A FEW DISTURBING FACTS ABOUT POLYGRAPHS
By Chase Hughes
A THIRTY-SECOND HISTORY The polygraph was invented by John A. Larson, who was a medical student who regretted inventing it when he saw government wrongly using it to convict people of crimes and it being called a 'lie detector'. POLYGRAPHS The fear that most people have when going into a polygraph examination revolves around the machine. In this sense, they think the machine will be the determining factor in either their innocence or guilt, or they think it will prevent them from getting a high-level government job here in the U.S. Although polygraph machines have established ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE of their effectiveness and validity, law enforcement and government agencies continue to use the polygraph as a ‘reliable’ indictor of trustworthiness. HOW THEY WORK The polygraph is a machine that measures galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate, respiration and pulse. The machine is essentially dumb. It records data, nothing more. The polygraph examiner must determine the validity of your statements and answers by analyzing that data. The examiner will ask two types of questions: Relevant questions: These are specifically designed to gather information about a specific event in question. They can also be questions asked in order to gain specific reactions to situational discussion about the incident in question. Control Questions: Designed to elicit truthful and comfortable answers to determine 'normal' behavior. This gives the examiner a level from which to measure the other questions. WHAT THEY DO During the examination, there are several methods that can be applied to the subject in order to manipulate them into giving information they otherwise wouldn’t have. This method goes by many names. The short story is that the examiner is asking questions of a subject they would have otherwise remained silent for in the interrogation room. The questions a subject is asked in the interview scenario are no-holds-barred. Although almost every legal questioning scenario involves the polygraph examiner discussing the questions to be asked with the subject before the examinations, there will always be the 'incidental question' method of asking pointed questions. This method gives the subject very little time to prepare their answer and mentally rehearse the response. Unless someone has been professionally trained or has practiced extensively, they will always have an emotional reaction to surprise questions. The entire first phase of the examination will usually be dedicated to asking casual, simple questions. In addition to analyzing the responses to these questions, the examiner is also allowing the subject to become comfortable with his voice. PRE-INTERVIEW DISCUSSION The pre-interview questions are designed to ‘baseline’ the subject. Questions will be addressed that the examiner knows the subject is going to respond truthfully to. During this period, a baseline of your behavior is established and your comfort level while answering questions is determined. This interaction takes place after the machine has been attached to your body. Using methods to make your readings spike during thruth questions can cause the examiner to misread the results at the end. Some ‘professionals’ claim it can be beat using methods like biting your tongue or using a thumbtack in your shoe (like in Ocean’s Eleven). When your truthful questions increase your readings on the machine, the ‘lie’ questions will appear to spike in the same way. The best method is using the maxillary first premolar teeth. They are the ones situated just behind your canine teeth. This pair of teeth, in most people’s mouths, has a small ‘shelf’ that you can fit your tongue into without the extremely obvious behavior of opening your teeth and inserting your tongue before a question. Try using your molars to bite your tongue without making an obvious motion with your jaw. Likewise, try inserting your tongue into your front teeth without making it visible. A trained polygraph examiner will be able to immediately spot deviations in your behavior and will most certainly see you biting your tongue so conspicuously. Remember: Biting your tongue is ONLY performed during the truth questions in the pre-interview. This behavior should not be performed during the questions that will determine guilt or innocence, or when you need to appear calm. With any well-trained examiner, you will not be able to make physical movements to induce pain (spike your readings) without raising giant, glowing luminescent red flags. POST-INTERVIEW QUESTIONS After the interview, the examiner will ask questions that relate to some of the ‘inconsistencies’ he found during questioning. During this phase, the examiner will perform behaviors that make the subject feel like the conversation taking place is ‘off the record’ and casual. This is often the most damning phase of the interview. After the subject feels like the interview is over and the machine is removed from their body, the relaxation and sense of relief that overwhelms them often makes them vulnerable to casual questioning methods by well-trained examiners. The examiner will go over a few details of the interview and then casually start to build rapport with the subject. THE ‘ANAL PUCKER’ This is a method that will usually beat most polygraphs because it uses muscular contractions that aren’t visible to the examiner. As humans, our anuses will pucker in response to fear. Think about the last time a plane you were in experienced a sudden drop in altitude. (Instant pucker!) This response is tied to your blood pressure, breathing and stress levels. When you deliberately pucker your sphincter muscle, as if trying to stop a bowel movement, the respiration and blood pressure responds the exact same way as if you were exposed to threatening or fearful stimulus. Performing this method during control questions will provide the spike you need to beat the polygraph control measurements. The newest machines have a measurement device some call a ‘smart seat’ that detects movement of the pelvic regions on the seat. This can sometimes detect the anal pucker and alert the examiner. Practice in necessary to accomplish this technique and requires an hour or so a day of sitting on your hands and feeling for ‘butt movements’ and eventually arriving at a point where you are able to perform the maneuver without involving gluteus muscles in the process. THE ANTICIPATION MEASUREMENT In some interviews, an examiner will ask questions that are designed to elicit a strong emotional response of anticipation from you. For instance, the examiner may say, “Ok, Mark. I’m going to ask you an extremely personal, embarrassing and revealing question now…in your lifetime, from the age of five, have you ever, even once…” Most times the question will never even be finished. This is simply a devious way unethical polygraph examiners will get a glimpse of a non-reactive person’s stress responses. HOW TO CONTROL YOUR BREATHING LIKE A SPY When you look at a breathing measurement on a polygraph machine, the up and down slopes eventually appear like waves. The tubes placed around your chest and stomach will be measuring your breathing rate and display it on the screen of the examiner’s computer. The waves displayed will have a sharper top to them the more someone is consciously controlling their breathing. When people think about their breathing, there tends to be a sharper edge to the waves because they typically inhale immediately after and exhale, and exhale right after they inhale. Normal breathing tends to have more time in between respirations, especially the respirations following the exhale. In normal, relaxed breathing, the waves will have smoother edges on both the top and bottom. Practicing your breathing to have small and varied times between repirations will cause the waves on the screen to smooth out significantly. Train to maintain an almost even inhale and exhale cycle. This means that if you inhale for four seconds, you should exhale for four seconds. This keeps the base line on the screen smooth and beautiful. Try this right now: inhale about halfway and take three or four more small breaths to almost fill your lungs, this will help you get a feel for the natural pauses, and will regulate your heart rate. Try the same method with an exhale. This rhythm training will help you become familiar with the breathing patterns you’ll need and can even be used in the interview room. Ensure you wear clothing that doesn’t cling to your stomach. Keep the breathing into the lower part of the abdomen and make sure you have practiced enough to keep your conscious mind OFF of your breathing during the examination. I hope this casually written article was helpful and entertaining. Chase Hughes |
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You'll learn interrogation secrets, advanced people-reading and government operative-level body language skills.
The upcoming Ellipsis Manual has two chapters on how to deliberately create false confessions, and should be a scary read for anyone involved in interrogations.
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