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Eye-Accessing Cues

One of the first and best-known discoveries of NLP was that eye movements have meaning. When people think, their eyes move to specific locations based on the primary sensory content, whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (touch, taste, smell, or emotion) of their thoughts. One of the challenges of understanding what have become known as eye-accessing cues is that the eye movements reveal unconscious processing rather than conscious processing. Conscious processing is indicated by the speaker’s sense-based vocabulary.

Early researchers attempted to match eye movements with a speaker’s sense-based vocabulary and failed. They erroneously concluded that eye movements were inconsequential. They had not noticed that language is essentially a conscious process, while eye movements typically happen below the individual’s level of conscious awareness. A person might well say, for example, “I told her I didn’t want to see her again”while exhibiting a kinesthetic eye-accessing cue. The language reveals the conscious processes of telling and seeing, while the eye-accessing cue indicates the emotional component associated with the memory.

Most NLP workbooks contain an image that shows the typical pattern of eye movements. Visual eye-accessing tends to be “up”, with constructed images on the person’s right, and remembered (recalled) visual images on the person’s left. Auditory constructs and recall follow the same pattern at ear level. Internal dialog, also known as auditory digital, is down and to the left. Down and to the right is a kinesthetic access.

While these movements won’t be identical from person to person—and especially in left-handed individuals you may find that cues for constructed and recalled images are reversed—the pattern is sufficiently consistent to give a trained observer a good idea of how a person is processing information below his or her level of conscious awareness. The first step in becoming a “trained observer,” is begin being aware of eye movements. Watch people being interviewed on TV news shows, where it won’t matter if you forget to listen to what they are saying. Practice in low-threat situations before attempting to use information gleaned from eye-accessing cues during an important job interview or on a first date.

The next step would be to ask time-based questions, such as what a person did over the previous weekend or what he or she planned to do next weekend. The person will most likely look and gesture in the direction of recalled (left) or constructed (right) images. Remember that if you are facing the person, it is his or her left and right that matter. The other person’s left will be on your right, and his or her right will be on your left. Also, note that when a person is looking at something in the external environment, the eye movement is not an eye-accessing cue. Eye-accessing cues exhibit a lack of focus that indicates that the gaze is “inward”—the mind’s eye—rather than at anything external.

The video below was shot during a one-on-one demonstration of an intervention. It is about 4 minutes long. Debra is the therapist, and Branden Wilson, who was completing his NLP training for licensed practitioner in June 2008, was acting as the client. Some of the eye movements are a result of Branden’s looking at Debra (or at me while I am holding the camera). Note that you can see that at such times Branden is focusing on something external rather than looking at or otherwise experiencing stored or constructed images.

The obvious eye-accessing cues have been labeled. You will also see that many eye movements are not only too quick for labeling, but also fast enough that they are difficult to track in conversation. Fortunately, the eye-accessing cues of greatest utility in conversation—therapeutic and otherwise—are readily observable.