It's a galvanometer which measures electrical resistance. If a question makes you sweat the moisture and salts in the sweat reduce the electrical resistance and the needle on the dial moves.

It's a rudimentary lie detector. L. Ron Hubbard had a big problem with psychiatry. This machine was created as a pseudo scientific replacement. They ask questions and the machine reacts to physical responses. This leads to more questions and more analysis. On and on it goes until you become "clear". I only know this from a couple of Hubbard biographies I read. He was also obsessed with the Navy and had tax issues so he lived on an old large boat. The fascinating part of his story to me is how Scientology was able to gain tax exempt status by harassing several IRS agents (followed them around) and filed frivolous law suits until the agency surrendered.

Sounds like a homemade lie detector ?

Are there any former scientology believers on this site who could give us some idea of what the nonsense is all about?

It's probably amazing tech, but it can only be powered by the feces of its members.

The thought "who gives a fuck" springs to mind. Obviously, the people at motherboard.com do ( or nobody ha a better idea for an article)

Quality technical execution does not necessarily make a worthwhile product. That said I wouldn’t mind playing around with one of these for a few hours although it’s not worth a couple of hundred dollars to me.

where is the hamster and the wheel?

I think it is nothing more than an ohmmeter.