E-meter

An E-meter is an electronic device used by members of Dianetics and Scientology]auditing. The device measures electrical resistance across the skin. It is formally known as the Hubbard Electrometer, for the Church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Critics point to a lack of scientific basis for the E-meter and associated practices.

The Church of Scientology restricts the use of the E-meter to trained professionals, treating it as "a religious artifact used to measure the state of electrical characteristics of the 'static field' surrounding the body". The meter is believed to reflect or indicate whether or not a person has been relieved from spiritual impediment of past experiences. It can only be used by Scientology ministers or ministers-in-training and does not diagnose or cure anything. The E-meters used by the Church of Scientology are manufactured at the Church of Scientology's Golden Era Productions facility.

Description and use
The device's primary component is an electrical measuring instrument called a Wheatstone bridge, which measures the subject's galvanic skin response. By inducing a tiny electrical current through the body, the device measures changes in the electrical resistance of the human body. 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). The device also has such sensitivity that Hubbard claimed to be able to measure whether or not fruits can experience pain, claiming in 1968 that tomatoes "scream when sliced."

E-meter sessions are conducted by Scientology staff known as auditors, and its use is covered in advanced Scientology training courses. Those being audited holds a pair of cylindrical electrodes ("cans") connected to the meter while the auditor asks a series of questions and notes both the verbal response and the activity of the meter. Auditor training describes diferent types of needle movements, with each having its own special 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. 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, 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 was bitter and disillusioned about Hubbard. In 1964 Mathison stated: "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."

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 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 sets 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.

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."

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 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 the subject of a major controversy with the US Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s, when the FDA 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 at the "Founding Church of Scientology" building, now known as the L. Ron Hubbard House, located in Washington, D.C. 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:
 * 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.

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 E-Meter is not medically or scientifically useful for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease. It is not medically or scientifically capable of improving the health or bodily functions of anyone.

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


 * By itself, this meter does nothing. It is solely for the guide of Ministers of the Church in Confessionals and pastoral counseling. The Electrometer is not medically or scientifically capable of improving the health or bodily function of anyone and is for religious use by students and Ministers of the Church of Scientology only.

Critics point to a lack of scientific basis for the E-meter and associated practices. They claim 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.

In Sweden, it was forbidden by a court to call 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.

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.

External links & Notes

 * 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)
 * Time Magazine 14/2 1969: Victory for the Scientologists artickle
 * 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?
 * Build your own E-meter
 * The Scandal of Scientology
 * The E-Meter Papers
 * Secrets of Scientology: The E-Meter, David S. Touretzky
 * Scientology abuses eBay's VeRO program to practice religious, price discrimination
 * French court convicts Church of Scientology of fraud
 * Scientology abuses eBay's VeRO program to practice religious, price discrimination
 * French court convicts Church of Scientology of fraud