NLP Eye Accessing Cues

By Chris Harrison - Posted September 2008

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In NLP, Eye Accessing cues are one of the more controversial subjects - simply because for every NLP practitioner who believes they are a useful tool, there is someone who doesn't believe they work at all.

To put it simply, NLP eye accessing cues are useful and very dependable, as long as you remember that they are a generalization.

When working with someone it is important to calibrate their NLP eye accessing cues to ensure that you are interpreting the signals correctly.

The list below is typical for a right handed person. Left handed people tend to have the left and right reversed.

These are the usual NLP eye accessing cues:

Movement Mental Activity Description Example Questions
Eyes up and to the right Visual Construction (Vc) The client is making an image of something that they have not experienced. While some element of the picture may be from memory, some elements are being constructed (imagined). I imagine myself with red hair. What would you look like if you had two heads?
 
How would you decorate this room differently?
Eyes up and to the left Visual Remembered (Vr) The client is remembering an image of something that happened I remember my car. What color is your front door?
 
Can you remember the cake on your fifth birthday?
Eyes right Auditory Constructed (Ac) The client is imagining something they have never heard before. In my opinion, this is probably the least observed accessing cue. I imagine myself speaking in a foreign accent. What would you sound like if you were of the opposite sex?
Eyes left Auditory Remembered (Ar) The client is remembering a sound from memory. I remember the sound of my mother's voice. What did you mother used to tell you when you misbehaved?
Eyes down and to the right Kinesthetic (K) The client is focusing on an internal feeling. I notice how thinking of an uncomfortable event makes me feel. How did you feel when she left you?
 
Have you ever been car sick?
Eyes down and to the left Auditory Digital(Ad) The client is listening to a voice inside their head. I look at an attractive person in a bar and say to myself "you're far to ugly." What happens when you think about walking up to an attractive stranger?

Once you have learnt the list of NLP eye accessing cues, the best thing is to observe people for a while and see if their eye movements make sense to you.

i.e. While they were talking about their new car and how flash it was, they kept looking up and to the left which suggests they're making pictures.

But do be careful with your conclusions: If a right handed person is describing that they did remember to post a letter for you, but their eyes are going up and to the right, this could suggest that they are lying. Of course without calibrating you can't be sure.

A simple way to calibrate in this instance would be to ask something that you know they can remember and see if their eyes go to the same direction or not. And remember that this must be done subtly.

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Problems with Eye accessing

Posted  May 8, 2010 at 12:02

One of the things that slowed me down using NLP eye accessing cues when I first learnt NLP is that it's really easy to look for what you expect to happen, and miss what actually happens.
Many people don't immediately access the 'correct submodality'. For instance, if I ask someone to think of a time when they were happy, before making an image, they may go through a list and say each event they think of (internally) before visualize the scene. So their strategy can be seen if you look closely enough, but if you are just expecting a 'visual memory', their eye accessing may seen rather odd.

Marty-M, Hong Kong

More Complicated than some people think

Posted  May 9, 2010 at 09:12

In NLP eye accessing, there is often more going on than people think. If you know about timelines and strategies it is often easier to get a clear idea of what the underlying process is.

Chris Harrison, UK

what i don't get..

Posted  November 6, 2011 at 22:35

are the eye movements in the direction of their perspective or mine? like their left is my right. so when their eyes goes right, i see them going left, right?

allah jk lol boom!, New York

To make it clear...

Posted  November 7, 2011 at 09:07

In this article I am refering to nlp eye accessing movements from their perspective not yours. For most people the past is on their left and their auditory digital accessing is also their left.

Chris Harrison, UK

Posted  January 15, 2012 at 17:52

are eye accessing cues for Vc and Ac always in the same side of K cues? Or can the K be replaced by the Ad?

Tony

Tony

Posted  January 25, 2012 at 13:06

Usually if the cues are reversed then the whole set would be reversed. Of course this is not to say that there aren't people with very unconventional eye accessing cues.

Chris Harrison, UK
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