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Hello! My name is Lucas and I have been a magician for a long time now. I also have another unique quality, in that I also study body language and micro-expressions. For those you you who perform parlor magic and on the streets this may be a helpful skill to read up on. Fortunately for you all I have a blog discussing my findings. You will find it here: http://lucasnorth-liedetector.blogspot.com/ so please visit and have a good read of the material that I have put up there. Please leave comments as well, I would enjoy reading what you have to think.
Thanks a ton!
~North

Hi Lucus, welcome to TM.

Just one thing, although I've left the link in your post because you don't seem to be selling anything and it might be interesting' promoting your own site on your first post isn't really the done thing

Perhaps you could post some of your material here on TM?

I'd like to know where you studied, or is this just observation? I did click on your link, but could not pull up information on you. In your about page all it says is 'invalid argument' so it may just be my work computer.

The link works fine for me.

I'd be a bit wary about a lot of the body language stuff. People think if you hold someone's gaze when you speak you're telling the truth and if you look away you're not etc etc. Its all just *rse gravy. Much body language is situation and individual dependent, and I don't need to read an article which helps me realise when someone is behaving aggressively. Certain things are obvious. People don't clench their fists because they want to help old ladies across the road.

I'd argue pretty strongly that body language is not generalisable, and that you should trust your instincts when it comes to reading people. Your subconscious can do it much more effectively than your conscious mind can.

Grimshaw wrote:I'd be a bit wary about a lot of the body language stuff. People think if you hold someone's gaze when you speak you're telling the truth and if you look away you're not etc etc. Its all just *rse gravy. Much body language is situation and individual dependent, and I don't need to read an article which helps me realise when someone is behaving aggressively. Certain things are obvious. People don't clench their fists because they want to help old ladies across the road.

I'd argue pretty strongly that body language is not generalisable, and that you should trust your instincts when it comes to reading people. Your subconscious can do it much more effectively than your conscious mind can.

Agreed. "Micro-expressions" and the like all sounds a bit Derren Brown circa 2001 to me. Personally I prefer Daniel Dunglas Home circa 1881.

themagicwand wrote:Personally I prefer Daniel Dunglas Home circa 1881.

I had a seance last weekend, and I tried Home's trick of walking out a second story window. I nearly broke my leg.

bmat wrote:I'd like to know where you studied, or is this just observation? I did click on your link, but could not pull up information on you. In your about page all it says is 'invalid argument' so it may just be my work computer.

From the blog:

"Hey there! My name is Lucas North, and recently I have been studying micro-expressions, not in a class or anything like that, but in my own time. I am, however, a college student double majoring in History and Anthropology. I have read a few books and studied a lot about this on internet articles, and of course used my friends as guinae pigs. I would like to share with you guys the research that I have compiled so far. I would also love to hear what some more experienced people in the field of psychology and anthropology have to say!"

themagicwand wrote:

Grimshaw wrote:I'd be a bit wary about a lot of the body language stuff. People think if you hold someone's gaze when you speak you're telling the truth and if you look away you're not etc etc. Its all just *rse gravy. Much body language is situation and individual dependent, and I don't need to read an article which helps me realise when someone is behaving aggressively. Certain things are obvious. People don't clench their fists because they want to help old ladies across the road.

I'd argue pretty strongly that body language is not generalisable, and that you should trust your instincts when it comes to reading people. Your subconscious can do it much more effectively than your conscious mind can.

Agreed. "Micro-expressions" and the like all sounds a bit Derren Brown circa 2001 to me. Personally I prefer Daniel Dunglas Home circa 1881.

I have read Paul Ekman's books and tried out his Micro-Expression training software. As interesting as it all is, I still think the problem is in making a false call. You can't be right all of the time, especially initially, and accusing someone of being deceitful when they're not is extremely offensive and has the potential to seriously damage relationships with those close to you. Something as tenuous as a micro-expression is really playing with fire.

TonyB wrote:I had a seance last weekend, and I tried Home's trick of walking out a second story window. I nearly broke my leg.

The trick is to not actually walk out of the window, but to give the impression that you walked out of the window.

The biggest fallacy in body language is that there are absolutes. It's like when John Lydon said "Don't tell me how I'm using a word; ask me". In the same way, you don't tell someone how they're using their body language. You get to know them and to quietly "calibrate" their responses to stimuli to get an insight into how they express themselves non-verbally. That's hard work. It's why old married couples are good at it and pop psychologists on chat shows are not good at it.

I used to be very wary of adopting what's often seen as a defensive, negative posture, leaning back in my seat with arms folded, body pointing away from whoever is talking etc. After many moons I realised it's nothing of the sort, it's just that I'm more comfortable so since then that's what I do!

themagicwand wrote:

TonyB wrote:I had a seance last weekend, and I tried Home's trick of walking out a second story window. I nearly broke my leg.

The trick is to not actually walk out of the window, but to give the impression that you walked out of the window.

Now Home's was seen to leave out one window and back in another Paul, surely he couldn't have faked all that could he

Reverend Tristan wrote:Now Home's was seen to leave out one window and back in another Paul, surely he couldn't have faked all that could he

Fire escape?