Author Topic: How does visualization look to you? (Read 1382 times)

Scales · « **on:** December 17, 2013, 04:00:02 pm »

I don't know if I'm doing right, wrong, totally in the wrong direction, just need some more developing, or what.

When you hear about someone visualizing or see it in a movie (I know, bad source), it seems like they create a blank slate and put stuff on it, or visualize themself straight to another place.

When I visualize, I see what I'm looking at (even if that's black from the back of my eyelids). But drifting generally above and to my left, I can see almost photographically what I'm trying to visualize. But if I try to center it and see better, it drops away and appears out of the way again. Normal? Bad?

The other problem is that when I'm trying to do visualization excercises, I have trouble not physically following them- I feel like I'm just standing looking at whatever it is, and even if I visualize myself smoothly moving along, I just feel like I'm standing watching a movie. If I want to visualize picking up an apple, I can feel it without doing so, but I feel a sort of phantom limb-esque thing and want to move my real arm instead.

Sometimes when I can visualize something, it will take up my entire field of vision, and then more (illustrated with the sphere below). And when I do bring in other senses, they don't feel like they are where they belong.

Illustrations below in hopes of making this make slightly more sense.

Real:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/q71/s720x720/1510399_10151757983597382_589940149_n.jpg

Visualizing:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/q71/s720x720/1487401_10151757983652382_1314466523_n.jpg

Closed eyes, visualizing a door (example):
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/q71/1525673_10151757983302382_1856230262_n.jpg

So, I both want feedback on if I'm doing this completely wrong, and, since I am sure it varies, to know what it feels like to you.

Faemon · « **Reply #1 on:** December 18, 2013, 12:14:20 am »

Quote from: Scales;132848

When you hear about someone visualizing or see it in a movie (I know, bad source), it seems like they create a blank slate and put stuff on it, or visualize themself straight to another place.

The other problem is that when I'm trying to do visualization excercises, I have trouble not physically following them- I feel like I'm just standing looking at whatever it is, and even if I visualize myself smoothly moving along, I just feel like I'm standing watching a movie. If I want to visualize picking up an apple, I can feel it without doing so, but I feel a sort of phantom limb-esque thing and want to move my real arm instead.

So, I both want feedback on if I'm doing this completely wrong, and, since I am sure it varies, to know what it feels like to you.

I don't visualize. It's more like I smell without my nose, these clouds or wreaths of perfume. I just know that they're there conceptually, spatially, and temporally.

When I do "visualize", it's more like shifting what I sense to something I can understand. I don't have a large vocabulary for smell, so when there's cloud there, my instincts move me to associate it with a color. There's a "pinkness" that might be a rosy smell or might be the smell of icky menstrual blood. There's a "white light" that could be sunlight on a snow field, or the hottest part of a metal blade. But I smell/feel them first, even if the colors aren't entirely deliberated. They become colors.

Visualization is, I believe, a very useful mental skill in mundane life. How do you spell a long and difficult word that you only read once? Visualize the letters. How do you know that the sofa would look good in your apartment? Visualize it. Where did you last leave your keys? Visualize yourself retracing your steps.

It's not paranormal. It can be geared towards being a good tool for that, and indeed the body of New Age literature is swamped with sources that say this is a must. I don't believe them.

I recommend reading this article. As I told Lindsey Blythe on another thread, visualization can entwine closely enough with intention to have an effect, but that doesn't mean that it is intention itself. Even if you're excellent at visualizing, it might not be magic.

The writer of the article linked is a big fan of qigong as a practice to access intention as isolated (very isolated) from more modern traditional practices such as visualization, but the point remains that visualization can be deceptive and unnecessary.

To paraphrase Granny Weatherwax (from Discworld, a fantasy novel series--bad source, I know :whis:) It's a mental tool to use, not need. Never need.

Scales · « **Reply #2 on:** December 18, 2013, 03:39:13 pm »

Quote from: triple_entendre;132881

I don't visualize. It's more like I smell without my nose, these clouds or wreaths of perfume. I just know that they're there conceptually, spatially, and temporally.

When I do "visualize", it's more like shifting what I sense to something I can understand. I don't have a large vocabulary for smell, so when there's cloud there, my instincts move me to associate it with a color. There's a "pinkness" that might be a rosy smell or might be the smell of icky menstrual blood. There's a "white light" that could be sunlight on a snow field, or the hottest part of a metal blade. But I smell/feel them first, even if the colors aren't entirely deliberated. They become colors.

Visualization is, I believe, a very useful mental skill in mundane life. How do you spell a long and difficult word that you only read once? Visualize the letters. How do you know that the sofa would look good in your apartment? Visualize it. Where did you last leave your keys? Visualize yourself retracing your steps.

It's not paranormal. It can be geared towards being a good tool for that, and indeed the body of New Age literature is swamped with sources that say this is a must. I don't believe them.

I recommend reading this article. As I told Lindsey Blythe on another thread, visualization can entwine closely enough with intention to have an effect, but that doesn't mean that it is intention itself. Even if you're excellent at visualizing, it might not be magic.

The writer of the article linked is a big fan of qigong as a practice to access intention as isolated (very isolated) from more modern traditional practices such as visualization, but the point remains that visualization can be deceptive and unnecessary.

To paraphrase Granny Weatherwax (from Discworld, a fantasy novel series--bad source, I know :whis:) It's a mental tool to use, not need. Never need.

Thank you for the resource, and the reply in general. I know I don't need it, but there are things I want to do with it, especially for mundane purposes, and so I've been trying to practice. Like I said above, I can pretty much replicate a smell or a photographic image, but it feels like it's in the wrong 'place' or hard to focus on- so, I feel like maybe I'm somehow doing it 'wrong' (which your second paragraph made me feel a bit better about).

Thanks!

ETA- My concentration has also been messed up lately for medical reasons, so I know it isn't a great time to try and hone this, but I want to and maybe the difficulty practicing now will make it easier later. The questions I have applied before this too, though

Devo · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2013, 04:02:22 pm »

Quote from: Scales;132848

I don't know if I'm doing right, wrong, totally in the wrong direction, just need some more developing, or what.

When you hear about someone visualizing or see it in a movie (I know, bad source), it seems like they create a blank slate and put stuff on it, or visualize themself straight to another place.

When I visualize, I see what I'm looking at (even if that's black from the back of my eyelids). But drifting generally above and to my left, I can see almost photographically what I'm trying to visualize. But if I try to center it and see better, it drops away and appears out of the way again. Normal? Bad?

The other problem is that when I'm trying to do visualization excercises, I have trouble not physically following them- I feel like I'm just standing looking at whatever it is, and even if I visualize myself smoothly moving along, I just feel like I'm standing watching a movie. If I want to visualize picking up an apple, I can feel it without doing so, but I feel a sort of phantom limb-esque thing and want to move my real arm instead.

Sometimes when I can visualize something, it will take up my entire field of vision, and then more (illustrated with the sphere below). And when I do bring in other senses, they don't feel like they are where they belong.

This is all highly from an astral/vision/acid tripping perspective- because its all I really know.

First off, I don't think there is a wrong or right way to visualize. Sometimes, distortions within your visions can be symbollic, or a reflection of something else. Sometimes its just how you "see" in a non-physical way. I have huge problems with being able to see over on the otherside, and I have to rely a lot of feeling around and generalized "I think this is what is going on". Its very similar to walking around with your eyes only half open.

It's just a reflection of how my body operates over there. *shrug* Even so, I'm stil able to get around- so if you're able to get done what you need to get done while visualizing, you should be okay.

I, too, get times when something that is directly in front of me is harder to see, yet if its in the peripheral part of my vision, it becomes clearer. No clue why that happens.

That being said, even when I'm not actively traveling over there, I can still imagine waht something feels like in my hand. I can see myself doing something without actually moving (there or here) and many times, when I'm moving over there, its really hard for me to not move my body over here.
As an example, I dance a lot over there. And when I do so, my feet get really jumpy on this end- because they want to move in-sync with what I'm doing on that end.

So idk if that's helpful. Seems to me like you're doing alright. Might just be a matter of more practice. Might be something you're stuck with.

-Devo

Faemon · « **Reply #4 on:** December 18, 2013, 10:58:51 pm »

Quote from: Scales;132956

Thank you for the resource, and the reply in general. I know I don't need it, but there are things I want to do with it, especially for mundane purposes, and so I've been trying to practice. Like I said above, I can pretty much replicate a smell or a photographic image, but it feels like it's in the wrong 'place' or hard to focus on- so, I feel like maybe I'm somehow doing it 'wrong' (which your second paragraph made me feel a bit better about).

Perhaps it's too deliberate? Sometimes part of visualizing is letting the vision come to you rather than making it. To make it come to you is, I think, closer to the mundane life skill.

Quote

Quote from: Devo;132961
This is all highly from an astral/vision/acid tripping perspective- because its all I really know.

First off, I don't think there is a wrong or right way to visualize. Sometimes, distortions within your visions can be symbollic, or a reflection of something else. Sometimes its just how you "see" in a non-physical way.

That, too! I agree with the above.

Quote
My concentration has also been messed up lately for medical reasons, so I know it isn't a great time to try and hone this, but I want to and maybe the difficulty practicing now will make it easier later. The questions I have applied before this too, though

Hmm... I was great at blank-mind meditations until I started on my antidepressants. Then, I couldn't make the inner "chatter" shut up as easily as I used to. So, what I did instead was imagine a scenario where the chatter would fit, like a crowded restaurant. That worked well enough. I still can't do some of the same things that I did with a blank mind, but I can still do a few things and learned to do a few more.

So, that was a thing, too...learning to work within my limitations.