Well said 1904! 

They Deceived You Good & Solid.

The idiots were probably running a book on who could 'crack you' or
get you to admit something juicy.

It's actually an insult, for someone in their (for eg) late 40's, to be subjected
to a p/g examination and interrogation by a 25 yr old........!!

Lets face it. 25 yr olds have very little life experience, no matter what their
academic achievements may or may not be.

To be interrogated by; and having to suck up the puddle of inexperience of a 25 yr old
is an insult to the intelligence of the more mature.

If it were myself as examinee, that 25 yr old would leave the room with brown undies.

I think that a forensic investigator is insufficiently mature to practise on society at large
until he/she is at least 35 yrs old.

But then again, some people never grow mentally. Palerider is a case in point.
He's still stuck on a surfboard in the waves of his imagination. Astride his board,
facing the horizon, while rushing blindly to the beach.
(Desipio )

So I have been through the polygraph process for a clearance involving a federal agency, and would like to share my story.

During these four sessions that I failed, they did not have any secret control questions; basically I was supposed to answer NO to all of the questions, after admitting everything I've done wrong relevant to the questions, so they can use the phrasing "Other than what we talked about, have you done this?".  The three questions they had problems with were:

1. Did you intentionally falsify your security forms?
2. Have you used drugs (other than what we talked about)?
3. Have you done a serious crime?

And keep in mind that across the four sessions, the particular questions they had problems with would change.  So somehow I went from lying about drugs to being honest about it, without actually admitting anything new.  Bottom line, I was 100% honest with them from day 1, yet they kept me in there for 3+ hours each day hoping to get me to confess something.

I am 99% sure that the results are completely FICTICIOUS because they 1) never showed me the results, 2) MUST be ficticious if an honest person who is thinking about NOTHING and being HONEST is failing each time.  The 1% possibility that they are legit is if something is sub-conciously on my mind that I have no thoughts on and no control over, but is causing physical reactions, but even the examiners said whatever is causing the problem is on my CONCIOUS mind.   

Another reason I think the results are bogus is because the first examiner was this woman about 25 years old and appeared to be a really bad actor.  After taking my first run of the exam, I felt I passed with flying colors and the way she broke the news that I was reacting to questions really wasn't believable to me.  I sensed deception in her.

So the question now is:

If it is all bogus, then why do they keep bringing me back?

The answer is that they are using their gut instinct and they all think that I am holding something back.  My belief is that they don't believe me because of my mannerisms, which make me appear slightly nervous even when I'm not nervous.  Or perhaps they dug something up negative about my family members and because I have not mentioned anything negative about said family members (because it was never relevant to their questions), they want to see if they can squeeze the info out of me.  Or even yet maybe I don't fit the mold of how much dirt a person of my background experiences would typically have.  I guess its unusual to strive to be a law-abiding citizen in their eyes.

I realize from reading stories that each federal agency and local law enforcement agencies all have different ways to use the machine, and I strongly believe that the agency in which I was tested pretends to get physical reactions to questions in the results because they are the only ones who realize that the device doesn't actually work, and the exam is used soley for intimidation purposes.