Figure 1 depicts the eye movement index described in this excerpt in more detail, adding the tonal/digital and remembered/ constructed distinctions and the eye positions which access them.

3.232 Gestural Accessing Cues.

We also presented, in this excerpt, another form of accessing cue/indicators involving gestural complexes — "telephone positions" for internal dialogue, and hands touching the midline of the body for kinesthetic sensations. Telephone positions are those in which the person leans his head on his hand or fist so that his head tilts to one side (typically to the left) as if he were talking on a telephone. Stroking your chin with one of your hands or touching the area around your mouth nose and jaw is another common indicator and accessor of internal dialogue.

People will often (consciously or unconsciously) point to or touch with their hands the sense organs for the particular channel of representation that they are using as a means to access or indicate that channel. Someone might say, "I really began to realize the importance of what was going on," and be pointing to his or her ear — indicating auditory. More obvious is the person who says something like, "I give myself a lot of static about that," as they make circling motions around one of their ears with a finger.

Another example would be the person who says, "I noticed your disappointment," as she points toward her eyes, or the individual who says, "Now let me see," and begins to rub his eyes and the bridge of his nose.

Similarly, you may notice that when a person says, "That movie was really intense," she may place her hands over her chest and heart area, or when someone says "That was really delightful" he may rub or fold his hands over his stomach.

These gestures will, of course, also occur without the accompanying verbalizations.

3.233 Breathing Changes.

Breathing is one of the most profound and direct ways we have of changing or tuning our chemical and biological state to affect our neurology. Breathing at different rates, and filling or expanding different areas in our lung cavity will involve most of our body —accessing different muscle groups and changing the chemical composition of our blood (which provides the medium in which our brain operates). We have found that breathing changes constitute a powerful indicator and accessing mechanism for sensory specific states.

a) Breathing high and shallow in the chest (or the momentary cessation of breathing) accompanies and accesses visual attention.

b) Deep, full breathing low in the stomach area indicates kinesthetic accessing.

c) Even breathing in the diaphragm or with the whole chest, often accompanied by a somewhat prolonged exhale (as if speaking without moving one's mouth to make the words), will accompany internal dialogue.

These breathing patterns access attention within representational systems either externally or internally.

3.234 Posture and Muscle Tonus Changes.

Concurrently with these different types of breathing and to help tune in a particular representational system, we adjust the musculature and skeletal position of our bodies as well.[22] We have noticed the following correlations between postural variations and representational system accessing:

a) Muscle tension in the shoulders, neck and often the abdomen; shoulders hunched and neck extended characterize the body accessing posture for visual attentiveness.

b) (1) General muscle relaxation, with the head sitting solidly on the shoulders, which tend to droop, is characteristic of most internal kinesthetic accessing, unless the feelings are fairly intense; the accessing will then be accompanied/initiated by exaggerated abdominal breathing and expressive or even violent gestures. (2) External (tactile and motor) kinesthetic accessing will share the breathing and head position of internal kinesthetic cuing, but the body will be more in motion and the shoulders will be held more broadly (as is common to athletes).

c) Auditory accessing is characterized by relatively even muscle tension and minor rhythmic movements. The shoulders tend to be thrown back, although somewhat slouched, into what we call the "saxophone" position (because the individual holds his body as if s/he were playing a saxophone). The individual will also often have his head tilted to one side.

3.235 Tonal and Tempo Changes.

The breathing, postural and muscle tonus changes that an individual goes through will affect other behavioral outputs that can also serve as effective indicators of representational system activity. Changes in voice tempo and tonality will be caused by the changes in breathing and muscle tension in the face and neck area. The amount of air, and the rapidity with which it is pushed over one's vocal chords, will cause noticeable changes in voice quality.

a) Quick bursts of words in a high pitched, nasal and/or strained tonality with a typically fast tempo of speech accompanies visual processing.

b) Slow voice tempo with long pauses and in a characteristically low, deep and often breathy tonality indicates kinesthetic accessing.

c) A clear, midrange tonality in an even and sometimes rhythmic tempo and typically well enunciated words will accompany activity in the auditory representational system.

Some other indicator/accessing cues for the auditory system are tapping, snapping the fingers and making clicking, humming or whistling noises with one's mouth.

Organizing things on one's fingers tends to accompany internal dialogue and other auditory digital accessing.

3.24 Employing the Elicitation Procedures

These distinctions as we have suggested, are but a few of the wealth of possible patterns available to you with which you can break down complex sequences of behavior. For the purposes of this book, however, we will for the most part limit our analysis to those cues involving eye movements and verbal predicates, and we will employ the other distinctions listed here only where they are important or obvious. We have found that the distinctions provided by the eye movement patterns and verbal predicates constitute the minimum number of distinctions necessary to unpack practically any strategy.

We are now ready to begin to apply all of the various components of the elicitation procedure together. Through a few examples we will demonstrate how the process as a whole takes place.

EXAMPLE A

Consider the following sequence of behavior presented by an administrative director of an organization in making a decision. She has just read a written report that had been submitted to her and must generate an outcome decision on the basis of the information contained in the report. This person could just as easily be a judge, diplomat, executive or anyone in a decision making capacity.

"As I look this over . .." (eyes scan paper, then she pauses and takes a deep breath as her eyes shift down and to the right momentarily and then move over to the left) "… I get the feeling that something may have been left out …" (reaches up and strokes her chin) "… and I have to ask myself, how might this affect the results of this decision where it is so important that we have a clear understanding?" (Eyes move up and to the right where they make a number of slight lateral shifts and then move down and to the right before returning to make eye contact with the person standing before her.) "I really don't know what to say about it."