Body Image Work Issues & Question

Hello,

First I just wanted to say I'm happy to have found this forum! I came across Robert Bruce's work a few years back and was impressed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge of all things astral & mystical. Recently I have started reading through his Energy Work book and working through the Energy Work Primer course available for free on his website.

That being said, I am having issues with the very first exercise: the Body Image Work. The exercise consists of closing your eyes in a relaxed state, gazing straight ahead, and holding your arms out to both sides while splaying your fingers and rotating your wrists. Robert says that you should be able to see something moving in your peripheral vision where your hands would be: a pale movement that gradually becomes clearer and clearer. In his book Energy Work, he comments that this is NOT the result of your eyes detecting shadows caused by your hands moving between your eyes and a light source.

Now, I've tried this exercise multiple times and I can't see a damned thing when I do it. All I get is blackness behind my closed eyelids. I can imagine in my mind's eye that I'm seeing my hands, but this isn't what Robert's talking about, right? You're supposed to be literally seeing your hands moving like the inside of your eyelids is a TV screen, if I'm understanding this correctly. :confused:

Is this just something that will start occurring the more I practice it, or am I misunderstanding the exercise?

Thanks in advance for any help & advice!

You don't see them as if you were looking at them, it's more of a shadow (or light, depending on the person and ambient light situation) something alike to what you see when you see an ultrasound of something. At least that's how I see it.
One way to stimulate this (this I've done) is to, with your eyes closed in the darkness, to, after getting in a very relaxed state, touch one hand to your face opposite cheek to the hand used, and trace it down your neck to your shoulder all the way to the other hand. See if this stimulates some sort of 'body awareness' of the feeling, and then see if this causes some sort of image to appear, any kind of an impression at all.