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Learning about the Innate

When you do something innately, you do it without thought. You do it without prior experience, or even knowledge of how or what you are doing. But somehow, deep within your brain, you do it. It’s rather amazing and bizarre, when you think about it, isn’t it?

Take blinking for example and try to explain it. Yes, blinking is an instinctive response but it is comparable. You know you do it, you know why you do it, you even know what happens when you do it — but can you explain exactly how it is that you blink? What exactly triggers you to blink? If you had to teach someone else to blink, what would you tell them? If they’ve never closed their eyelids, what would you say to get them to move those muscles? I for one wouldn’t have a clue. I don’t know the answers. I just know I do it but I don’t how exactly I do it.

For me, my innate ability, spotting deception, is similar. I know I can do it, but trying to explain how it is I come to my determinations is complex.

I started writing this blog as a test to myself first and foremost. Once I realized I could, in fact, see lies more than the average person, I continued the blog in hopes of trying to understand how it is I do what I do. I figured if I thought about each situation I encountered and recollected why I felt the way I did, perhaps I could understand it. And amazingly, I have learned a great deal by being a witness to my own thought process, as strange as that is.

But I can tell you even after two and a half years, I feel like I only understand a small segment of it all. I know bits and pieces — but I certainly don’t understand the whole enchilada. Not by any means. I think I could write for another decade and still not completely understand it all. Perhaps I will reach a point where I won’t be able to understand anymore. Perhaps I will reach a limit of conscious understanding that meets up with the unconscious, and that is where it will end. I can only guess at the limitations of my understanding.

But I do know of all the determinations I’ve made, one rule has become clear to me now, and I understand it better than ever. It’s the rule of “high stakes lies“. When someone lies, you get the best clues to deceit when the pressure is on. Once time passes, and the stakes disappear — the emotional response and feedback of someone who is lying dulls, if not dissipates completely. The pressure that causes clues to leak, turns off — as do the clues.

I’ve watched several cases in the past six months –where prior to or during prosecution — the person of interest gives off many clues to the fact they are being deceptive — but as time passes — and I see interviews five, ten, fifteen years later — the clues basically disappear. I have seen people I know who are being dishonest — appear totally honest years down the line.

When I first saw it, it stopped me dead in my tracks. My conscious understanding went deeper.

On that note, I made one call in my blog — that I have absolutely no confidence in anymore. I watched Jeffrey MacDonald talk about his innocence in the murders of his family more than thirty years ago. I watched him speak decades after the crime — and when I didn’t see any clues to deceit — I believed he was innocent.

Today, I stand in a completely different place. Unless I could see Jeffrey MacDonald talk shortly after the crime, or when he was prosecuted, I don’t believe I can make a determination as to whether or not MacDonald is honest or not. I simply couldn’t do it, and I won’t do it. I stand corrected. I now know better and have a better understanding.

But what is interesting is there are cases in the media where time has passed but the stakes involved in keeping those lies secret still bear down on the suspect — most specifically when they haven’t faced prison time or a conviction. In these cases, the clues to deceit still surface because they have a lot to gain from continuing to tell the lie — and a lot to lose if the lie gets exposed.

So, I will have to evaluate each individual situation to determine if the stakes are still high before making a determination of honesty or not. If the stakes have already been paid by time in prison — and there are no more stakes to lose in telling a lie — I will have to refrain unless I can see footage of the suspected person much earlier in the case — when stakes were still high.

So there you have it — fresh knowledge from my head. I hope you enjoy this journey with me as I grow, learn and define my abilities. Where this journey will take me, I don’t know — but I am excited to be on the path of discovery, even if there is a bump or two along the way! I am learning and growing – which is all positive.

Off Topic: Photo Highlight of the Week

Here are some photos I’ve taken during the past week that I thought you might enjoy — click to see them larger.

Happy 4th of July!

 

Bobby Cutts Arrested and Charged

This evening I had a lovely dinner with my family. We grilled and hickory-smoked some beautiful strip and rib-eye steaks. I must say dinner was divine. But sadly, after my family left and I turned on the news, I was saddened to see that it appears Jessie Davis’ body and her unborn child were found.

I certainly was not surprised by this news as I wrote my eyebrows were raised when I listened to Cutts speak with The Canton Rep on Thursday, June 21st.

Check back soon because I will reveal more clues that gave me pause last Wednesday night when I first heard the audio of Cutts. There were several more clues that queued me in that things weren’t as they appeared. I will share them with you. One of those clues was tone of voice.

Off Topic: Photo Highlight of the Week

One of my biggest passions in the summertime is taking photos. Here are three of my favorite photos taken over the past seven days.

Tell me — do you like to see photos when I am short on words and stories on deception detection, or do you prefer I stay on topic instead? Do tell.

Click on each photo to see it larger.

 

John Mark Karr Returns

Greta Van Susteren had John Mark Karr on her show the other night (June 5th). She interviewed him and asked him questions about what has changed in his life. You can watch the interview here. It was during the interview that Karr tries to play the part of a “suspect” again — trying to get the viewer to think he is guilty of killing JonBenet Ramsey.

Greta doesn’t buy it nor do I.

Karr is fascinated with the little beautiful girl that JonBenet was — to the point he appears to want to be connected to her in any way, and at all costs. I suspect suffers from some sort of mental illness. His behavior is not normal.

I think Greta makes a great point about why she interviewed John Mark Karr again. Greta writes the following about the interview in her blog (www.gretawire.com):

Why did I do the John Mark Karr interview? Let me tell you what I found interesting about it: I think it reminds people of something very important in the criminal justice system. Sometimes people confess to crimes they simply did not commit. Often people say when a defendant confessed that he would not have confessed if he had not committed the murder — so he must have committed the murder. After all, who would confess to a crime he did not commit? Well, guess what? As bizarre as it seems, defendants do falsely confess to crimes. This is why we should not convict on mere confessions. We need evidence to corroborate the statement of guilt. There have been people on Death Row for murder based on confessions and then later exonerated by DNA. So, the John Mark Karr interview gives you a bit of a window into this part of our criminal justice system.

It all brings me back to the Ryan Ferguson and Chuck Erickson case. Erickson confessed and based on his confessions, two men are in jail without any evidence to support their lockup. My heart goes out to Ryan Ferguson as I have watched him talk about the crime, and I believe he is innocent.
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I called John Mark Karr on his lies before it was known that his DNA did not match the crime scene DNA. See here and here.