Eye Accessing Cues

Eye movements indicate HOW a person is thinking - whether they are imagining a future or past event, internally re-hearing a sound or making up a sound, talking to themselves, or attending to their feelings.

Why pay attention to eye movements?

Being able to notice a person's eye direction movements - and to recognise what they mean for that particular individual provides information about how they are processing (or 'thinking' in the broadest sense of the term).  

Often even the person themselves will not be aware of how they are thinking yet it is available for the sharp-eyed and skilled observer.

So, let's say, you are explaining to a colleague how to do something and they say they do not understand - while looking UP to either the left or the right (indicating that they may be visualising or trying to visualise). This could indicate that they need you to demonstrate, rather than verbally explain, so they will be able to see how to do it. 

The 'Standard' Eye Directions

The 'standard' eye movement directions as mapped out by NLP co-developers John Grinder and Richard Bandler are:

(Imagine this diagram superimposed on the person’s face. So their Visual Construct direction is to YOUR left as you face them.)

Be careful - it's not 'carved in stone'!

These standard eye directions will usually apply in the case of normally organised right-handed people. But it is quite important to remain aware that this diagram is a starting point only. 

It would be lovely if we could take this map and know instantly what a person is doing internally. But people differ and not everyone will have the same pattern. Treat this diagram as a starting point only - and use your NLP observation skills to establish what they do. (Developing this skill is fundamental part of the NLP Practitioner Programme.) 

So when your friend looks up and to the left (Vc) this doesn't necessarily mean that they are making a picture - it simply means they are looking in this direction and doing something internally. You have to establish what they mean using your 'sensory acuity and calibration skills'. (Another Practitioner skill - it is the highly developed ability to recognise these very subtle behaviours and to 'calibrate' or recognise what they indicate for the particular individual with whom we are communicating.)  In other words when they look in this direction do they make pictures or do they do something else?  

There is another article on the NLP Eye Accessing Cues here

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