Actually visualizing but not really "seeing" it?

[Tranquility]

Recently i bought the books, Spiraldance by S tarhawk which most of you have read, and also Celtic Myth and Legends by T.W. Rolleston.. While reading through Spiraldance i came across the wonderful exercises she had to practice, of course i began to practice most of them if not all of them hehe, and i came across something very interesting, whilst very hard to explain, but i will try.

Ok, when i try doing one of the exercises which is grounding yourself and then visualizing an apple and eating it down to the core and then letting it poof. Here is the confusing part, doing this and all of the other exercises i actually saw the things, but not physically in that dark abyss when you close your eyes, it was like i saw it, but in the very back of my mind, i don't know how but i saw the picture in depth, like a dream, but not compeltely and all the time, only flashes i could see. Could i be visualizing but not being in the trance required so to actually visualize it? In lamans terms... Am i visualizing but not in a deeper state of consciouness?

[Raevyn]

Nope, you're visualizing.

For some people it gets more clear and solid with practice, but really you are doing it right.

[Faery-Wings]

Like Raevyn said, you're doing it right for you. Everyone visualizes and "sees" things differently. When I visualize, I almost never "see" a thing. But I can sense the size, the shape and most importantly the energy.

I know there are several threads on this topic ( I know, because I used to be so worried that I couldn't visualize things!) so if you search for "visualization" you'll find a bunch.

Good luck- it sounds like you are really on the right track.

[AradiaSupernova]

hey :)



Actually that's how things work with me as well. It's like...you can feel them there but you don't really see them. It is visualizing and it does work just as well as actually seeing it :)

[Storm]

I read in a book on trancework that the more advanced you get the more you will actually "live" your visualizations. Like when you dream you actually think you are there, touching, tasting, feeling. My visualizations are nothing more than the thought of it, a mist in the middle of my mind. However sometimes I get images I can actually see in the dark of my closed eyes. Usually these are images that I did not summon. For example, I was visualizing a lake and waterfall and all the sudden there was a hand. I could see it, look at it as if I was looking at a hand on a black background. I don't know what the hand meant. I wasn't thinking about a hand. But I held on to the image, explored it. I was able to hold onto it for a while before it faded into the mist of my middle mind.

Hey I just remembered where I read that. I am reading several books at the moment and one is Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. It is a shamanistic book about Animal symbolism and connecting with nature and your power animals and totems. Well he said the advanced Shaman can actually live his visualizations. That is my aspiration. To be able to live my visualization.

Good luck and BB
Storm

[Demeter]

Yep, that's visualizing. If you've ever imagined something that wasn't there, but had a pretty good "picture in your mind" what it looked like, you're visualizing. Most people do it automatically when reading; for example, if you're reading a novel, you have a pretty good idea of what the characters "look" like, even if they've only been described in the sketchiest of terms. That's visualizing, and it's very easy to carry over into magical practice. I think a lot of people think it's more difficult than it is. Maybe because they don't realise it's the same thing as "imagining."

[Tranquility]

That ALWAYS happens to me while reading books, i always can just see the picture.. with my eyes open while reading, it makes pictures for itself... Thank you all of you! you were a tremendous help, now i at least know im on the right track! Yipeey... As for you storm, thats one of my abitions, im hoping to just be at the area or point of my life and studies where i can hopefully be somewhere up there, someone looked up to, or even not even known but finally content with myself and found my own true wisdom :D Kinda sappy, but basic like reaching nirvana, being an adept/master, whatever you want to call it... Im sure everyone wants to be that so im nothing special anyways.. THANKS ALL!!!!

[Storm]

Bump

[Gently Gazing Eyes]

This is a good thread.. I had questions about it myself. :)

[Myrddyn Emrys]

Visualization of it does indeed vary from person to person, so don't be discouraged or even think that you're not doing something right. If you go ANY kind of image that soon, you're doing just fine. After many a year at this, mine come in almost a photo negative quality, try deciphering that at times!

As you practice, the images may indeed get clearer, or steadier.

Dragon's Blessings,

Myrddyn Emrys