Usage

A subject or even "preclear" holds within his mitts deuce tin cans connected to the E-Meter, thereby completing an electrical circuit across which the great-low-tension electrical charge is passed. The needle on the meter registers changes in the electrical resistance of the subject's skin (a phenomenon called a galvanic skin response).

The Scientology "auditor" asks questions of a subject & the movement of the needle is utilized as a prevent of the emotional reaction to the questions. This is utilized to diagnose the mental & spiritual affliction of the subject based on data from a complex placed of system, procedures & school of thought placed call at Scientology manuals.

Modern meters come custom designed to include a ability to monitor changes within reaction ended 1024 different levels of sensitivity, & develop a capacity for remote modems for utilize by expert instruction supervisors.

Development of the E-meter

A E-meter has undergone numbers of changes since it was invented in the 1940s by Volney Mathison, an early collaborator with Hubbard. A Mathison Electropsychometer (when it was so) was produced for utilise by psychotherapists and chiropractors. It was adopted for have by Hubbard in the early 1950s, apparently as a tool for locate into Hubbard's Dianetics, before existence come by 1954. Hubbard explained how come he abandoned its utilise:

He reversed course inside 1958 when Scientologists Don Breeding and Joe Wallis developed the limited, little battery-operated version of the E-meter which it presented to Hubbard. This was christened a Hubbard electrometer. Hubbard manufactured it central to Scientology auditing & patented it in December 6, 1966, as a "Device for Measuring and Indicating Changes in the Resistance of a Human Body" (United states Patent 3,290,589).

System of a E-meter include a Mark V, a Mark VI & the Mark VII. A recently model is the Mark Very VII Quantum E-Meter.

Inside recent years, the freshly version of the E-Meter – dubbed a "bathroom scale" project for its appearance – has been by a Church of Scientology. These are claimed to keep around terminated 1024 different levels of sensitivity for monitoring electrical responses. It may be install to include circuitry for feeding a various signals to favorite course step by step videos supervisors world health organization potty monitor the session of the student auditor, & via mike may coach a student auditor to redeeming a better auditing session forswearing disturbing the individual getting auditing.

When of January 2005, the numbers of the Mark Extr VII Quantum E-Meter is America $4,650.00 (higher from either America $3,850 around 1995).

Independent practician of Scientology keep close at hand developed their keep around versions of the E-Meter which it have mass produced available at lot additional realizable numbers. It offer as well circuit diagrams & videos for building the meter. (Hilton, 2001)

Theory of operation

L. Ron Hubbard proposed that a human being actually consists of three entities: a physical entity (the body), a "genetic entity" and a thetan, his term for a spiritual entity. He placed retired his theory of how else a E-Meter works around his book Understanding a E-Meter:

Hubbard claims that this "actual mental mass" has the same physical characteristics, including weight, as mass as commonly defined and understood by both physicists and lay persons:

This text is accompanied by three pictures. The first shows a man standing on a weighing scale, which reflects a weight of "150" (the units are not given but are presumably pounds). 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".

Controversy

The E-meter became a major cause of controversy with the US Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s, when the FDA became concerned that the Church of Scientology was using the E-meter to, in effect, practice medicine without a license. The whole controversy is described by Jannsen, 1993.

On January 4, 1963, more than one hundred E-meters were seized by US marshals at the "Founding Church of Scientology" building in Washington, D.C. The Church of Scientology 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 in Scientology literature.

Prolonged litigation ensued, with a subsequent jury trial finding that the E-Meter had indeed been misrepresented by the Scientologists. The court rejected as irrelevant the Church of Scientology's contention that its literature was exempt from legal action because it was issued by a religious organization. However, the Court of Appeals reversed the verdict on the basis that the government had done nothing to rebut Scientology's claim that it 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 that use of the E-Meter be confined to "bona fide religious direction" and that the device be prominently labeled with a warning notice

The Church of Scientology has adopted a modified version of this statement, which it still invokes in connection with the E-Meter. The current statement reads:

Critics of Scientology point to a lack of scientific basis for the E-meter and associated practices. They point out that at the time Hubbard began claiming the E-meter to be an accurate and precise instrument for detecting mental tension, no attempt had been made to scientifically validate this hypothesis by comparing the E-meter readings of individuals under tension to the readings of a control group. Clearly, if no attempt had been made to determine what the difference was between the two readings of the two groups, the E-Meter could hardly be declared an accurate and precise instrument for determining which group a particular subject belonged to—except declared as dogma, or as an article of faith.

Arnie Lerma has described a theory suggesting that low currents could lead to a release of endorphines which cause the euphoric feeling of the preclear. (Lerma, 1999)

Laura Kay Fuller sees the E-meter furthering totalitarian tendencies in Scientology: Critics also argue that the Church of Scientology has a financial reason to tout the E-meter even if it is actually worthless, given that E-Meters cost over $4000, even though they take only 80 minutes to assemble and contain no particularly expensive components.

The church has claimed on the one hand that Scientology is a religion, not science, and therefore does not seek scientific support — and on the other, that the E-Meter's scientific validity may be inferred by the similarities between the polygraph, which uses electrical conductivity of the skin to indicate whether the subject is comfortable with questions and answers, and the E-Meter, which measures variations in galvanic response. Critics may also point out that usage of polygraph devices is not without its own controversies.