E-meter - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

An E-meter is an electronic device used during Dianetics

Dianetics

Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body that was invented by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is practiced by followers of Scientology...

and Scientology

Scientology

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...

auditing

Auditing (Scientology)

Auditing was developed by L. Ron Hubbard, and is described by the Church of Scientology as "spiritual counseling which is the central practice of Dianetics and Scientology".-Description:...

. The device is a variation of a Wheatstone bridge

Wheatstone bridge

A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer. It was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and...

, which measures electrical resistance

Electrical resistance

The electrical resistance of an electrical element is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that element; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels with the mechanical...

and skin conductance. It is formally known as the Hubbard Electrometer, for the Church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...

. Most of the Scientology concepts associated with the "E-meter" and its use are regarded by the scientific and medical communities as pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

and the device itself is essentially a modified ohmmeter

Ohmmeter

An ohmmeter is an electrical instrument that measures electrical resistance, the opposition to an electric current. Micro-ohmmeters make low resistance measurements. Megohmmeters measure large values of resistance...

.

The Church of Scientology

Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...

restricts the use of the E-meter to trained Scientologists, treating it as "a religious artifact

Artifact (archaeology)

An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...

used to measure the state of electrical characteristics of the 'static field' surrounding the body". The meter, when used by a trained Scientologist, is claimed to reflect or indicate whether or not a person has been relieved from spiritual impediment of past experiences. Officials within Scientology assert that the E-meter is intended for use only in Church-sanctioned auditing sessions and is in itself not a curative or medical device. The E-meters used by the Church of Scientology are manufactured by Scientologists at their Gold Base

Gold Base

The Gold Base is the international headquarters of the Church of Scientology on a parcel of land in unincorporated Riverside County, California, outside of San Jacinto, and north of Hemet....

facility.

Description and use

The device's primary component is an electrical measuring instrument called a Wheatstone bridge

Wheatstone bridge

, which measures the subject's galvanic skin response

Galvanic skin response

Skin conductance, also known as galvanic skin response , electrodermal response , psychogalvanic reflex , skin conductance response or skin conductance level , is a method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which varies with its moisture level...

. By inducing a tiny electrical current, the device measures changes in the human body's electrical resistance

Electrical resistance

. In the case of the E-Meter the voltage

Voltage

Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...

applied is between 1V and 5V, and the induced current in the order of fractions of a milliamp.
According to Scientology doctrine, the resistance corresponds to the "mental mass and energy" of the subject's mind, which change when the subject thinks of particular mental images (engrams

Engram (Dianetics)

In Dianetics and Scientology, an engram is defined as "a mental image picture which is a recording of an experience containing pain, unconsciousness and a real or fancied threat to survival. It is a recording in the reactive mind of something which actually happened to an individual in the past and...

). Scientologists believe that the device has such sensitivity that Hubbard could use it to determine whether or not fruits can experience pain, as in his 1968 assertion that tomatoes "scream when sliced."

E-meter sessions are conducted by Scientology staff known as auditors

Auditing (Scientology)

Auditing was developed by L. Ron Hubbard, and is described by the Church of Scientology as "spiritual counseling which is the central practice of Dianetics and Scientology".-Description:...

. Scientology materials traditionally refer to the subject as the "preclear," although auditors continue to use the meter well beyond the "clear

Clear (Scientology)

Clear in Dianetics and Scientology is one of two levels a practitioner can achieve on the way to personal salvation. A state of Clear is reached when a person becomes free of the influence of engrams, unwanted emotions or painful traumas not readily available to the conscious mind...

" level. The preclear holds a pair of cylindrical electrodes ("cans") connected to the meter while the auditor asks the preclear a series of questions and notes both the verbal response and the activity of the meter. Auditor training describes many types of needle movements, each with a specific significance.

The meter has two control dials. The larger dial, known as the "tone arm," adjusts the meter bias, while the smaller one controls the gain

Gain

In electronics, gain is a measure of the ability of a circuit to increase the power or amplitude of a signal from the input to the output. It is usually defined as the mean ratio of the signal output of a system to the signal input of the same system. It may also be defined on a logarithmic scale,...

. Auditors manipulate the tone arm during an auditing session to keep the E-meter needle on a marked reference point.

History

The E-meter has undergone many changes since it was invented by Volney Mathison

Volney Mathison

Volney G. Mathison was an American chiropractor, writer, and inventor of the E-meter.-Family:In 1935, Mathison was married to Jean Darrell, a music librarian for NBC. She died in November 1964.-Writer:...

, an early collaborator with Hubbard. The Mathison Electropsychometer (as it was then called) was adopted for use in Dianetics and Scientology by Hubbard in the early 1950s, before being temporarily dropped in 1954 during a dispute with Mathison.

In a quote from Bent Corydon's Messiah or Madman?,

It was the Mathison E-Meter, and Mathison was determined to keep it that way. So in late 1954 the use of the E-meter was discontinued by Hubbard. Wrote Hubbard: "Yesterday, we used an instrument called an E-Meter to register whether or not the process was still getting results so that the auditor would know how long to continue it. While the E-Meter is an interesting investigation instrument and has played its part in research, it is not today used by the auditor... As we long ago suspected, the intervention of a mechanical gadget between the auditor and the preclear had a tendency to depersonalize the session..."

In 1958 when Scientologists Don Breeding and Joe Wallis developed a modified, smaller battery-operated version, which they presented to Hubbard, he again used it. This was christened the Hubbard electrometer. Hubbard patented it on December 6, 1966, as a "Device for Measuring and Indicating Changes in the Resistance of a Human Body" . The patent is now expired and in the public domain. The Church of Scientology continues to make, sell, and teach its use in auditing.

Mathison never litigated the appropriation of his invention, but he felt bitter and disillusioned about Hubbard. Mathison remarked in 1964, "I decry the doings of trivial fakers, such as scientologists and the like, who glibly denounce hypnosis and then try covertly to use it in their phony systems".

Food and Drug Administration interest

In the early 1960s the US Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

became concerned that the church was using the E-meter to practice medicine without a license:

On January 4, 1963, more than one hundred E-meters were seized by US marshals

United States Marshals Service

The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...

at the "Founding Church of Scientology" building, now known as the L. Ron Hubbard House

L. Ron Hubbard House

The L. Ron Hubbard House, also known as the Original Founding Church of Scientology, is a historic house museum and former Scientology church located at 1812 19th Street, NW in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. The home served as the residence of Scientology founder L...

, located in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

The church was accused of making false claims that the devices effectively treated some 70 percent of all physical and mental illness. The FDA also charged that the devices did not bear adequate directions for treating the conditions for which they were recommended.

Prolonged litigation ensued, with a subsequent jury trial finding that the E-meter had indeed been misrepresented. The church's contention that its literature was exempt from legal action because it was issued by a religious organization was rejected by the court as irrelevant. However, the Court of Appeals reversed the verdict on the basis that the government had done nothing to rebut the church's claim that Scientology was a religion. A new trial was ordered which upheld the findings and verdict of the first trial.

Judge Gerhardt A. Gesell found that:
The judge ordered use of the E-meter be confined to "bona fide religious counseling" and the device be prominently labeled with a warning notice:
The church has adopted a modified version of this statement, which it still invokes in connection with the E-meter. The current statement reads:

Europe

In 1979 in Sweden, 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

European Commission of Human Rights

European Commission of Human Rights was a special tribunal.From 1954 to the entry into force of Protocol 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, individuals did not have direct access to the European Court of Human Rights; they had to apply to the Commission, which if it found the case to be...

in case X. and Church of Scientology v. Sweden

X. and Church of Scientology v. Sweden

X. and Church of Scientology v. Sweden was a case decided by European Commission of Human Rights in 1979.-Facts:In 1973, the Church of Scientology of Sweden placed an advertisement for an E-meter in its periodical...

.

In October 2009, a three-judge panel at the Correctional Court in Paris, France convicted the church and six of its members of organized fraud. The Court's decision followed a three week trial, where two plaintiffs alleged they were defrauded by the organization. The focus of the plaintiff's complaint was on the use of an E-Meter by Scientologists. The plaintiffs alleged that, after using the device, they were encouraged to pay for vitamins and books and claimed that amounted to fraud. The Court agreed. See Scientology in France#Conviction for fraud.

Today

Today, models of the E-meter include the Mark V, the Mark VI and the Mark VII. As of January 2005, the cost of the Mark V was $900 and the Mark VII Super Quantum E-meter was US $4,650.00 (up from US $3,850 in 1995). Scientologists of the Free Zone

Free Zone (Scientology)

The Free Zone comprises a variety of groups and individuals who practice Scientology beliefs and techniques independently of the Church of Scientology . Such practitioners range from those who closely adhere to the original teachings of Scientology's founder L...

have developed their own E-meter models which are available at much lower prices. They also offer circuit diagrams and instructions for building a meter.

Scientology's views on the device

L. Ron Hubbard

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...

sets out his theory

Theory

The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...

of how the E-meter works in his book Understanding the E-Meter:
Hubbard claimed that this "mental mass" has the same physical characteristics, including weight, as mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

as commonly understood by lay persons:
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 "150".

External links

United States District Court, District of Columbia, 1971. "United States of America, Libelant, v. An Article or Device... 'Hubbard Electrometer' or Hubbard E-Meter,' etc., Funding Church of Scientology, et al., Claimants. No. D.C. 1-63 (July 30)
Official Church of Scientology site of the E-Meter
What is Scientology: The E-Meter
Scientology Today: What is the E-Meter and how does it work?
The Scandal of Scientology
The E-Meter Papers
Secrets of Scientology: The E-Meter, David S. Touretzky
David S. Touretzky
David S. Touretzky is a research professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University. He received a BA in Computer Science at Rutgers University in 1978, and earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Carnegie...
Scientology abuses eBay's VeRO program to practice religious, price discrimination
French court convicts Church of Scientology of fraud

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