Thread: How to improve visualization abilities?

Hey, another member from Idaho! Hello, from Boise. The first advice I have is to get a couple guided visualization meditation MP3s. They are fun and help you learn to relax and visualize.

If you are willing to put in real effort and develop visualization as a skill (which takes practice and time) then here is a link that will help. http://www.dreamviews.com/f157/dream...aining-133302/

Try to listen to music and visualize it help you focus

Originally Posted by sivason

Hey, another member from Idaho! Hello, from Boise. [/URL]

Haha that makes 3 of us from Boise. Thanks for the advice, will read up on that link.

Originally Posted by Superdub49

I guess this is an alright place to post this question, since it's pertaining to my ability to do the V-WILD .

I can't visualize for Sh*t.

If anyone could post some helpful, tips, guides, links to helpful things, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Sorry to be the person who actually tell it like it is, but if you're having trouble visualizing in a WILD, then you're not actually anywhere near the edge of sleep. When you get close to sleep, visualization happens automatically. You can either control the visuals or let them show you random scenes, but there are always visuals. If there's no visuals, then you're nowhere near where you need to be to complete your WILD attempt.

cmind, you probably know more about this than I do, but I thought I should share anyway. I'v gotten into a dream by using WILD without even going into sleep paralysis or being able to visualize at all. From what I've been reading everyone is different when it comes to this.

Originally Posted by Radioshift

cmind, you probably know more about this than I do, but I thought I should share anyway. I'v gotten into a dream by using WILD without even going into sleep paralysis

No one goes into SP during a WILD.

Originally Posted by cmind

No one goes into SP during a WILD.

??? Then why don't I jump out of bed and act out my LDs?
Without SP you would thrash all around when the LD start.

Originally Posted by sivason

??? Then why don't I jump out of bed and act out my LDs?
Without SP you would thrash all around when the LD start.

You go into SP at the same time or slightly after entering the dream. All the lead up stuff like HH, vibrations, etc. is not related to SP. Sorry.

Originally Posted by cmind

You go into SP at the same time or slightly after entering the dream. All the lead up stuff like HH, vibrations, etc. is not related to SP. Sorry.

WILD is the dream itself. Everything else is just a WILD attempt, failed or suceeded. Plus, you can hit SP when deep into HIs. I do not consider it a WILD unless you get an LD. But that is all just words. Sounds like we more or less agree, but use the term different. You can also clearly go through your entire attempt, get good HIs and never be anywhere close to SP. Some people think SP and HIs are related, but of course they are two seperate unrelated things.
Also, many many members are confused about what SP is like for the 99% who do not have a sleep disorder. You can almost instantly break SP if you are still aware, just by trying. It only supresses dream movements, not intentional movements. I can be in SP and deep HIs, but if I need to get up to pee, it breaks the SP, which is only there to keep me from thrashing during the actual dreams.
Reminder for everyone, you can not test SP, so do not try, it is a waste of time! SP is for dreams, you will just feel very little connection to your body, and it will take effort to make yourself move. But if you try to force your self to move, you will break the SP every time, and hurt your chances for a WILD.

As someone who practiced visualization for over a year or so awhile back, I would say obviously that your best bet is to visualize, in order to truly visualize well you have to give yourself this feeling of just being there, it's almost like your convincing your brain that your somewhere else, take special care to take in the feeling/vibe of your visualized envirnment, it's all in the emotion, not the detail. It's difficult to explain the vibe/feeling of an image, you've just got to try it.

I've gotten a lot of luck recently by waiting until my body is kind of numb, and then visualizing an entire story, making it up as I go. It has improved my visualization and helps with WILD attempts by taking my focus off of my body. At first, it is barely a visualization, but as you get into it, it gets easier and more vivid.

Stare at a candle for 20 minutes a day when you WBTB and try to hold the image in your head for as long as you can, focus on the dot with your eyes closed.
After a couple months you can actually have a LD this way, or Astral Project, depends on what you believe in. Give it a try!

Originally Posted by Skalm

Stare at a candle for 20 minutes a day when you WBTB and try to hold the image in your head for as long as you can, focus on the dot with your eyes closed.
After a couple months you can actually have a LD this way, or Astral Project, depends on what you believe in. Give it a try!

You're risking damage to your fovea...Bad idea.

Originally Posted by cmind

You're risking damage to your fovea...Bad idea.

And everyone being on the computer for an hour plus is any better?
Not trying to be an asshole just saying.

Originally Posted by Skalm

And everyone being on the computer for an hour plus is any better?
Not trying to be an asshole just saying.

Staring at a candle, especially in the dark, is about 1000 times brighter (concentrated in one spot) than a computer screen, so...I don't see the comparison.

Originally Posted by cmind

Staring at a candle, especially in the dark, is about 1000 times brighter (concentrated in one spot) than a computer screen, so...I don't see the comparison.

Sorry I was misinformed, It was a different study on eye stress from monitors. My bad.
None the less a lot of people still do this method of visualization, if its a good idea I wouldn't know, but It does work.

Originally Posted by Skalm

Sorry I was misinformed, It was a different study on eye stress from monitors. My bad.
None the less a lot of people still do this method of visualization, if its a good idea I wouldn't know, but It does work.

You're going to be doing a lot of visualization when you have cataracts at age 40.

Originally Posted by Skalm

Sorry I was misinformed, It was a different study on eye stress from monitors. My bad.
None the less a lot of people still do this method of visualization, if its a good idea I wouldn't know, but It does work.

I know the method you are refering to, but 20 minutes is going to hurt your eyes. I recommend simply looking into the flame for about 1 single minute from at least 4 feet back. Another way to get the same result is stay in the dark for a few minutes, look right where you know the light bulb is, and flip the switch on and then right back off. The retinal impression of the light will be there in either case. You then can attempt to cause it to shift into shapes, or just watch it and let your subconcious toy with it. It is an ok method, and everyone should try it one or two times. I still agree with cmind that staring for so long at a flame is bad for your eyes, but I also thank you for bringing up the method, just stick to the milder version I describe to protect your health.

This might be a little off topic, but if anyone is interested in advanced visualization, look up Mylynes. I'm pretty sure he hasn't posted in about a year, but he has some tutorials on it. It's not as much of visualization, but control over your vision. The tutorials will explain it better.

Yeah i have terrible visualization too, like i literally cannot picture someones face in my head, regardless of how much time i spend around them.
Like i know what they look like, and i can recognize them, but i cant see it.

But i can hear songs in my head perfectly, note for note with no effort at all. Though again im terrible
with the lyrics, i can hear the pitch, but not the words usually.

Im guessing thats also why im the worlds worst drawer too, because i cant see anything at all in my head.
Pretty much impossible to draw anything when you have no reference point at all to think of.

Sucks to be in that 3% minority that cant do what everyone else can.

Don't be so hard on yourself When you visualize your starting point isn't to try to see the visualization as vivid and clear as you do with your eyes. It's a goal of course, but the important part with visualization is the same as to everything else when it comes to lucid dreaming, Awareness! It's your wandering mind that creates most trouble for you, just think about something that is easy to image for a while and you will see my point , for example think of an apple try to feel it in your hands, don't think about bananans Aww.. did you thought about bananas? Most of you probably did because you put your awareness on that word and smiley xD Even though I wrote this and made it inevitable, the same problem will occur because your awareness is on your thoughts, memories and subconscious.

This is why relaxation, meditation and clearing the mind is important for visualization. You can of course just imagine the apple over and over again but then you are still meditating in a way, by focusing your awareness on one thing. But I think it would be better to do it the other way around, focusing on your breath for some minutes with closed eyes and maintaining awareness, and then when your mind feels still and calm, start visualizing the apple. WOAH you can almost feel it for "real" now!

Good luck

So when you close your eyes and think of something, do you see all black?
And then whatever youre thinking of might flash somewhat in your head for a second or two?

But you still only see black? I know thats how i am, im assuming other people actually see what theyre trying to
visualize in the black.

Originally Posted by Johnny87

So when you close your eyes and think of something, do you see all black?
And then whatever youre thinking of might flash somewhat in your head for a second or two?

But you still only see black? I know thats how i am, im assuming other people actually see what theyre trying to
visualize in the black.

Ok good that you pointed it out. You are not supposed to visualize in the darkness infront of you, that's the back of your eyelids. Well you can actually use afterimages, or the little points of stars that you see, but that is much harder. So I wouldn't recommend starting out with that. So try this instead.
Close your eyes and focus the way you would do if you were trying to go to sleep, but at the same time try to "see" an apple with your mindseye, pineal gland what ever you prefer to call it. Ok try this and see if it works:

Sit up in a chair then try to go to sleep for 15 seconds, hopefully you won't fall asleep that fast ^-^ Then you just start imagining and thinking that you eat an apple, or something easier, that you have a good memory of, imagine yourself using your cellphone. Try to feel it, see it and perhaps hear it. But remember that clearing your mind as I descriebd before, makes this image even clearer and more vivid.

Something cool but dangerous that I used to do when I was a kid, when I was bored, was to close my eyes and pretend that I am blind. Then I would walk around the house carefully and imagine how things looked like instead of seeing it with my physical eyes. I even managed to walk down the stairs until my mom saw me and wondered what I was doing

This might sound weird, but you can actually visualize with your mindseye even when your physical eyes are open, you do that my directing your awareness to your mindseye rather than the physical eyes, so now I don't have to close my eyes in order to visualize if I want to do that exercise. In fact we do it all the time you are just not aware of it as much, I mean if you for example lost your keys you will try to remember were you put them last, and by then I promise you that you are visualizing each place you have visited. Or even if you think about a good movie to tell the friends about, you still visualize the memories you got from it.
Everyone knows how to visualize!

But I suggest you start out with what I mentioned above first if you doubt that you can do it consciously ^-^

Tell me how it goes!

Originally Posted by Johnny87

So when you close your eyes and think of something, do you see all black?
And then whatever youre thinking of might flash somewhat in your head for a second or two?

But you still only see black? I know thats how i am, im assuming other people actually see what theyre trying to
visualize in the black.

In the end, with lots of practice you can see the visualized image. Actaully see it. When fully awake, the amount you can truely see is limited. With closed eyes you can createe an image of say a glowing red cross or a glowing yellow triangle. Master Mind is correct that it is seen with 'the minds eye' not the normal eyes. You can even do it with open eyes. the type of visualization Master Mind just described is valuable, but another type evolves out of it. At some point you should be able to actually see basic visualized objects and colors. It may take years to get to that point, but you can start the process with the stuff Master Mind just told you about.