Introduction to Body Language

This is an exclusive book review: Introduction to Body Language -Allan Pease

Reviewer -Mithil Bhalerao.


Body Language

Body language is a not an art but it’s a habit which is a resultant of the environment which an individual inculcates during his course of livelihood. It is a mode of communication unlike any other, it mostly related to our reflexes but it can be learnt and unlearned. A person can talk without use of words in formal language but this body language can express the same message the same way as word can with a very short span of time.
Allan Pease is an experienced person with good knowledge of industry he tells us with this book that how body language is an important role of communication. His book is majorly inspired by Body Language by Julius Fast, Charles Darwin also supports this thought of communication by his book “The Expression of Man and Animals” published in 1872. Since then the researchers have noted and recorded almost a million non verbal cues and signals. Researcher Albert Mehrabian found that the impact of a message is 7% verbal, 38 % vocal and 55% non verbal, Prof. Ray Birdwhistell from university of Louisville made similar estimates; it was at a seminar in Louisville about Body Language had the author learned the importance of body language. Author was a commission salesman when he had attended this seminar and he had gone under intense training for this job purpose, the author realised that all his training expressed only the verbal aspect of communication and that the non verbal aspect was still not covered. Author’s further investigation led to libraries and many manuscripts which according to him were just theoretical assumptions with little practical experience, the author however mentions that the work he studied was important. This book which was initially scripted for A Salesperson soon found its way to others hand. This book talks out the Australasia and overseas countrymen behavioural pattern.
However that does that mean it is not applicable to other parts of society the author clearly mentions this in coming chapters that different people from different cultures have different non verbal patterns.
This is an overview of the book with its practical observation of people and their expression expressed with deliver the messages across.








The first chapter of this book is “A Framework for Understanding”.
This part is the introduction to human expression followed in the course of interaction with other people and with his environment. The author tells us that there are some basic gestures and these form a cluster to deliver a message. According to this book the gestures are Inborn, Genetic, Learned and cultural signals. Accordingly it also mentions that people with perception, intuition are good readers of body language and they understand people message conveyed through their gestures.
The chapter also tells us that these gestures and help us detect whether a person is telling lie, however these gestures can be faked and with constant practice one can get control over these thing but there is a solid possibility that the conscious gestures would surface later and that faking body language can only be done for a short period.
One can spare just 15 min a day to understand body language, the best place to practice is a public place where people meet according to author the airport is one such place as people tend to express their feelings openly.
Chapter 2: territories and zones.
An American anthropologist Edward T. Hall studied spatial needs of human in early 60’s and he had coined the word ‘proxemics’ his research led to new understanding of our relationships with our fellow humans.
According to E. Hall every person has an area or space that he claims as his own, as if it were an extension to his body. This factor is largely influenced by cultural factor, as this proxemics of a person from a rural area would be different from the proxemics of the person from urban area from the same country.
Practical applications of the zones
<(pictures in the slide to be explained) with handshakes social gathering picas etc>



Chapter 3 : palm gestures
The palm is a very useful tool in the body language communication is expresses many emotions message in various ways. To explain further open palms can indicate honesty, open to idea message etc, the palms delivers a no. Of message to summarize a few a palm facing the sky indicates submissive nature whereas the palm facing towards the mother earth denotes a dominant posture, other the most aggressive message delivered by a palm is with index finger pointing out in direction with the 3 fingers curled to cover the palm, example a person is asked to get out the sight in this message.
The gesture is the hand shake probably the most important. There are a no. Of ways by which people shake hands, they are as follows < pics to follow>





















Message of the book and chapter 5:
This book is an analysis of the non verbal aspect of communication. The author is able to explain and relate various gestures and their message conveyed by use of various body parts.
The language this book uses is very simplified and easy to understand it does not talk about any rocket science theories and fundamentals etc. The author makes a point that it is a tool for better understand of fellow humans and it is not a tool for selfish gain or to be used to deliberate take advantage of the knowledge this book shares. The simplified language at times gets to simple and does hold good in holding interest of the reader, for some it may present itself like an instructions manual which it actually was for salesmen. But it cloud have been a delight for the reader if it would have been so simplified.
However the book is successful to keep you interested as you further progress, with help of some nice pictures and figures explaining what the author is trying to convey once again here the author makes a point without even mentioning it anywhere in the book that impact of a message is not always only by words, in scripted format figures and pictures do help a lot.
The hands are very important part of the body they constantly convey messages in many ways; also they with other parts of the body convey various different messages. For ex: While telling a lie a person prominently a kid would cover his mouth, as if the brain makes a conscious effort to stop those words coming out of the mouth. In same way the fingers in the mouth is an expression which a person performs when he/she is in extreme pressure. Hands when used in coordination of face is remarks the entrance of a negative thought, negative thought can be a deceit, doubt, uncertainty etc.
There are the signals for a speakers that the audience he is addressing is how far interested in his speech. A good orator is one who instinctively reads the signals from audience and changes accordingly for better.










Chapter #6: Arm Barriers
It is a normal human tendency to hide behind a barrier in pursuit to protect oneself. As we grow older we develop arm crossing gesture to point where it becomes less obvious to others. One this is certain that a folded arm posture is a clear signal of a nega