There are few topics in the cleared community more misunderstood—and more mythologized—than the polygraph. It sparks anxiety, fuels Reddit threads, and yes, still plays an outsized role in many hiring decisions. So when Sean Bigley mentioned during our podcast that watching a Scientology documentary reminded him of the polygraph process… well, I couldn’t not go there.
“I was watching one of the many documentaries on Scientology,” Sean said. “They were talking about this process they call auditing, and these things that they use called E-meters. They look like soda cans with wires coming out of them. I was very surprised watching that, because it made me think of the polygraph… This is kind of like the religious version of the polygraph.”
Now, to be clear: this isn’t a takedown of Scientology. But the parallels were too uncanny to ignore.
“Come on,” Sean continued. “Scientology has ‘science’ in the name. They say it’s scientific. The government does the same thing. But now the government says you can’t revoke or deny a clearance based solely on the polygraph. It’s not a lie detector. It’s… a spiritual honesty device.”
That might sound like satire—but it’s not far off from how the system works in practice. Agencies may not technically deny someone solely based on polygraph results, but they can (and do) remove applicants from hiring pools for “suitability.” The result is the same: disqualification with limited recourse.
Sean has seen this firsthand. “I was in law practice. Many, many clients took polygraphs. I would counsel them through the process. You deal with denials and revocations… I have argued strenuously on behalf of clients: it is not possible scientifically to use a polygraph machine to determine whether someone is telling the truth. Among other reasons, everybody’s physiology is different.”
If you’re wondering why we haven’t moved beyond the polygraph, you’re not alone.
It’s not about abandoning vetting tools altogether—it’s about updating them. “We’re still vetting people based on a 1950s framework,” I added. “Our secrets are not our best resource anymore. Open-source is too big. The world is too open. The fact that we’re taking qualified, smart people out of the talent pool is a bigger issue.”
At the end of the day, this episode isn’t just about poking holes in the polygraph process—it’s about making space for a better one. “If Scientology is doing this,” Sean asked, “is this really what we want to be doing?”
