It's Not An E-Meter, It's A "mis-ownership" Detector

Hubbard did not like the word "lie", so he came up with his own unique label: "mis-ownership". So of course HIS meter could not be referred to as a LIE DETECTOR, it had to be called an E-METER.¹

A lie is still a lie, no matter the flowery language used.

The E-meter is a lie detector, plain and simple.

Hubbard believed that the world was full of liars and thieves. What better way to find out who he could trust other than to find out WHO IS LIEING?

From there, he proceeded to "sell" science fiction stories and wouldn't you know it, he could find out if someone did not "believe" them!

"You needle is floating." - I BELIEVE!!!

Don't "believe" me? Here's the extract:

"It's a very amusing process. Ownership Processing is best done using an O-Meter or any type of physiogalvanometer. Here we see at once that the principal ownership is the response that we get on the meter. We get greater masses when we get mis-ownership. We get more reaction when we get mis-ownership. All the needle of a lie detector or any such instrument registers is mis-ownership. When mis-ownership is present the needle registers and when it is not present the needle doesn't register. Thus, a lie detector does not detect a lie; it merely detects the mis-ownership of the picture of the incident. A criminal who says that he didn't do a thing when he did will of course make the picture of the incident become stronger; thus, it will register. Similarly, the criminal could say, "I did it," when somebody else did and you would get an additional lie or the same reaction. If the preclear says that he caused the picture when something else caused the picture the picture will become stronger and the needle of the meter will register. This is about all there is to electropsychometric auditing."

- Straight Wire, A Manual of Operation, by L. Ron Hubbard