Unspoken Evil
| October 28, 2015
“I feel like screaming ” says Dr. Amir Helmer PhD an Israeli expert in body language whose proficiency is so widely acknowledged that he’s the only such analyst whose testimony is accepted in court. Dr. Helmer has good reason to be frustrated: Last year he analyzed the body language of Alaa Abu Jamal the cousin of the two terrorists who carried out the massacre at Kehillas Bnei Torah in Har Nof. Abu Jamal as a representative of the family was interviewed on camera by YNET at the time and Dr. Helmer who regularly analyzes the body language of newsmakers saw clear signs of unspoken yet imminent evil. Helmer’s conclusion at the time was very clear: “I have the sense that he has some inside information and knows of the existence of other such terrorists that this will happen again ” he said after watching the clip. “I very much hope that this video will be brought to the attention of the security forces.”
Abu Jamal made no bones about the fact that he supported his cousins’ horrific acts of murder. But his body language communicated something else: It indicated that he was hiding information about future terror attacks. When he described how much his society valued a person becoming a “shahid” he smiled in a way that was mocking arrogant — and secretive as well. His facial expressions essentially broadcast the message “I know something that you don’t know.” Although Abu Jamal asserted that he had been surprised by the attack in Har Nof and that it had been completely unexpected Helmer read a different message in his unspoken words: He’d known very well that the attack was going to happen and he may even have expected it.
Helmer tried to convey this information to anyone who would listen to alert the relevant authorities to the fact that there was someone who had known about a planned terror attack and likely knew about further attacks in the offing. His efforts met with failure. Approximately eleven months after the Har Nof killings Abu Jamal a salaried employee of the Bezeq telephone company drove his company car to Rechov Malchei Yisrael in Jerusalem intentionally ramming it into a group of people standing at a bus stop and then emerged from the vehicle to attack them with a butcher’s knife. He was ultimately shot and killed by a security guard who rushed to the scene but not before his act of terror took the life of Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky. Dr. Helmer who describes himself as fluent in Hebrew English and body language concedes that even without advanced training all humans can identify certain aspects of body language. “In my lectures I explain to my students that their brains absorb everything but immediately discard or discount certain impressions as superfluous. In my courses I’m actually teaching them something they already know.
Basically I’m teaching them to draw on that information they’ve absorbed and discounted and give it the attention it deserves.” Helmer holds degrees in hotel management and business management as well as a doctorate in philosophy. He is also trained in a variety of modalities of personal coaching. He studied the analysis of body language and developed his expertise under Dr. Paul Ekman a well-known American psychologist whose research focused on nonverbal communication. Co-discover of the “micro-expression” — a fleeting facial expression that briefly displays emotions the subject may be trying to hide — Ekman was selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The Ekman system teaches students to focus on these micro-expressions which are universal and not subject to cultural or language barriers. It’s more conventional and natural to pay attention only to the spoken word but focusing on these fleeting expressions — especially when they contradict verbal communication — can help pinpoint liars and underlying emotions. Ekman may have been Dr. Helmer’s most influential mentor but his wealth of life experiences also helped shape his approach. Helmer’s childhood as an “outsider” — an Israeli Jew growing up in Africa — helped sharpen his perception of facial expressions physical maneuvers and speaking styles that speak just as powerfully if not more powerfully than verbal speech. He took those skills a step further by occasionally camping out in the jungle where he focused on the body language of animals.
As an adult Helmer took his knowledge to the workplace developing his understanding of nonverbal communication further through positions in hotel management and sales and then as a personal and business coach. “I’ve studied psychology philosophy human behavior and organizational behavior — and I applied all that knowledge to the art of reading body language ” he says. “The courts here in Israel call me when they need an expert in body language to analyze evidence or testimony. As of now I’m the only person in the country who does that.”
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