Visualization, aphantasia, body awake with mind asleep

[Herbhornist]

Many methods involve visualization. However, what if you have aphantasia, i.e. inability to visualize? My mind's eye is blind; I don't see images. I know they're somewhere in there; I can even manipulate geometric figures in my mind. I just can't see them. Is just imagining things without seeing them sufficient?

The recommended methods for beginners mostly are hypnopompic, where you phase when you wake up, but before the body completely wakes up. I'm the other way around. My body is fully awake and moving before the first peeps of consciousness. How does one handle this? Once, many months ago, I had the start of vibrations. That's it.

Currently I'm working on getting some lucid dreams.

Ah, beginner's problems. A challenge.

[Xanth]

That's a new one for me!  Aphantasia, eh?

I read a little bit about it... and, the one MAJOR issue I have is this:  We can't have another person's experience, so when they tell us that they can't "visualize" (which, I know to be 100% false), then I have to assume that they're interpreting what it means to visualize wrong.

The big problem is what Robert Bruce describes here: http://www.astraldynamics.com/home/new-energy-ways/using-new-full-tutorial/73-part-2-no-visualization.html

The big problem is that Visualization has absolutely NOTHING to do with "visuals".  None at all.  If you actually SEE what you're visualizing, then you're not doing visualization anymore, you've moved into Remote Viewing.  So when someone tells me that they can't visualize, it usually means that they've been told or are self-defining visualization as SEEING what you visualize.

Everyone can visualize.  It's simply a part of being consciousness.  If I tell you to picture a Purple Elephant in your mind... you don't actually *SEE* a purple elephant.  The best way to describe it is you *PERCEIVE* it.

It's like if I ask you to remember your most happiest memory.  You don't actually SEE the memory, you perceive it.  Essentially, what I'm asking is for you to VISUALIZE that memory.  If you can remember an event, in ANY amount of detail... you can visualize just fine. 

[EscapeVelocity]

Visualization skills alone did not work for me; I had numerous 'walks in the park and through the gate' or 'walking on the beach...' It wasn't until I learned to add a kinesthetic sense of movement to the process and also to be willing to just go with the flow and roll with however the sensations developed. Someone suggested the name Rundown and that really stuck for me. So we can add a whole variety of movement-based Rundown/Visualizations: the Trampoline, the Skier, the Snowboarder, the Skydiver, the Flyer, the Dancer, the Driver, the Motocrosser...you begin to get the idea. All this rapid, rhythmic motion somehow aids your 'energy body' or your idea of the need for one, to begin shaking loose and releasing from the Physical.

The timing of this is also crucial because we are somewhat instinctively reluctant to know or at the least ignorant of how that final 'connection' is made that allows for the release; so it's likely that most of us have to almost stumble into a semi-conscious release/exit the first few times until the connection is better understood. For me, that mean't waking myself in the middle of the night after 2,3 or 4 hours of sleep and just observing the process of my body falling back to sleep and training my 'attention' to remain sufficiently focused through the transition: this is one type of Noticing exercise. That mean't beginning a Rundown and not interfereing when the visualization began to change on its own and just allowing it to happen.

In your case, maybe you experiment with a movement-based theme, maybe with sound/music included. Make it an activity you are already familiar with: maybe you skateboard/ski/snowboard/surf with earbuds and music...in this case, I would focus on the movement and sound and wait for one of those sensations to increase or expand on its own at some point. When it does, you need to let the process happen and follow along with the changes without getting too excited (which is what usually happens the first few times anyway!). Maybe the movement increases into a big side to side swaying, if so let it happen and go with it, you might just pop right out into a RTZ type environment. Or maybe the music becomes engulfed by a roaring sound, another good exit sign, so go with the sound. Maybe you get the Vibes at some point, another good sign.

Or the sensation may increase to the point where an instant transition occurs and you find yourself in a completely new environment; this is Phasing.

2 other things would be really helpful right now. Start a Dream Journal and do some daily/nightly affirmations giving yourself permission to explore the Non-Physical Realities. These are two methods to get this conversation going with your many aspects of yourself...'cuz it ain't just you in there! There is your Subconscious, your Superconscious, your Inner Self, your Higher Self...whatever the combination is and however you choose to define them, you need their cooperation in exploring the NP.

Hope that gives some ideas.

[Astralsuzy]

I am not able to visualise.   I am hopeless at it but I can still ap.   Visualise something and do the best you can.    If your mind and body is ready to ap you will ap.   Even if your skill is terrible, you will still ap.   You will go to that place or whatever you visualise and when you get there it will look real.  It will look nothing like what you were visualising. If your mind and body is not ready to ap then you will not ap.   It does not matter how good your visualization is.   That is how it is for me.   

[Lumaza]

 Hello Herbhornist

Just to add to all of the great replies here that you have already received. You could use simple "directions" as a focus target. Once you get good with "feeling" the pull to that direction, you can get deeper into it and have some fun with it. You could experiment with "virtual tug o wars" and things. This is a great exit technique. But it's also a great daily exercise just to get you used to "loosening" up. After awhile you will find that disassociating yourself from your physical body is a piece of cake.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_consciousness/how_exactly_do_you_perform_the_phantom_wiggle_method-t44583.0.html

[Astralsuzy]

Sounds great Lumaza.   I am looking forward reading it later but I have to go out now.