To begin, I failed my first Polygraph over a year ago.
I told the polygrapher everything I had done wrong prior to the exam in good faith.

Despite this he insisted I was "obviously" lying, despite having no reason to.

I tried a different approach this last time: I made sure to break one rule of supervision.
The reason for this was simply to see if by the end he would accuse me of breaking this rule.

The results were quite amusing. During the exam, I used a mindfulness breathing excercise to relax. I also use nicotine, so my bloodpressure is always a little elevated.

By the end, he said I had a "consistent" GSR on one of the questions.
Upon showing me the graph (Bad idea for him) I noticed a few things:
The first test was a complete pass. The 2nd test showed a GSR as he started to ask the question. The third time, the response was a few seconds after the question was asked.

What was odd was that he had asked another question that was contextually relevant to the one he had problems with. Yet he had no issue with it.

Problematic Question:  Have you viewed pornography in the last 6 months? No

Related Question: Have you lied to your PO in the last 6 months? No

How could it be that I had been totally honest with my PO, to whom I had told I had not viewed pornography, and be lying about viewing pornography?

I passed after he gave me the "benefit of the doubt."

Truly a strange experience overall.

The "have you lied to your PO in the last 6 months" is a control question.