falsepositive wrote on Oct 7
th, 2012 at 12:42am:
Hi All,
I'm a new member and glad I found this website. I recently was informed I "did not successfully pass" a polygraph "test" for a certain federal law enforcement agency.
I took the poly on about 4 hours of sleep and was understandably nervous I think. I was accused of using countermeasures (which i didn't) and my polygraph quack went out of his way to mention this website.
I'm a pretty stressed out nervous individual (demanding job). I have some other agencies which require the poly which i've applied for and was curious if anyone has any good sound advice.
Yes, false positive, sound advice: (1) don't get your hopes up about getting that job you're looking for that you mentioned here. Perhaps you were screened out somehow beforehand; maybe you didn't fit the demographic your prospective employer was looking for; or you could have had some renegade follygraph guy who didn't like the fact that, during the initial interrogation, you said you liked the Dallas Cowboys (just an example), while he likes the Redskins, or the Eagles. Nobody knows but the polyboy and, maybe, the agency.
The other agencies? Well, if you haven't already, read The Lie Behind the Lie Detector. Twice (I have 4 times). Work from that, if you wish to augment your chances. Remember: they can fail you if they wish, period. If you walk into that situation, you're cooked. What's left? Hoping they've not stacked the deck against you (which a polylaugh is an indication of, anyhow) and that they either don't care too much about the results (using it to elicit body language, perhaps), or are using it as a confession tactic.
Other advice? Use TLBTLD and its techniques. I bought a GSR used for stress reduction and practiced lowering my physiological responses to untruthful questions. I even got ok at augmenting responses, too. Get such a device, and practice your replies; ask yourself questions and see how much the beep increases in loudness/pitch.
What else? Get some more sleep the night before. Tweaking on caffeine and running on adrenaline won't help you. You won't be as sound of mind as you would be if you were rested. And try, if you can, to be more relaxed, which I know is easier said than done. Remember, the worst that can happen is a lost job opportunity. You can't be arrested, detained, have the light from an optical neuralizer (see MIB, the movie) shone in your face, or put through any more questioning than you wish.
Government, remember, is supposed to be a necessary evil. It is thus inherently evil. If it'll try to fool you with a false test, what else might it do? It's not the end of your days if our bloated, corrupt government vetoes your job application...
