether a person has been relieved from the spiritual impediment of past experiences.<ref>Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights by the European Court of Human Rights, Template:ISBN</ref> In accordance with a 1974 federal court order, the Church of Scientology asserts that the E-meter is intended for use only in church-sanctioned auditing sessions; it is not a curative or medical device.<ref>Religionsfreiheit und Konformismus: Über Minderheiten und die Macht der Mehrheit, Gerhard Besier, 2004. Template:ISBN [1]</ref> The E-meters used by the Church were previously manufactured by Scientologists at their Gold Base facility,<ref name="Sptimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> but were being manufactured in Hong Kong and Taiwan as of 1998.<ref name="Sptimes.com" />

According to Hubbard, the E-meter is used by the operator for three vital functions:

To determine what process to run and what to run it on.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
To observe how well the process is running.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
To know when the process should be stopped.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Church claims that the E-meter can be used to assess the emotional charge of single words, whole sentences, and questions, as well as indicating the general state of the subject when the operator is not speaking.Template:R Few users of the E-meter claim that it does anything to the subject. To most, it does no more than suggest to the operator a change of mental, emotional, or autonomic nervous system activity.<ref name="Lebron-1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

New religious movement scholar Douglas Cowan writes that Scientologists cannot progress along the Bridge to Total Freedom without an E-meter, and that Hubbard even told Scientologists to buy two E-meters, in the event that one of them fails to operate.<ref name="Cowan 2014"/> According to anthropologist Roy Rappaport, the E-meter is a ritual object, an object that "stand[s] indexically for something intangible".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Other usesEdit

Similar devices have been used as research tools in many human studies and as one of several components of the Leonarde Keeler's polygraph (lie detector) system, which has been widely criticized as ineffective and pseudoscientific by legal experts and psychologists.<ref name="fas">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (PDF version)</ref><ref name=APA2004>Template:Cite journal</ref>

EDA meters are used in both therapist-patient<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and bio-feedback settings.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> EDA is one of the factors recorded by polygraphs, and EDA meters are often used in human studies to gauge psychological responses.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

DescriptionEdit

File:Scientology e meter blue annotated.jpg

Parts of an e-meter

Most prominent on the face of the e-meter is a display with a needle pointer. There are several dials and knobs, and modern e-meters have several LCD displays. All models have knobs for turning the device on, testing it, setting the sensitivity, and boosting the device. The primary control for the auditor is the tone arm (a rotating lever) which is held throughout auditing and operated by one hand while the auditor writes with their other hand. As the needle on the display moves off the right or left of the dial, the tone arm is used to bring the needle back on the dial. During an auditing session, the auditor writes down questions he has asked the preclear, the preclear's answers, and activity of the e-meter such as needle movements and tone arm settingsTemplate:R<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

There are ten main "needle actions" that an auditor is trained to spot, including a "fall," a smooth needle motion to the right; a "rise," a similar motion to the left; and a "free needle," or more commonly called a "Template:Glossary link," which is "a rhythmic sweep of the dial at a slow, even pace... back and forth."{{#if:Harley and Kieffer Template:R|{{#if:|}}
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ElectronicsEdit

One of E-meter's primary components is a Wheatstone bridge, an electrical circuit configuration invented in 1833<ref>Template:Cite journal Author discusses Christie's and Wheatstone's contributions, and why the bridge carries Wheatstone's name.</ref> that enables the detection of very small differences between two electrical impedances (in this case, resistances). The E-meter is constructed so that one resistance is the subject's body and the other is a rheostat controlled by the operator. A small voltage from the battery is applied to electrodes held in the subject's hands. As the electrical properties (electrodermal activity) of the subject's body change during the counseling,<ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:R the resulting changes in the small electric current are displayed in needle movements on a large analog panel meter. The dial face is without numbers because the absolute resistance in ohms is relatively unimportant, while the operator watches primarily for characteristic needle motions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:R The voltage applied to the electrodes is less than 1.5 V, and the electric current through the subject's body is less than a half a milliampere.Template:R

In the Scientology E-meter, the large control, known as the "tone arm", adjusts the meter bias, while a smaller one controls the gain. The operator manipulates the tone arm to keep the needle near the center of the dial so its motion is easily observed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A simple E-meter powered by direct current, such as that used by the Scientologists and the like, displays several kinds of electrodermal activity (EDA) on the one dial without distinction, including changes in resistance and bioelectric potential. Researchers in psychophysiology are also exploring admittance and impedance aspects of EDA that can be observed only with alternating current.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The E-Meter, measuring variations in electrodermal activity (which can be highly responsive to emotion<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite journal</ref>), functions on the same physiological data sources as one of the parts of the polygraph, or "lie detector". According to Scientology doctrine, the resistance corresponds to the "mental mass and energy" of the subject's mind, which are claimed to change when the subject thinks of particular mental images (engrams).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One account tells about Hubbard using the E-meter to determine whether or not fruits can experience pain, as in his 1968 assertion that tomatoes "scream when sliced".<ref name="tomatoes">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="tomatoes2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The traditional theory of EDA holds that skin resistance varies with the state of sweat glands in the skin. Sweating is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Because sweat contains electrolytes (salt, etc.), conductivity is increased when the sweat glands are activated. But some advocates argue that the meter responds more quickly than would be possible by the exudation and drying of sweat.<ref>Article Skin conductance, main page: "Lastly, galvanic skin responses are delayed 1–3 seconds."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They propose an additional mechanism termed the "Tarchanoff Response", through which the cerebral cortex of the brain affects the current directly. This phenomenon is not completely understood, and further research needs to be performed.Template:R<ref name="Boucsein-7">Template:Cite book</ref>

Legal issuesEdit

United StatesEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The medical establishment had been watching Hubbard's enterprises since 1951, when the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners prosecuted the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation (Elizabeth, New Jersey) for practicing medicine without a license.<ref>Bulletin of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, Elizabeth, New Jersey. January 1951</ref> In 1958, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized and destroyed 21,000 Dianazene tablets from Hubbard's Distribution Center Inc., charging that they were falsely labeled as a treatment for radiation sickness.<ref name="Blue Sky">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Wallis, Roy. Sectarianism: Analyses of Religious and Non-Religious Sects, Page 92, 1975, Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="barefaced">Template:Cite book</ref>

On January 4, 1963, in service of an FDA complaint, more than 100 US marshals and deputized longshoremen with drawn guns<ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref> raided the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C., and confiscated more than three tons of property,Template:R including 5,000 books, 2,900 booklets, and several hundred E-meters.<ref name="skelley" />Template:RP<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The FDA accused the Church of making false medical claims that the E-meters could treat physical and mental illnesses. The FDA also charged that the meters did not bear adequate directions for treating the conditions for which they were recommended.<ref>Template:Cite book Chapter 6.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Church claimed that they had not written any publication that the E-meter could or would heal anythingTemplate:R and sued to get the property back. Years of litigation ensued. In the first trial beginning on April 3, 1967, the jury found that the Church misrepresented the E-meter, and the judge ordered the confiscated materials destroyed.Template:R<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> However, in 1969 the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the verdict; the Church, it said, had made substantial showing that Scientology is a religion and the government had done nothing to rebut the claim.<ref name=":2" /> The US Court of Appeals wrote: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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Hubbard and his fellow Scientologists developed the notion of using an E-Meter to aid auditing. Substantial fees were charged for the meter and for auditing sessions using the meter. They repeatedly and explicitly represented that such auditing effectuated cures of many physical and mental illnesses. An individual processed with the aid of the E-Meter was said to reach the intended goal of 'clear' and was led to believe that there was reliable scientific proof that once cleared many, indeed most, illnesses would successfully be cured. Auditing was guaranteed to be successful. All this was and is false.Template:R {{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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The church adopted a modified version of that statement, which it still invokes in connection with the E-meter. The current statement reads:

The Hubbard Electrometer is a religious artifact. By itself, this meter does nothing. It is for religious use by students and Ministers of the church in Confessionals and pastoral counseling only.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Judge Gesell also ordered the Church to pay all the government's legal fees and warehousing costs for the confiscated property for the nine years of litigation. He also required the church to pay the salaries and travel expenses of FDA agents who might, from time to time, inspect for compliance with the court's order.Template:R The raid was ruled illegal, but the government retained copies of the documents.<ref name=":4" />

SwedenEdit

In 1979, a court forbade calling the E-meter "an invaluable aid to measuring man's mental state and changes in it" in an advertisement. The prohibition was upheld by the European Commission of Human Rights in case X. and Church of Scientology v. Sweden.

FranceEdit

In October 2009, a three-judge panel at the Correctional Court in Paris, convicted the church and six of its members of organized fraud.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Court's decision followed a three-week trial, where two plaintiffs alleged they were defrauded by the organization. One plaintiff's complaint involved the use of an E-Meter by Scientologists with medical implications. This plaintiff claimed that, after being audited with the device, she was encouraged to pay tens of thousands of euros for vitamins, books, and courses to improve her condition. She argued that amounted to fraud. The Court agreed, and the ruling was upheld on appeal in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> See Template:Section link.

AustraliaEdit

Template:See also

In 1964, the government of Victoria, Australia, held a Board of Inquiry into Scientology which returned its findings in a document colloquially known as the Anderson Report. Psychiatrist Ian Holland Martin, honorary federal secretary of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, gave evidence that the E-Meter "used for Scientology" was a "psycho-galvano-meter" and was "dangerous in unqualified hands".<ref name="CanTimesJun1964">Template:Cite news</ref> He said that if the E-meter "was suggested to possess mysterious powers" to someone who did not understand that it had "been thoroughly discredited as a lie detector" then "that person would be suggestible to ideas foisted on him by the operator".<ref name="CanTimesJun1964"/> The final report of the inquiry stated that the E-meter enabled Scientology

to assume, intensify and retain control over the minds and wills of preclears. Fears of its abilities keep them in constant subjection. Its use can be so manipulated by cunningly phrased questions that almost any desired result can be obtained, and it is used unscrupulously to dominate students and staff alike. All the evil features of scientology are intensified where the E-meter is involved. When used in conjunction with hypnotic techniques, its evil impact is greatly increased.
This simple electrical device is not, of course, the sole basis for the condemnation of scientology, but without the E-meter scientology would be partly disarmed.<ref>State of Victoria (1965). Report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology p. 96</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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In 1965, Victoria banned the use of the E-meter without a license, with Western Australia and South Australia following suit. In 1969, the High Court of Western Australia ruled the ban illegal. South Australia repealed its law in 1973, and Victoria repealed it in 1982. In 1983, the High Court of Australia ruled that Scientology was a religion and as such had the same rights and protections.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scientology beliefs and theoriesEdit

Within the Church of Scientology, the early psychoanalysts are credited with first use of the E-meter.

Bob Thomas, senior executive of the Church of Scientology in the United States, described the E-meter ... "Some very early work on this was done by Jung, who used a list of words. I think he combined it with the psycho-galvanometer. By this word association, he was attempting to increase the effectiveness of the free association techniques, which he was not sure about."Template:R {{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Hubbard credited Mathison with recreating the E-meter and bringing him the first model for use in Dianetics.<ref name=6207C19>Template:Cite book</ref> Hubbard set out his theory of how the E-meter works in his book Understanding the E-Meter:

For the meter to be read, the tiny flow of electrical energy through the preclear (person) has to remain steady. When this tiny flow is changed the needle of the E-Meter moves. This will happen if the preclear pulls in or releases mental mass. This mental mass (condensed energy), acts as an additional resistance or lack of resistance to the flow of electrical energy from the E-Meter.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Hubbard claimed that this "mental mass" has the same physical characteristics, including weight, as mass as commonly understood by lay persons:

In Scientology it has been discovered that mental energy is simply a finer, higher level of physical energy. The test of this is conclusive in that a thetan "mocking up" (creating) mental image pictures and thrusting them into the body can increase the body mass and by casting them away again can decrease the body mass. This test has actually been made and an increase of as much as thirty pounds, actually measured on scales, has been added to, and subtracted from, a body by creating "mental energy". Energy is energy. Matter is condensed energy.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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This text in Understanding the E-Meter is accompanied by three drawings. The first shows a man standing on a weighing scale, which reflects a weight of "150" (the units are not given). The next shows the man on the same scale, weighed down under a burden of "Mental Image Pictures", and the scale indicates a weight of "180". The last picture shows the man standing upright on the scale, now unburdened by "Mental Image Pictures" and with a smile on his face, while the scale again indicates a weight of "148".

Bob Thomas, senior executive of the church in the early 1970s, gave a prosaic description.

The immediate goal of the E-meter is to enhance communication. In other words, just to take a parallel: if an analyst were allowing his patient to free-associate, and the patient were connected in some way with a galvanometer which showed the analyst what things the patient mentioned were emotionally charged and what things were not emotionally charged, a lot of time would be saved. So it's simply an assist for the practitioner to direct the individual to areas which he himself may not realize are troubled or charged with emotion or are repressed; and to better direct his attention into those areas ...
The E-meter is a simple psycho-galvanometer. It's got some increased sensitivity built into it and the myological reactions that you sometimes get in the galvanometer have been damped out by the circuitry, so that the mental reactions, the reactions of the spirit, on the body are emphasized and can be read more clearly. But that's simply the design of the circuitry; it doesn't basically affect the kind of device. It registers what is called, commonly, the psychogalvanomic reflex, which is a reflex that is a poorly understood mechanism of the psyche. The body resistance seems to vary when the individual thinks of a painful or pain-associated or traumatic-associated concept, or word or idea. ... Some very early work was done on this by Jung ...Template:R {{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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