The Ultimate Body Language Book

after years apart, or when someone wins the lottery or gets a strong hand in poker. No matter what we
do, we can’t stop this from happening. I will add too, that with some practice we can learn to hide, or
minimize even these reptilian behaviours such as clasping the hands together to reduce shaking when
excited, or tucking the legs in behind a chair to lock them in place when someone really wants to flee.
However, even this body language shows the neocortex trying to override the reptilian brain and in so
doing producing yet another stream of body language for us to read. At the scene of an accident we
fully expect to see the limbic system take over producing trembling, nervousness, and discomfort.
What would First Responders be left thinking if they showed up at an “accident” where the caller was
relaxed and calm, yet the victim lay strewn about, dying and bloodied? Naturally, the police would
think something was amiss and would pull the witness aside as a prime suspect for a crime. Therefore,
we should always look for limbic responses and tie them to context so we know when something is not
right. When limbic responses stop, we know that the stimulus for their creation has also stopped, so we
must then find out the reason.
The limbic brain is the part of the brain that controls our root processes. To put this into perspective,
imagine the activities in the repertoire of a lizard. Being cold blooded, he seeks sun when possible to
speed up his metabolism, eats when hungry, drinks when thirsty, either freezes, flees, or fights when
scared, and has sex when horny. He does not do calculus or engineer tall skyscrapers because he does
not have the capacity, but this notwithstanding; he survives, because his limbic mind tells him
everything necessary to do so. In evolutionary terms, so too does our limbic mind. It tells us when to be
scared and what to do about it, be it freeze and reduce movement so as to get under the radar of
assailants, to run and so get our feet pointed in the right direction, to get our hearts pumping to run and
so on. It also controls root emotions – it tells our feet to move and jump with joy, and fidget in
preparation to leave when bored.