I went through the polygraph process a few years ago (passed on first try - hooray!). Here are some observations:
1. The one-hour 'educational' session I was forced to attend prior to undergoing the polygraph examination was actually a pure piece of pro-polygraph propaganda. This is not surprising, because it was produced by polygraphers for the benefit of polygraphers. The goal of the session was to convince participants that the government does, in fact, have a reliable lie-detection process in place. There is a self-fulfilling prophecy here: if a participant BELIEVES that the polygraph is a lie detector, and then tries to lie, then the participant may indeed exhibit some kind of detectable stress response as they wonder whether they are "getting away with it" and contemplate the consequences of being caught in a serious lie.
2. Polygraphers claim that the very act of lying causes an involuntary detectable stress response regardless of whether or not the person believes the polygraph is a lie detector. This may have been true back in the old days, when young children were taught that the very act of lying puts you on a straight path to eternal damnation. However, nowadays almost no one believes this. A typical adult no longer carries hard-wired deeply embedded emotional circuits that connect the conscious act of lying with a detectable physiological response. Why does the American taxpayer continue to support the enormous archaic polygraph bureaucracy?
3. It's amusing that a process supposedly designed for truth-finding is, in fact, saturated by lies promulgated by the government for its own self-interest. For example, the polygrapher will tell you that s/he is 'turning off the recorder'. However, this is a lie. Telling the subject this is a great way to establish or update a stress-free baseline reading.
4. The very subjectivity of the polygraph may be one of its greatest strengths. If the government doesn't want you to have access to classified information, but doesn't want to disclose 1) what it knows about you, and 2) how it discovered the information, it can simply claim that you "failed" the polygraph.
5. About 3/4 of the way through the 3-hour polygraph session, I had a panic attack. The panic attack was not because I was lying, it was because staring at a blank wall for 2.5 hours (blank except for a little black nail hole where a picture had formerly hung) messed up my brain. When I felt the panic attack coming on, it fed on itself because I was sure that the monitoring equipment was picking up the overt physiological signs (I actually felt my palms get moist) and that I was going to fail the polygraph and have to waste another 1/2 day of my life going through the barbaric exercise all over again. Amazingly, it seems that the panic attack went undetected (at least, it wasn't mentioned by the polygrapher or his boss).
6. My session ended with the polygrapher implying that I had lied during the session and asking whether I had anything more to say (he used a euphemism - he asked whether I 'forgot anything important', but I knew exactly what he meant). I had a little white lie prepared for this question (as recommended by this website), which seemed to satisfy the polygrapher and his supervisor. It's very important to make the polygrapher and his supervisors believe that they have 'won' and uncovered deliberately undisclosed information, thereby justifying the polygraph examination process and the vast Federal bureaucracy that feeds off it.
7. The polygraph examination is an interrogation, plain and simple. The goal is to put the subject under mild stress and see how they respond. You can bet that the intelligence community is integrating other sources of information with the polygraph results. For example, if you are stupid enough to brag via e-mail or phone to an associate that you 'beat' the polygraph, you may well get invited in for another session, which you will (of course) fail.
8. I came away from the polygraph interrogation with one central question: do polygraphers actually believe in their own BS or are they merely well-trained actors in a play? It would be fascinating to know the answer.
9. The large amount of work I had done in biometrics made me a very poor test subject - my level of skepticism regarding the whole process was very high. If you are also skeptical, then you may have a more difficult time than the vast herd of zombies who uncritically accept the government's lies and distortions regarding the accuracy and efficacy of the polygraph examination. Be forewarned!
Best of Luck!
Thank you for posting that.
I think the point you raise in (9) is especially important. People who know how the polygraph really works are less likely to produce accurate results. And who is likely to find out how the polygraph really works? People who are any of the following: curious, skeptical, unwilling to blindly accept authority, and/or good at critical thinking, among many other things. So, the traits that the polygraph is biased against are precisely the traits that we all claim to value. We need more people who are willing to challenge authority and think for themselves working in public service; the polygraph gives us less of them.
Polygraphers claim that isn't true. But they've never produced any reason why we shouldn't think that it is. Until they do so, I will continue to trust my own reason and conscience and not the unsupported claims of known liars who are protecting their own parochial interests.
Thanks again, poiu272; I am glad you were able to pass.
Lethe,
You are 100% accurate on your assessments. Before this website and others posted the polygraphers "Pot O Gold" knowlege base, the general public was completely at a polygraphers / interrogators mercy. They depend on this as a staple of their con. As most (still do to this day), folks believe that the machine has the capabilities to detect deception, they will continue to con the unknowing. But the Genie is out of the bottle and those that know continue to grow in mass. The video the poiu272 watched is laughable to those that know differently, I had all I could do not to laugh through it, but it worked on those that didn't, and had them all shaken up. Without the fear and anxiety, the adrenal reaction (fight or flight), becomes a mute point. Good posts, good points. The first time you beat the box, its like winning with a home run in the bottom of the 9th.
Regards ....