Over a ball-breaking glass of Fantome
Brise-Bonbons at Blind
Tiger last night, I made a stunning revelation: I'm totally
entranced by this Tom
Cruise and Katie Holmes experiment. It has everything I
could ever want from a news story: Potential
brainwashing, aliens, ninjas (well, Tom was a samurai once, which
is like a ninja with a bamboo fetish), and gadgets. One in
particular: the 'e-meter,' or 'Electro-psychometer,' a "pastoral
counseling device" used by the Church of Scientology to detect, among
other things, the emotional state and
thoughts of those attached to the device.
The original device was developed by Volney Mathison, a
chiropractor, as an aid
to psychotherapy, ironic considering the vehemence held by
Scientologists against conventional
psychiatric therapy. At heart, the e-Meters are based on the
simple circuitry of the Wh
eatstone Bridge, which measures resistance to current passed
through a human body (or anything else that can be connected to the
'can' electrode probes, including vegetables). Scientology founder and
principal prophet L. Ron Hubbard introduced the original e-meter in
the '50s [pictured above], leading up to the 'Mark V,' which was the
e-Meter of choice for the religion until the 'Mark VI' was released in
the 80s, powered by an Intel 8051 microprocessor.
Find out more about the only electronic gadget that is also an
official 'rel
igious artifact' after the jump.
The Mark V was not the very first e-Meter, but certainly
enjoyed a long period of use. These models may still be found and
purchased for a relatively inexpensive $200 or so, although to be used
in official Church procedures, must undergo a yearly $150 certification
process. E-Meters previous to the Mark V had been
seized by the FDA.
Developed in 1979, the Mark VI was the first major upgrade
since the Mark V and was in use heavily, despite occasional technical
inadequacies that caused some machines to break down. This e-Meter has
a built-in clock.
The
Super VII, developed in the late 80s, was reported to be much more
reliable than the Mark VII, and featured the 'technical' precision to
perform 'upper level auditing.' These units are no longer produced by
Hubbard's Church, but can be found occasionally on eBay for between
$300 and $900. Like all in-service e-meters, the Super VII must be
sent in for an annual certification.
The Cadillac of current official offerings, the Quantum Super
VII is the ultimate in e-meter artifacts, priced at over $4,500 new.
From e-meter.org.uk's
Quantum Super VII page, which may or may not be an official outlet of
the Church: "Using the meter, the auditor ensures the process covers
the correct area in order to discharge the harmful energy connected
with that portion of the preclear’s reactive mind. When charge
lessens, the person heightens his ability to think clearly in the area
being addressed and his survival potential increases proportionately.
As a result, the preclear discovers things about himself and his life
– new realizations about existence, the milestones that mark
his gains."
Since the design of the e-meter itself is relatively simple from an
electronic standpoint, many third-party manufacturers have built
generic models, including models that connect to PCs or PDAs for
statistics monitoring and tracking. If you'd like to get more details
about the variety of e-meters and e-meter clones available, check out
Clearbird's fantasticly comprehensive All Meters: The E-Meter
Supersite. For more information about the e-Meter's history and
use, the Secrets of
Scientology page by David S. Touretzky is equally thorough. The
Church's official site is here.
And yes, this is probably the last 'Religious Gadget Thursday,'
since, well, that's it.
gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/medical/religious-gadget-t
hursday-the-emeter-109772.php track this
site | 3 links
Nethercomm Corporation’s Unveils Innovative Answer to Natural Gas Meter Reading; A Solution which Eliminates the Need for a Local Gas Meter Altogether - Meterless Gas Read
nytimes.com/2003/12/07/fashion/07HOG.html track this
site | 4 links
"The Religious Policeman: ?A Saudi man?s diary of life in the ?Magic Kingdom?, where the Religious Police ensure that everything remains as it was in the Middle Ages?"
DU Meter v3.07 Build 20002/01/2005 09:36 PM DU Meter lets you see how much of your full bandwidth potential is
actually utilized at any given point of time, either by displaying a
real-time graph, numerical display, or both. [Shareware $20.00 30
Days 924 KB]
Dean Support-o-Meter01/07/2004 02:03 PM The Club for Growth, a Republicanish group, has spent $75,000 to air
an ad in Iowa that features a couple saying, "I think Howard Dean
should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding...[etc.] ...
freak-show back to Vermont." One has to wonder why. If Dean is the
weakest candidate against Bush, why is a Republican group working so
hard to keep him from getting the nomination? In fact, why would Karl
Rove be telling the world that Dean is the candidate he would most
like to run his boy against? Surely Karl is too devious to be giving
the Democrats such good advice!...
JACK Meter 0.1 (Default branch)03/22/2005 03:51 PM
Jack Meter is a basic console based DPM (Digital
Peak Meter) for JACK. It was written for quickly
checking remote signal levels without having to
run X11 to use a pretty graphical meter such as
meterbridge.
N.Y. Removes Controversial Parking Meter (AP)
N.Y. Removes Controversial Parking Meter (AP)05/11/2004 06:11 PM AP - The city wasted no time in mollifying motorists angry over a case
of meter madness. A parking meter in the Park Slope section of
Brooklyn was so close to a fire hydrant that parking there meant
risking a $115 ticket.
Phelps Qualifies for 400-Meter Race (AP)08/14/2004 04:36 AM AP - Michael Phelps began his quest to break Mark Spitz's record of
seven Olympic gold medals by easily qualifying for the 400-meter
individual medley final Saturday.
poliblogger.com/poliblog/archives/002854.html track this
site | 5 links
Wis. Police Probe Parking Meter Thefts (AP)
Wis. Police Probe Parking Meter Thefts (AP)07/20/2004 07:47 PM AP - Maybe they were tired of the tickets. Thieves have stolen nearly
$25,000 worth of city parking meters so far this summer, according
to the Department of Public Works.
Centenarian Breaks 100-Meter Sprint Mark (AP)
Centenarian Breaks 100-Meter Sprint Mark (AP)07/10/2004 03:36 PM AP - It took him two tries, but South African Philip Rabinowitz made
it into the Guinness Book of World Records Saturday as the fastest
100-year-old to run 100 meters.
"PoliBlog: The Post-Christmas Toast-O-Meter is Here"
UK ban on religious jokes06/22/2005 02:20 AM Independant: "As MPs vote on whether to go ahead with a Bill that
could outlaw religious jokes, we celebrate comedy's...
Religious coverage
Religious coverage07/17/2004 12:51 PM Jay Rosen: Puzzling through the convention story, because I'm heading
right for it, made me to realize that journalism's contempt for
ritual—and if "contempt" is too strong, then the difficulty the
press has in understanding the conventions as ritual—was deeply
involved here. Ritual is newsless; therefore it must be meaningless.
But is that really true? And that's what leads me to the forum now
happening at The Revealer ... If a religion writer covered the
presidential campaign, would campaign coverage be any different? My
reasons for asking this months ago, when we started planning the
forum, were vague. Now they're...
Religious Liberty
Religious Liberty05/13/2004 09:25 PM The Alliance Defense Fund, which describes itself as a legal alliance
of more than 700 attorneys defending religious liberty, announced
Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Jose and Mayor
Ron Gonzales in an effort to...
Over a ball-breaking glass of 
The Mark V was not the very first e-Meter, but certainly
enjoyed a long period of use. These models may still be found and
purchased for a relatively inexpensive $200 or so, although to be used
in official Church procedures, must undergo a 
Developed in 1979, the Mark VI was the first major upgrade
since the Mark V and was in use heavily, despite occasional technical
inadequacies that caused some machines to break down. This e-Meter has
a built-in clock.
The
Super VII, developed in the late 80s, was reported to be much more
reliable than the Mark VII, and featured the 'technical' precision to
perform 'upper level auditing.' These units are no longer produced by
Hubbard's Church, but can be found occasionally on eBay for between
$300 and $900. Like all in-service e-meters, the Super VII must be
sent in for an annual certification.
The Cadillac of current official offerings, the Quantum Super
VII is the ultimate in e-meter artifacts, priced at over $4,500 new.
From 
Jack Meter is a basic console based DPM (Digital
Peak Meter) for JACK. It was written for quickly
checking remote signal levels without having to
run X11 to use a pretty graphical meter such as
meterbridge.