Trouble visualizing

[mviara]

I see the word visualize being tossed around all the time in PD material. This has become a dreaded word for me, for I have never been able to see mental pictures the way they claim I should be able to (or at least most people should be able to right, because no PD material ever starts with a caveat saying this visualization exercise may be difficult for some people).

For example, I read an article on a type of meditation where they say imagine going down a set of steps gradually and then you reach a beautiful garden, there a guide visits you. I find that I can only dimly think of any pictures, and they are almost always dark - I can't be sure I see anything in my "mind's eye".

But, I have found that when I'm on the threshold of sleep, I am able to visualize far better (still not to my satisfaction) - only then, I'm not really controlling what I want to see, but I'm letting my mind free to come up with whatever it wants.

Do you visualize in bright colors, sounds, touch, everything? Is it as good or better than "reality"? If you have been able to improve your visualization over time, what "paradigm shifts" did you experience that helped you?

[Adam]

The paradigm shift that I had was that practice makes habit. (I'm currently writing a blog entry about it, but it won't appear for a few more days, at least, not before the weekend.)

If you practice visualizing dark images, then you're more likely to use the dark images in the future... If you practice forcing yourself to turn up the brightness, then the more you practice, the easier it will be to have bright images.

One way to practice is to have a bright light in front of you (keep your eyes closed ) and practice your visualizations that way. Even though your mental imagery and what you actually see are seperate, the brightness shining through your eye lids will still boost the brightness of the visualization.

[Adam Sargant]

and bear in mind that if you visualised as clearly as you perceive reality, you would most likely be spending time at least very confused, at worst receiving medication involuntarily :-( Simply don't expect consistent vivid technicolour - just trust that you do create internal representations in all of the senses, you just don't necessarilly direct attention to them readily.

practice helps... I started by visualising a white board and drawing simple geometric shapes and played with that sort of thing for while, making things increasingly intricate over time.

Bear in mind that if I ask you what colour your front door is, barring neurological and sensory deficit, you can tell me without hesitation... if I ask you to imagine that door in front of you and point to the handle, I'm pretty sure you can do the same. Trust that the internal representation is taking place... too much emphasis is placed on the word visualisation in my opinion, as it implies (wrongly) a need to be vividly conscious of the visual aspect.

In love and light

Adam

[Dharma]

Visualization is a function of the mental body. It takes focus. The only people I know who can't visualize well had a lot of TV/movies early as a child (~2 years old). The faculty did not develope fully because it didn't need to with the flashy TV screen.

If that's not the case for you, I'd ask what are you afraid of seeng?

[mviara]

Thanks for all your replies.

Adam, your suggestion of practicing against a light background makes sense. I think I may even do better if I opened my eyes, or maybe if I started drawing on a sheet of paper.

Adam Sargant, I indeed can do the door thing you mentioned. But, I was concerned that I could only focus on one aspect of the image at a time, I find it difficult to get a sense of the whole, to immerse myself in the visualization. I guess that comes with practice. Indeed, impatience has been one of my worst traits.

[fourthdan]

mviara.... try going by steps:

pick up an object in your hand in real life
close your eyes and recall the "object in your hand" in your head
Are you looking only at the object and your hand? good
now as you start to look away - start building things one by one as your range of vision expands...
you look at the table you are sitting at - it's different... imagine an ikea catalogue table you've seen. the more specific you get the better the visualisation gets
imagine the room - ikea catalogue is great for this again...
now imagine people - use celebrities cos you're so used to seeing them..
keep moving on from there. the best way to visualise is to find a picture or details about what it is that you're trying to visualise

don't worry that you may not have visualisation skills - they're just like fantasizing skills

[mviara]

Originally Posted by fourthdan

mviara.... try going by steps:
don't worry that you may not have visualisation skills - they're just like fantasizing skills

I sure do have those :-) Thanks for the encouragement. I'll try that tonight and post how it goes.

[Pooka]

Visualizing 'visually' with my eyes closed is extremely difficult for me, but I find that if I can introduce the other senses with my 'imaginary' body first, sight comes far more easily.

I use Erin's 'go to your room' meditation at lot. The room at the top of my elevator happens to have a deep shag carpet, and I refuse to let myself even try to look at the walls, the elevator doors, or at anything else until I can 'feel' the carpet there. I touch the walls, then, noting the texture of the paint, and allow myself to look at simple colors and objects. I progress from there.

It might not be applicable to all sorts of visualization and might not be quite orthodox (hey, though, it's my head), but it has certainly helped me.

[ahimel]

Mviara -

Remember, too, that you may just have a different method of percieving the world than most people. They use the term "visualize" because it's the strongest imaginative sense for most human beings. But I can't visualize worth a darn either.

I've learned that my hearing is much more important to me. How a place sounds is much more important than how it looks. Like all humans, I primarily use my sight for navigation, but I use my ears to learn more about things. So I've learned to turn "visualization" exercises into "audiolization" exercises.

In your example, I would hear the creaking of the door as I open it at the top of the stairs, and the echo of my footsteps off the walls. As I got closer to the bottom, I'd start to hear the whisper of wind and the chirping of birds and crickets. As I stepped off the last stair, I'd hear the rustle of grass beneath my foot. All of that would be internalized almost as well as reality. There would be visual images that go along with it, but they'd be kind of fuzzy. For example, the walls of my staircase are brown. But the hinge on the door at the top creaks starting at about middle C, and increases to the A above middle C as you continue to pull.

My roommate is clair-tactile. He can tell you where things are in the room with his eyes closed, but he doesn't recieve the input visually; he can't "see" your changes. But when you move the beanbag to the other side of the room, he can "feel" what's going on. For him, he'd feel the temperature drop as he goes down the staircase, and feel his muscles move as he walks through the garden. It's a matter of what you're best at.

I would experiment with other senses, and see if your visualization exercise resonate with you more in one of the others.

[Holistic Star]

Not everyone is primarily visual. Some people are much stronger in audio, feeling, tasting, smelling. However because a majority of people are visual, they tend to discribe things the way they understand them, rather than adapting them for those that aren't

I recently did a guided 'visualisation' with a group.
We had to imagine we were in a favourite kitchen.
We had to picture the kitchen, smell the food cooking, hear the sound of the stove, feel the warmth from the oven.
We then had to imagine a lemon, see what it looked like including all the dimples, feel the surface of the skin, pick up a knife and feel it cut through the flesh, smell the juice, then taste a piece of the lemon.

Afterwards we talked about what we found difficult and easy to imagine.
The majority of the group found visualisation the easiest, with a sizeable number being able to imagine feeling the things like the skin of the lemon and the warmth from the oven that were discribed.
Others could only hear the sounds that were imagined and others couldn't imagine a smell or taste.

Probably, your primary mode is not visual. This doesn't make you wrong and it can be improved with practise, but you might find that one of your other senses gives you much more sensory rich data that you can use.

[Adam Sargant]

The Betty Erickson self-induction technique can work well for this as it specifically goes for three of the main senses (in the broadest sense)... I frequently use it as a precurser to meditations that involve a strong visual element, temple work etc as it seems to vivify all the senses

Betty Erickson Self Hypnosis Induction

In love and light

[mviara]

Thanks again for all your replies.

Pooka, your suggestion of touching the wall feels good to me. For example, I think I can easily feel the contours on a person's face that I want to imagine. Once I do that, I can form a better picture of that face, which I wouldn't have been able to do without. I need to get used to touching everything in my imaginary environment.

ahimel, you're right about combining the senses. Perhaps touch or sound will work for me to stimulate vision.

Holistic star, while each of us may have a different strong sense, I feel that the visual skill is the most important because it allows us to imagine the widest variety of scenarios. For example, when I think of visualizing my dream house or vacation (especially colors, details), I feel the visual aspect would form the core of the experience. Hence, improving this with practice, as you suggested, is quite essential.

Adam Sargant, thanks for the link. I will try this technique. I have tried self-hypnosis in the past, but I had not felt much because of my difficulty visualizing.