Why L. Ron Hubbard patented the E-meter

To call L. Ron Hubbard a prolific writer is a gross understatement. From 1934 to his 1940s, he regularly wrote between 70,000 and 100,000 words of pulp fiction each month under his 15 different pseudonyms and was published in various magazines. Regardless of genre, he wrote zombie mysteries, historical novels, pirate adventure stories, and westerns.

But by the spring of 1938, Hubbard began honing his science fiction skills.Publisher of amazing science fiction approached Hubbard to write a story that focused on humans rather than robots or machines. His first novel, “Dangerous Dimensions,” was a lighthearted story about a professor who can teleport anywhere in the universe simply by thinking “Equation C.”

How Scientologists Use the E-Meter

Twelve years and over 100 stories later, Hubbard published a very different essay in the May 1950 issue of the magazine. amazing science fictionIn his essay, “Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science,” Mr. Hubbard talks about his own journey to discover what he calls the reactive mind and the “technology” to overcome it. This essay was a sister edition to his book, which was released at the same time. Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Healthwhich in turn became the basis for a new religion, the Church of Scientology.

Blending technology and spirituality, Hubbard introduced the electropsychometer (E-meter) in the 1950s as a device to help pastors measure the minds, bodies, and spirits of church members. According to Church doctrine, the minds of new initiates are impaired by “engrams,” or lingering traces of trauma, including those from past lives. Auditors will reportedly use the E-meter to identify and remove engrams, ultimately allowing the person to reach a state of “clearance.” Members of the church who have yet to reach this desired state are known as “preclears.”

To use an E-meter, the user grasps a metal cylinder and passes a small electrical current through it. A human auditor interprets the device measurements.Whipple Museum of the History of Science/University of Cambridge

During the audit session, the preclear holds two metal cylinders of the E-meter, one in each hand, through which a small electrical current flows. The auditor asks her a series of questions while manipulating her two dials on the E-meter. Adjust the resistance with the large dial. A small dial controls the needle amplification. Rather than reading specific readings on the meter, the auditor interprets the movement of the needle as the preclear responds to questions.

The church’s 2014 Super Bowl ad asks viewers to “imagine the marriage of science and religion,” offering a glimpse into the glamor of an audit session.

Scientology Spiritual Technology – 2014 Super Bowl Commercialyoutube.be

In his book, Hubbard described the E-meter as a Wheatstone bridge, an electrical circuit designed by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 to measure unknown resistance. (About 10 years later, Sir Charles Wheatstone popularized the device, and his name stuck.) Technically, an E-meter measures a user’s galvanic skin response, or changes in the electrical resistance of the skin. , an improved ohm-he meter. Galvanic skin response is an example of the sympathetic nervous system at work. This is how your body automatically responds to various stimuli, such as your heart beating faster when you’re scared.

Rejection of L. Ron Hubbard’s claims

Hubbard was not the first person to use electrical equipment to measure the sympathetic nervous system and believe that it was a reflection of the mind. As early as 1906, psychologist Carl Jung noted changes in skin resistance in response to emotionally charged words. By the 1920s, John Larson was using polygraphs to interrogate police subjects.

Hubbard sought recognition for his ideas from the medical community, but almost immediately organizations such as the American Psychological Association rejected his theories as pseudoscience. In fact, several scholars who have tried to deny the effectiveness of the E-meter have compared it to a lie detector. Lie detectors also require a human operator to interpret the results and are classified as of questionable value by the American Psychological Association and the United States. National Academy of Sciences.

Published in 1999, L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific science fiction writer before founding Dianetics and the Church of Scientology.Yves Forestier/Sigma/Getty Images

Government authorities also condemned the church’s claims. In 1951, for example, the New Jersey State Board of Supervisors accused one of Hubbard’s foundations of teaching medicine without a license. Years later, the Food and Drug Administration seized a vitamin supplement that Hubbard claimed would protect against radiation.

One of the most dramatic episodes occurred in 1963, when federal marshals raided Hubbard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and seized more than 100 E-meters. The FDA had issued a warrant accusing the church of falsely claiming that the device had physical and psychological therapeutic benefits. The litigation dragged on for years, with courts initially ruling against the church. On appeal, a judge ruled that E-meters can be used for religious purposes as long as the following warning labels are clearly displayed: “E-meters are not medically or scientifically useful for diagnosing, treating, or preventing disease. They cannot medically or scientifically improve a person’s health or bodily function.”

Scientologists have modified this warning and printed the following advisory on their equipment instead: “The Hubbard Electrometer is a religious artifact. This meter itself does nothing. It is intended solely for religious use by students and pastors of the church, in confessions and pastoral counseling.”

E-meter as a recruitment tool

As Scientology spread outside the United States, attacks on the E-meter and the church continued. In Australia, Kevin Anderson wrote the official Scientology Commission of Inquiry Report for the State of Victoria. Published in 1965, it became known as the Anderson Report. He didn’t mince words. “Scientology is evil. Scientology is evil.” The technology is evil. The practice is a serious threat to the community medically, morally, and socially. And its followers are sadly deluded and often mentally ill. ”

In 1961, Hubbard wrote about the recent discovery that the E-meter requires auditors to have “command power” over those they are auditing.Keystone Press/Alamy

Chapter 14 of the report focuses on the E-meter, which Anderson viewed as a powerful enabler of Scientology. After explaining its construction and use, the report provides expert testimony that refutes Scientologists’ claims based on modern understanding of electrical resistance. It then points to specific claims that extend credibility, such as how the E-meter is said to help pre-certifiers recall incidents from trillions of years ago down to the exact second. The report cites a written recollection of Mr. Hubbard, who received the implant, as “43,891,832,611,177 years, 344 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes, and 40 seconds from May 9, 1963, 10:02:30 p.m. Greenwich Daylight Time.”

The report also cites a Nov. 30, 1961, Hubbard Correspondence Bulletin in which Hubbard admitted: It only works if the auditor has some, even small, command value for her PC. [preclear]And when the auditor doesn’t have command values ​​for the PC, it doesn’t do much. ” Given this imbalance between auditors and preclearers, Anderson reasoned that the E-meter is a powerful tool for manipulation. “The fear of that ability continues.” [preclears] constant obedience,” the report said. “Its use is highly manipulative through well-worded questions, which can have almost any desired outcome, and is used unscrupulously to control students and staff alike. The Evils of Scientology All features are enhanced where the E-meter is concerned.”

Hubbard’s reaction? The report was little more than a kangaroo court in which the conclusions were already known before the first witness was called.

E-meter patent never mentions religion

Although Hubbard did not invent the E-meter, he inspired its creation, devised a transistorized, battery-powered unit, and held several patents for later versions.

In his patents (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,589, “Apparatus for Measuring and Displaying Resistance Changes in Living Organisms”), Mr. Hubbard insisted on technical descriptions of the circuits. These patents made no claims about reading people’s thoughts or using the devices for religious purposes. But Hubbard’s own writings are chock-full of technobabble, mixing actual jargon with patently false statements. One of my favorites of his is the one in which he differentiates the resistance of male and female corpses as 12,500 ohms and 5,000 ohms, respectively.

Obviously, from the perspective of modern science, the claim that the E-meter releases past life trauma cannot be verified or reproduced. The device itself is inaccurate and unreliable, and readings vary depending on things like how you grip the cylinder. And of course, auditors can interpret the results however they like. Scientists and psychologists routinely denounce Scientology as a quack, while religious scholars find similarities with long-established beliefs.

Centuries ago, Copernicus and Galileo proposed a new science that ignored religious beliefs. L. Ron’s Hubbard turned that idea on its head, founding a new religion supposedly based on science, and positioned E’s meter as a device that combined technology and spirituality.

part of Continued seriesWe look at historical relics with endless technological possibilities.

A condensed version of this article will appear in the April 2024 print issue as “The Scientology Machine.”