But of course, before you can use any of this knowledge to your advantage, you first need to figure out if your mind works in the average way or differently. Not everyone conforms to the general rule, so it’s important to test it out before you make assumptions. The easiest way to do this is to ask targeted questions. It’s a little time-consuming, but if you pay attention to the eyes of the person answering, you’ll notice they move in several different directions, depending on the type of question they’re responding to.

If they move their eyes in more than one direction when answering a simple question, it usually means they first defaulted to their lead representational system to consider the question, before going back to do what they were asked. It’s very useful information to know about them.

So let’s get to it! Here are some questions you can ask, organized according to the representational system it’s expected to trigger. The direction of the eye-accessing cue may differ from the one usually experienced.

Sensory Modality: Visual Remembered

Thinking Process: They’re seeing pictures from memory, recalling things they’ve seen before.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, up and to the right (their upper left, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• Where do you live?
• What was the colour of the room you grew up in?
• What is the pattern on your front door?
• What colour was the first car you ever owned?
• 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?
• How many doors are there in your house?
• Spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
• Think of the colour of your car.
• What kind of pattern is on your bedspread?
• Think of the last time you saw someone running.
• Who were the first five people you saw this morning?
• What is the colour of the shirt you wore yesterday?
• Which of your friends has the shortest hair?

Sensory Modality: Visual Constructed

Thinking Process:  They’re seeing images of things that they’ve never seen before, either because they’re thinking about the future or they’re making the picture up in their head using their imagination.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, up and to the left (their upper right, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• What sort of place would you like to live in?
• Imagine what your car would look like, if it were blue.
• 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?
• Imagine an outline of yourself as you might look from six feet above us and see it turning into a city skyline.
• Imagine the top half of a toy dog on the bottom half of a green hippopotamus.
• What would your room look like if it were painted yellow with big purple circles?
• Imagine the top half of a tiger on the bottom half of an elephant.

Sensory Modality: Auditory Remembered

Thinking Process: They’re remembering sounds or voices that they’ve heard before.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, horizontally to the right (their direct left, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• What’s the sound of your dog’s bark?
• What does your dad’s voice sound like?
• What’s the sound of your mother’s voice?
• 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?
• What was the very last thing I said?
• What did Joe tell you?
• Think of one of your favourite songs.
• Think of the sound of clapping.
• How does your car's engine sound?
• What does your best friend's voice sound like?
• Which is louder, your door bell or your telephone?

Sensory Modality: Auditory Constructed

Thinking Process: They’re making up sounds they’ve never heard before.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, horizontally to the left (their direct right, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• Imagine what I just said in Donald Duck’s voice.
• 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?
• Imagine the sound of a train's whistle changing into the sound of pages turning.
• Can you hear the sound of a saxophone and the sound of your mother's voice at the same time?
• What will your voice sound like in 10 years?
• What would it sound like if you played your two favourite pieces of music at the same time?

Sensory Modality: Auditory Digital or Auditory Dialogue or Internal Dialogue

Thinking Process: They’re talking to themselves and hearing their own voice in their head.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, down and to the right (their lower left, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• Recite the Pledge of Allegiance to yourself.
• Say the Times Tables for 7 to yourself.
• Remember a poem from grade school and recite it to yourself.
• 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?
• Listen to the sound of your own inner voice. How do you know it is your voice?
• What is something you continually tell yourself? Tell it to yourself right now.
• What are your thoughts about this article?

Sensory Modality: Kinaesthetic

Thinking Process: They’re thinking about how they feel, physically or emotionally.

Expected Eye Movement: As you see it, down and to the left (their lower right, from their perspective)

Questions that are supposed to trigger all three of the above:

• Imagine walking on hot sand without shoes.
• Imagine what it feels like to touch a soft rug.
• 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?
• When was the last time you felt really wet?
• Imagine the feelings of snow in your hands.
• What does a pine cone feel like?
• Think of what it feels like to be exhausted.
• Imagine the feelings of stickiness turning into the feelings of sand shifting between your fingers.
• Imagine the feelings of dog's fur turning into the feelings of soft butter.
• Imagine the feelings of frustration turning into the feeling of being really motivated to do something.
• Imagine the feeling of being bored turning into feeling silly about feeling bored.
• What does it feel like to walk barefoot on cool wet grass?
• What does it feel like when you rub your fingers on sandpaper?

WARNINGS:

1. There’s a bit of a myth circulating that eye-accessing cues can be used to tell, if people are lying. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Say for example someone’s asked to describe something they’ve seen or heard. Their eyes should primarily move to visual or auditory remembered territory. But if they’re making something up, then their eyes might move to visual or auditory constructed territory, indicating that they’re constructing some part of the situation they’re describing. This may indicate that they’re uncertain about some of the details. Maybe they don’t remember it very well. Of course, there is a chance they’re lying, but more than likely they’re just processing things differently than you’re expecting them to. Suppose you asked them a question about something they’d never thought about before. To formulate an answer, they may have to look at or hear one or more pieces of true information in a way that they had never done so before. In this situation, they’d be constructing an answer and their eyes would most likely move to visual or auditory constructed.
2. Or maybe they’re lead representational system is auditory digital, so when you ask them a question that requires them to remember visual information, they first repeat the question in their head to make sense of it, which means their eyes would go down and to the right before they go up and to the right to get the answer. Perhaps their preferred system is visual and when asked what it feels like to be in a nice warm bath, they first create a picture of themselves being in the bath (visual remembered) before accessing the memory of the feeling (kinaesthetic). Humans are uniquely complicated creatures, so be careful before you lump us all into neat little categories. It could get messy.
3. Keep in mind that sometimes people keep their eyes in the middle, without moving them in any direction at all. This happens when the answer is readily accessible in their short-term memory or too obvious to be searched for. For example, if I ask you what your name is, you don’t have to think at all. So your eyes don’t move. Also, if the person you’re speaking to is making a conscious effort to look you in the eye while they talk, that might over-ride their automatic cues.
4. And it goes without saying that if they’re looking at something in particular, like funny scene taking place right in front of them, their cues won’t work. Eye-accessing cues only happen when the person talking is talking to you with an unfocused gaze and is thinking about their answer before they give it to you. When people reply using answers they prepared in advance, this will also influence the results.
5. Oh, and be aware of the way you word your questions. Make sure they’re clean, as in don’t trigger any unnecessary thought patterns that can interfere with the results. For example, if I ask: “Can you tell me what the pattern on your front door is?” it invites you to dismiss the question at the first sign of difficulty. Instead of taking the time to think about it and get deep into your thinking process, you might be tempted to simply say: “No, I can’t tell you. Sorry, but I don’t remember.” A cleaner version of the same question would be simply to ask: “What’s the pattern on your front door.” They can still refuse to answer, but they’re more likely to take some time to think about it first. If the question isn’t clean, the person will first engage in an inner dialogue with themselves to answer your question. “Can I?” they’ll wonder. This will make their eyes move to the lower right and you’ll be confused because you were expecting a visual response and instead got an auditory digital one.

There you go! I hope this information helps you translate people’s eye-movements into representational systems you can use to help them and understand them better. If you’re finding this advice hard to implement, ask for help in the comments below, send me a message, or book a FREE breakthrough session to see how I can help you using Skype.

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Until next time, remember: Happiness doesn’t require energy. It requires Strategy.