THE

NLP Eye
Accessing Cues
The Not-So-Hidden Secrets Of The Mind
Stephanie Philp
Notice of Rights:
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by
photocopy, microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or incorporated into
any information retrieval system, either electronic or mechanical, without the
written permission of the copyright owner. For information on getting
permission for reprints and excerpts, contact steph@metamorphosis co.nz or
go online to www.metmorphosis.co.nz to send a message via the website.

Notice of Liability:
The information contained in this book and on the accompanying website is
distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has
been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor
MetaMorphosis Ltd shall have any liability to any person or entity regarding
any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the
instructions contained in this book.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 2

CONTENTS
NLP Eye Accessing Cues 4

Introduction .............................................................................................................................4

Chapter One - How you use your senses..................................................................5

Summary: .............................................................................................................................................................7

Chapter Two - The NLP Eye Accessing Cues ...........................................................8

Chapter 3 - What I saw didn’t match your pictures..............................................11

Summary.............................................................................................................................................................13

Chapter 4 - How is this information useful?.............................................................14

1. Your own self-awareness........................................................................................................................14

2. Coaching others..........................................................................................................................................14

3. With Children ...............................................................................................................................................16

Summary.............................................................................................................................................................17

Resources...................................................................................................................................19

Where to from here? ....................................................................................................................................19

Feedback.............................................................................................................................................................22

About the Author..................................................................................................................23

© Stephanie Philp 2015 3

NLP Eye Accessing Cues
The Not-So-Hidden Secrets Of The Mind

Introduction

I’m really glad that you’re reading this and I’m excited by the opportunity to present this
information. I know it will clarify your own thinking, give you greater insight into human
behaviour and make you more than a little curious about what your eyes reveal.

I’ve found that people who have heard a bit about NLP are intrigued by the eye
accessing cues or eye patterns. Eye accessing cues seem to have become synonymous
with NLP.

Someone's inner thoughts are personal, right?

Er, well not totally.

With a little bit of knowledge, some practice and a curiosity about how and why
people do what they do, you can easily figure out what kind of thinking someone is
engaged in. While you won’t be able to tell if they’re thinking of a blue balloon or what
they had for dinner last night, you can learn how to read the not-so-hidden messages
revealed by the way someone moves their eyes.

In this skills based eBook you’ll find detailed information that will allow your real eyes
to realise what you were missing before. You’ll be curious no more because then you’ll
know more. I’m sure you’ll find it ‘eye-opening!’

OK, enough with the puns - on with the information you’re looking for ☺

P.S. You’ll find numerous other articles about NLP, human behaviour, self awareness,
relationships etc on my web site at www.metamorphosis.co.nz

© Stephanie Philp 2015 4

Chapter One - How you use your senses
You Use Your Eyes to See Things
Obviously you use your eyes to see things in your environment, your partner, your
family, your home, the trees, birds, dogs, dog poo, oops - you get the picture! This is so
obvious it’s almost not worth mentioning.

Notice I said ALMOST not worth mentioning.

So why do I mention here? I mention it here because you use your eyes for a lot more
than JUST seeing things. I want this eBook to open your eyes so you begin noticing
what else you use your eyes for.

So, it’s undeniable that you use your eyes to see, your ears to hear, your body to feel,
your tongue to taste and your nose to smell. These senses give you first hand
experience of life.

You remember previous life experiences.

You also have memories of things that have happened in the past. And, as a creative
human being, you imagine things. You imagine things you’d like to happen in future and
sometimes you scare yourself with horror movies. You imagine in pictures, sounds,
feelings, tastes and smells, and you talk to yourself. These processes, combined are also
known as ‘thinking.’

Thinking is critical to your survival.

Let me give you some examples so you get first hand experience of what I’m talking
about.

You make images

You will no doubt be able to picture where you live. You’ll see the door through which
you normally enter. Notice what’s on either side of you as you go
in. You can be aware of where the furniture is placed, where the
kitchen is in relation to your bedroom, etc. That’s right, go ahead
and picture it!

Some people believe they don’t make pictures

People who say they don’t make pictures are lying. Perhaps not
intentionally. But think about it like this - if they weren’t able to
picture where they lived then they would be like a zombie, cursed
to wander the earth for ever and ever, because they wouldn’t be
able to find and recognise their own house!

© Stephanie Philp 2015 5

You already have images in your mind of the people you know.
If you didn’t, you wouldn’t recognise them when you saw them again. You
would look through a bunch of photos of your nearest and dearest and not
recognise anyone.

The same applies to everything you own.

How do you know those clothes you’re wearing are yours? (Assuming they are yours, of
course!) The answer is because you have a visual memory of those clothes. How do you
know which is your car? Again, your visual memory matches up what you see in your
mind with what’s in front of you. If they’re the same, there’s recognition. If there’s no
match, there’s no recognition.

The same goes for your other senses.

You have auditory memories. Auditory or hearing memory enables you to recognise
music you’ve heard before. You can recall the voices of people you know, the noise of a
lawnmower when you’re trying to enjoy a lie in!

You also have feeling (kinesthetic) memories.

Kinesthetic memory allows you to re-experience tactile feelings and sensations such as
knowing how wool feels on your skin, what it’s like to carry something heavy, or how
comfortable your favourite chair is.

Kinesthetic also deals with emotions. You’ve experienced what it feels like to be sad,
happy, calm, angry, joyful etc. You can recognise those feelings when they arise again.

If you didn’t have ways of remembering things or you’d have to relearn everything every
day.

You have imagination

Not only do you have these visual, auditory and
kinesthetic memories, you also have imagination.
Imagination is literally the ability to make up images. So
you can imagine what someone you haven’t met before
might look like or picture how you want your new house
to look.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 6

You can make up other things as well.
You can make up conversations. You can have imaginary conversations with yourself.
Sometimes you might pretend you’re having them with someone else. (That’s O.K, it can
be our little secret!) And of course new songs and musical compositions are dependent
upon auditory creativity.

You can also create internal feelings in your body and change your emotions by
changing your thinking.

Summary:

• You use your senses to experience the real world in real time.

• You combine all your senses in a process called ‘thinking.’

• You experience visual, auditory and kinesthetic memories.

• You talk to yourself.

• You imagine or construct pictures, sounds and conversations.

• You create kinesthetic feelings and emotions.

• These abilities are critical to your survival.

• If you didn’t remember things you’d have to relearn everything each day.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 7

Chapter Two - The NLP Eye Accessing Cues

Now we get to the clever bit.

You can tell the TYPE of thinking someone is engaged in by where they move their
eyes. This isn’t when they’re looking AT something. Watch when someone is talking and
just moving their eyes around.

Yes, people do move their eyes around.

They move their eyes to access different types of information. You can start noticing
this from now on. Remember, they’re not looking outside in the environment. They’re
moving their eyes and accessing a different part of their brain without necessarily being
aware of what’s happening outside themselves. Often they’re not even aware they’re
moving the eyes.

Let’s test this out shall we?

I suggest going through the questions below, preferably with another person. Ask a
partner the questions and for now, make a note of where she looks in response to each
question. What you are most interested in is where she looks first, before she responds
verbally.

Before you start

Make sure you’re looking at her when you ask each question. If you’re looking down at
the question when you ask, you could easily miss that initial response. The beautiful
cartoons ‘wot I drew’ are drawn as if you’re looking at someone. So you can imagine
superimposing the cartoon over her face to check the validity.

N.B. If you are going to try this on yourself, remember you have to reverse the cartoon
images.

Visual Remember

When you’re remembering something you’ve seen before

you tend to look up and to your left. You can test this out by
asking someone questions where they might visually
remember something such as:

• What was the colour of the car you learnt to drive in?

• How many panes of glass are there in your bedroom

window?

• What colour top or shirt did you wear yesterday?

© Stephanie Philp 2015 8

 • How many doors are there in your house?

• Ask them to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (or something simpler)

Visual Imagine

When you're imagining things you haven't seen before, or

combining visual information in a new way, you look up and
to your right. This is the classic daydreaming pose. Again,
asking questions that you think would produce a visual
imagination response might be:

• What do you look like sitting in that chair?

• What will you be doing tomorrow?

• How would your lounge suite look in your bedroom?

• What will you look like in 20 years time?

• Etc

You use your eyes to access auditory information as well

It probably seems logical, to a certain extent, that you would move your eyes to
retrieve visual information. However, you also use your eyes to retrieve auditory
information. To recall sounds, music, conversations that you’ve already had, you’ll move
your eyes straight across to your left, level with your ears.

Auditory Recall

When you're recalling things you've heard before (auditory),

you may look straight across towards your left ear. Some
questions that might elicit an auditory recall response are:

• Which is louder, your car door slamming or your front

door slamming?

• How does a lawnmower sound when it's starting up?

• What does your best friends voice sound like?

• What does material sound like when it rips?

• Etc.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 9

Auditory Construct

Someone constructing sounds or conversations may look

across towards their right ear. Some questions you could ask
in this respect are:

• What would the Prime Minister sound like with a squeaky

voice?
• What would a pig crossed with a chicken sound like?
• What would your favourite piece of music sound like if it was sung by a parrot?
• Etc

Self Talk

A person who is talking to themselves looks down and to

their left. Questions to elicit a response are:

• What's the seventh word of, Mary had a little Lamb?’

• What do you say to motivate yourself?

• What do you say to yourself when you've made a

mistake?

• Etc

Kinesthetic

Kinesthetic refers to external, tactile feelings as well as internal emotions. The person
experiencing sadness for example will look down and to their right. Questions to elicit a
kinesthetic response are:

• What does it feel like to walk on warm, dry sand?

• What does your favourite chair feel like?

• What does it feel like to stroke a cat?

• Etc

So did your partners eye movements match up with the charts above? Yes?

No? Read on to find out why...

© Stephanie Philp 2015 10

Chapter 3 - What I saw didn’t match your
pictures
There are many reasons why you might not have got the text book response to the
questions. These responses are equally important because they still give you very valid
information.

Familiar Information
Your partner may have responded to some of the visual
questions by looking straight ahead with her eyes defocused.
This just means that the answer to the question you asked is
very familiar to her. She doesn’t really have to think about
it. For instance, if I ask you your partner’s name you wouldn’t
have to think about the answer, you’d just ‘know’ it. Or else
you’d be in big trouble!

You may have asked, for example: "Which is louder, your car door slamming
or your front door slamming?" And your partner looked into visual
remember like this.

Or down to self talk, like this, instead of to Auditory Recall.

What does this mean?

What this all means is...

Think back to the start when I said you could tell the TYPE of thinking someone is
engaged in. If your partner looked in Visual Recall (up and to her left) it usually means
that before she can tell you what something sounds like she needs to get a picture of
what it looks like. She has a visual preference. Your partner is probably making a picture
of her car door slamming and a picture of her front door slamming. Then she may be
able to answer which is loudest.

If she looked down and to her left (Self Talk), she is more than likely repeating the
question to herself!

Another example
You might have asked: “How would your favourite piece of music sound if
it was sung by a parrot?”
If your partner didn’t do this (Auditory construct)

She might have done this (auditory recall) and listened to the music as

© Stephanie Philp 2015 11

she’d heard it before.
Or she might have done this (visual remember) and made a picture of a
parrot.

Another example:
You asked: “What does it feel like to stroke a cat?” She might have made 4 eye
movements like this:

Self talk Visual Remember Auditory Recall Kinesthetic

This means she probably: repeated the question to herself (self talk). Made a picture of
a cat she remembers (visual remember). Remembered what the cat sounded like
(auditory recall). Then remembered what it felt like (kinesthetic).

Notice I also said probably.

You don’t know for sure the content of her thoughts but now you do know the type
of thinking she was engaged in. It’s truly fascinating just to pay attention to eye
accessing cues.

Eyes are all over the place!

You might begin to notice that people tend to look all around while they are talking.
They need to do this to access the information they need to continue a conversation.
When I first learnt about eye patterns I was so intrigued and focused on what I could
see that I didn’t hear what people were saying! So when you’re learning to read eye
accessing cues you might find it helpful to do so when you don’t need to contribute to
a conversation!

I’ve heard that it’s different if I’m Left-handed

It can be different in you’re left-handed. However, I’ve seen just as many right-handed
people who access differently. The eye accessing information in this eBook you’ll find is
accurate for about 90% - 95% of the population.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 12

You might be reverse-wired
If you found that your partner (or you) looked in different directions to those described
for ALL the questions it could be that you’re, what we call in NLP, reverse wired. It’s OK,
don’t panic! It’s not fatal! It just means that your brain is wired oppositely to the
majority of the population. It’s estimated that 5 - 10% of people are wired in this way.
What that means is that you just reverse the eye accessing cues horizontally for
yourself. So Visual Recall will be up to your right instead of left etc.

Summary

• Someone who is thinking of something that’s familiar will look straight ahead.
• You may not get a ‘text book’ response to your question.
• Someone might look in several direction before arriving at an answer.
• People will have preferences in how they obtain information.
• You need to move your eyes to access information
• There’s a small chance you could be ‘reverse-wired.’

Visual Construct Visual Remember

Auditory Construct Auditory Recall

Kinesthetic Self talk

© Stephanie Philp 2015 13

Chapter 4 - How is this information useful?
Most people never really notice these eye accessing cues. I was exactly the same until I
completed my NLP Practitioner training many years ago. Once I leant this, I couldn’t
understand why humans didn’t know about it thousands of years ago. Maybe we did
and the information just got lost in the annals of time. (Does anyone know what an
annal is?)

Noticing eye accessing is useful in many ways:

1. Your own self-awareness.

Just by being aware of your own eye accessing you can get your mind off auto pilot and
take back control over your own thinking. If you’re feeling depressed you can also
notice that you’ll be looking down. You now know
that looking down left is where you talk to yourself
and down right is where you feel.

So what are you saying to yourself?

If you’re engaged in a barrage of negative self talk,
then you’re going to feel bad. The words you use to
yourself have a major affect your body and your
emotional state. (See Inside Your Mind in the
Resources Section)

Change the self talk and look up

You never see depressed people looking up, they look down. So change the self talk to
something positive and look up. When you look up you literally ‘lift’ your mood. Things
will start to ‘look up’ for you, life will seem ‘brighter.’ Saying negative things to yourself
will make you feel, ‘down right miserable,’ low, downcast, down in the dumps.

Isn’t language interesting?

2. Coaching others
As you become familiar with the eye accessing cues you’ll begin noticing how other
people unconsciously move their eyes to access different types of information. You’ll
know that when they’re looking up (right or left) that they’re making a picture etc, etc.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 14

Noticing how someone accesses information in their mind gives me clues about how
they experience their world. I can tell their preferred thinking style which gives me
insight into how to best deliver what I have to say. I can see how much self talk they do
and by their demeanour whether the self-talk is positive or otherwise.

If someone tells you they ‘don’t see where you’re coming from’, while looking up and
left or right, you’d be well advised to draw them a picture or a diagram of what you
require.

If you ask a question and notice a person is talking to himself before he responds - give
him time to do this. By interrupting the process it will take him longer to find the
answers.

Present information in the way people prefer

If a person primarily uses kinesthetic eye accessing, use kinesthetic language and
perhaps ask, "How does this feel to you? Can you get a handle on it and does it feel
comfortable?" Get him to have a go at doing something rather than trying to explain it
in words. If you’re selling a product, give him an opportunity to handle it.

If you’re working with someone who accesses primarily visually, explain what you want
visually. Draw him a picture or diagram. Show him the product or how something will
work. Use visual language; "How does this look to you, is it pretty clear or still a bit
foggy?"

Someone who accesses auditorily may prefer to be told or have a discussion about it.
And someone who favours an auditory mode of thinking might be asked, "Does what
I've said ring any bells for you, I just want to check that we're tuned into the same
wavelength?"

Eye Accessing is generally unconscious

Because eye accessing is generally unconscious, someone can, for example have a
picture ‘stuck’ in their head. They’re not aware that it’s there but it might be the cause
of an unwanted behaviour or some ongoing upset or trauma.

Let me give you an example:

A client I was coaching was procrastinating making phone calls to her business clients. I
asked her to tell me what was happening. She said that she’d always have good
intentions about making the phone calls. She’d sit down to make the first call, but then
she’d get distracted. She ‘needed’ a drink, to go to the bathroom, to check her emails
etc. She told me that every time she sat down to pick up the phone, this would
happen.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 15

What was she doing in her head?
As her coach, I was interested in what she was doing in her head, that
was preventing her from making those calls. I noticed that every time
she mentioned sitting at the desk with the intention of calling a client
she’d look up and to her left. So I knew she was remembering something
visual. I asked, ‘What happens immediately before you go to pick up the
phone?’ She flicked her eyes up and to her left again. That was the
confirmation I was after. So then I pointed to where she’d looked and
asked, “What’s that picture you’re making in your head?”

Huh?
She had no idea what I was talking about. I didn’t expect her to, because as mentioned
before she wasn’t doing this consciously. Let’s face it, if she’d known she was making a
picture in her head that was stopping her making the phone calls she would have just
changed the picture and made the calls. She wouldn’t be talking to me about a
problem!

Further questioning was essential

With further questioning and reminding her to look in the place she’d stored the
picture, she suddenly accessed the image. ‘The picture is an angry customer who
shouted and yelled at me down the phone when I was in my last job.’ This was the
picture that prevented her making the phone calls.

Fixing the problem

I used an NLP technique with her to quickly change the picture to a more empowering
one. She made a picture of herself with a happy client who was pleased to talk with
her. We made another few adjustments and she’s been making client phone calls ever
since. So, if you’re coaching someone, noticing eye accessing is one way to check if
there’s a ‘blockage’ that’s keeping someone stuck. You’ll need to do an NLP Practitioner
training to learn how to do the unblocking.

3. With Children
I’ve heard parents trying to get the truth from their children by saying, ‘look me in the
eye and tell me the truth.’ There’s a common misconception that if you can’t look
someone in the eye then you’re lying. You know from what you’ve read so far and your
experiences in asking someone questions, that people generally HAVE
to look away to retrieve the information from their ‘internal filing
system.’

© Stephanie Philp 2015 16

You stop him finding the information
Asking a child to look you in the eye will prevent him from accessing the information.
And, perhaps because of your own beliefs, confirm that he’s lying. In reality he’s just
stuck between a rock and hard place!

Spelling
When children are learning to spell, they should be looking up and to their left (visual
remember). Please don’t tell them that the word isn’t ‘on the ceiling’ or ‘out the
window.’ Because that’s exactly where the word should be.

Gaining deeper insights

Knowing about eye accessing is a key ingredient of successful coaching and training. It’s
just so useful in the way you live your life and interact with others both personally and
professionally. It will give you a huge insight into what might be going on for someone
and how their thinking might be contributing to a problem they’re experiencing.

Summary

Use eye accessing cues to:

• Notice your own ways of thinking and change anything that’s not working for you.

• Notice the clues people give you about how they process information.

• Deliver information in the way people prefer.

• Don’t force children to ‘look you in the eye.’

• Help children spell properly.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 17

This is an overview
This eBook gives you an overview of the NLP Eye Accessing Cues. There is much more
information available about eye accessing. As with many NLP techniques it’s most useful
when used in conjunction with other NLP skills. Then, achieving permanent changes for
yourself or someone else becomes effortless, fun and life changing.

And so ... you can continue to notice just how much more you can see now that your
eyes are open ...

© Stephanie Philp 2015 18

Resources
You’ll be pleased to know that there are plenty more resources at
www.metamorphosis.co.nz. On my web site you’ll find:

• Articles about NLP, Soft Skills, EQ and other topics

• Audio

• A virtual library of humour

• FAQ’s

• Free resources

• Loads of photos

• Book reviews

• Many other Goodies waiting for you to discover.

Where to from here?

Step one: Further Reading

After you’ve read this book, you might be interested in
discovering other aspects of the human mind. If you
want to learn more about what goes on inside your
own mind then please consider ‘Inside Your Mind.’

Inside Your Mind

If you want to learn more about what goes on ‘Inside
Your Mind’ this highly interactive, multi-sensory eBook
and MP3 is the place to start. You’ll learn to enhance your
thinking processes and ignite your success.

The best part is that you won't be just reading about stuff! Here's where E
book/MP3 Combination is different:
• It's self-paced and self directed so you'll enjoy the links to specially created audio clips
on the MetaMorphosis web site that take you through the models while you follow
along in the book.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 19

• You can listen while I take you through some of the exercises so you get first hand
experience of the processes and techniques.

• You get access to much more material than is in book with extra PDF documents and
links to articles that illustrate key points.

• You can review the book, the audios and the other material whenever you like so you
can become completely familiar with the material.

• In the 50-minute, studio-recorded CD you'll learn specific techniques that will:

• Give you more control over how your thinking is affecting how you're feeling.

• Show you how you make sense of things using your senses and how what you leave
out makes all the difference!

• Help you change procrastination into powerful motivation.

• Enable you to hear language that tells you what you (or others) are doing Inside Your
Mind and change unwanted patterns of behaviour by changing your thought
processes.

• Provide you with a FREE download-able PDF document to enhance your listening and
learning and give you even greater value.

• Enhance your goals by consciously creating them using all your senses.

Look out for other products in the MetaMorphosis shop!

© Stephanie Philp 2015 20

Step two: Attend a Training Course
Blueprint for Excellence
In this two-day comprehensive introduction to Neuro Linguistic
Programming (NLP) you'll learn:

• What you can tell from non-verbal language. And

what secrets you might be giving away!

• How to gain and maintain rapport with anyone.

Rapport is the basis of influence so unless you know
how to do this consciously you could be missing out on
opportunities to advance your career, to successfully put
your ideas across or get that all important 'first date'!

• Find out how your thinking style could be polluting your nervous system! Learn how
to clean it up so you start FEELING better. Plus simple techniques to programme your
brain for success.

• What positive thinking really means and how it affects your physical and emotional
well-being and the achievement of your goals.

• Are you a 'Moody Merv' or a 'Sullen Susan' or do you work with one? Learn how to
manage feelings to consistently be in top form.

• The Blueprint for Excellence - the secret five-step formula that true winners use.

• How to tune up your senses so you begin seeing and hearing information you might
have missed before completing this course,

• How communication actually works - why it sometimes doesn't work and tips to
manoeuvre around the roadblocks so you can successfully get your message across.

Click here to find out more

Step Three: Advanced Training

The Power of Personal Change -MetaMorphosis 101 - and MetaMorphosis
NLP Practitioner Training.

© Stephanie Philp 2015 21

When you’re serious about developing positive and ethical influence and persuasion
skills and becoming more of who you truly are. The course is intensive, expansive and
loads of fun. Please visit the web site to check the full curriculum.

Feedback
I’d love to get your feedback on how you’ve found this book or any questions you
might have.

Email: [email protected]

If you find something that’s getting on your nerves, please contact me to report it. I’m
only human and I do make mistakes. Misspellings, grammar or missing words. Please let
me know so I can fix it. Thanks!

© Stephanie Philp 2015 22

About the Author
Hi, I'm Stephanie Philp and I'm the Head Consultant at
MetaMorphosis Ltd. I’m based in beautiful Raglan on the
wild west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It’s a good
central base from where I can take off in any direction - and
frequently do!

I answer the office phone

So when you ring up you won't get some impersonal
corporate telephone exchange and a confusing list of
complicated options.

If I don't answer, it's because I'm training or I'm with a client. You can leave me a
message and I'll get straight back to you. How's that for good old fashioned service?

I’m an internationally recognised certifying trainer of NLP and train NLP here in New
Zealand, and in Europe. I’m also a Master Coach, Mentor and writer. I’m passionate
about making it easier for you to get the changes you want in your life.

I don’t believe you need ‘helping.’ People are generally very competent at getting what
they want, one way or another. What I can do is show you ways to get what you want
more quickly, more easily and more elegantly than you ever imagined.

So … I’m ready when you are. Please get in touch!

With warmest regards,

© Stephanie Philp 2015 23