A Brief History of How Scientology’s E-Meter Came Into Existence – Part 10 Final

By Jeffrey Augustine on May 23, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )

The Ultra Mark VIII is the current E-Meter approved for use in the Church of Scientology. Scroll down to the bottom of this essay to read the patent.

We conclude our series on the e-meter by presenting our seven summary observations about the device:

1. The electropsychometer measures changes in galvanic skin resistance. That’s all an electropsychometer does, all it can do, and all it will ever do. Scientology’s patent for its e-meter states this clearly.

2. An electropsychometer is agnostic.

3. An electropsychometer operator is free to interpret changes in galvanic skin resistance within any framework or model of his or her choosing.

4. The e-meter cannot discriminate between objective, subjective, and imaginary mental content.

5. When used as a rudimentary lie detector, the e-meter will tend to confirm sincerely held subjective religious beliefs as being truthful statements made by a believer.

6. In Scientology, E-Meter reads can be confusing and so the auditor must also look at the “indicators” of the person being audited.

7. Scientology auditing is based upon the bio-architecture of changes in galvanic skin resistance. This bodily mechanism is the undisclosed engine that drives the needle on the e-meter.

We comment on each of these observations in this essay.

1. The electropsychometer measures changes in galvanic skin resistance. That’s all an electropsychometer does, all it can do, and all it will ever do. Scientology’s own patent for its e-meter states this clearly:

In its PR, Scientology claims its e-meter reads mental mass and energy (mental image pictures) and this causes the needle on the meter to move. However, its actual patent characterizes the e-meter as a “SYSTEM FOR MEASURING AND INDICATING CHANGES IN THE RESISTANCE OF A LIVING BODY.”

The Bottom Line: Mental mass and energy are Hubbard’s metaphysical claims he superimposed upon changes in galvanic skin resistance. This leads to our following points.

2. An electropsychometer is agnostic.

An e-meter can be used for the purposes of lie detection; interrogation; to test ideological purity; psychotherapeutic purposes; biofeedback; Scientology auditing, etc. An e-meter doesn’t care what it is used for because all it does is measure changes in skin resistance.

An e-meter can be used in any frame of reference or model of reality. As the e-meter is agnostic however, it operates independently of any frame of reference or model of reality in which it is used and this includes Scientology. The e-meter doesn’t care if it is used in a sex cult, business consulting, or anywhere else.

By analogy, a car doesn’t care what it is used for. A car can be used in a bank robbery, a romance, to go to the doctor, or for countless other uses. A car is agnostic and so is an e-meter. Scientology wants Scientologists and the public alike to believe that the electropsychometer is somehow unique or proprietary to Scientology when it is not.

3. An electropsychometer operator is free to interpret changes in galvanic skin resistance within any framework of his or her choosing.

A Christian minister can use an e-meter on a parishioner to determine if the parishioner is telling the truth when he or she declares that they believe in God, Jesus, and the existence of angels.
An atheist can use an e-meter to ask other atheists if they are truly atheists and harbor no secret theistic thoughts.
Jung used an e-meter to check changes in galvanic skin resistance in response to word association. Jung then hypothesized that certain words had more emotional impact than others. In today’s language, we would say certain words trigger certain people. Jung used a meter to correlate the impact of certain words to changes in galvanic skin resistance.
As mentioned, Ron Hubbard superimposed his own meanings upon changes in galvanic skin resistance so that these changes served as “proof” of what he taught within his framework of Dianetics and Scientology.
While the Nation of Islam chapter of the Church of Scientology accepts Hubbard’s general model of what the e-meter is and does, the Nation has its own distinctive Mother Wheel cosmology which differs markedly from that of Hubbard. NOI leader Mr. Farrakhan states that he was taken up into the Mother Wheel in 1985. This event would read on the e-meter as being a truthful statement if Mr. Farrakhan were audited about his being taken up into the Mother Wheel and how the Mother Wheel expresses all of the attributes of Allah. Over against this, Scientology doctrine could be aggressively used to characterize Mr. Farrakhan’s transcendent experience as his having been implanted.

A notable example of the e-meter being used in a psycho-political framework occurred in Morocco. In what turned out to be a disaster, Ron Hubbard tried to convince Moroccan authorities to use the e-meter as a sec-checking device. Hubbard’s Communicator on the Apollo Ken Urquhart is quoted in Russell Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah on this episode:

He [LRH] had taken some people ashore and was trying to teach the Moroccan security police how to use an E-meter so they could catch traitors. I saw him doing that and saw who he sent out to put on the training team. I didn’t see how it could possibly succeed, you can’t monkey around with the secret police. He was looking for the possibility of looking for some country to welcome him, to keep him secure. He thought if he could get into favour with the secret police he would have the favour of King Hassan. It blew up in everybody’s face. He was trying to teach the police how to find out if somebody had a crime using the E-meter.

Chalet Reports webpage on this event is quite interesting. The point here is that Ron Hubbard used hand-picked Apollo crew members in an attempt to get the e-meter approved as an interrogation device within the security apparatus of Morocco. This underscores our point that the e-meter is agnostic and can be used in seemingly endless situations — including Hubbard’s attempt to inject Scientology into the highest echelons of a sovereign nation. In this case, Hubbard used the e-meter in a psycho-political stratagem designed to persuade Morocco to grant Scientology a safe base from which to operate. The entire affair backfired and Hubbard and Scientology were ordered to leave Morocco.

4. The e-meter cannot discriminate between objective, subjective, and imaginary mental content.

If a delusional person has a fear of something wholly imaginary then their skin resistance will change when asked about it because they believe the imaginary thing to be real. Alternately, if a person is going through a hellish divorce and describes their incredibly violent spouse who has just been jailed for spousal assault, then their skin resistance will also change.

The electropsychometer cannot discriminate between what is real, what is belief, and what is imaginary, nor can it be expected to do so. Everything from hallucinations to very real and horrific events will cause changes in skin resistance because that is what human skin does in response to real or imagined events and stimuli.

In Scientology, the e-meter is used to audit everything from very serious real life traumatic events to events that happened billions, trillions, and quadrillions of years ago on what Hubbard called the wholetrack. The e-meter doesn’t care what Hubbard taught because all it does is read changes in galvanic skin resistance.

5. When used as a rudimentary lie detector, the Scientology e-meter will tend to confirm sincerely held subjective religious beliefs as being truthful statements made by a believer.

A scientist arguing rationally for the value and necessity of vaccinations to safeguard the public health has quite a different model of reality, a totally different worldview, than an Evangelical anti-vaxxer who believes that vaccines are part of the Antichrist New World Order.

A Scientology e-meter would indicate that both the scientist and the anti-vaxxer are showing a truthful response when asked if they sincerely embraced their radically different world views. An affirmation of one’s deeply held subjective and ideological convictions — no matter how dangerous or misinformed they may be — will tend to read as truthful statements on a Scientology e-meter. We say “tend to read” because the e-meter is not infallible. E-meters are prone to error due to cold cans, aging components, the hand-to-can-interface, voltage leaks, etc.

Another example: A radical Islamic man could declare his fervent belief that disobedient women and gay men should be stoned to death due to Sharia law. Likewise, radical Christians in America have murdered abortion providers due to their equally fervent belief that God has justified them in killing abortion providers to save the unborn. Again, when used as a lie detector, a radical’s assertion of his violent and deeply held beliefs will tend to read as a truthful statement on a Scientology e-meter.

The caveat here is the “Scientology e-meter” when used according to Hubbard’s instructions on how to use it in sec checks, i.e. as a lie detector.

6. In Scientology, E-Meter reads can be confusing and so the auditor must also look at the “indicators” of the person being audited.

Ron Hubbard admitted that a floating needle (F/N) and an ARC break needle, and a rock slam (R/S) can behave in the same manner:

A “floating needle” occurring above 3.0 or below 2.0 on a calibrated Mark V EMeter with the pc on 2 cans is an ARC Broken Needle. Watch for the pc’s indicators. An ARC Broken Needle can occur between 2.0 and 3.0 where bad indicators are apparent.

Pcs and pre-OTs OFTEN signal an F/N with a “POP” to the left and the needle can actually even describe a pattern much like a Rock Slam. Meters with lighter movements do “pop” to the left and R/S wildly for a moment. One does not sit and study and be sure of an “F/N”. It swings or pops, he lets the pc cognite and then indicates the F/N to the pc preventing overrun.

When one OVERRUNS an F/N or misses one, the TA will start to climb. The thing to do is briefly rehabilitate it (rehab it) by indicating it has been by-passed and so regain it.Unchanged: When one OVERRUNS an F/N or misses one, the TA will start to climb. The thing to do is briefly rehabilitate it (rehab it) by indicating it has been by-passed and so regain it.Unchanged: The F/N does not last very long in releasing. The thing to do is end the process off NOW. Don’t give another command.

The F/N does not last very long in releasing. The thing to do is end the process off NOW. Don’t give another command.

It coincides with other “end phenomena” of processes but is senior to them.Unchanged: It coincides with other “end phenomena” of processes but is senior to them. An F/N can be in normal range and still be an ARC Brk Needle. The thing which determines a real F/N is Good Indicators. Bad Indicators always accompany an ARC Break Needle.

An F/N can be in normal range and still be an ARC Brk Needle. The thing which determines a real F/N is Good Indicators. Bad Indicators always accompany an ARC Break Needle. — HCOB 21 October 1968 “Floating Needle”

Hubbard wrote that the auditor must watch the “indicators” of the preclear (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language) when a floating needle is not definitive. But what if the preclear’s indicators are vague or deceptive? What if the auditor is not particularly perceptive? Hubbard here admits to a serious problem with an auditor reading the needle correctly.

This is indeed a serious problem as a floating needle is so essential to ending off a successful session in Scientology. Did the preclear get a floating needle? If not, then the auditor checks for basic rudiments such as upsets and withholds. That Hubbard himself wrote that several things can go wrong in determining if a floating needle exists shows an inherent problem.

Many Scientologists left the Church following David Miscavige’s GAT I redefinition of the floating needle from Hubbard’s prior definition of a “rhythmic sweep of the needle” to “three distinctive swings of the needle.”

As Hubbard had written, “The F/N does not last very long in releasing. The thing to do is end the process off NOW.” When Miscavige made the auditor and the preclear wait for three distinctive swings of the needle to indicate a floating needle, this caused ARC breaks (upsets) in many Scientologists.

A widely discussed theory was that Miscavige redefined the floating needle following Lisa McPherson’s death. Miscavige apparently case-supervised McPherson and declared her to be a Clear. When Lisa McPherson died on December 5, 1995 following her 17-day imprisonment at the Fort Harrison hotel on Scientology’s gruesome Introspection Rundown, the authorities indicted Scientology on two felony charges of abusing a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license.

One of the consequences of McPherson’s death is that Miscavige instituted the extremely rigid “three needle swing” Floating Needle so that there would be no future mistakes in calling an ambiguous read a Floating Needle.

One key point here is that the definition of the Floating Needle and how to audit have been changed based upon the whims and caprice of David Miscavige. To be fair, Hubbard himself was constantly tinkering with, redefining, updating, and changing definitions of needle reads, the State of Clear, and much of Scientology.

7. Scientology auditing is based upon the bio-architecture of changes in galvanic skin resistance. This bodily mechanism is the undisclosed engine that drives the needle on the e-meter.

The technology of Scientology auditing is anchored in the bio-architecture of the human body. Given the agnostic nature of an e-meter, Ron Hubbard found the perfect “open to any interpretation” instrument to serve as the “scientific” basis of Scientology. As we previously noted, electropsychometry was an uncontested market space with no competition and remains so today. Ron seized this advantage to say what the electropsychometer is and does. For example, when Hubbard speaks of the e-meter for use in treating spiritual conditions he is presuming the existence of the human spirit, i.e. the thetan. As mentioned, however, atheists can use an e-meter to sec check each other. Atheists do not need the reference of spirit or mental mass to use an e-meter.

Hubbard’s body of work in Dianetics had been rejected by the scientific and medical establishment. Worse, in 1951 Ron Hubbard and the Dianetics Foundation of Elizabeth, New Jersey were criminally charged for teaching medicine without a license. Exacerbating matters was the looming bankruptcy of the Dianetics Foundation in Elizabeth. For these reasons, Ron and his new bride Mary Sue took off to Kansas where Don Purcell was willing to financially support a new Dianetics Center in Wichita.

Things did not go well in Wichita as the bad publicity continued to follow Hubbard. The expenses of Wichita exceeded the income due to Hubbard’s rapid expansion of Dianetics centers. Ron Hubbard tendered his shares of Dianetics back to the Wichita Board of Directors and resigned. He took Volney Mathison’s e-meter and opened up his own center in Wichita. Don Purcell put Dianetics Wichita into bankruptcy and bought Hubbard’s rights to Dianetics in the bankruptcy auction.

Things were looking mighty bleak for Ron. An oft-quoted letter written by Hubbard to his secretary Helen O’Brien is cited in Russel Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah (emphasis ours):

On 10 April, Hubbard wrote another long letter to Helen O’Brien discussing the possibility of setting up a chain of HASI clinics, or ‘Spiritual Guidance Centers’. They could make ‘real money’, he noted, if each clinic could count on ten or fifteen pre-clears a week, each paying $500 for twenty-four hours of auditing. He had clearly previously discussed the prospect of converting Scientology into a religion. ‘I await your reaction on the religion angle,’ he wrote. ‘In my opinion, we couldn’t get worse public opinion than we have had or have less customers with what we’ve got to sell. A religious charter would be necessary in Pennsylvania or NJ to make it stick. But I sure could make it stick.’

By 1953 it was growing increasingly apparent to Ron Hubbard that his only viable remaining success path was to declare Scientology a religion. He did so and the Church of Scientology was incorporated on February 18, 1954.

As we have covered, the e-meter literally served as the bridge from the failed and bankrupt Dianetics movement to the new and profitable Scientology religion. The e-meter became Ron Hubbard’s salvation when he needed it the most. The e-meter suddenly appeared upon the stage as the Deus Ex Machina in one of the darkest hours of the Space Opera called Scientology.

That Ron Hubbard used his e-meter to conduct research and audit himself virtually everyday until the end of his life at his ranch in Creston, California shows his fundamental commitment to the e-meter and the system of Scientology he had created and evolved over the decades.

Ron Hubbard was definitely the ultimate e-meter guy. Conversely, David Miscavige is purportedly a stalled OT VII and hasn’t gone into session since the 1990’s. There are no known photographs of David Miscavige being audited. This seems a glaring omission. The ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion has licensed and sold tens of thousands of e-meters since he took over the Church. However, Miscavige doesn’t seem too interested in using a meter to finish up SOLO NOTs and move onto OT VIII.

Links to the ten essays in this series: