Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: dmr@roadkill.Stanford.EDU (Daniel M. Rosenberg)
Subject: Re: Scientology questions
Message-ID: <1991Jul24.060051.23070@Csli.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@Csli.Stanford.EDU (CSLI News Service)
Organization: The Very Large Software Company of America
References: <1991Jul24.021125.714438@locus.com>
Distribution: alt.religion.scientology
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1991 06:00:51 GMT
Lines: 66

eastin@locus.com (Dick Eastin) writes:

>Addressing some questions which have been asked.

[other stuff skipped here]

>E-meter - remotely decended from the GSR, Galvanic Skin Response device
>and a distant cousin of the ohmmeter or resistance measuring device.
>Original theory of GSR was that it measured the skin resistance and that
>variations were a measure of moisture and salinity (saltiness).
>The E-meter, or electropsychometer, however works around the skin
>factors and measures the density(resistance) of the body circuit
>between the hand held electrodes.  It is also super sensitive in
>magnitude of change and rate of change (time factor).  Theoretically...

Some of the other material posted here recently almost made me believe
that there was some legitimacy to Scientology, despite the recent weird
attacks on _Time_ magazine (a rancid publication to be sure, but the
Church's response had little to do with _Time_'s original transgressions),
despite the misapplied standard psychometric measures (everyone who gets
tested is "desperately sick" and in need of the Church's help, which might
indeed be true, except that the tests are supposed to be scored around
a median of the general population, so the Scientologists seem to be skewing
all the scores in the direction of "sickness,") and despite the glassy-eyed
people out in front of headquarters on Hollywood Boulevard who just
wouldn't let up despite me polite (really!) protestations....

But. But the description of the E-meter given above. Let's forgive the
writer's somewhat suspicious emphasis on just how remotely the E-meter is
related to ohmmeters.

Citation 10.17 ----------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR:   Garrison, Omar V.
TITLE:    The hidden story of scientology [by] Omar V. Garrison.
IMPRINT:  Secaucus, N.J., Citadel Press [1975,c1974]
          232 p. 22 cm.
NOTES:    Includes bibliographical references.
          Language: English   Year:
          Item CSUG2046946-B (Books)

A neat thumb-through to be sure. Perhaps just an unreasonable, bigoted
attack by a pissed-off person who couldn't handle the true whatever; HOWEVER,
this and a few of the other 72 books retrieved in my search cite several
different stories of outsiders getting their hands on E-meters and taking
them apart, and finding them filled with:

	o Random electronic parts, most all *not* connected.
	o Wires going nowhere.
	o Many lights, some connected.
	o What looks a lot like an ohmmeter.

If this is *not* true (and it may not be true; it could all be persecution,
truly) then can we get the specs for this machine? Even if we don't how
precisely it works, can someone post the basic theory behind it? How it
gets "around" GSR? The schematic? The general principle?

Because I don't believe you. I think it's a crock, because you make
it sound like a crock.

(I will gladly eat my words when presented with significant evidence to
the contrary.)

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