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Body Language book. Read 77 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Your body doesn't know how to lie. Unconsciously, it telegraphs your. Body Language - Julius Fast - Free download as Text File .txt), PDF File .pdf) or read online for free. ChapterThe-Silent-Language-Of-Love. Body Language (): Julius Fast: Books.

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almost every question on body language has been posed and answered—but I thought that when Body Language itself was first published. —Julius Fast. Nov 20, Julius Fast teaches you how to penetrate the This important book adds a new Body Language JULIUS FASTBody Language Pan Books. Author: Julius Fast; Type: Downloadable PDF; Size: MB; Downloaded: times; Categories: Body Language; Body Language helps you to understand the .

Every move you make tells a secret… This important book adds a new dimension to human understanding. Julius Fast teaches you how to penetrate the personal secrets of strangers, friends and lovers by interpreting their body movements, and how to make use of your powers. Why do you move the way you do? Does your body betray your thoughts? Can you enjoy love-making to its fullest? What are homosexual signals? A game that can be surprising, frightening, adventurous or revealing — but never dull.

The aggressive approach by a wo man can utilize not only body language - the adjustment of a skirt as she sits c lose, the uncrossing of her legs, the thrusting forwards of her breasts, a pouti ng mouth - it can also utilize smell. The right perfume in the right amount, to give an elusive but exciting scent, is an important part of the aggressive appro ach. Is the Face Worth Saving? But sight, touch and smell are still less than the com plete arsenal of the woman on the warpath, Sound is a very definite part of the approach.

It is not always what she says, but the tone of her voice, the invitat ion behind die words, the pitch and the intimate, caressing quality of the sound. The French actresses understand this well, but French is a language that lends itself to sexuality, no matter what is being said. One of the most amusing offBroadway revue sketches I have ever seen consisted of an actor and actress doing a 'scene' from a French movie. Each recited This, as we described earlier in the book, is the use of on e communication band to carry two messages.

In the area of love and sex it is a very common use. For the aggressively available woman it can serve to throw a ma n off guard. This is a trick used by both men and woman in the aggressive sexual pursuit. If you throw your quarry off balance, make him or her uneasy, moving i n for the kill becomes relatively easy.

The trick of using the voice to carry on e innocuous spoken message and another more meaningful, and much stronger, unspo ken message is particularly effective because the quarry, male or female, cannot protest by the rules of the game.

The aggressor, if protest is made, can always draw back and say, with some truth, 'But what did I do? What did I say? For many people, particularly if they are insecure, losing face is a devastating and humiliating occurrence. The sexual aggressor, if he or she is truly successful at the trade, is concerne d with face-saving in his victim only as a means of manipulating his quarry, To be sexually aggressive, a man or woman must have enough self-assurance, enough s ecurity, to function without the need of face-saving devices.

On the opposite si de of the coin, the sexually insecure person, the quarry in the inevitable hunt, desperately needs to avoid humiliation, to save face. This puts her at a tremen dous disadvantage in the game. The aggressor can manipulate the quarry, holding loss of face as a threat. When, for example, the aggressor moves in on the. Move back and risk the raised eyebrow. To be let down af ter this would be too humiliating to bear.

Suppose she were truly misinterpretin g his motives? So, in most cases, the aggRessor gets away with his ploy. The sam e type of interaction is used by the deviate sexual aggressor outside of a socia l situation.

The male subway-sexual deviate who attempts to fondle or touch a fe male passenger in a crowd depends on her fright and insecurity to keep her quiet. The same dynamics are in action, and the fear of losing face may prevent her f rom protesting. She endures the minor annoyance of a groping pervert or an expos ing pervert in order not to attract attention to herself.

This is so much an exp ected reaction that many sexual perverts who achieve satisfaction from exposing themselves count on the embarrassment and shame of their victims. Should the vic tim react by laughing or by any show of amusement, or even by aggressively appro aching him, it would be a devastating experience for the deviate.

Pick-ups, AC and DC On the theme of deviates, among both male homosexuals and le sbians there are definite body-language signals that can establish intimate comm unication. Homosexuals 'cruising' on a street can identify a sympathetic soul wi thout exchanging a word. Some of it is the way he walks, though many of us walk like perfectly normal men.

Mostly, I guess, it's the eye contact. You look and you know. He hol ds your eye just a little; too long, and then his eye may travel down your body. The quick glance to the crotch and away is a sure giveaway. Discussing his own signals, he explains, 'I walk past and then fook back.

If there's any interest h e'll look, back too. Then I slow down, stop to look at a store window. Then we'l l drift back towards each other He took out a cigarette, bu t found he had no matches. He suddenly realized that to ask anyone at the bar fo r a match was the understood signal, 'I am interested.

Are you? The homosexual's signals for initia ting contact are not far divorced from the normal man's signals for picking up a girl. A long time ago, when I was a soldier on leave in Boston, a soldier frien d cajoled me into coming out with him to 'pick up some dames'. I had had no expe rience at this, but I had to play the 'bigshot' since I couldn't admit my ignora nce.

I went along and watched my friend carefully. Within half an hour he had 'p icked up' five girls and selected two for us.

His technique was built on body la nguage. If the girl faltered in her stride, stopped to look at her compact, to fix her stoc kings or window-shop down the street, it was one of a number of return signals t hat meant, 'I am aware of you and possibly interested.

Let's pursue this further. The following without making contact was a necessary part of the ritual and a llowed him to begin vocal contact, to comment to me, a third party, on her dress , her walk, her looks - all in semi-humorous terms, a face-saving device to avoi d offence. At first she would pretend his advances were unwelcome. It this stage lasted too long it would be mutually agreed that his advances really were unwel come. If, however, she giggled or answered him, or commented on him to her girlf riend, if she had one, then it indicated a growing interest.

Eventually the pick -up ended with my friend side by side with the girl, talking her into an apparen tly reluctant familiarity. I have seen the very same technique used today among teenagers and it is one in which every step is rigidly outlined and the game mus t be played out from start to finish.

Body Language - Julius Fast.pdf - Every move you make tells...

At any point negotiations can be easily br oken off by either partner without loss of face to the other. This is a stringen t requirement of a successful and smooth pick-up.

There is something ritualistic ally similar to this in the opening ceremony of certain encounters among animal species. Watch two pigeons in the park as the male circles, pouts and goes throu gh a formal pick-up while the female pretends indifference.

A very definite body language is in Dr Gerhard Nielsen of the Psychological Laboratory ai the Universit y of Copenhagen describes in his book, Studies in Self-Confrontation, the extrem ely important use of body language in what he calls the 'courtship dance' of the American adolescent.

Breaking the procedure of courtship down to a cold, clinic al level, Dr Nielsen found twenty-four steps between the 'initial contact betwee n the young male and female and the coitional act'. These steps by the man, he d ecided, and the counter steps taken by the girl had a 'coercive order' He explai ns this by saying that when a boy takes the step of holding a girl's hand, he mu st wait until she presses his hand, signalling a go-ahead, before he can take th e next step of allowing his fingers to intertwine with hers.

Step must follow st ep until he can casually put his arm around her shoulder. He may move his hand d own her back then and approach her breast from the side. She, in turn, can block this approach with her upper arm against her side. After the initial kiss, and only then, he may try to move towards her breast again, but he does not really e xpect to reach it until a good deal of kissing has taken place. Protocol forbids him to approach the breast from the front, even as it forbids the first kiss be fore the initial hand-holding, Dr Nielsen suggests that the boy or girl is label led 'fast' or 'slow' in terms of the order of each step, not the time taken for each step.

Scheflen, professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, has studied and charted patterns of courtship and wh at he calls 'quasi-courtship' in human beings.

This quasicourtship is the use of courting or flirting or sex to achieve non-sexual goals. All human behaviour is patterned and systematic, according to Dr Scheflen, and it is also made up of r egular, small segments arranged into larger units. This is equally true for sexu al behaviour, and in a study of the elements that make up our sexual relations t o each other, Dr Scheflen found that in business meetings, at parties, in school and in many other gatherings, people used these sexual elements, even though th ey had no sexual goal in mindHe came to the conclusion that either Americans beh ave sexually when they get together on a non-sexual basis or else - and more lik ely - the sexual behaviour has certain qualifying body-language, signals when it is not used with the ultimate goal of sexual intercourse.

Just what are these s exual patterns of behaviour? Well, according to Dr Scheflen's investigations, wh en a man and a woman prepare for a sexual encounter, although they are unaware o f what they arc doing, they go through a number of body changes that bring them into a state of readiness.

The muscles of their bodies become slightly tensed an d 'ready for action'. Body sagging disappears, and they stand up straighter, mor e erect and alert. There is less jowling' in their faces and 'bagging' around th eir eyes.

Their posture becomes more youthful, and their stomachs Even their eyes seem brighter while their skins may blush or grow pale. There may even be changes in their body odou rs, barking back to a more primitive time when smell was a tremendously importan t sense in sexual encounters.

As these changes take place, the man or woman may begin to use certain gestures which Dr Scheflen calls 'preening behaviour', A wo man will stroke her hair or check her make-up, rearrange her clothes or push her hair away from her face, while a man may comb his hair, burton his coat, readju st his clothes, pull up his socks, arrange his tie or straighten Use crease in h is trousers.

These are all body-language signals that say, 'I am interested. I l ike you. Notice me, I am an attractive man an attractive woman Watch a man and a woman at a party, a couple who are getting to know one another and feel a mounting sex ual interest in each other.

How do they sit? They will arrange their bodies and heads to face one another- They will lean towards each other and try to block of f any third person. They may do this by using their arms to close a circle, or b y crossing their feet towards each other to block out. Sometimes, i f such a couple are sharing a sofa and a third person is on a facing chair, they will be torn between two compulsions. One is the desire to cEose in their own s paces, to include only themselves, and the other is the social responsibility of having to include the third person.

They may solve their dilemma by having the best of both worlds. They may cross their legs to signal to each other that they are a closed circle. The one on the right will cross his right leg over his lef t. The one on the left will cross her left leg over her right.

In effect this cl oses However, social respon sibility to the third person may make them arrange the top pans of their bodies directly facing him, thus opening themselves to him. When one woman at a gatheri ng wants to get a man into an intimate situation where the two of them can form a closed unit, she acts as the sexually aggressive woman does, but to a lesser d egree.

She utilizes body language that includes flirting glances, holding his ey es, putting her head to one side, rolling her hips, crossing her legs to reveal part of her thigh, putting a hand on her hip or exposing her wrist or palm. All of these are accepted signals that get a message across without words. Tn a conference room at a big indus trial firm, a male and a female executive diacuss production costs with other of ficials- They may go through what appear to be ihese same sexual encounter signa ls.

They are using body language that in other circumstances would invite sexual advances, and yet quite obviously these two have their minds entirely on the bu siness matter in hand. Are they masking their true feelings and do they really h ave a sexual desire for each other? Or are we misinterpreting their body languag e? In a college seminar it appears, to an uninitiated eye, Lhnt one of the girl students is using body language to send signals to the professor, signals that i nvite a sexual encounier.

He, in turn, reacts as if he were agreeable. Are they in fact flirting, orate these really non-sexual signals? Or is there something w rong with our interpretation of body language? A grftup psychotherapy seminar ha s a group therapist Is he stepping ou t of line and violating his code of ethics? Or is this part of his therapy? Or a gain, are the signals confused? After careful study of these and similar situati ons, Dr Scheflen found that often sexual signals were sent out when the people i nvolved had no intention of getting into any sexual encounter.

However, he found that the bodylanguage signals sent out when a sexual encounter was expected as the end result of a meeting were not quite the same as those sent out for non-se xual endings. There were subtle differences that announced, 'I am interested in you and I want to do business with you, but this is not a sexual matter. We do it by sending another sign along with the signal, a bit of body language ove r and above the obvious body language, another case of two signals on one commun ications band.

A classic example is the young woman who told her psychiatrist that she loved her boyfriend very much while nodding her head from side to side in subconscious denial. Body language has also shed new light on the dynamics of interfamily relationships.

A family sitting together, for example, can give a revealing picture of itself simply by the way its members move their arms and legs. If the mother crosses her legs first and the rest of the family then follows suit, she has set the lead for the family action, though she, as well as the rest of the family, may not be aware she is doing it. In fact, her words may deny her leadership as she asks her husband or children for advice. But the unspoken, follow-the-leader clue in her action gives the family set-up away to someone knowledgeable in kinesics…..

The Body is the Message 2. Of Animals and Territory 3. How We Handle Space 4. When Space is Invaded 5. The Masks Men Wear 6. What their work proved seems to be the fact that wecan inherit in our genetic make-up certain basic physicalreactions.

We are born with the elements of a non-verbalcommunication. We can make hate, fear, amusement, sad-ness and other basic feelings known to other human beingswithout ever learning how to do it. Of course, this does not contradict the fact that wemust also learn many gestures that mean one thing in onesociety and something else in another society.

We in theWestern world shake our head from side to side to indi-cate no, and up and down to indicate yes, but there aresocieties in India where just the opposite is true. Up anddown means no, and side to side means yes. We can understand then that our non-verbal language 24 Later on we will see how important this imitative elementis in non-verbal and verbal communication.

The Territorial ImperativeOne of the things that is inherited genetically is the senseof territory. Robert Ardrey has written a fascinating book,The Territorial Imperative, in which he traces this terri-torial sense through the animal kingdom and into thehuman. In his book he discusses the staking out andguarding of territories by animals, birds, deer, fish andprimates. For some species the territories are temporary,shifting with each season.

For other animal species theyare permanent.

Body Language (PDF)

Ardrey makes an interesting case for thefact that, in his belief, the territorial nature of man isgenetic and ineradicable. From his extensive animal studies he describes an in-nate code of behaviour in the animal world that ties sexualreproduction to territorial defence.

The key to the code,he believes, is territory, and the territorial imperative isthe drive in animals and in men to take, hold and defend agiven area. There may be a drive in all men to have and defend aterritory, and it may well be that a good part of that driveis inborn. However, we cannot always interpolate fromhumans to animals and from animals to humans.

The territorial imperative may exist in all animals andin some men. It may be strengthened by culture in someof these men and weakened in still others. But there is little doubt that there is some territorialneed in humans.

How imperative it is remains to be seen. One of the most frightening plays of modern times is 25 It postulates a world of the futurewhere the population explosion has caused all notion ofterritory to be discarded.

All men live in cells in a giganticmetal hive. They live out theirlives, whole families confined to one room, without everseeing sky or earth or another cell. In this prophetic horror story, territory has been com-pletely abolished. Perhaps this gives the play its great im-pact.

In our modern cities we seem to be moving towardsthe abolition of territory. We find families crammedand boxed into rooms that are stacked one on another todizzying heights. We ride elevators pressed together,and subway trains, packed in too tightly to move ourarms or legs.

We have yet to fully understand whathappens to man when he is deprived of all territorialrights. We know man has a sense of territory, a need for a shellof territory around him. This varies from the tight closeshell of the city dweller through the larger bubble of yardand home in the suburbanite to the wide open spaces thecountryman enjoys. We dont know how much space is necessary to any indi-vidual man, but what is important in our study of bodylanguage is what happens to any individual man when thisshell of space or territory is threatened or breached.

Howdoes he respond and how does he defend it, or how doeshe yield? I had lunch not too long ago with a psychiatrist friend. We sat in a pleasant restaurant at a stylishly small table. Atone point he took out a packet of cigarettes, lit one and 26 He kept talking and I kept listening, but I was troubledin some way that I couldnt quite define, and moretroubled as he moved his tableware about, lining it upwith his cigarettes, closer and closer to my side of thetable.

Then leaning across the table himself he attemptedto make a point. It was a point I could hardly appreciatebecause of my growing uneasiness.

Finally he took pity on me and said, I just favouredyou with a demonstration of a very basic step in bodylanguage, in non-verbal communication. Puzzled, I asked, What was that? I aggressively threatened you and challenged you. Iput you in a position of having to assert yourself, and thatbothered you. Still uncomprehending, I asked, But how? What didyou do? I moved my cigarettes to start with, he explained. Byunspoken rule we had divided the table in half, half foryou and half for me.

I wasnt conscious of any such division. Of course not. The rule remains though. We bothstaked out a territory in our minds. Ordinarily we wouldhave shared the table by some unspoken and civilizedcommand. However, I deliberately moved my cigarettesinto your area in a breach of taste. Unaware of what I haddone, you still felt yourself threatened, felt uneasy, andwhen I aggressively followed up my first breach of yourterritory with another, moving my plate and silverwareand then intruding myself, you became more and moreuneasy and still were not aware of why.

It was my first demonstration of the fact that we eachpossess zones of territory. We carry these zones with us 27 Since then I have tried out the same technique ofcutting into someone elses zone when he was unaware ofwhat I was doing.

At supper the other evening, my wife and I shared atable in an Italian restaurant with another couple. Experimentally I moved the wine bottle into my friendszone.

Then slowly, still talking, followed up my intrus-sion by rearranging wine glass and napkin in his zone. Uneasily he shifted in his chair, moved aside, rearrangedhis plate, his napkin and finally in a sudden, almost com-pulsive lunge, moved the wine bottle back. He had reacted by defending his zone and retaliating. From this parlour game a number of basic factsemerge.

No matter how crowded the area in which wehumans live, each of us maintains a zone or territoryaround us - an inviolate area we try to keep for our own. How we defend this area and how we react to invasion ofit, as well as how we encroach into other territories, canall be observed and charted and in many cases used con-structively. These are all elements of non-verbal com-munication. This guarding of zones is one of the firstbasic principles.

How we guard our zones and how we aggress to otherzones is an integral part of how we relate to other people. Though fallen into disuse, it was architecturally a lovelybuilding, and the city Quaker decided to visit it for Sun-day meeting although he was told that only one or twoQuakers still attended meetings there. That Sunday he entered the building to find the meet-ing hall completely empty, the morning sun shaftingthrough the old, twelve-paned windows, the rows ofbenches silent and unoccupied.

He slipped into a seat and sat there, letting the peacefulsilence fill him. Suddenly he heard a slight cough and,looking up, saw a bearded Quaker standing near hisbench, an old man who might well have stepped out ofthe pages of history. He smiled, but the old Quaker frowned and coughedagain, then said, Forgive me if I offend, but thee artsitting in my place.

The old mans quaint insistence on his own space, inspite of the empty meeting house, is amusing, but verytrue to life. Invariably, after you attend any church forany period of time, you stake out your own spot. Mum has her own kitchen, and she doesnt like itone bit when her mother comes to visit and takes overher kitchen.

Men have their favourite seats in the train, theirfavourite benches in the park, their favourite chairs atconferences, and so on. It is all a need for territory, for aplace to call ones own. Perhaps it is an inborn anduniversal need, though it is shaped by society and cultureinto a variety of forms. An office may be adequate for aworking man or it may be too small, not according to theactual size of the room but according to placement ofdesk and chair.

If the worker can lean back withouttouching a wall or a bookcase, it will usually seem bigenough. But in a larger room, if his desk is placed so thathe touches a wall when he leans back, the office may seemto be cramped from his viewpoint. Hall, professor of anthropology at North-western University, has long been fascinated by mans re-action to the space about him, by how he utilizes thatspace and how his spatial use communicates certain factsand signals to other men.

As Dr Hall studied mans per-sonal space, he coined the word proxemics to describe histheories and observations about zones of territory andhow we use them. Mans use of space, Dr Hall believes, has a bearing onhis ability to relate to other people, to sense them as beingclose or far away. Every man, he says, has his own terri-torial needs.

Dr Hall has broken these needs down in an 30 He lists these zones as 1 intimate distance, 2 personaldistance, 3 social distance, and 4 public distance. As we might guess, the zones simply represent differentareas we move in, areas that increase as intimacy decreases.

Intimate distance can either be close, that is, actual contact,or far, from six to eighteen inches. The close phase of inti-mate distance is used for making love, for very closefriendships and for children clinging to a parent or to eachother. When you are at close intimate distance you are over-whelmingly aware of your partner. For this reason, ifsuch contact takes place between two men, it can lead toawkwardness or uneasiness. It is most natural between aman and a woman on intimate terms.

When a man and awoman are not on intimate terms the close intimate situa-tion can be embarrassing. Between two women in our culture, a close intimatestate is acceptable, while in an Arab culture such a state isacceptable between two men. Men will frequently walkhand in hand in Arab and in many Mediterranean lands. The far phase of intimate distance is still close enoughto clasp hands, but it is not considered an acceptabledistance for two adult male Americans.

When a subwayor an elevator brings them into such crowded circum-stances, they will automatically observe certain rigid rulesof behaviour, and by doing so communicate with theirneighbours.

They will hold themselves as stiff as possible trying notto touch any part of their neighbours. If they do touchthem, they either draw away or tense their muscles in thetouching area. This action says, I beg your pardon forintruding on your space, but the situation forces it and 31 If, on the other hand, they were to relax in such a situa-tion and let their bodies move easily against their neigh-bours bodies and actually enjoy the contact and the bodyheat, they would be committing the worst possible socialblunder.

I have often seen a woman in a crowded subway carturn on an apparently innocent man and snarl, Dont dothat! The snarls are worse when a manrelaxes against another man. Nor must we, in the crowded car or elevator, stare.

There is a stated time interval during which we can look,and then we must quickly look away. The unwary malewho goes beyond the stated time interval risks all sorts ofunpleasant consequences.

I rode an elevator down in a large office building re-cently with another man. A pretty young girl got on atthe fourteenth floor, and my friend looked at her absentlybut thoroughly. She grew redder and redder, and whenthe elevator stopped at the lobby, turned and snapped,Havent you ever seen a girl before, you - you dirty oldman! My friend, still in his thirties, turned to me bewilderedlyas she stormed out of the car and asked, What did I do?

Tell me, what the hell did I do? What he had done was to break a cardinal rule of non-verbal communication. Look, and let your eyes slideaway when you are in far intimate contact with a stranger. The second zone of territory charted by Dr Hall iscalled the personal distance zone. Here, too, he differen-tiates two areas, a close personal distance and a far personaldistance. The dose area is one and a half to two and a half 32 You can still hold or grasp your partners hand atthis distance.

As to its significance, he notes that a wife can staywithin the close personal distance zone of her husband, butif another woman moves into this zone she presumablyhas designs on him. And yet this is obviously the comfort-able distance at cocktail parties. It allows a certain inti-macy and perhaps describes an intimate zone more than apersonal zone. But since these are simply attempts by DrHall to standardize a baby science, there may be a dozenclarifications before proxemics gets off the ground.

The far phase of personal distance, Dr Hall puts at twoand one half to four feet and calls this the limit of physicaldomination. You cannot comfortably touch your partnerat this distance, and so it lends a certain privacy to anyencounter.

Yet the distance is close enough so that somedegree of personal discussion can be held. When twopeople meet in the street, they usually stop at this distancefrom each other to chat.

At a party they may tend to closein to the close phase of personal distance. A variety of messages are transmitted by this distanceand they range from, I am keeping you at arms length,to I have singled you out to be a little closer than theother guests.

To move too far in when you are on a farpersonal relationship with an acquaintance is consideredpushy, or, depending on the sexual arrangement, a sign ofpersonal favour. You make a statement with your distance,but the statement, to mean anything, must be followed up. Social and Public SpaceSocial distance, too, has a close phase and afar phase. Theclose phase is four to seven feet and is generally the 33 It is thedistance we assume when, in business, we meet the clientfrom out of town, the new art director or the office man-ager.

It is the distance the housewife keeps from the repairman, the shop clerk or the delivery boy. You assume thisdistance at a casual social gathering, but it can also be amanipulative distance. A boss utilizes just this distance to dominate a seatedemployee- a secretary or a receptionist. To the employee,he tends to loom above and gain height and strength. Heis, in fact, reinforcing the you work for me situationwithout ever having to say it. The far phase of social distance, seven to twelve feet, isfor more formal social or business relationships.

The bigboss will have a desk large enough to put him thisdistance from his employees. He can also remain seated atthis distance and look up at an employee without a loss ofstatus.

The entire man is presented for his view. To get back to the eyes, at this distance it is not properto look briefly and look away. The only contact you haveis visual, and so tradition dictates that you hold the per-sons eyes during conversation.

Failing to hold his eyes isthe same as excluding him from the conversation, accord-ing to Dr Hall. On the positive side, this distance allows a certain pro-tection. You can keep working at this distance and not berude, or you can stop working and talk. In offices it isnecessary to preserve this far social distance between thereceptionist and the visitor so that she may continue work-ing without having to chat with him. A closer distancewould make such an action rude.

The husband and wife at home in the evening assumethis far social distance to relax. They can talk to each otherif they wish or simply read instead of talking. The imper- 34 Finally, Dr Hall cites public distance as the farthest ex-tension of our territorial bondage.

Again there is a closephase and a far phase, a distinction which may make uswonder why there arent eight distances instead of four. But actually, the distances are arrived at according tohuman interaction, not to measurement.

The close phase of public distance is twelve to twenty-five feet, and this is suited for more informal gatherings,such as a teachers address in a roomful of students, or aboss at a conference of workers. The far phase of publicdistance, twenty-five feet or more, is generally reservedfor politicians where the distance is also a safety or asecurity factor, as it is with animals.

Certain animal specieswill let you come only within this distance before movingaway. While on the subject of animal species and distance,there is always the danger of misinterpreting the truemeaning of distance and territorial zones.

A typicalexample is the lion and the lion tamer. A lion will retreatfrom a human when the human comes too close andenters his danger zone. But when he can retreat nolonger and the human still advances, the lion will turnand approach the human. A lion tamer takes advantage of this and moves towardsthe lion in his cage.

The animal retreats, as is its nature, tothe back of the cage as the lion tamer advances. When thelion can go no farther, he turns and, again in accordancewith his nature, advances on the trainer with a snarl. Heinvariably advances in a perfectly straight line. The 35 The lion, approaching in astraight line, climbs on the platform to get at the trainer. At this point the trainer quickly moves back out of thelions danger zone, and the lion stops advancing.

The audience watching this interprets the gun that thetrainer holds, the whip and the chair in terms of its owninner needs and fantasies. It feels that he is holding a dan-gerous beast at bay. This is the non-verbal communica-tion of the entire situation. This, in body language, is whatthe trainer is trying to tell us.

But here body languagelies. In actuality, the dialogue between lion and tamer goeslike this - Lion: Get out of my sphere or Ill attack you. I am out of your sphere. All right. Illstop right here. It doesnt matter where here is. The trainer has manipu-lated things so that here is the top of the lions platform. In the same way the far public sphere of the politician orthe actor on a stage contains a number of body-languagestatements which are used to impress the audience, notnecessarily to tell the truth.

It is at this far public distance that it is difficult to speakthe truth or, to turn it around, at this far public distance itis most easy to lie with the motions of the body. Actorsare well aware of this, and for centuries they have utilizedthe distance of the stage from the audience to create anumber of illusions.

At this distance the actors gestures must be stylized,affected and far more symbolic than they are at closerpublic, social or intimate distances. On the television screen, as in the motion picture, thecombination of long shots and close-ups calls for stillanother type of body language. A movement of the eyelid 36 In the close-up the gross movements are usually lost.

This may be one of the reasons television and motionpicture actors-have so much trouble adapting to the stage.

The stage often calls for a rigid, mannered approach toacting because of the distance between actors and audi-ence. Today, in revolt against this entire technique, thereare elements of the theatre that try to do away with thepublic distance between actor and stage. They either move down into the audience, or invite theaudience up to share the stage with them.

Drama, underthese conditions, must be a lot less structured. You canhave no assurance that the audience will respond in theway you wish.

The play therefore becomes more form-less, usually without a plot and with only a central idea. Body language, under these circumstances, becomes adifficult vehicle for the actor. He must on the one handdrop many of the symbolic gestures he has used, becausethey just wont work over these short distances. He can-not rely on natural body language for the emotions hewishes to project no matter how much he lives his part.

So he must develop a new set of symbols and stylizedbody motions that will also lie to the audience. Whether this close-up lying will be any more effectivethan the far-off lying of the proscenium stage remains tobe seen.

The gestures of the proscenium or traditionalstage have been refined by years of practice. There is alsoa cultural attachment involved with the gestures of thestage. The Japanese kabuki theatre, for example, con-tains its own refined symbolic gestures that are so culture-oriented that more than half of them may be lost on aWestern audience.

Charlie Chaplins little tramp, in his silentmovies, was universal enough in his movements to bringalmost every culture to laughter, including the tech-nologically unsophisticated cultures of Africa.

However,culture is still a guiding factor in all body language, andthis is particularly true of body zones. Dr Hall goes intothe cross-cultural implication of his proxemics. In Japan,for example, crowding together is a sign of warm andpleasant intimacy. In certain situations, Hall believes theJapanese prefer crowding. Donald Keene, who wrote Living Japan, notes the factthat in the Japanese language there is no word for privacy.

Still this does not mean that there is no concept of privacy. To the Japanese, privacy exists in terms of his house. Heregards this area as his own and resents intrusion into it. The fact that he crowds together with other people doesnot negate his need for living space. Dr Hall sees this as a reflection of the Japanese conceptof space.

Westerners, he believes, see space as the distancebetween objects. To us, space is empty. The Japanese seethe shape and arrangement of space as having a tangiblemeaning.

This is apparent not only in their flowerarrangements and art, but in their gardens as well, whereunits of space blend harmoniously to form an integratedwhole.

Like the Japanese, the Arabs, too, tend to cling close toone another. But while in public they are invariablycrowded together, in private, in their own houses, theArabs have almost too much space.

Arab houses are,if possible, large and empty, with the people clustered 38 Partitions between rooms areusually avoided, because in spite of the desire for space,the Arabs, paradoxically, do not like to be alone andeven in their spacious houses will huddle together.

The difference between the Arab huddling and theJapanese proximity is a deep thing. The Arab likes totouch his companion, to feel and to smell him. To denya friend his breath is to be ashamed. The Japanese, in their closeness, preserve a formalityand an aloofness.

They manage to touch and still keeprigid boundaries. The Arab pushes these boundaries aside. Along with this closeness, there is a pushing and a shar-ing in the Arab world that Americans find distasteful.

Toan American there are boundaries in a public place. Whenhe is waiting in line he believes that his place there is in-violate. The Arab has no concept of privacy in a publicplace, and if he can push his way into a line, he feels per-fectly within his rights to do so.

As the Japanese lack of a word for privacy indicates acertain attitude towards other people, so the Arab lack ofa word for rape indicates a certain attitude towards thebody. To an American the body is sacred. To the Arab,who thinks nothing of shoving and pushing and evenpinching women in public, violation of the body is aminor thing. However, violation of the ego by insult is amajor problem.

Hall points out that the Arab at times needs to be alone,no matter how close he wishes to be to his fellow man. Tobe alone, he simply cuts off the lines of communication.

He withdraws, and this withdrawal is respected by hisfellows. His withdrawal is interpreted in body language as,I need privacy.

Even though Im among you, touchingyou and living with you, I must withdraw into my shell.

Were the American to experience this withdrawal, he 39 The withdrawal wouldbe interpreted in his body language as silent treatment. And it would be further interpreted as an insult. When two Arabs talk to each other, they look eachother in the eyes with great intensity. The same intensityof glance in our American culture is rarely exhibitedbetween men. In fact, such intensity can be interpreted asa challenge to a mans masculinity.

I didnt like the wayhe looked at me, as if he wanted something personal, tosort of be too intimate, is a typical response by anAmerican to an Arab look. The Western Worlds Way with SpaceSo far we have considered body language in terms ofspatial differences in widely disparate cultures, the Eastand Near East as opposed to the West. However, evenamong the Western nations, there are broad differences. There is a distinct difference between the way a German,for instance, handles his living space, and the way anAmerican does.

The American carries his two-foot bubbleof privacy around with him, and if a friend talks to himabout intimate matters they will come close enough fortheir special bubbles to merge. To a German, an entireroom in his own house can be a bubble of privacy. Ifsomeone else engages in an intimate conversation in thatroom without including him he may be insulted.

Perhaps, Hall speculates, this is because in contrast tothe Arab, the Germans ego is extraordinarily exposed. He will therefore go to any length to preserve his privatesphere. Hall notes thatas soon as they could they set about partitioning their 40 In open stockades, Germanprisoners tried to build their own private dwelling units.

The Germans exposed ego may also be responsiblefor a stiffness of posture and a general lack of spontaneousbody movement. Such stiffness can be a defence or maskagainst revealing too many truths by unguarded move-ments. In Germany, homes are constructed for a maximum ofprivacy. Yards are well fenced and balconies are screened. Doors are invariably kept closed.

When an Arab wantsprivacy he retreats into himself but when a German wantsprivacy he retreats behind a closed door. This Germandesire for privacy, for a definite private zone that doesnot intrude on anyone elses, is typified by his behaviourin line-ups or queues.

At a movie house in a German-American neighbour-hood I waited in line recently for a ticket and listened tothe German conversation about me as we moved forwardsin neat and orderly fashion. Suddenly, when I was just a few places from the ticket-sellers window, two young men who, I later learned,were Polish walked up to the head of the line and tried tobuy their tickets immediately. An argument broke out around us. Weve beenwaiting on line. Why dont you? Thats right. Get back in line.

To hell with that! Its a free country. Nobody askedyou to wait in line, one of the Poles called out, forcinghis way to the ticket window.

Youre queued up like sheep, the other one saidangrily. Thats whats wrong with you Krauts. The near-riot that ensued was brought under controlby two patrolmen, but inside the lobby I approached theline crashers. Start a riot? One of them grinned. Just shaking them up. Whyform a line?

Its easier when you mill around. Discover-ing that they were Polish helped me understand theirattitude.

Body Language - Julius Fast

Unlike the Germans, who want to know exactlywhere they stand and feel that only orderly obedience tocertain rules of conduct guarantees civilized behaviour,the Poles see civilized behaviour as a flouting of authorityand regulations. While the Englishman is unlike the German in his treat-ment of space - he has little feeling for the privacy of hisown room - he is also unlike the American.

When theAmerican wishes to withdraw he goes off by himself. Possibly because of the lack of private space and thenursery raising of children in England, the Englishmanwho wants to be alone tends to withdraw into himself likethe Arab. The English body language that says,I am looking forsome momentary privacy is often interpreted by theAmerican as, I am angry at you, and I am giving youthe silent treatment.

The English social system achieves its privacy by care-fully structured relationships. In America you speak toyour next-door neighbour because of proximity. InEngland, being a neighbour to someone does not at allguarantee that you know them or speak to them. There is the story of an American college graduate whomet an English Lady on an ocean liner to Europe. Theboy was seduced by the Englishwoman and they had awild affair. A month later he attended a large and very formaldinner in London and among the guests, to his delight, hesaw Lady X.

Approaching her he said, Hello! How haveyou been?

Then emboldened, he added, Why,only last month we slept together on the trip across. And what, Lady X asked icily, makes you think thatconstitutes an introduction? In England, relationships are made not according tophysical closeness but according to social standing. Youare not necessarily a friend of your neighbour unless yoursocial backgrounds are equal. This is a cultural fact basedon the heritage of the English people, but it is also a resultof the crowded condition in England.

The French, likethe English, are also crowded together, but their differentcultural heritage has produced a different cultural result. While crowding has caused the English to develop an in-ordinate respect for privacy, it has caused the French tobe very much involved with each other.

GREG from Nevada
I do love studying docunments seemingly . Feel free to read my other posts. One of my extra-curricular activities is one day international.