How effective are countermeasures?

[Ineedhelpplease]

Do people who read the book on this website and follow the countermeasures always pass the polygraph test?
Is the success rate high?

Also, how can a person avoid being accused of using countermeasures? I was thinking of trying to breathe normally throughout the test, but think of scary thoughts for the control questions. It seems that many accusations  come from the tester breathing abnormally. Are there any other ways to avoid being accused?

[George W. Maschke]

Do people who read the book on this website and follow the countermeasures always pass the polygraph test?

No. Polygraph countermeasures can at best mitigate the risk of failing the polygraph. They cannot entirely eliminate it.

Is the success rate high?

We have no data that would allow us to characterize the success rate. The rate of feedback we receive regarding both successes and failures is low. Privately, I hear of more success stories than failures.

Also, how can a person avoid being accused of using countermeasures?

You can't. At least not in any absolute sense. There is no evidence that not using countermeasures lowers the risk of being accused of using countermeasures, or that actually using them increases the risk.

I was thinking of trying to breathe normally throughout the test, but think of scary thoughts for the control questions. It seems that many accusations  come from the tester breathing abnormally. Are there any other ways to avoid being accused?

You are correct that many many countermeasure accusations involve breathing that the polygraph operator considers "abnormal," such as breathing slowly or taking deep breaths. As noted at p. 145 of the 4th edition of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, keeping one's "normal" breathing rate within the range of 15-30 breath cycles per minute, should help to reduce the risk of a countermeasure accusation.