• Part 2 - NO Visualization

    Taken altogether, the required skills for any kind of energy work or metaphysical development can seem pretty daunting. But please don't panic! Taken one at a time the individual skills needed for development are very simple. They are all very easy to learn and do when explained and taught in just the right way. Anyone can learn them! The following development units are carefully structured to present everything in just the right order to make the learning process as easy and painless as possible.

    No prior skills are required to begin with. I have designed the coming sections with the complete novice in mind, but while also catering for the needs of intermediate and advanced students. Anyone can learn and use these techniques, even if they have never had any previous success with energy or development work. I say this without reservation. Some of the theories, techniques and processes offered here are quite new, while other components are clever innovations on existing knowledge; but all are extremely effective. Using these tools it will not take years of hard work before any noticeable results are achieved. In fact, because of their effectiveness most people will get worthwhile results the very first time they use them.


    What's NEW About Visualization?


    Let's face it, 99% of people can't visualize for peanuts! No, let me rephrase that, 99% of people think they cannot visualize. But this is all wrong too, because I know that one-hundred percent of people can visualize perfectly. Everyone does it all the time. They just don't know they are doing it. If you are one of the many people that has problems with visualization, then this is the chapter you have been waiting for all your life.


    The above stated problem comes about simply because visualization is generally so poorly explained and taught these days. Visualization is considered by many to be an ability that takes years to master. But visualization is extremely easy and it does not take any time at all to master. It is a natural ability that everyone has and uses all the time. It is an ability that anyone can do with virtually no training or practice.


    There are profound in-built problems with the majority of today's popular New Age visualization-based techniques. This is especially apparent with popular energy body and Chakra development techniques, if you seriously examine them. I have come across countless developmental problems relating to this single issue. This problem is so serious it greatly increases the difficulty levels encountered with any kind of serious development work. Development time is thereby seriously lengthened. As a consequence the majority of people give up well before they get any noticeable or worthwhile results.


    To illustrate a part of this problem: if you belong to a meditation or development group, go and ask everyone, one at a time and in private, how they really get on with visualization. Note the slightly worried looks you'll get with this question if you push it, especially from those teaching it. If they are completely honest most people will admit to having a few basic problems with visualization, or that they just can't do it at all. But you will also find a few who will claim to have no problems whatsoever. These lucky few can easily see in their mind's eye whatever they visualize - just as if they are watching a little TV behind their closed eyelids, in their mind's eye. The lucky few with this type of visual ability are unintentionally a part of this widespread self-propagating problem.


    Mind's Eye Visual Ability - Or Visualization?


    The commonly used term [visual-ization] is at the root of this whole problem, plus the inadequate explanations people are usually given when learning or being taught this essential skill. A lot of teachers in this field intimate to their students that, with a little practice, they will one day be able to see what they are visualizing, just like watching a little TV inside their heads. Unfortunately, while this is partly true, it takes more than just a little practice and ability to do this. It is not something learned quickly; barring natural ability of course.


    To put it in a nutshell: Visualization is NOT a visual skill. You are not supposed to actually see what you visualize. If you do see something it is then no longer classed as visualization. It then becomes a Mind's Eye vision type of ability.


    During any type of meditation or training exercise requiring deep physical and mental relaxation, when combined with a visualization exercise, some people will always be found who develop partial clairvoyance, or an awake semi-lucid dream type of creative visual ability, or a combination of these. These are very visual abilities, enabling people with them to actually see what they are visualizing in their mind's eyes.


    Lucid Dreaming


    The normal lucid dream state occurs when the dreamer's mind becomes aware it is dreaming while its physical body is asleep. The conscious mind then takes control over the dreamscape, gaining some measure of creative power and influence over it.


    Clairvoyance


    The visual aspect of clairvoyance is where mind's eye visions are seen, just like the clairvoyant is watching a little TV inside his/her head.


    Lucid dreams and clairvoyance are both very visual mind's eye experiences. Now don't get me wrong here, as there is nothing wrong with this type of lucid dream-cum-clairvoyant ability enhancing visualization. It is a very interesting and useful ability. But it is just not an ability the majority of people have. It is also not easily or quickly learned; barring accident or natural ability. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that it is misleading to expect everyone to have or to be able to quickly and easily learn this type of visual mind's eye visualization ability.


    The problem progresses from here when the above type of visual mind's eye ability becomes the accepted norm that everyone is told to aspire to. When this happens people start to believe they must develop this level of visual mind's eye ability in order to visualize properly. All it takes in any group is for a single person, especially a group leader, to tell to the rest of the group he/she can actually see what is being visualized. Once this happens the rest of the group immediately think they are doing something wrong. They begin to think they lack basic ability and therefore cannot keep up with their group. In time, if they continue believing this, they fall into the age-old trap of believing they can never learn to visualize properly, and therefore never develop themselves significantly. And belief is a powerful thing indeed.


    A similar problem arises when neophytes are exposed to more advanced students, or to those who have realized visualization is actually the constructive use of imagination. These people, even though they do not truly see anything when they visualize, always use visual terms when describing their visualizations or extrasensory perceptions. For example, the terms: "I can see", "I saw", "I see", "I am seeing", are all visual terms commonly used in development groups today. These visual terms are also habitually used throughout the New Age movement, even though in the vast majority of cases nothing is actually seen in any kind of visual way.


    For visualization, more accurate terms like: "I sense", "I feel", "I perceive", or "I am imaging", should be used instead, but are usually not. Be this as it may, these visual terms are now common usage and will continue to be used. But keep in mind just what visualization really is and what it is not; and please spread the word to all who will listen.


    Because of the above problems and misconceptions there are a great many people today who have become developmentally withdrawn. They think themselves incapable of serious progress simply because they believe they lack real 'visual' visualization ability. Most people faced with this dilemma continue to go along to their development groups anyway. They pretend and intimate they can see what they visualize and never mention their embarrassing problem. They do this so no one will think they have abnormally low natural ability, lacking what they have been led to 'believe' is basic visualization ability.


    Now, here's the other big part of this problem: All energetic stimulation, manipulation and development techniques taught today are 'totally' reliant upon visualization. If anyone has any problems with visualization they cannot use any visualization based techniques properly. And given no viable alternatives they cannot develop themselves properly.


    The solution to all these problems is to understand just what visualization is and how it really works. Once this is done everyone becomes equal in visualization-based development exercises. This allows everyone to develop themselves to whatever level they aspire to. I believe and fully intend to show here that everyone, without exception, can visualize easily and perfectly if taught correctly.


    The development exercises and techniques given in this book are NOT based on visualization. Instead, a concise non-visual imaging system called 'Tactile Imaging' is used. This is based on the active use of body awareness, using the sense of touch and feel. These techniques are very easy to learn and use. They are also far more effective than visualization-based techniques could ever be.


    A person who actually sees what they visualize may be at a slight disadvantage when they first start using the non-visual tactile imaging techniques and procedures given here. That is, if they do not change their way of doing things. They will have to stop trying to visually see what they are doing and start feeling what they are doing with their body awareness for these techniques to work effectively. This means that if you cannot visualize very well and cannot actually see what you visualize, you are going to do very well indeed with these new techniques.


    Concise Use Of Imagination


    Without exception, every person is capable of easily creating the most complex scenarios in their mind's eye. I have asked many people who have claimed they cannot visualize, if they ever fantasize or daydream or imagine things. The answer is always a resounding YES! Everyone is perfectly capable of using their imagination to build 'detailed' fantasies in their mind's eye, even though they claim not to be able to visualize effectively; as discussed above. So let's get something straight here once and for all: Imagination is visualization and visualization is imagination. These are one and the same ability.


    Memory plays an important part with imagination. Have you ever lost anything: your keys, a pen, your Koala, money, etc? If you have, after searching vainly for the item, you probably tried to recreate recent actions in your mind's eye to help remember where you lost the item. You would have replayed these actions in your mind's eye, going over your every step. Recreating actions and events like this is pure mind's eye imaging, the constructive use of imagination, based entirely upon memory. This is perfect visualization! And everyone has the natural ability to do this whenever they want, perfectly and with no training at all.



    Explanatory Exercise


    Get up and go to the kitchen, get a drink of water and then return to where you are now. As you do this, take note of everything you do and see and feel along the way. After you have done this, sit down and close your eyes and relax for a moment. Remember what you just did from the very beginning and recreate this entire sequence of actions with your imagination; in your mind's eye.


    It is important to feel everything as if you were actually doing it. This is exactly like creating a fantasy based upon real life events. Remember yourself getting out of the chair and standing, and how the room looked as it moved around you as you turned. Remember your steps as you walked towards the kitchen, what you saw and felt when you arrived. Remember how your hand looked and felt as it reached out for a glass, filling and drinking it, and how the water tasted, smelled and felt. Remember returning the glass and walking back to your original position and then sitting down again.


    Do this in real time, taking roughly the same length of time recreating this in your mind's eye as it took you to actually do it.



    With the above exercise, you are recreating and replaying remembered actions in your mind's eye. You will not actually see these actions, but you will be able to 'perceive' them clearly in your mind's eye. This is exactly like any fantasy created in your mind's eye, and you can almost see a good fantasy; they can be that realistic. Fantasy is the constructive use of imagination; something more commonly called 'Visualization'.



    Exercise 2


    Once again, relax and close your eyes before starting the next exercise. I want you to construct a completely fictional scenario in your mind's eye with all the necessary parts taken solely from your memories. I want you to remember, to fantasize, brushing your hair. Rehearse this in your mind, in your mind's eye, without actually doing it:


    Imagine there is a table in front of you with a hairbrush lying atop it. Carefully feel yourself reaching out (without actually doing it) and taking the imaginary brush and lifting it slowly to your head. Start brushing your hair. Feel your arm and hand moving as you do this in your mind's eye. Feel your hand dragging the brush repeatedly through your hair. Imagine what the brush feels like as it moves through your hair and tingles your scalp. Finally, return the imaginary hairbrush to the imaginary table and relax.


    You must feel all these movements as you construct them in your mind's eye. Do not physically move or try and actually see anything happening in your mind's eye. Imagine and fantasize and feel and perceive them as happening in a real-time frame. You successfully created a concise construction of pure imagination (a complex fantasy) in your mind's eye, in the above exercise. From now on, when doing any visualization or constructive imagination exercise, no matter how lengthy or complex it might be, it is simply an extension of what you are doing in these exercises. This is also how you follow a led meditation: where a voice leads you through a fantasy like the ones above and below, while music and special effects stimulate your imagination and transport your mind there. You don't actually see what you visualize or imagine, but you have an incredibly detailed awareness and perception of it all the same.



    Note: Some of these early exercises may cause slight feelings of vertigo or a localized dizziness in the stomach and lower chest areas, and even bone deep tickling sensations in the arms and legs. These exercises tend to move body awareness outside the bounds of the physical body. This affects the etheric body and will often cause energy movement sensations like these to be felt. If done in the trance state, they can also cause an out of body experience, or OBE, to occur. For more information on this aspect see The Treatise on OBE, available on the author's website. Or better yet, get hold of a copy of the author's book, Astral Dynamics. Astral Dynamics contains an illustrated version of the NEW Energy Ways system. But this is written specifically for OBE training and does not cover the other aspects of the NEW system, i.e., self healing.



    The last constructive imagination exercise


    With your eyes closed, remember what it feels like to walk barefoot across a beautiful lush lawn on a lovely sunny day, with trees and shrubs and flowers all around you. Construct this from your memories, in your mind's eye, and feel yourself as being there inside your fantasy creation. Remember a time when you actually did something very like this, or remember a scene from a movie or TV that you can use for this purpose.


    Feel yourself walking across the lawn towards a massive ancient tree with heavy, leafy branches hanging down all around. Some of these branches are touching the ground. Sense the tree getting bigger and bigger as you approach it. Walking through a small break in the branches, you now move into the restful shade within its stately boughs. You find yourself standing in a secret clearing. You can smell the living wood and leaves of the tree, intermingled with soft, earthy smells like moss, bark, rotting leaves and damp earth.


    Walking closer to the great bole of the ancient trunk you see the shape of a comfortable looking chair molded in the living wood of the massive root structure. Soft green moss is everywhere and you can feel its friendly touch underfoot.


    Moving closer you sit in this great chair and relax. Leaning back with hands clasped behind your head, you close your eyes and listen and feel and smell the secret world all around you. You hear the wind gently whispering and murmuring through branches. You hear small birds fluting and insects humming and fluttering all around, calling and chirping sweetly to each other. Smell and feel the wind, the flowers, the tree, the leaves, the moss and the grass all around you.


    Sit here awhile, feeling totally relaxed and at peace with the world, letting all your cares and problems drift away into nothingness. After a timeless moment you take a deep breath and return to your other reality, gently stirring your physical body back into wakefulness.



    You have just successfully constructed a very complex and detailed fantasy scene in your mind's eye. This was full of actions, sights, sounds, smells and tactile perceptions, based entirely upon your memory and constructed with imagination. This is exactly what you need to do when you follow a led meditation, where a voice leads you through a fantasy scenario like the one above, while music and special effects stimulate your imagination and transport your mind there. You don't actually see what you are visualizing or imagining, but you can create an incredibly detailed awareness and perception of it all the same.


    Non-Sighted Advice


    If you are blind and cannot imagine in a sighted way, please adapt and convert all the exercises within this tutorial to exercises using whatever perceptions you have available, i.e., tactile, sound, smell, etc. This can easily be done with any constructive imagination or visualization exercise, as given above. This can be done with any led meditation containing sighted details and instructions. Replace colours, scenes and sighted descriptions with something from your own non-sighted perception memory. Use your own remembered perceptions of a lovely walk you have taken in a park or in the countryside, and simply adapt the exercise to suit. Take advantage of your enhanced perceptions of sound, smell, texture, taste, and of spatial awareness.