Thread: Visualization Problems

Hey MWer’s,

To cut to the quick of it, I can’t visualize…. at all. It’s weird that I could go through 25 years without realizing this, but it only became apparent to me when I tried to visualize while meditating. I can do other forms of meditation, such as the basic breathing or focusing on a candle while my thoughts wonder by, but when I try to visualize something as simple as, say, energy flowing into/out of my body, nadda. It’s all black/blank/bleak, mocking me in the nothingness.

As you can imagine, this has only caused further issues in other areas of my practice.

So, my question is, have any of you ever experienced this or heard of this problem with other folks? If you have, are there any fix-its you know of or is my visualizer broken for all eternity?? (Eep!!)

It’s well-known in cognitive science that not everyone has an internal experience that resembles vision-like phenomena. However, people who don’t can do pretty much everything that others can do that would seem to rely on a vision-like internal experience. For example, you probably know right where you car is parked right now. So-called visualizers may well generate a vision-like representation of where their car is parked, but they’re no better at going right to it than you are.

Here’s an experiment to try: without looking first, close your eyes then count up how many windows are in your house, then double-check to see if you’re right.

Then, try this. Imagine that you’re washing dishes.

Whatever it is that you do when you try to imagine washing dishes, that’s your equivalent of visualizing and it’s not important that it’s not vision-like for you. That same kind of process will work for you in any magick or meditative technique that calls for visualization, just as well as a vivid vision-like internal experience might work for someone else.

I actually strive for the ‘nothingness’ because for me it has forms and waves of many shapes and colors. It is only after I’ve been in that space for a time that I can focus on visualizing something else. Such as a flame or energy flowing somewhere. I guess I use that time in ‘nothingness’ to allow what I need to work on to come to the front because my goal, aside from grounding or re-balancing, is never really defined. I assumed early on that the energy forms and waves represented my own energy and thoughts that would come to me then recede during that time. But as I’ve worked at it I’ve come to suspect that it isn’t just my own energy that is flowing, but other’s energy as well. Sometimes I can interact with them and sometimes not. Though if I force the interaction I end up with a major migraine for a few days.

My advice (now that I get around to it) is if Eugene’s suggestions don’t work to try and spend sometime in the nothingness to see if it really is empty. Not forcing anything, mind you…just getting a feel for it.

Thanks very much for the replies! While it’s not as awesome as I imagine being able to actually visualize something, it’s good to know that I’m not SOL when it involves magick and various forms of meditation. I have tried your examples and find that, indeed, I can do these things, it’s just not in a visual way.

Shaedema, I’m looking forward to playing around in the nothingness And I am envious of your ability to visualize!!!! It seems so much more exciting!

shadowmoon23,
Visualization can be difficult. there are some simple Technics. if your thinking about cleansing meditation. Start memorizing how you wash you body, washing you hair, face, neck,,body, arms, legs, feet. As you do this think about how the dirt is moving off your body (just like if negative energy is flowing off your body into the ground.aka Grounding your self.) now when you think about grounding Meditation think about how the soap took the dirt from your body into the drain think about how that same dirt/ energy is going to flow off your body into the ground.

ok. next basic Technic look at a picture of a apple cut the picture in half. while looking at the half picture visualize the rest of the apple like in the whole picture, Too Hard… Ok take a circle same thing cut in half, look at the half to picture, Look at the picture and finish the circle in you mind.

there is also a Technic called blink pictures. like when you were in the shower blink/pinch to remember the objects happening several times, same thing when looking at the pictures blink/pinch to remember. I hope this helps shadowmoon23