NLP Eye Accessing is often referred to as the Jedi-sword of an NLP Practitioner or coach. A wonderful tool to not necessarily know what someone is thinking, more so how!
In a series of articles, I plan to explain:
1. The history & science behind accessing in plain English.
2. Examples of how to use eye accessing in coaching
3. Eye Accessing – How to tell someone is lying, or not?
4. And in this article, how eye accessing works (Yes, free NLP Practitioner training.)
The below is an explanation of where the eyes go when looking at another person.
NLP term: indicates how we call this eye accessing cue in NLP.
NLP notation: how NLP practitioners write down quickly what eye accesses a client uses (this is useful for many reasons, that are answered in a quality NLP Practitioner course.)
Eyes move up and to the right
NLP term: Visual Remembered
NLP notation: Vr
The brain is accessing an image or some sort of visual memory of something the person has seen before.
Eyes move up and to the left.
NLP term: Visual Construct
NLP notation: Vc
The brain is creating a visual image, something it hasn’t seen before. Fantasy.
Eyes move directly to the right side
NLP term: Auditory Remembered
NLP notation: Ar
The brain is accessing a sound or some sort of auditory memory of something the person has heard before.
Eyes move directly to the left side
NLP term: Auditory Construct
NLP notation: Ac
The brain is creating a sound. Fantasy.
Eyes move down and to the right
NLP term: Auditory Digital
NLP notation: Ad
A person is talking to him or herself. The brain is processing an internal dialogue.
Eyes move down and to the left
NLP term: Kinesthetic
NLP notation: K
A person is feeling something 1) in terms of feeling something on the skin by for instance touching or temperature (tactile), 2) emotion (visceral.)
Eyes straight ahead defocused or dilated (large pupils.)
NLP term: none
NLP notation: none
A person is using the brain to quickly access sensory information such as sound, feelings, or images. Usually something visual.
Below a graphic representation of the eye accessing cues.
Soon “The History and Science of Eye Accessing cues in Plain English.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What does it mean when a person talking to you looks straight down.
My husband asked me that as he was trying to determine what was going on with one of his managers, who usually looks people in the eye when speaking. However, during a particular disclosure, he was looking straight down . I thought it meant that though what he was saying was likely true, he wasn’t telling the whole “story” and was uncomfortable with the information he wasn’t imparting. Comments?
Thanks
In eye accessing or reading any type of non-verbal language I would recommend not interpreting more than is actually displayed to you. Just for the fact that someone was looking down, doesn’t mean he isn’t telling a whole story, or uncomfortable. He could be simply just….looking down. Maybe he was looking down because he was going internal thinking about what he was saying, maybe he was disappointed, maybe he just didn’t feel like looking someone in the eye etc. What is something to pay attention to is something called calibration in NLP. When someone displays a certain non-verbal behavior every time they are in a certain emotional state. When this non-verbal behavior displays itself again in a situation, you have a better read on people. That means that you need to have observed someone really well previously. You have to be careful to not use your map, to interpret someone elses map. Meaning even though you may be looking down when you are uncomfortable and not telling a whole story, doesn’t mean someone else does too. Now a clue to note is for a state shift, meaning he starts speaking and also starts looking down. THis is when you need to pay attention, the only knowledge you have though is that someone shifted from one emotional state to another. Another thing that is indeed good to know when someone usually looks people in the eye, and now is not, something is going on. What that something is one should figure out by asking questions. Not by making assumptions. The way to ask someone questions is to make sure you have rapport, and use something which is in NLP called the metamodel. In sales sometimes called the precision model. It helps you ask the right questions, to figure out what specifically what is going on. Now to explain the entire meta model in a comment answer it is a bit much. DUring my trainings I actually spend at least a whole afternoon on it just on the meta model alone, and practice it throughout the course week with the students.
In terms of eye accessing. The eye accesses in the article are the only ones displayed based on HOW someone is thinking, caused by accessing information in the brain. Looking straight down is not one of them. Meaning one doesn’t need to look straight down to access information in the brain. I accessing helps to find out HOW someone is thinking, not WHAT (in terms of content) someone is thinking.