THIS IS A FUN POST SO LIGHTEN UP, RELAX and FIND YOUR FUNNY BONE
Everybody says they want the truth.
But the minute somebody invents a machine, drug, test, or technique that promises to uncover it…
everybody gets VERY interested.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
Truth is powerful.
But getting to it is not always as simple as hooking up a machine or giving somebody a drug.
For those who have heard of sodium pentothal, it has long carried the nickname:
TRUTH SERUM.
That makes for a great movie.
The real story is more complicated.
Sodium thiopental can make a person drowsy, relaxed, less inhibited, and more talkative.
But it does NOT magically force somebody to tell the truth.
A person under its influence can still:
be confused,
misremember,
mix imagination with fact,
be influenced by the question,
or simply say something that is not accurate.
So let us clean up one thing right at the beginning.
There is no magic truth faucet.
LOL.
And the same caution belongs with the so-called lie detector.
A polygraph measures physical responses such as breathing, heart activity, blood pressure, and sweating.
It does not look inside somebody and flash:
LIAR!
What it really measures is physiological reaction.
And people react for all kinds of reasons.
Fear.
Nervousness.
Embarrassment.
Anger.
Confusion.
Stress.
So neither method deserves to be worshipped as some perfect truth machine.
SIMILAR TO TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP
The old idea behind so-called truth drugs was interesting.
Relax the person.
Reduce inhibition.
Ask questions.
Listen carefully.
But relaxed does not automatically mean truthful.
Anybody who has listened to somebody half asleep knows this.
They may tell you something profound…
or inform you that the refrigerator owes them money.
LOL.
That is why accuracy still matters.
Questions matter.
Memory matters.
Context matters.
And the person conducting the questioning matters too.
WHAT ABOUT THE LIE DETECTOR?
The polygraph seems more scientific because it comes with:
wires,
sensors,
charts,
questions,
and somebody sitting behind a machine looking serious.
That alone can make anybody nervous.
The theory is that deception may produce measurable physiological changes.
Sometimes it may.
But anxiety is not proof of lying.
And calmness is not proof of truth.
That is why polygraph results have long been controversial and are not treated as infallible evidence.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
Technology can measure a reaction.
It cannot always tell us WHY the reaction happened.
WHAT CAN YOU USE THIS FOR…I WONDER?
Now here is where my imagination starts having fun.
Suppose we really DID have a perfect truth machine.
Not sodium pentothal.
Not today’s polygraph.
I mean a mythical machine that could absolutely separate truth from deception.
Oh boy.
Society would change before lunch.
LOL.
But before we begin…
one Richie rule:
Nobody gets secretly drugged.
Nobody gets tested without consent.
That is not truth seeking.
That is another problem altogether.
SCENARIOS FOR THE PERFECT TRUTH MACHINE
- RELATIONSHIPS
Imagine sitting across from your spouse, partner, or fiancé.
Now comes the dangerous sentence:
“I have a few questions.”
LOL.
Do you love me?
Are you happy?
Did you really like that dinner?
Did you mean it when you said:
“Nothing is wrong”?
We might discover very quickly that sometimes we do NOT want every truth delivered at full volume.
Truth needs kindness too.
- BOARDING A PLANE
Imagine a reliable voluntary test that could instantly establish whether somebody intended to harm passengers.
One question.
One answer.
Then:
“Thank you, sir. Shoes back on. Have a nice flight.”
That would certainly beat some of the inconveniences travelers endure.
But again, real-world security is much more complicated than one question and one physiological reaction.
- BUYING A CAR
Now we are getting somewhere.
LOL.
“Is this REALLY the best price?”
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
The salesperson looks at the machine.
The machine looks at the salesperson.
Everybody looks at everybody.
Suddenly negotiations get very interesting.
- THE BOSS
Here is where employees everywhere begin smiling.
What about my raise?
How am I really doing?
Is my job secure?
What exactly did you write in that performance review?
But remember:
No slipping anything into anybody’s sandwich.
LOL.
Consent, people.
Consent.
- APPLYING FOR A LOAN
Imagine replacing mountains of paperwork with:
How much do you really earn?
Where did the down payment come from?
Have you missed payments?
Are these documents accurate?
Sounds wonderfully efficient.
Until we remember that financial decisions require documentation for good reasons too.
Truth alone does not replace records.
- THE IRS
Now this one scares everybody.
LOL.
“Take the test and receive ten percent off.”
Refuse?
“We’ll be looking through everything since the invention of fire.”
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
Maybe we should move on.
- BUYING OR SELLING A HOME
Now imagine buyers and sellers voluntarily sitting together.
What is the lowest price you would actually take?
What is the highest price you would actually pay?
What repairs are you worried about?
What did you hope the inspector would miss?
Real estate negotiations might become very short meetings.
LOL.
THE REAL TEST IS CREDIBILITY
Here is where this Pearl turns.
We spend enormous energy trying to determine whether OTHER PEOPLE are telling us the truth.
Machines.
Tests.
Investigations.
Background checks.
Questions.
Cross-checking.
But there is another way people determine truth every day.
CHARACTER.
Does your word hold?
Do your actions match what you say?
Do you admit mistakes?
Do you change stories depending on the audience?
Do people discover that what you told them yesterday still holds tomorrow?
Over time, credibility becomes its own lie detector.
YOUR WORD BUILDS A RECORD
A person who repeatedly tells the truth develops something valuable.
BELIEVABILITY.
When that person speaks…
others do not immediately reach for a machine.
They have history.
They have evidence.
They have experience with the person’s character.
That is why credibility is so valuable.
You build it slowly.
One truthful exchange at a time.
And unfortunately…
you can damage it very quickly.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Here is one Richie rule:
If everybody needs a polygraph every time you speak…
you may have a bigger problem than the polygraph.
Another:
Truth does not need a good memory.
Lies do.
And one more:
The finest truth detector ever invented may still be CHARACTER observed over time.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
From the spirit of Pearls for the Soul:
“Truth repeated through conduct eventually becomes credibility.”
From the spirit of God I AM:
“What is true does not require deception to keep it standing.”
From the spirit of It Is Finished:
“A lie creates another job tomorrow. Truth lets the matter rest.”
PEARLS INSIGHT
Neither sodium thiopental nor a polygraph is a perfect truth detector.
Drugs that reduce inhibition can also impair judgment and memory, while polygraphs measure physiological responses that may occur for many reasons besides deception.
The more reliable long-term measure of truthfulness remains consistency between words, actions, evidence, and character.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This connects directly with CREDIBILITY — THE CROWN JEWEL OF BELIEVABILITY.
If your word has demonstrated itself over time…
people do not need machinery to determine whether they should trust you.
It also connects with FILET OF FOOT IN MOUTH.
The person willing to admit:
“I was wrong”
often becomes more believable when later saying:
“I am right about this.”
Truth cuts both ways.
FINAL SAY
Wouldn’t it be interesting if we had a perfect truth machine?
Maybe.
But I suspect mankind would unplug it by Tuesday.
LOL.
Because truth can be uncomfortable.
Truth reveals.
Truth corrects.
Truth removes excuses.
And sometimes truth requires us to change.
So instead of spending all our energy looking for a machine that forces truth out of somebody else…
how about building the kind of character where nobody needs a machine to believe YOU?
Tell the truth.
Keep your word.
Correct yourself when wrong.
Let your actions agree with your mouth.
Then over time…
your credibility becomes the test.
And that is one truth detector worth owning.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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