although emotions are slightly different – they are feelings about something, although they are still represented kinesthetically in the body. When you imagine balancing on a beam, imagine the feeling of touching a smooth surface or feeling happy, you are using your kinesthetic system.
Sometimes the olfactory and gustatory systems are treated as part of the kinesthetic system. These two are less important in Western European and American culture.
The Visual System
This is how we create our internal pictures, visualize, daydream, fantasize and imagine. When you imagine you are looking around one of your favourite places or picturing a good holiday beach, you are using your visual system.
The Auditory System
The auditory system is used to listen to music internally, talk to yourself and rehear the voices of other people. Auditory thinking is often a mixture of words and other sounds. When you imagine the voice of a friend or one of your favourite pieces of music, you are using your auditory system.
The Olfactory System
This system consists of remembered and created smells.
The Gustatory System
This system is made up of remembered and created tastes.
Remember a fine meal. Think back to what it was like to smell and taste the food. You are using your olfactory and gustatory systems.
We do not use our representational systems in isolation, just as we do not experience the world simply through one sense. Thinking is a rich mix of all the systems, just as experience comes through all the senses. However, just as some of our senses are better developed and more ‘sensitive’ to the outside world, so some representational systems will be better developed. We will tend to favour those systems. The preferred representational system usually links with a preferred or unusually acute sense. For example, if you pay a lot of attention to what you see, then you are likely to use the visual representational system for your thinking. With a visual preference you may be interested in drawing, interior design, fashion, the visual arts, television and films. With an auditory preference you may be interested in language, writing, drama, music, training and lecturing. With a kinesthetic preference you may be interested in sport, gymnastics and athletics.
There is no ‘right’ way of thinking. It depends what you want to accomplish. However, creative people tend to use their representational systems in a more flexible way. Creativity often involves thinking of one thing with another system, perhaps to literally, ‘see in a new light’.
| ACCESSING CUES |  |
The representational system we are using shows itself though our body language in our posture, breathing pattern, voice tone and eye movements. These are known as ‘accessing cues’ – they are associated with using the representational systems and make them easier to access.
The language we use also offers clues to which representational system we are using. As already mentioned, sensory-based words that are associated with representational systems are known as ‘predicates’ in NLP literature.
Here are the main accessing cues, or the main ways we tune our bodies to the different ways of thinking (representational systems). They give clues about how we think (but not the specific thoughts). These are also generalizations and not true in all cases.
Some people think mostly in language and abstract symbols. This way of thinking is often called ‘digital’. A person thinking this way typically has an erect posture, often with the arms folded. Their breathing is shallow and restricted, speech is a monotone and often clipped and they talk typically in terms of facts, statistics and logical arguments.
Eye Accessing Cues
(Also called lateral eye movements or LEM.)
These eye patterns are the most common. Some left-handed people and a few right-handed people may have a reversed pattern: remembered images and sounds will be to the person’s right-hand side, their feelings will be down to their left and their internal dialogue will be down to their right. When you become more aware of accessing cues you will find some people who have the accessing cues reversed – this is different but still normal!
Don’t assume you know a person’s eye accessing cues – always test.
The easiest way to test for accessing cues is to ask a question about feelings. In everyday situations you can do this in an easy and conversational way by asking someone how they are feeling. Although research is scarce, it seems that if a person accesses the feeling down to their right, then they will have the standard accessing pattern. If they access their feelings down to their left, then they will tend to have a reversed pattern, in other words remembered images and sounds will be on their right and constructed images and sounds will be on their left.
Other Eye Patterns
Blinking
We blink all the time – it is part of the natural mechanism for lubricating the eyes. Many people blink more when they think. This seems to be a way of chunking information, so blinking may punctuate our thinking.
Certain accessing cues are avoided
This could mean that the person is systematically blocking visual, auditory or kinesthetic information from consciousness, perhaps as a result of earlier trauma.
No obvious accessing cue
Are you sure? Someone may be talking about such familiar and obvious topics that they do not need to access. To get the clearest accessing cues, ask questions that need some thought.
Immediate auditory internal dialogue in response to every question
The person may be first repeating the question and then accessing the answer. This may be part of their habitual thinking strategy. You may even see their lips move as they do this.
Unusual accessing cues
These are probably the result of the person making a synesthesia (a mixture of representational systems simultaneously).
The NLP pattern is a guide and a generalization – and, like all generalizations, will be untrue some of the time!
Remember the answer is in the person in front of you, not in the theory.
Questions for Accessing Cues
Here are some sample questions that will elicit eye accessing cues together with the symbol for the representational system that they will elicit. When you ask these questions, look at the person’s body language before they answer. When they answer is too late – the thinking will have come and gone and so will the accessing
