Scientologists Ask Federal Government to Restrict Right to Repair

https://www.404media.co/scientologists-ask-government-to-make-hacking-e-meters-illegal/

by detaro • 3 years ago

48 9 3 years ago

404media.co

buserror• 3 years ago

paywalled

DemiGuru• 3 years ago

http://web.archive.org/web/20230831164847/https://www.404med...

LinuxBender2• 3 years ago

The petition doesn’t name any specific device. But the Church of Scientology uses a “religious artifact” it calls an “electropsychometer” or “E-Meter” to “measure the spiritual state or change of state of a person”

Is it possible that this is just some odd variation of an ohm or microvolt meter? Has anyone here taken one apart?

CapstanRoller2• 3 years ago

Yep, it's a narrow-range (~2 ohms) precision ohm meter, specifically a Wheatstone bridge[0]. Newer models have a microcontroller. There is a teardown video[1] of a newer model found on eBay. Scientologists spared no expense (e.g. $20 potentiometers, custom injection molded case)!

There's also an older teardown and a huge amount of info from Dave Touretzky on these things [3]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge

[1] https://hackaday.com/2018/07/19/whats-inside-a-scientology-e...

[3] http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/E-Meter/

elkos• 3 years ago

Ever wonder how much it costs them to build one? Who manufactures them? Does the Church have a manufacturing arm?

LinuxBender2• 3 years ago

That third article on cmu is the one I found most interesting. Their devotion to this is wild. Training classes... and the microprocessor is to have a master auditor. It's like some kind of really devoted live action role play.

rfwhyte• 3 years ago

Sounds like Scientology doesn't want people opening up their so called "E-meters" so they can protect their manufactured illusion they actually do something.

Scientologists Ask Federal Government to Restrict Right to Repair

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