Well, that’s a relief.
I can’t even say that I’m mad. It’s clear he didn’t mean any harm, and it was amazingly well done.
It’s the nostril deformity that clinches it for me. You can see it in Bill Reach video and the Dr. Sal video. There’s no way someone faked the Bill Reach video from 2011. So it’s settled in my mind.
* Body language
First, he played a version of himself. He had to have complete creative control over his own character to get such a close match, so I think he did this on his own initiative, not anyone else’s. Playing himself gave him a congruence he lacked in his other acting videos, where he played blue-collar criminals and did a horrifically bad job.
Dr. Sal is a nerd from a different country, a liberal, obsessed with the search for extraterrestrial life and magnetic reversals, but contemptuous of crap conspiracy theories. So is Frank (except it’s Puerto Rico, not Italy).
Second, he honestly meant no harm, and believed he was carrying on in a tradition he idolizes: Orson Welles and Blair Witch. That further reduced his internal dissonance and shame tells.
Third, he played a character who was supposed to be nervous, so that masked the rest of the negative tells.
Fourth, he mixed a huge amount of sincerely-believed truth into his lie. All that research about magnetic reversals is stuff he’s genuinely concerned about, and that we should be too. The search for extraterrestrial life is something he’s genuinely fascinated by.
For the lie parts, strong emotion, e.g. humility (status and credentials) and sorrow (for the death toll), provided adequate masking. Plus, he just really got into a character he understood quite deeply – method acting. He was able to simulate subconscious emotion over a plausible (to him) doomsday scenario.
And of course, he did a good job with the makeup and mannerisms.
* Conclusion
What he did isn’t necessarily all that bad. I don’t agree with his “we are all one” speech. But people should be paying more attention to the extinction threat posed by solar cycles and magnetic reversals. The Van Allen belt scenario is only one way things could go horribly wrong.
If this had been done with anything other than the best of intentions, it would’ve shown up. Frank always intended to call it off before any panic ensued. Body language reading is still a good defense against malice. In this case the stars just aligned.
My hat’s off to Frank Vidal for a job well done. He’s clearly much smarter than I gave him credit for. And I’ll be more cautious about my body language reading predictions in the future.
UPDATE:
For those who think I flew off the handle for no reason, here’s a collection of quotes re body language from my outline. I’d intended to turn these into proper linked citations, but it’s no longer worthwhile.
Nobody brings up the “acting as self for good-natured Orson Welles repeat with salvific religious bonus” angle, but the informant guy is clearly ahead of my level.
Had this been your average Hollywood acting job, these guys would not have been impressed. Yes, deception tells are muted by the social sanction for acting, but full subconscious engagement isn’t present.
1 informant testimonial
But it is also important to decide if this person is possibly telling the truth or a fraud by any means possible. Body language is a clear indicator of whether someone is lying. If he were explaining to his wife where he was last night: then I would say he wasn’t telling the truth. Here however we have an entirely different situation. He is basically relating something he “allegedly” has been sworn to secrecy not to tell. Therefore, (without getting into all the factors) you cannot necessarily use body language as an accurate indicator of truthfulness. He is obviously hiding some information. Anyone in Law Enforcement will probably tell you that he indicates like an informant… It is very difficult to read an informant because often they were involved and are only telling part of the story.
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2 audio emotion testimonial
I did not watch this video last night, but listened to it in the other room. He *sounded* afraid, intense, and sincere, as though he had to get something very important off his chest. I did not examine his eye movements or gestures or facial expressions. However, I did note that at the end, when he talked about the possible repercussions of this event, he did not elaborate and grow more agitated, nor did he attempt to instill undue fear and dread into the listener. Instead seemed to grow a bit quieter, more subdued, as if he didn’t want the audience to understand the full ramifications of the effects of a collapse of the radioactive field upon our earth.
3 NLP expert testimonial
Hoax it may be. But, you are wrong on the eye cues and body language. Having studied NLP for about 25 years, I can say his accessing cues are consistent with someone who believes what he is saying. There’s a sort of bell curve of ways people access and process their internal representations when speaking….or even just thinking. And while the majority of people tend to fall somewhere in the middle section of this curve, and therefor have similar strategies, it cannot be said about anyone that they are lying, based on where they happen to look, micro-expressions, or body language, without calibrating to the person individually.
A part of what makes some people smarter than others, is that often they have internal processing strategies that do NOT match the normal distribution curve. This changes both the kind and amount of information they process, as well as likely having better algorithms for doing so. This guy may not have all the information on this particular subject. But, he believes what he does have, and is attempting to communicate what he thinks it means, and offering a possible solution from his own perspective.
After this, he may well get bought off, or convinced, or be given more information that changes his perspective. But, at this point, I am highly certain he is sincere. Stay well.
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4 misc unknown
From what I see I still maintain that this man, (what ever his true identity) is not exposing any of the usual markers for withholding or altering truth. So, he is either being truthful or he is a very well versed deceiver in behavioural science.
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Well he’s either mentally ill or he is telling the truth. One thing I am certain of is that the guy ABSOLUTELY believes what he is saying.
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This is interesting to me because part of my job is assessing body language and verbal prompts to reveal whether someone is hiding something/deflecting in order to assess mental illness. This guy is not exhibiting anything that is typical of someone who is lying.