On the Esoteric Wisdom of the Polygraph Sages
Whereby Countermeasures Are Revealed through the Mystic Art of Polygraph Chartgazing

Recent discussion on this message board has turned to the claims of polygraphers that they can easily detect countermeasures such as those described in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector through the minute examination of polygraph charts.

Such ubiquitous claims notwithstanding, the American Polygraph Association quarterly publication, Polygraph, in its 30-year history, has not published a single article on how to detect such countermeasures. Nor do any of the polygraph textbooks include such information.

Nevermind that peer-reviewed research by Prof. Charles R. Honts and collaborators has shown that polygraphers cannot detect such countermeasures at better than chance levels of accuracy. Polygraphers are nearly universal in claiming that such countermeasures as are to be found in Chapter 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector are easily detected. Indeed, at the 1 7 October public meeting of the National Academy of Sciences Study to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, similar claims were made by certain federal polygraphers who were in attendance. But they declined comment on how they do it, retreating behind claims that such knowledge is secret. David M. Renzelman, grand wizard of polygraph chartgazing for the U.S. Department of Energy, after testily declining Dr. Drew C. Richardson's countermeasure challenge, sputtered:

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Indeed, if information on the the secret wisdom whereby federal polygraphers can divine the presence of countermeasures (of the kind that the growing numbers of people who visit AntiPolygraph.org are learning) were to be made public, then it could be independently and critically examined, and might (oh no!) be debunked. Best to keep it secret. Such knowledge is only for those initiated into the federal polygraph priesthood, not for the unwashed masses.

But the federal government's decision to classify virtually all information about polygraph countermeasures and counter-countermeasures has some consequences that I think it would be productive to discuss here, and I welcome commentary from all quarters.

Since knowledge about polygraph countermeasures is classified, then it would follow that it cannot be used in any polygraph interrogation where the polygrapher might later be compelled in an administrative or legal proceeding to explain how he/she came to the determination that a subject had employed countermeasures. Am I mistaken about this?

In addition, federal polygraphers who possess this secret knowledge must share it with no one after leaving government employ. This means that those who go on to teach at private polygraph schools may not impart this secret knowledge to their civilian students, who lack the proper security clearance. And they must not use this knowledge in polygraph interrogations that they themselves administer, for again, they might be compelled to divulge the secret knowledge of how they came to the conclusion that a subject had employed countermeasures.

And even when federal polygraphers give presentations on countermeasures at polygraph seminars, they must be very circumspect about what they say. For example, the aforementioned David M. Renzelman is scheduled to give a four-hour presentation on polygraph countermeasures at the 25th annual seminar of the American Association of Police Polygraphists (AAPP) on Thursday, 2 May 2002. One wonders how he plans to speak for some six hours on a topic on which he proved unable to comment for even a few minutes at the National Academy of Sciences meeting! Certainly, a meeting of the AAPP (a private organization) is no place to be discussing state secrets!

"Control" Question "Test" polygraphy has not been shown by peer-reviewed scientific research to be capable of determining truth versus deception at better than chance levels of accuracy under field conditions, let alone determining whether a subject has covertly employed countermeasures. The claimed esoteric knowledge of the divination of polygraph countermeasures by means of polygraph chartgazing must remain secret lest it, like the rest of this black art, be exposed as a fraud.