Meditation Techniques: How to Use Visualizations To Your Benefit
I am reading a good book today, called “Caught Between a Dream and a Job”, and as I sit here and read the lines, “… keep swinging from vine to vine until you land at your dream.” I imagine myself swinging from vine to vine, working my way towards that golden glowing object in the distance. I see this object as the dream, it is vivid, it is real, and it is within my grasp. Just another vine and I am there. Having landed, I look around and I see all the wonderful things that await me in my dream. In this particular situation, it is my dream job and I see it in full color. All of the senses are engaged, sounds, sight, smell, touch, motion and activity enliven the scene. This may be just a day dream to some, but to me, I am creating my future. Actively pursuing and engaging in the creative process that will eventually manifest.
Imagery, sometimes called guided visualizations, is a very powerful tool in the meditation arsenal. Seeing an internal cinema makes the experience, and therefore the goal, significantly more real than a floating amorphous thought or abstract concept. A powerful image, in context and connected to the real world, formed in your mind is much more likely to manifest than a hazy, dull, and motionless one. If you are unskilled at making images, practice and rely on the senses that are your strongest suite. Perhaps you are not a particularly visual person but your sense of hearing is very sharp and you experience the world more through your ears then through your eyes. Since none of us are the same, it is difficult to expect everyone to have the same modalities, however, I find that developing an internal cinema is one of the most powerful manifestation tools.
When I first began experimenting with this type of meditation, I was unable to hold onto or vividly perceive an image for more then 5 or 10 seconds. To practice, I started with a simple object, a single candle, and I would stare at it for a while and then close my eyes and hold that image in my mind as long as possible. I did this frequently, for short periods of time throughout the day with other available object and found that I quickly gained the ability to hold a relatively complex image for several minutes without any fading of fuzziness. Over time I have made this mental muscle strong enough to hold complex visual simulations that I can physically experience. You will know that your inner cinema is powerful when a motion image causes physical-bodily sensations of movement.
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