Do you do meditation before visualising, to get you into the right state of mind?

MS

Hi Lucy,

I have used spoken word guided spoken visualization exercises of all kinds, some with music and some without.  It's nice to have a collection to draw from for different purposes.

The suggestion to meditate first is a good one.  Or perhaps do some exercise earlier in the day so that your muscles are not tense.  Also, set the scene for relaxation with dim lighting, a eye pillow, etc.  The more comfortable you can make yourself the more easily you will relax for your visualizations.   

For me, it becomes uncomfortable if I try too hard to produce a beautiful panoramic vision from the very beginning of what the speaker is describing.  That takes away from my relaxed state which is most important.

It works best for me if I just allow a fragmented picture to emerge, a fragment of sensory detail here and there, not straining, not holding onto it, just flowing with the imagery.   It's not helpful to think, oh, missed that image there, I should be doing better at this, and so on.  It's not a life or death kind of thing, after all...

What happens then is that I am naturally guided into a deeper state of relaxation to be more receptive to further imagery as the visualization exercise progresses.  I can often feel a "sinking" sensation, or a feeling of heaviness.  Often I will become unaware of time and feel quite refreshed afterwards, perhaps even "blinking out" for a while.   The level of awareness varies, and that is also okay.

Hmmmn.  I think I'll go enjoy one right now.

Hope that helps.

love, blink

Hi Lucy-

About 15% of the population uses abstract methods of mental image formation nstead of visualizations. (I happen to be one of them.) That doesn't mean that theres anything wrong, or that you're abnormal.

For example: Think of an apple.

There - whatever you did, that's how you normal visualizer works.  In some manner you created an image that meant "apple".  Whatever that image was like, so long as you use it like a visualiztion, that's what it is.

As an "abstract visualizer" you probably also have two other modes of visualizing, one is the "dream mode" in which things are pictorial while you sleep, and the other is typically the "lucid image state" in which you are extremely aware, with exceptionally clear imagery, yet still not awake, nor fully asleep.  However, this is based on a very limited sample, and I'd appreciate your feedback whether this is true for you in particular.

dave

question is How do You do visualization?

seems like a really broad question but I'll talk off the top of my head, I might even learn something..hee hee.

20 years back or so when I read Monroe, as I read the words about this little curl, I visualized it clinging to his leg, I took the words and put it into a picture. Now Monroe just tells what he experienced, you have to find out yourself whats going on. so I started thinking, what's it like out there, really? heres this guy just having a ball finding out things. I don't meditate as it makes me nervous. I just read, and if something strikes me as really curious, if I'm in the "really curious" state of mind for more than 2 minutes, it can produce an obe where I gather some answers.

that may be part of the puzzle, to stay focused with intent, or as I called it curiosity, for at least 2 minutes without interruption. you sort of build up an energy then, crank up the old obe exploring machine, lol.
no, I never had the intention. it just happened. then I get curious how it just happened and u know the rest of the story  I think the intensity makes it happen. it's like 2 plus 2 = 4. concentrate for 2 minutes on anything at all, you will see the difficulty of not being distracted, but I figured the capacity to stay concentrated is there somewhere.

but thats only a piece of the story. all of us are pulling it together by our contributions.

another thing, is the inner sight only would show me sometimes a corner of the picture...this is nerve wracking also...lol....I'm a nervous gal, what can I say?
but the idea is go with the piece you get, stay fixated on it long enough that it can morph for you into something more comprehensible maybe. like I was seeing part of a building, but the picture was not developing fast enough to suit me so I got nervous then I would find an inner voice saying be quiet a few more seconds... since it sounds like my voice says this, I say ok. and the picture gets fuller and I forget about nervousness. after I saw the building I saw the top of the head of a little girl, who was me..once, when I weighed less and was a lot shorter. lol. theres a new thing developing where guides are teaching me to focus, exactly do I feel like I am a camera lens out there and I zoom in to the object of interest. this is a brand new feature of exploring and very very satisfying feature.

sound can catapult one out of the body..there are music tapes, when they hit a certain tone or note I vibrate to it or resonate. you can use music to expand your awareness. I felt like I was being sucked out of the top of my head during one such session. I liked it too

it's gray, its black and white, its buggin'. but if you give it time it can be colorful, full of life, love, and all those good things we all want.

Alysia, when I read about the curls, I saw (and still do) what looks like Cheetos. LOL

Love, Mairlyn 

hi yes i would love too. I'm at work atm secretly looking at here every now again! lol so can't atm but will later tonight for sure. Speak to ya soon.

Ryan

Hey,

Well finally got home! lol was thinking about how to answer this at work today so i'lll give it my best shot and hope it helps. If theres any thing you want me to cover on more or explain better just let us know.

Also i must say hese are based on my experiences (rather limited compared to a few here) but with all things they work differently on different people so this is by no means "the" way to do, just how i have done it so far.

The first thing as with most things is relaxation! I find the more you relax the better your results, it gives you a a chance to take a step away from daily life and forgot about your hassels and worries allowing you too concentrate more. The way i relax is by lying down (or you can sit up) as long as your comfatble. lay there for a few minutes as too make sure your happy in your position. Then when you close your eyes don't stare at the inside of your eyelids lol! Just relax and don't even look at the blackness just forget about them, just like your going to sleep only the trick here is too keep yourself awake and your body asleep to a certain extent.

So now you lying or sitting with your eyes closed start slowing your breathing slightly and take deeper breathes, feel the air coming in and out slowing you down, winding down, getting deeper and deeper, relaxing, feeling good! lol. I tend to breath like this for a while and then take in a few extra long breathes counting up to 6 breathing in and 6 breathing out just like on Bruce's stuff which you seem familiar with. If your body feels lighter don't worry just enjoy the feeling and keep breathing. Now your relaxing try to keep the same breathing pattern but start to forget about it and feel the blackness. If you relax enough this should happen automatically, its a slight difference but the blackness does change into more of a feeling blackness rather than seeing when you just close your eyes.

Now what happened to me was a image would pop up for a few seconds, or part of an image or even something that isn't that clear. Now don't think about them just keep relaxing and try to see them clearer, don't strain or try to hard just try and see what they are and keep them there longer, focus on them. I call this bit 'following images' because i tend to get quite a few of these come up and it takes a while before i start to see what they are so don't get impaitient.

I think the main point which i can't stress enough (and it just suddenly come to me how to say it perfectly) which will make or break your experience is this:

"Think about what you see in the picture, not how you see it"

If you start thinking, this is really exciting, how am i doing this, wheres it from it tends to go anyway and won't come back in that session but if i think, what is that? or describe to myself (like when i first phased, theres a woman there, shes got curly hair, blue eyes, who is she?) they it stays and gets clearer. Even just look at don't think if that makes sense is good just don't start asking loads of questions, you need to keep with the flow and keep the mind at ease and relaxed.

Sooner or later i found perfectly clear images came to me and i could see them in front (they were surrounded by the blackness). And i was more taking them in rather than thinking about them which is why my experience worked out really well. Once again just enjoy the flow and experience!

With my first experience of this i was really doing it for a retival so guess where i was next! lol. If theres something you want to do place your intent before you try this and maybe it will happen, maybe it won't but theres no harm trying! I wanted to do a retival in New Orleans to try and help with the recent disaster. This is what i got and if you want to if you haven't already its in the Retrivals forum under "to ryan...first phasing experiment" thankfully created by Alysia who was one of the main people who helped me which i am grateful for.

On my first go it all happened for me which was really good! but it comes down to experience, i've had a few OBE's now and have done the relaxation thing quite a few times so that part was a bit easier, not much! lol. How about you? You said you are using Bruce's tapes which is good news! Have you had any experiences before?

If you do get these images keep with the flow, i did and found i went out of body in a sense, i went somewhere else and was able to do my retrival. But at first i hadn't noticed i had gone somewhere else from viewing the images, this was because i wasn't over thinking and going with the flow, can't stress that enough! lol

One last thing as i'm sure your aware but for anyone else you want to be comfatable so make sure you haven't just eaten or you are feeling hungrey, or too hot/too cold otherwise this will distract you.

Think i have covered most things there and hope that helps. Let us know how you get on!

Ryan