Exactly what is visualization and how do you do it?

[Roze]

Hi,

I want to learn to visualize because it seems such a great skill for personal development. It has been mentioned for examle in connection to meditation, visualizing goals, image streaming, ...

But I still have many questions and there doesn't seem to be a clear definition of visualization anywhere. Many explanations of visualizing seem to only give a very broad explanation. I want to know exactly what it is so that I have a goal when practicing, because I think my understanding of visualizing is very incomplete. I don't mind trying hard, but I do mind not having a clear goal.

Here is my list of questions up till now:

1. Where do you "see" the images? Do they appear behind your eyes, or more to the back of your mind, or in your heart? Are you thinking the images, feeling them or really seeing them? Because I never "see", I more like "think".

2. How do you see the images? How vivid, how clear? If you focus on one detail, can you still see the whole picture, like you can in the material world?

3. Comparing visualization to other mental processes: How does visualization differ from daydreaming, from thinking, from dreaming, ..., or from seeing in the real world?

4. Can you visualize with your eyes open?

5. What kind of images can you visualize? Can you really "create" visions, can you only see what you have seen before, or is visualizing an outlet of your subconscious awareness? Or is it all the above?

6. How did you learn visualization? What was the technique or exercise that worked for you?

7. What can visualization be used for? (like visualizing goals, ...) When people speak of visualizing in connection to different kinds of personal development tools, is it always the same kind of visualizing they are talking about? If not, are there different kinds or maybe even subkinds?

These are the questions I could come up with for now. I'm sure I will have some more questions as I learn new things. Feel free to add more questions. And also a big thank you in advance if you can help me! I'm really eager to learn visualizing.

[Bene]

The way I visualize is try to create some images or movies of having it already. I visualize to create the feeling and not to design something I want to manifest in my life. I trust the Universe will find the fastest and most efficient ways to get me there.

Sometimes, when I try to create detailed images... I feel resistance in my body (you know that feeling of your mind/body saying "now thats not going to happen"). Maybe when I have progressed enough, I can create detailed images without having resistance. Because I believe the limits are only in ourselves, the universe has no limits. So when I feel this resistance, I pull back bit by bit to "larger picture" until resistance dies and I am in the flow again.

Ok more practically..... I can see the visions while my eyes are open but when I am doing that nothing in my present awareness is registering... its like I am somewhere else. And yes I would say daydreaming and visualizing are the same. Only you know that one is reality and other is a fantasy. Thats why I think we don't face resistance during daydreaming because we know its not real.

One tip I can give is that the thoughts that we think everyday are soooo important. No matter how much we visualize it won't work if the thoughts are against it. This is more true for people stuck in negative circumstances. I am being more and more aware of my thoughts and it is astonishing what I think... its essentially sabotaging myself. So I am working on aligning my visualizations and my thoughts in the right way.

[Acting Like Godot]

You see your "images" the same way as you have seen images crop up in your everyday thinking. For example, if I ask you to think of your favourite shirt or the way the furniture is arranged in your home, certain images will start popping up in your mind.

Usually these images are brief, fleeting and not very detailed. For your creative visualisations, however, you'll want to hold the images for longer periods of time, and in greater detail, and with more clarity. The more you practice, the more vivid the images will be.

Note that although we use the word "visualisation", you are not limited to using visual images in your visualisations. You can (and should) incorporate sound, tactile sensations, smell, movement, emotions etc.

Note that many people are already visualising automatically in their everyday life, without necessarily knowing what they are doing. I used to play chess competitively - basically, every chessplayer is visualising moves on the chessboard, often many, many moves ahead. Artists are already visualising before they start painting. Architects probably do that too. If you drive, you probably do it too, as you work out what is the shortest route from Point A to Point B. Actually, many people are probably visualising as they do mental calculations such as 372 divided by 4. Etc.

People with very strong capabilities of visualisation linked to memory are referred to as people with "photographic memory".

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Roze

1. Where do you "see" the images? Do they appear behind your eyes, or more to the back of your mind, or in your heart? Are you thinking the images, feeling them or really seeing them? Because I never "see", I more like "think".

There isn't really a location to me when I visualize - maybe it's in the spirit world. I can actually have a sense of the visual information - like when you remember or have a lucid dream - it's like that.

2. How do you see the images? How vivid, how clear? If you focus on one detail, can you still see the whole picture, like you can in the material world?

It morphs around a lot to focus on images. It's different that the material world because it's easy to zoom in and out at whim. If I zoom in to a detail, yes the background is still around but that background can change and I don't really try to insist on it being exactly what I was visualizing since I zoomed into something else.

3. Comparing visualization to other mental processes: How does visualization differ from daydreaming, from thinking, from dreaming, ..., or from seeing in the real world?

Supposedly our brain doesn't know the difference of visualization and seeing the real world. That's one use of imaging something like the perfect golf shot will train your brain to a high degree.

4. Can you visualize with your eyes open?

not really, or rather not as deeply or vividly.

5. What kind of images can you visualize? Can you really "create" visions, can you only see what you have seen before, or is visualizing an outlet of your subconscious awareness? Or is it all the above?

I think it's a creative part of me that is boundless and outside of what I've seen before as well. Sometimes the subconscious shows up but usually I am doing like a guided meditation that walks me through a garden and through a gate and the like. I've used guided meditation CDs that have a narration about what to visualize. Then I meditate on my own and paint a picture of me own journey. Sometimes if I have had a really vivid dream, I'll visualize that dream again in a sitting mediation. I visualize mostly nature and journey's - like crossing bridges and walking in the sand. But also I do visualize the perfect ski turn or perfect surfing ride.

6. How did you learn visualization? What was the technique or exercise that worked for you?

With those meditation guided CDs I mentioned. Also try this: Hold some like a box or similar object in your hands. Look at it for a couple minutes and find details about it, study it. Put it down and close your eyes and remember what you looked at for a couple minutes. Do that back and forth for 3 or 4 times. Then move on to visualizing that box on your own. I think meditating and having a super relaxed body helps a lot to take a visualization into more of a first person event instead of just thinking about it. I know when I still have something tight in my body, there's part of me still with the body and I won't enter the visualization as first person so much.

7. What can visualization be used for? (like visualizing goals, ...) When people speak of visualizing in connection to different kinds of personal development tools, is it always the same kind of visualizing they are talking about? If not, are there different kinds or maybe even subkinds?

Improving sports. Relaxation. Improving performance. Walking through scenarios that might have fears around them so when you are in real life, you are calmer. Insight into what your habitual mind is doing. Feeling connected to source. Lowering blood pressure. I would think most visualizations are about the same in structure - that is you get comfortable and relax, maybe with breathing first then the content changes based on what you want to play with. Might just be to relax and take a inner journey - or to play out a specific situation that you are going to have in real like. There are also visualizations around tunning into your body's energy. Like imaging the colors of your chakras or bring white light down and around you. Or bringing your aura in close and moving it out as imagining white light expanding around you and then coming in closer around you. I really liked one chakra vis I used to do. Spend some time with the color (actually a little flower opening and closing (got that idea from this form to add to what I was doing) of each chakra and then move up until at the crown - and bring all of the colors up and blend them together into white and connect it up. I've had some spontaneous information related to each chakra doing this - and the blending into white lights seems to balance all the different aspects of each and balance them and makes me feel more whole and connected.

These are the questions I could come up with for now. I'm sure I will have some more questions as I learn new things. Feel free to add more questions. And also a big thank you in advance if you can help me! I'm really eager to learn visualizing.

Specifically there are brain frequencies (theta) that are known to be what the brain is vibrating at when visualization is happening. There are hemi sync or binaural beat meditation CDs that have theta for that - but it's not necessary.

Kids under 6 (I think I remember that right) have a lot of theta and often when they are playing and make believing they are actually visualizing and make it real in their head. Then we grow up and our brains speed up and we get trained to think a lot and it gets harder to snap back into something that was natural for us. But the good thing is that is natural and trainable to do.

[Roze]

Thank you all for explaining. Reading your explanations I think I already knew how to do it. I just thought that what I was doing is not visualization, because it was more like dreaming and daydreaming. But I'm gonna work with what I can already do and train to get it more detailed, more vivid, try it in more situations.

Bene, I totally agree that everyday thoughts are extremely important. I know and experienced the power of negative and positive thoughts. Your own thoughts really make the world a different place.

For Acting Like Godot, I will try incorporating other senses in visualizations. Music is my strong point, and I have no trouble hearing detailed music in my mind.

For wolfgang, the chakra exercise seems really worth a try. I have been trying chakra yoga, and up til now, I don't really know what to think about it.

Thank you for the information! You helped me a lot!

[starkey]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

I think it's a creative part of me that is boundless and outside of what I've seen before as well. Sometimes the subconscious shows up but usually I am doing like a guided meditation that walks me through a garden and through a gate and the like. I've used guided meditation CDs that have a narration about what to visualize.

Which guided meditation CDs? I'm interested.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by starkey

Which guided meditation CDs? I'm interested.

Kelly Howell

Stuart Wilde

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson (brain wave stuff, not guided meditations)

Also had some tapes (remember those?) that had NLP scripts that were cool. Maybe those were like paraliminals. I don't have those anymore and don't remember the company/author.

[Acting Like Godot]

Hey, practically every meditation CD is a "guided meditation" CD.

If you were just doing the "watch your breath" or "observe the candle" kind of meditation, there's pretty much nothing for anyone to say on the CD.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Hey, practically every meditation CD is a "guided meditation" CD.

If you were just doing the "watch your breath" or "observe the candle" kind of meditation, there's pretty much nothing for anyone to say on the CD.

Yeah, I am not much of a CD user for meditation/visualizing now a days. However, there is something to be said about being able to focus and sometimes when one hasn't been practicing focusing, CD with someone talking to you helps stay on track. The most recent one I got from Wilde has some visualizing but then also at one point he leaves you alone to do whatever you want to discover. I do listen to music or brain wave type CDs from time to time, but mostly I take my own approach. This is usually an induction or focus to relax my body and do some auto suggestion about each breath taking me deeper/calmer. Then once my body is prepped and maybe my brain waves are calmer, I can go into my breath or go on a visualization journey or watch for images.

[Old Soul]

Because I never "see", I more like "think".

ok so when you read a book that you are really into, one that really grabs your full attention, do you not see in your mind the written words taking the form of visual? like the book litterally becomes a play a movie if you will in your mind?

funny but sometimes i think i am too visual and i have to learn to tone it down,



[QUOTE4. Can you visualize with your eyes open?
][/QUOTE]

Yes I can, but here it is linked with my imagination, for example, my neighbors dog the other day was doing his buisness on the other neighbors yard, ( sad but true), I watched the whole thing, in my mind I imagined the one neighbor opening his door and screaming at the dog, the dog running back to his other doggie friends and telling his doggie friend about the irate man who was screaming at him and he did not know why...

so i make little cartoons out of things i see, it is like your imagination can draw off of anything it sees , eyes open

[Acting Like Godot]

You don't have to get to theta to visualise effectively. Alpha will do fine. Most of us will be deep asleep by the time we get to theta anyway.

Now there are many ways to get to alpha, but don't let yourself get too comfortable or you'll fall asleep. In dreamland, you visualise with great power - notice that your dreams do not merely have images, but running images, plenty of characters, background scenery, convoluted plots, sound effects, lots of movement etc etc.

So what you want to do is to come as close as possible to that kind of state - when you are able to visualise very powerfully - but what you DON'T want to do is fall asleep, because once you fall asleep, you can't control the process.

And your dreams are just your subconscious / unconscious mind talking to itself - but for IM/LOA, what you want is your conscious mind to be talking to your subconscious / unconscious mind, and for the truly reality-bending stuff, for your conscious mind to be talking to the superconscious.

[Roze]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

You don't have to get to theta to visualise effectively. Alpha will do fine. Most of us will be deep asleep by the time we get to theta anyway.

Now there are many ways to get to alpha, but don't let yourself get too comfortable or you'll fall asleep. In dreamland, you visualise with great power - notice that your dreams do not merely have images, but running images, plenty of characters, background scenery, convoluted plots, sound effects, lots of movement etc etc.

So what you want to do is to come as close as possible to that kind of state - when you are able to visualise very powerfully - but what you DON'T want to do is fall asleep, because once you fall asleep, you can't control the process.

And your dreams are just your subconscious / unconscious mind talking to itself - but for IM/LOA, what you want is your conscious mind to be talking to your subconscious / unconscious mind, and for the truly reality-bending stuff, for your conscious mind to be talking to the superconscious.

I'm a little lost here. I don't really understand what you're trying to say. And I also don't know the meaning of 'alpha' and 'theta'...

[joesugar]

Do you all find it easier to visualize with your eyes open or closed?

If I do it with my eyes open, it's like getting lost in a book (as someone mentioned above) and I can maintain it only as long as I don't realize I'm doing it.

If I do it with my eyes closed, it's more like being in a dark but familiar room where I know where everything is but can't necessarily see it.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Roze

I'm a little lost here. I don't really understand what you're trying to say. And I also don't know the meaning of 'alpha' and 'theta'...

Our consciousness operates at a range of different levels throughout the day. For example, your consciousness, when you are angry and excited, is different from your consciousness when you are calm and relaxed, and this in turn is different from your consciousness when you are asleep and dreaming.

Alpha, beta, delta and theta represent different ranges of brainwave frequencies which reflect the above. This may be helpful:

The Measurement of Brain Waves

For the kind of visualisation you plan to do, you should be getting yourself into the mid to deep alpha range. This can be done by various different techniques such as progressive muscular relaxation; slow, deep breathing exercises; meditation, or various other hypnotic techniques.

At the deeper states, you'll find that your ability to visualise begins to expand. The challenge is that you have to stay awake and retain enough alertness to direct your visualisation.

For example, when you are dreaming, you are actually visualising with great power and vividity - such that you can generate fantastic images, a plot, other human characters who talk, move, run around, interact with you - but generally you are not in control of the process.

(Note - your LOA attempts to use creative visualisation will probably not approach anything close to the vividity of your dreams. Doesn't matter, creative visualisation can be an extremely, extremely powerful tool, without you actually having to attain the vividity of your dream-state.)