THE SILENT WITNESS FORWARD
Seldom Is it that one encounters In a lifetime any
person who is passionately decent and determinedly fair. Even more rare-perhaps
uniquely-does one find that single person who is also Incorruptible. Yet
this extraordinary book, replete as it is with devastatingly truthful glimpses
of the Inside-out portion of actual lives, is chronicled from the experiences
of such a man.
The story of why Chris Gugas chose to write this book-or
even why he became a polygraph examiner at all-is a tale that probably begins
early. Perhaps about the time he thinks of now, when he tells you that he
was a poor Greek kid who had to leave school early and go to work at whatever
he found, so that his widowed mother, four sisters, and he could have money
for basic survival.
Chris Gugas, the boy, was someone who defied the
socio-psychological viewpoint and drew character from deprivation,
love of justice from tribulation, and incorruptibility from nothing at all-but
his faith in what we used to proudly call the American dream.
Perhaps, for Chris Gugas the man, his very choice of
a profession that serves people in their most desperate hours of need-as
the validation of truth often can and does-was nurtured by the warmth he
feels toward the many people who were kind, In those hard times.
But there is no 'perhaps' in my conviction that this
book came straight out of the author's intention to serve all people, to
assist them with their lives. For that mental and spiritual posture Is as
immutable in Chris Gugas as his very incorruptibility Itself.
I have often pondered whether only a person who comes
from this kind of certainty within himself can effectively seek the truth
in others. That question remains, for now; but the fact is that anyone who
dedicates a life to the awesome burden of seeking truth on behalf of doubted
or accused Individuals is always aware that his verdict must either turn
on the sun or topple the world in ruins for those tested. And such a person
must be called upon to draw constant strength from his own reserves of certainty.
So It may be no accidental correlation that this man of compassionate viewpoint
and good will has become an outstanding world authority for his unparalleled
record In separating truth from deception.
But whatever the genesis of his book, there is little
question that its underlying theme touches deeply into each of our own restless
quests for certainty in this most uncertain world. Philosophers still refer
to their search for truth. Sociologists still bemoan the un predictability
of dally living in a mobile nation. Psychologists wrestle with making life's
doubts and fears more bearable. Ever-present uncertainty plagues mankind.
The Silent Witness is one man's odyssey through the
tangled maze that sometimes leads to truth-wherever that may be. But we discover
that truth-finding is no simple task, even when we follow along on that odyssey
with not just any man, but one of the world's foremost experts in ferreting
out the actual.
We also find that what we derive by means of the polygraph
is not truth, but the evidence of non-truth. Deception, then, with its
subsequent admission by the subject, is as far as our technology can
go, even now. Evidence of truth is gathered from the absence of tracings
that suggest deception.
There are no absolute Indicators of man's veracity,
and never were. Pinocchio, whose nose grew each time he lied, is with us
no longer and he left no progeny.
What we do have is the polygraph, an apparently simple
contraption that measures several (poly) reactions In the human body
each time a question is asked. Ink-emitting styluses record the body's responses
by marking on a moving strip of paper the reactions to each question. These
reactions, when read by a competent examiner under conditions where the questions
have been properly set up and asked, can Indicate deliberate deception on
the part of the subject.
Simple? Not simple at all. No sheer quantity of
polygraphing tells us anything. The instrument itself can neither read minds
for unrevealed truth nor explain the meaning of its own tracings. It
is the polygraph examiner who holds the key to effective use of the
polygraph and who must therefore handle matters of the gravest delicacy.
. . from domestic felicity that turns on fears about spousal fidelity, to
a criminal charge that may put the subject's very life on the line. . .
The polygraph examiner must be a psychologist, humanist,
philosopher, scientist, and stoic. . . and Chris Gugas is all of that.
But I also know him as a warm, concerned human being with a vigorous appetite
for life; a father and grandfather; and husband of an able and strikingly
attractive wife who has been his true partner every step of the way.
As you come to know the author In these pages, you
too will see his perceptions, his humor, his imperturbability, and his unflagging
concern for absolute and Impartial accuracy. And perhaps you will be inspired
just a little by his vision of faith.
And while you journey with Chris Gugas along this odyssey
of human experience In Its everlasting search for certainty, do remember
that poor Greek kid-the one who had been so busy coping with underprivileged
that all he managed to do was grow into manhood with hard-earned university
degrees, brilliance In his field, and a position of world recognition and
purpose!
And you may feel comforted.
Los Angeles, California December, 1978
Lisa Thorsen-Green Editor-In-Chief
Security World Magazine
Mr. Gugas is a Founder of the National Board of
Polygraph Examiners,and the California Academy of Polygraph Sciences, and
past - President and executive Director of the American Polygraph Association.
He is qualified as a polygraph expert before civil and criminal courts, as
well as the federal court. Associations include professional organizations
with local state and federal governments.
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