Micro Expressions — The Split-Second Truth
See What People
Can’t Hide.
For half a second, real emotion breaks through — whether the person wants it to or not. Most people miss it. This book trains you to see the seven emotions every face shows, and the split-second flash before the mask goes back up.
Physical book · Delivered to your door · Available now
The Problem
Most People Read
Faces Wrong.
Everyone thinks they can read a face. Most are reading the wrong thing — the words, the practised smile, the expression the person chose to show you. The real signal is faster and far harder to fake: the flash that crosses a face before the mask goes back up.
Chase a single tell and you will be wrong. A raised brow, a half-smile, a glance away — none of them mean anything on their own. Reading a face means reading the whole person: their baseline, their situation, and the cluster of signals around that one moment. That is the part most body-language advice skips.
Rob Baard — Trained in Japan: Reading Intent Before the Move
The Manual
The Complete Manual
Micro Expressions — The Split-Second Truth is the complete guide to reading the face the way it actually works. It covers the seven universal emotions, the split-second flash before the mask returns, and the tells that are hard to fake — grounded in the science and in forty years of reading faces for real. Every chapter is backed by citation.
- The seven universal emotions and the exact facial tells of each — happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust, contempt
- Macro, micro, and subtle expressions — the three sizes a feeling comes in, and which one leaks the truth
- The real smile versus the social smile — the eye muscle almost no one can fake on command
- Baseline first, cluster second, judgement last — the method that stops you misreading people
- Leakage and suppression — how a hidden feeling escapes, and exactly where to catch it
- Reading intent before the strike, the interview room, the manager’s eye — the skill applied under real pressure
- The limits and the ethics — what micro expressions cannot tell you, and why this is not a lie detector
Who It's For
- Anyone who negotiates, interviews, manages, or sells — and wants to see what people will not say
- Actors and directors working with subtext and honest emotion on camera
- Security, law enforcement, and frontline staff who need to read intent before it becomes action
- Coaches, teachers, and clinicians who read people for a living
- Anyone tired of “body language” advice that reads a single gesture and calls it proof
Meet Rob Baard
Forty Years of
Reading Faces
Rob Baard has read faces for real his whole life. As a licensed private investigator he spent years watching people — following them, sitting across from them, where a face told him more than the words did. He directed actors on film sets, coaching honest emotion to camera, and spent twenty-seven years reading cinema crowds of thousands to spot trouble before it started. When he went deaf in one ear, his eyes took over what his ears no longer could. His training in Japan under Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, and his qualifications in clinical hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, and NLP, gave him the language for what he had been doing for decades. This book is that experience, made teachable and backed by research.
Directing Actors — Reading Subtext on Camera
Rob Baard — Instructor & Licensed Investigator
Get the Manual
Micro Expressions --
The Split-Second Truth
Physical Book on Amazon
The complete manual on reading the face. Available now on Amazon. Delivered to your door.
Get it on AmazonQuestions
Frequently Asked
Is this a lie detector?
No — and the book is straight about that. Micro expressions tell you where to look and what to ask, never who is guilty. Treated as proof, they will mislead you.
Do I need any background to use it?
None. It starts from the seven basic emotions and their tells, then builds to reading the whole person in real conversations.
Is this based on real science?
Yes. Every chapter is backed by citation — the research alongside forty years of lived experience. Where the science is contested, the book says so.
Isn’t reading people just intuition?
Intuition is what is left after the skill becomes automatic. The book breaks it into parts you can practise — baseline, cluster, context — so it stops being guesswork.
How is this different from other body-language books?
It focuses on the face and the split-second flash most guides miss, and it refuses to read a single gesture as proof. Baseline first, cluster second, judgement last.
Start Here
Start With the Free Guide
7 micro-signals most people miss. A free PDF that shows you where to start.
Licensed Private Investigator. Author of the Training & Tactics series, martial arts philosophy and mind science books, and the Ninja Saga novels. Honorary PhD.
Diplomas in Clinical Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, and NLP Master Practitioner.
IBDA Weapons Specialist. Martial Arts Alliance Certified. Kuji-In Master. Usui Reiki Master.
Award-winning filmmaker. Directed Danny Glover in a feature film sold across 30+ countries. Winner — LA Film Awards, Best Documentary. Documentary now a permanent exhibit at the Togakushi Ninja Museum, Japan. Australian Cinema Pioneer.