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.

  The Amityville Horror Truth Forum          The Amityville Horror Truth Website     

© 2004 www.amityvillehorror.com all rights reserved.
"The Amityville Horror" is a registered trademark, unauthorized use is a violation of applicable trade laws.