Visualization – Beginning

Visualization – Beginning

introductory spiritual exercises

Mastering visualization is important to your success in performing the egg of light exercises. Visualization—seeing with the mind’s eye—is a process of imagery. When we visualize or image anything, it consists of recollecting from memory the ideas of some experience we have had.  There are auditory (hearing) and tactile (feeling) images. In fact, there are images for all the senses, not just sight and feeling. Some people respond to one kind of perception more readily than to another. Thus there are people who recollect the images of sound (musical notes for example) more easily than things they see or feel. However, it’s important that you develop your ability to visualize. You have to be able to form mental images of things you have seen. If this is difficult for you, try the following:

See yourself as you were at the breakfast table this morning. Can you plainly see in your mind the table with the objects upon it? If you had bacon, can you see it on the plate, crisp and curled? Can you smell its inviting fragrance? If the mental picture of your breakfast is vague or general and if you are unable to recollect any of the objects on the table as distinct images, your visualization faculty is poorly developed. If you can image sounds and smells in connection with your breakfast more easily than visual images, this indicates that your imagery is satisfactory, but that you must practice recollecting just visual experiences.

Try the above experiment each day during the coming week. The way to aid visualization is to be more observant. Do not merely accept an experience as something you perceive, but analyze it as well. Try to see how many different elements it contains. When you walk down the street, see, hear, feel, and smell as many things as you can and separate them into different experiences and understand them. Register impressions in your mind. The more impact an experience has, the easier it will be for you to visualize it later. If you do this—carefully observe the nature of things—you will gradually be able to form distinct mental images.

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