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Does the metab test work?

For those of you who haven't had much or any auditing - Hubbard stresses the need for proper rest and food prior to an auditing session. He devised a simple test - holding the e-meter cans in your hands, you take a deep breath. If the needle swings to the right (a fall) the auditor is assured you have enough energy and rest for a productive session. But is he really, truly assured? And what if his PC or Pre OT is well fed, rested and the needle says otherwise?

I can tell you that when this occurs - a mad dash ensues - to remedy the situation - drinking water, drinking Energy-c, eating protein bars, boiled eggs, power naps - to get the needle to behave. It can be nerve racking when you are at FLAG doing a 6 mos check, and the auditor sends you off and takes someone else in and more often than not, some hours elapse before you are back squeezing the cans again, nervous about the lost time, and what all this will cost you.

Keep this in mind - you may have had a restful night's sleep and a kings breakfast and still have the needle give you the finger.

Hubbard of course, assures us the test is valid. If the needle won't fall, you are depleted in some way or other.

Bill, what are your thoughts about this test - is it bogus or valid?

Mimsey
 

Bill

Gold Meritorious Patron
For those of you who haven't had much or any auditing - Hubbard stresses the need for proper rest and food prior to an auditing session. He devised a simple test - holding the e-meter cans in your hands, you take a deep breath. If the needle swings to the right (a fall) the auditor is assured you have enough energy and rest for a productive session. But is he really, truly assured? And what if his PC or Pre OT is well fed, rested and the needle says otherwise?

I can tell you that when this occurs - a mad dash ensues - to remedy the situation - drinking water, drinking Energy-c, eating protein bars, boiled eggs, power naps - to get the needle to behave. It can be nerve racking when you are at FLAG doing a 6 mos check, and the auditor sends you off and takes someone else in and more often than not, some hours elapse before you are back squeezing the cans again, nervous about the lost time, and what all this will cost you.

Keep this in mind - you may have had a restful night's sleep and a kings breakfast and still have the needle give you the finger.

Hubbard of course, assures us the test is valid. If the needle won't fall, you are depleted in some way or other.

Bill, what are your thoughts about this test - is it bogus or valid?

Mimsey
Well, when I was a believer, I never questioned it but that's a very good question. Obviously, I don't know enough physiology to know if the metab test is valid -- but then, since I think the meter is bogus, I don't think it matters.
 
If I understand your position on the meter - it reads on belief. However, this is purely a non-mental reaction to the intake of a breath. A body reaction. A crafty PC could easily fake the read with a little can squeezie at the right time. I wish Paul (Dulloldfart) still posted here - I wager he might say something interesting. How about some of the other auditors? Phenom? Karen? You surely have some insight you could share.

Mimsey
 

lotus

stubborn rebel sheep!
Mimsey,

AS you said the metab test were used to validate that you have sufficient energy from rest, food , (and whatever is needed) to be sessionable.

Fine..the test seemed to work as you either get proper metab or not.

But what striked me one day was when we had to use the trick with iodine..
SO, no metab???...(not sufficient rest or food) okay. thus the pc takes a few drops of iodine..and get on the can eagain a few minutes later..
and Woaooooooooooooo suddenly the metab reading gets in the proper range..Everything is Okay now.

The trick is that it propably raise the activity of the tyroid..
but How about the rest and the food that were not sufficient when the second test is okay ????

That makes me say NO...it doesn't work!
It measures something that is not what it is supposed to measure.
 
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JackStraw

Silver Meritorious Patron
I'd estimate it's probably like a placebo effect. Hit or miss at best.

In my early days in scn I read a lot of early hubb's stuff, DABs, PABs etc and listened to many early lectures that wouldn't see the light of days for decades, when the "congresses" were released. (I'll bet there were significant edits from what I listened to and what got released as a congress, too!

In the early writings, hubbs said of the e-meter that is only a tool. If it gets in the way or inhibits the session then set it aside and "audit the pc in front of you." I'm pretty sure that bit of "tech" has been written out of the GAT I & II.

Jack
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
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[Full post over at The Stupid Thread]:


Worrying about whether the "metabolism test" works on an e-meter is like a Scientologist holding the cans and asking the question: "IS THE E-METER A FRAUDULENT QUACK DEVICE?"

If it doesn't read that means that the e-meter is a legitimate, highly accurate scientific diagnostic device.​
If it does read that means that it was a protest read--and therefore that the e-meter is a legitimate, highly accurate scientific diagnostic device.​

Notwithstanding the above, I do think the e-meter has valuable purpose in any society. It could be included in a deluxe package that also contained a Magic 8 Ball and Ouija Board over at Amazon--in the "Parlor Games" section.
 
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Helena Handbasket

Gold Meritorious Patron
I would think that good metabolism has more to do with your general state of health rather than the meal you had in the last 30 minutes.

I exercise and take vitamins and hormones (HRT), and take care of little problems before they become big ones.


Having said that, when most people get into session and have "no metabo", they scramble for a short-term solution like rubbing your feet on the carpet.

Helena
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
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Scientology Metabolism Test - noun: 1. The scientific pre-session determination of whether a pre-clear has sufficient body energy in order to as-is and erase the negative mental energy contained within pre-natal engrams, 75 million year old body thetans and trillion year old gorilla goal implants. 2. A preposterous pre-session wherein a pretentious prevaricator pre-dupes a pre-clear.
 
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Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
If I understand your position on the meter - it reads on belief. However, this is purely a non-mental reaction to the intake of a breath. A body reaction. A crafty PC could easily fake the read with a little can squeezie at the right time. I wish Paul (Dulloldfart) still posted here - I wager he might say something interesting. How about some of the other auditors? Phenom? Karen? You surely have some insight you could share.

Mimsey
In my experience, the e-meter needle definitely falls upon a sharp intake of breath. You can easily demonstrate this to yourself on a meter. Presumably, when you oxygenate your system, it changes the body's resistance temporarily. Arguably, that change in resistance is dampened when you are not well fed, or whatever, since (presumably) whatever biochemical reactions make the body resistance change are less pronounced if your blood is low on whatever nutrients are involved.

At the org I was at, their solution to a low metab. reading was to give the PC sublingual multi-vitamins (i.e., vitamins in a powder form that are absorbed under the tongue).
 

phenomanon

Canyon
In my experience, the e-meter needle definitely falls upon a sharp intake of breath. You can easily demonstrate this to yourself on a meter. Presumably, when you oxygenate your system, it changes the body's resistance temporarily. Arguably, that change in resistance is dampened when you are not well fed, or whatever, since (presumably) whatever biochemical reactions make the body resistance change are less pronounced if your blood is low on whatever nutrients are involved.

At the org I was at, their solution to a low metab. reading was to give the PC sublingual multi-vitamins (i.e., vitamins in a powder form that are absorbed under the tongue).
Who gives a damn if there is a proper Fall on a Metab test? All those pre-session requirements are designed to get the PC in session. The last Q on the pre-session is " Is there any reason we shouldn't have a session"? If you are looking at the PC, and he looks ready to get auditing, then start the session. please.
How would you ever get your stats up if if you let dry hands, and no metab, hi TA, etc keep your PCs out of session.
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
If I understand your position on the meter - it reads on belief. However, this is purely a non-mental reaction to the intake of a breath. A body reaction. A crafty PC could easily fake the read with a little can squeezie at the right time. I wish Paul (Dulloldfart) still posted here - I wager he might say something interesting. How about some of the other auditors? Phenom? Karen? You surely have some insight you could share.

Mimsey
A can squeeze will not cause the same needle movement as a quick brain reaction does.
If a PC is in co-operation with auditing then they will not do can-squeezing, etc.

1. If the PC is in co-operation does the e-meter still "read" on items? Yes.

2. Does this then mean that everything that "reads" is always correct? No.

A implies B does not mean that therefore B implies A. Logical fallacy.
(And, yes, I know what an auditing "correction list" is.)
 
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A can squeeze will not cause the same needle movement as a quick brain reaction does.
If a PC is in co-operation with auditing then they will not do can-squeezing, etc.

1. If the PC is in co-operation does the e-meter still "read" on items? Yes.

2. Does this then mean that everything that "reads" is always correct? No.

A implies B does not mean that therefore B implies A. Logical fallacy.
(And, yes, I know what an auditing "correction list" is.)
Ok - what you say is fine - what are your thoughts on the metab test?

I had a thought that it was an off shoot of the e-meter drill on body reads, wherein the coach does the various body motions out of the student's view to see if he can differentiate between them. (yawn, scratch leg, jiggle cans, stretch etc.) Hubbard tweaked it to become the metab test.

In his "I know best" way of doing things, I doubt he did much more research beyond a few tests, and declared it was standard tech. I bet his research consisted of his having an auditor put a bunch of SO staff, who had varying amounts of sleep and food on the cans and after setting the can squeeze, have the "pc" take a deep breath, record the reads, and compare the results against their sessionability.

Mimsey
 
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RogerB

Crusader
Phenom is right above . . . one should not hassle the PC "for all the right and wrong reasons"!

It's idiotly simple really. The meter shows change in resistance value to the electrical current it passes through the body. Electrical flow is, of course, a flow of negatively charged electrons.

Lots of things can and do change the degree of "resistance" to the "electron flow" from one can to the other.

But as to the metab test, if the PC has already been oxygenating his body due to deep breathing or a yawn . . . you won't get the oxygenation change you need to get the "read."

I personally have found in solo and in dealing with a PC that, if no metab read, hat them up on the above mechanics and get them to breath out and hold the lungs empty till they notice an absence of oxygen in their body, and then take the deep breath for the metab test!

Other tricks, as noted above: iodine, vitamins, a dose of sugar, etc., all affect the resistance to the electron flow.

In case youse are not intimately familiar with chemistry . . . oxygen is a negatively charged ion/molecule . . . flood the body with it and the electron flow between the cans is then not as likely being absorbed/blocked by the relative positive charge occasioned when the oxygen level in the cells is low. Hence, take a deep breath and flood the system with negatively charged "particles" viola! the negatively charged electrons zip though your body to "read" as lessened resistance.
 
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F.Bullbait

Oh, a wise guy,eh?
Buy this and that to get sessionable ...or...

82c855e05af501363eb3005056a9545d
 
Mrs. Mimsey made the point - there are too many variables for the test to be accurate. As an example, she said on her blood pressure cuff instructions, it said not to rely on a single test - but to do a few at different times of the day and take the average. You see that in different diets associated with different body types etc.

Ron suffered from the belief there was one standard tech, one bridge, one definition of clear ( though he changed it multiple times ) as opposed to Sr, C/S David Mayo's concept of several levels of clear. This "one size fits all" monomania of his was a fallacy but his ego prevented him from seeing that flaw. Setting his tech/ethics/policies in stone was a mistake that has led the subject to cease to be relevant ( setting problems of workability aside of purposes of argument) and despite his whole track discovery, that galactic org boards lacked a quad division, and he made a big deal about including one in his, he never empowered Qual the ability to correct the tech and make it relevant. DM, lacks the gumption / wherewithal / desire to correct it, rather he abandons the tech and substitutes all donos all the time.

That said - I do wonder if there was any validity in the metab test whatsoever.

Mimsey
 
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