More on the Scientology E-Meter

Now that I've upset those who believed that the e-meter didn't work, I'll now really upset those who believe it does.

In my last article, I gave examples of tests and drills that appeared to prove that the e-meter reacts to thoughts.  I also mentioned that it reacts to a lot more than just thoughts.

I also presented Hubbard's explanation as to how and why it works.  I even said it was a reasonable explanation that fit the facts.  But, on purpose, I skipped the complications and contradictions between the theory and practice.

Let's delve a bit deeper into this subject.

To repeat the basic theory according to Hubbard, some thoughts have "charge".  When a person "activates" the charge by thinking some thought, the associated charge impinges on the body changes the body's resistance.  The meter measures these changes.

The charge, according to Hubbard, comes from some past trauma, which was called, in Dianetics, an "engram" - essentially a moment of pain and unconsciousness.

While this seems pretty far-fetched, the "pinch test" (as described in my last article) certainly seems to validate this idea.  No matter the theory, the "pinch test" proves that the meter does react to a thought (or, to appease the more critical reader, a thought can impinge on the body in a way that is detectable by the e-meter).

But I want to emphasize that this is all that it proves.  There is a lot of Hubbard's theory that is not proven and, in fact, doesn't make much sense.

First, let me tell you a bit more about Hubbard's explanation of the e-meter. Hubbard said that the e-meter reacts to charge that is "just below the person's awareness". This means that the person is not aware of the problem, but is "ready to confront it".  As the person becomes aware of the problem, the charge "blows" and it no longer "reads" on the e-meter.

By the way, this part of Hubbard's theory about his e-meter is necessary to explain why so many things do not register on the e-meter until later up The Bridge -- the person, you see, "isn't ready to confront" the higher levels.

That's the theory about the e-meter that is accepted by Scientologists.

But when you get into actual practice, things start to fall apart.

First, let's visit the Scientology course room again.  When you are learning how to operate the e-meter, you must do the "Dating Drill".  In this drill, one student thinks of a date and writes it down, the second student puts the first student on the e-meter and attempts to find out the date using only the e-meter. 

Now, if Hubbard's theory about the e-meter is correct, this drill would never work.  There is no trauma (and therefore no charge) associated with that date.  And the first student is fully aware of the date -- it isn't "just below his awareness".

So why does the Dating Drill work?  There is only one explanation: It works because they believe it should.

Oops!  That isn't part of the theory -- and that drill alone destroys the certainty about any read on the e-meter.  If something reads only because someone believes it should, then how can anyone determine which reads are "real" and which are "belief"?

In this same theme, let's look at a question asked at the beginning of every session about a person's "witholds" (things they have hidden and don't want found out).  Why do they read on the meter?  Where is the trauma?  The meter may read even though no one was hurt at all.  The person may have participated in some victimless, harmless activity that is nobody's business -- and the meter reads.  Why?  Because the person was afraid it would.  All Scientology auditors know this happens but they don't question it.  According to theory, the meter shouldn't read because the person is fully aware of what they did, there was no trauma and there was no harm.

Well, what if a person doesn't believe the e-meter will react?  What happens then?  Well, apparently the meter doesn't react.  You get the all too frequent situation where a Scientology criminal continues their criminal activities for years and years -- all while getting auditing.  Apparently, they don't believe the meter will react to their crimes, and it doesn't.

All these contradictions between theory and practice suggest a rather different theory than Hubbard's: The e-meter reacts not only to actual memories of actual "trauma", but also reacts because the person on the meter believes or fears that it will.

Do you see what this means?

This means that the e-meter is almost completely useless, since a reaction on the meter might indicate a real problem or it might not -- and the meter cannot detect the difference.

One result of this is the incredibly bizarre "4 trillion year past track history" that is accepted as truth by Scientologists but is logically, obviously and scientifically proven to be false.

Another result is that it seems there are thousands of Scientologists who were famous people. In fact, there are many who share being the same famous person -- and all these past identities were fully verified by the e-meter.

But the worst result of these reads-just-because-they-believe is the entire Bridge.  Scientologists, and their auditors, believed they were uncovering and "handling" vast amounts of past track incidents of trauma and upset -- 4 trillion years of it, no less -- but what is the truth?  No one has become Clear.  No one has become OT.  Scientologists, even those high up The Bridge are struggling.  Where are the miraculous gains and the incredible abilities that were promised and were supposedly delivered?

They believed and the e-meter showed them what they expected to see.
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Understanding the "Scientologist Attitude"

As an inevitable result of the collapse of the Church of Scientology, there are lots of Scientology true believers appearing outside of the church.  There will be more.

This means that non-Scientologists are going to have a lot more exposure to the Scientology true believer's attitude and statements.

And this will, inevitably, be quite annoying.

To be specific, I am talking about the Scientology dogma and beliefs such as:

• L. Ron Hubbard was a genius and was never wrong.
• Scientology is perfect and can and will solve all the world's problems.
• Scientology works 100% on 100% of the people.
• Scientologists are homo novis, existing at a new, higher state of existence.

Disputing these "facts" with a Scientologist is a waste of time as they are forbidden from moving one inch from this ideology.

But there is something about this dogma and about Scientologists that you should know.  It may help you tolerate Scientologists a bit more.

They actually know that those precepts are not true.  If you can talk to many of them in a trusted, off-the-record environment, they will easily admit exactly that.

But any Scientologist, even outside the church, who wants to have the image of being a true Scientologist must echo these absolutes with never a visible question or doubt.

Scientologists must say these things, and they must believe these things and they must think these things, even though they really do know they are untrue.

It may be a bit difficult to understand how one can make oneself "think" something that one knows is untrue, but that is a skill that can be learned -- and Scientology does teach it.

Anyone who has studied Hubbard, especially any of Hubbard's lectures knows, without a doubt, that he was a story teller.  The stories he told were quite fanciful and wondrous.  Too wondrous.  I've never met an ex-Scientologist who was ever surprised to discover the proof that Hubbard was, let us say, less than honest in his story telling.

As for the perfection of Scientology and the all-encompassing solutions it allegedly provides -- every Scientologist has experienced the failures of Scientology technology.  Yes, every single Scientologist.

Sure, Scientologists have experienced some workable stuff, which is what convinced them to become Scientologists, but every single one of them has been promised "higher states of being" which, when they have "reached that level", be it Release, Clear or OT, has turned out not to exist.

Every Scientologist has experienced some "bad results" and "no results" from Scientology.  So every Scientologist knows that Scientology is definitely not 100% workable on 100% of the people, they know that it does not have all the solutions.

And they do know that they did not become homo novis.

While true believers still believe that Scientology is mostly good, they do know those absolutes, as stated above, are definitely not true.

But they will continue to make those statements as if it were true because believing, thinking and saying those things are required by Scientology dogma.  You cannot call yourself a true Scientologist unless you adhere to those requirements.

Which, by the way, explains why Scientologists are so strident and defensive about these precepts -- they know they aren't true and therefore they know they cannot prove them true, but they are still required to claim they are true.

And so Scientologists are very, very annoying and confusing to non-Scientologists.

Just understand that, beneath all those words and insistence on their dogma, all Scientologists really do know that these absolutes they are claiming for Scientology are not true.
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Why Do Scientologists Believe?

Scientology claims that it is fact based. Scientology claims that no one is asked to believe anything. Scientology claims that, if you don't find something to be true, it isn't true.

So why do Scientologists believe things for which there is absolutely no evidence?

As I've covered before in Scientology: Why Doesn't It Work?, one of the distinguishing characteristics of Scientology is that it doesn't produce any of the major results it promises.

Now what is most amazing about this fact is that Scientologists believe it works.

There are no Scientologists who exhibit any "OT" characteristics, yet they all believe that the state of "OT" exists and that Scientology will produce that state. Why?

There are no Clears, not as described by L. Ron Hubbard, yet all Scientologists believe that Clear can and has been attained. Why?

No Scientologist can "confront and shatter suppression" which almost all of them are supposed to be able to do, since they completed the course that "gave them those powers". But, no, they can't do anything like that. Yet they still believe that the "PTS/SP Course" works! Why?

Course after course, level after level, the results, promised by Scientology, never appear. And, course after course, level after level, Scientologists gladly "attest" they have attained the skills, abilities or powers promised but never attained. Why do they continue? Why do they believe?

What is the magic trick that keeps this charade going?

Well, first, you need to understand a few basic facts about how they do things in Scientology.

When a Scientologist completes a course or a level, they are rushed through to "attest" that they have attained all the wonderful things promised -- before anything else can happen.

Scientologists don't go out to test any alleged "new abilities". Scientologists don't get a few days or hours or even minutes to think about it and see if it stands up even over night. No, they are rushed through to attest immediately -- then go out and "enjoy their new abilities".

So, what they are attesting to is not actually what happened -- because it hasn't really happened yet. What they are attesting to is what they hope has happened.

But there is more to it than just that. There is another aspect of Scientology auditing, never particularly discussed, which complicates this and makes it even harder for Scientologists to see the truth.

There is something in Scientology auditing that causes a temporary feeling of tremendous well-being, or even euphoria. This usually occurs at the end of an auditing session -- the Scientologist temporarily feels good, sometimes quite good. Scientologists call this state "having a floating needle" after the particular manifestation that occurs on the E-Meter when this happens.

This is not connected to any one level or process, but is the expected and common result of each and every session.

Exactly what is the cause of this euphoria isn't real clear, but the state is quite temporary -- sometimes only lasting a minute or so. Whatever its cause and however long it lasts, it is temporary and it always disappears.

So, what does this mean?

While in this temporary state of euphoria, the Scientologist is very suggestible. They feel great and can easily believe they actually have amazing abilities. The church asks them if they will attest to some amazing new abilities and the Scientologist, in the midst of this euphoria thinks, "Well sure, I can do all those things!" And attests. This is the primary reason the church is in such a rush to get Scientologists to attest after session -- the feeling of euphoria wears off rather quickly.

When the euphoria wears off, the Scientologists don't have those abilities and they don't have the certainty any more.

They remember the good feeling, they remember the certainty about those amazing new abilities. They remember, but they don't have it any more. But then it's too late. They've attested -- and a "false attest" is a punishable offence. So, they pretend those abilities are real. They all do this.

And because they can never talk about it with each other, each one believes that the other Scientologists really did get all those abilities and they are the only one who failed to get the promised gains.

Each Scientologist sees all the other Scientologists saying that they all got all those wonderful skills, abilities and powers, and they believe it's all true except for themselves.

And they hope that all these skills, powers and abilities will come true for themselves on the next level.

It is interesting to note that auditors, the Scientologists who are trained and who give those sessions, are often the most ardent believers that "Scientology works". Day after day, session after session, they see people leave session in that temporary euphoria, and they think they are permanently making people better.

And those people, experiencing the euphoria, claim big "wins" and assert that they are "better", "more certain", "more powerful". And that's what the auditor sees and hears. They don't see it wearing off a few minutes or an hour later and the people going back to normal, so the auditor believes he or she has made a permanent change.

But if you look at the community of Scientologists out in the real world, you will see how "permanent" those gains were. In the Scientology community, Scientologists are in real trouble. Scientologists are more likely to be the ones losing their homes to foreclosure. Scientologists are more likely to be the ones declaring bankruptcy. Scientologists are stuck, not making progress, disconnected from their families and friends. They are neither happy nor successful.

And look at the churches themselves. They are empty. They are commonly months behind on their rent. The churches are combining, reducing hours and, finally, closing.

The euphoria doesn't last long at all, and reality, for Scientologists, is cruel. They believe. because they remember how they felt right after session. Without any evidence of any real and lasting results from Scientology, they remember and they believe.

And now you know why.
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