Scientology Teams Up With Ebay To Offer New Kind Of E-Meter: The Gay Meter
Ebay, the online auction company, has gotten some flack for their decision to grant the Church of Scientology unfettered access to (via their VERO program) to "unauthorized" auctions selling "e-meters."
An e-meter is the "technical" term for a low-quality lie-detector test. The purported function of an e-meter is to gage a person's stress level during what is called "auditing," by Scientology. Auditing is essentially a person being asked to reveal upsetting or difficult memories in an effort to "clear" or desensitize the person from these "memories" or incidents. The e-meter gages the person's response to these events and the auditor monitors the e-meter for fluctuations.
These devices, which send a low wattage of electrical current from a person's arm through their other arm, can be purchased by the Church of Scientology for the low price of $4500, according to an article on Radar Online.
Here's more from that post:
The VeRO program is ostensibly for sellers who wish to block the sale of such counterfeit goods as, say, fake Prada handbags. However, given that the e-meters being sold on eBay are authentic, it appears the Church is operating outside of VeRO's intended scope, and is thus guilty of, among other things, "price fixing, tortious interference with a contract, misrepresentation, perjury, unfair competition, discriminatory business practices, and religious discrimination." (Most auctions have already been removed, but screengrabs are available here).This isn't the only price-gouging practice by the purportedly "religious" organization. One estimate pegs the cost of ascending from novice to OT9—one of the highest levels in Scientology—at between $365,000 and $380,000. Church-sponsored seminars and auditing sessions often run into the thousands of dollars. But, hey, that's probably cheaper than psychiatric drugs!
An e-mail to an eBay spokesperson seeking comment was not returned by post time.
Apparently, not all the auctions have been intercepted, as the above picture comes from a current auction which you can view here. But you better act fast, I hear John Travolta and Tom Cruise are "wrestling" for who gets this item.
