Do you wonder how to visualize because all you see is blackness?
You can’t craft a mental picture of your family or your friends in your mind’s eye.
Or you try to visualize your goals — “see” yourself driving your dream car, living in your dream house, living your dream life.
You’ve been trying to teach yourself how to visualize with your mind’s eye, but no matter what you do – you just can’t create mental images.
You close your eyes, and all you see is blackness or, at best, you see some blurry shapes.
It’s like you’re missing the mental canvas to ‘paint on’. Or maybe, you feel like your inner canvas is placed in a dark room and you’re pointing at it with a very weak flashlight.
Frustrating, isn’t it? But guess what… you are not alone.
If you’re in this group of ‘non-imagers’, please keep on reading because…
You CAN learn how to visualize!
When you are short on talent; Discipline is the best substitute. – Dan Kennedy.
I strongly disagree with people who say,
“Visualization is a ‘have-it-or-have-it-not-skill'”
If you’re like me, you read many of the famous best-selling books like: Psycho Cybernetics, Think and Grow Rich, Magic of Thinking Big, Creative Visualization, … and the most frustrating thing was…
… ALL these books tell you to create CLEAR, VIVID, “IMAGINE-AS-IF” images.
But somehow, every single one of them assumes you’d know how to do this. Personally, I only found pure blackness when I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I can’t do what so many others do with east. So, I researched for long time on the Internet and started doing a regiment of exercises… and then… very sloooowly… my persistence paid off.
First, I got zero results. Then, after about 2-3 weeks, I started seeing blurry, fading shapes. Next, I experienced very short moments of happy clarity. But still, very unstable.
Finally, after several months of daily practice sessions, I can now create vivid and controllable scenes, like being my own movie director.
Thus, I dare to say, that so called “aphantasia” (the dysfunction of the mind’s eye) does not exist. In my personal experience, aphantasia is solely the inability to see with your mind’s eye because of an untrained mental muscle.
Your Mental Eyes Are Like a Muscle!
This Muscle Can and Must be Trained!
Go to a gym and ask any bodybuilder, “What a biceps! How long did it take you get a biceps like that? One week? Two weeks?”
He will laugh at you and he’ll probably tell you that he started with arms like ‘toothpicks’ and it took him months, even years shape them up… and so it is with every other muscle. Mind or body. Nature acts never in haste.
Some of you might say: “Hey, but all my friends can visualize already! They’ve never put in conscious effort to learn how to visualize.”
Yes, but chances are high they’ve been using mental imagery the better part of their lives. They’ve been practicing and nurturing this skill for a long, long time, intuitively.
For them it’s always been “normal.”
Now, before we get into the “how-to part”… Let’s first talk about why would you want to visualize? What can you get out of it? What can you do with it?
For me, it was like opening the door to a new world. It’s like your secret world or playground where you can experience your very personal mental universe for things like relaxation, revisit past memories, to work with your subconscious mind, rehearse performances, etc… Powerful stuff.
OK, here are just some of the feats you can pull off with the power of visualization:
- Memorize Knowledge with Memory-Palaces: Create your own mental memory palace and store a mind boggling amount of information in it (memorize vocabulary of any language, remember speeches, sales presentations, anatomy, or any other information and facts you wish to burn into your memory.)
- Reach Your Goals Through Creative Visualization: You’ve read these books that tell you to visualize your goals vividly… as if having achieved them already. If can you get you mind-muscle back in shape you’ll finally be able to see yourself being as successful as you want to be!
- Mental Imagery in Sports: Everyone knows that pro-golfers, pro-basketball players, athletes, etc. rehearse their ideal sports performance and even entire games on a mental stage. This is proven to be a crucial factor in the careers of these high-performance people.
- Rehearse Speeches & Presentations in Your Theater of The Mind: You can practice speeches, interviews, conversations, social interactions right in your head (introduced by Maxwell Maltz in his life-transforming bestseller called Psycho Cybernetics.)
- Meditate and Take Mental Holidays with Guided Imagery: Of course, visualization is a powerful tool for meditation and to relax by, for instance, taking a walk in your mental oasis or relaxing on your dream beach.
- Induce Lucid Dreams: You can induce fascinating night adventures with lucid dreaming with, for instance, Dr. Stephen La Berge’s MILD method (Explained in his book “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming“)
- Acquire New Habits and Break Old Habits: With the power of visualization you’re to change your habits. Get rid of old, bad habits while starting and maintaining habits that will help you to succeed.
And so on, and so on. I think you get the point. This skill has the power to change your life drastically… in basically all areas of your life.
Now, let’s finally proceed to the…
Visualization Exercises
Here’s how to get started. And, please remember – it takes time to get better! Stick to daily practice sessions. Dedicate a few minutes each day. Make it a daily habit and you’ll be greatly rewarded with new and beautiful skill.
#1 Exercise: Copy a Candle – Candle Visualization (Afterimage)
This is a very simple but nevertheless a very effective exercise:
- Light a candle and take a seat in a comfortable chair about 3 feet in front of it.
- Observe the candle’s flame calmly, with mild eyes. Ask yourself a few questions about it:
“Which colors do I see? What’s its shape like? Does it move, or does it make a sound?”
Answer these questions internally and in silence. Observe the flame for about 5-10 seconds. - Next, close your eyes. Make sure you keep your eyelids calm and relaxed. Unwrinkle your brow. Scan your eyes and make sure you release any tension. Now, do you “see” an after-image? Even if it’s fading instantly, fact is, you will be able to see something. Maybe it’s just blurry light or, even better, you actually see the shape of the flame.
- Observe this mental shadow-image and keep it up as long as you can until it fades completely. Don’t fight. Keep it easy and most of all stay very relaxed.
- Wait. Before you open your eyes again: Try to recall the image by thinking of all its details. Recall and internally describe the colors, and the shape etc. The more details you can recall the better. Be very specific. Imagine you’d need to describe (from memory) an artist the flame. He wants to paint it for you but he relies on your observations alone. The more information you can feed him with, the better he’ll be able to paint. By doing this you strengthen recall ability and you communicate to your mind that you want to focus on these specifics.
- OK, open your eyes and repeat the process for a few times. Commit more details to memory.
Do this for max. 5 minutes. And again, stay relaxed at all times.
Practice this REGULARLY and your visualization skill will improve bit by bit.
#2 Exercise: Visualize Solid Colors:
Some people can only see specific colors. Others only see grey shades, or, like many of us, pure blackness. This exercise will help you to envision colors.
Get yourself a few colored surfaces. A book cover will do or you can use the images below. Observe a color carefully and then try to imagine it in your mind. You don’t need to see the shape’s outlines. Just focus on capturing the color. Repeat this with different colors and different shades.
Download for your convenience all solid colors here (packed into a “.rar”-file)
#3 Exercise: Geometric Shapes:
- Grab a piece of paper and draw a basic geometric shape on it. Say, for example, a triangle or a circle.
No need to make it perfect. You can also use the shapes I uploaded for you below. - Now, observe a shape calmly for a moment. Slowly follow its contours once. Think of carefully retracing its contours with a pencil. Then choose a single small detail of this shape. This could be a corner or a small section of a line. Calmly observe this area, and again, think of retracing this particular part a few times. Close your eyes.
- Make sure your face, your eye lids, the area around your eyes is relaxed.
Try to replicate the object on your inner screen. Start with a tiny part of it. The part you previously carefully observed. Think of redrawing the shape with that imaginative pencil. Try holding out your finger and then slowly draw the shape into the air in front of you (with closed eyes).
This is critical now; If you don’t see anything, explain to yourself — in your mind — like, “I see the top edge of the triangle. It points upwards. It’s black. The background is white.” Be very detailed! - Open your eyes, soak up more details of the shape. Discover more details. Observe carefully like Sherlock Holmes would. Be on the lookout for “new” and rediscover old. Keep retracing with your mental pencil.
- Close your eyes again and bring your mental image closer to the “original” one. If you still see only blackness, keep on describing all the details. Describe to yourself what you should see. The more the better. Also, use your finger to draw into the air.
- Repeat this exercise over and over again… until you can reproduce the shape clearly.
You will, sooner or later, if you keep at it. The most important thing is to discover and rediscover all details. The more details you can perceive the more information you feed to your brain the more you will be able to recreate mentally. - Once you’re able to deal with simple shapes, try this exercise with a more complex shape like a star or a letter of the alphabet.
Here some shapes for you to practice. (Each shape opens up a new window on click)
#4 Exercise: YouTube Videos that work with after-images:
This is a little video that displaying a few random items. Your goal here is to observer each single one and then replicate them in your mind’s eye. Please use the guidelines of the above exercises. Stay relaxed and focus on details to sharpen your vision.
#5 Guided Visualization Exercises
You can use the following guided meditations for relaxation while you’re working out in your mind-gym.
Listen to these videos over and over again. In each session try to gain clarity through mentally filling missing details of scenes and objects. Soon you will be able to lighten up your mental theater.
My absolute favorite: TheHonestGuys! These guys create beautiful guided meditation/ imagery videos.
By the way, you don’t need to watch these videos on YouTube. In fact, the easiest way to practice with these videos is to download the audios and to listen to them on your phone or MP3 player.
Here’s how:
– Use an add-on for Firefox: Youtube MP3
– Use this website to convert any video to MP3: YouTubeToMp3
Again – Please pick one or two methods and stick with it. Daily. For 31 days.
I would love to hear from you and your progress. I personally know that this is frustrating but it’s merely a matter of endurance and persistent practice.
What’s your greatest challenge with visualization? Why do you want to learn it? How do you want to apply it? What’s your progress? Do you have any questions at all? Please comment below.
Don’t give up on it and keep at it. Learn how to visualize. Yes, it may take you several months to get better, but then, this is en extraordinarily valuable skill you’ll be able to benefit from all your life.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Marko Martelli
P.S. Once you’ve overcome your initial “blindness”, it’s vital that you actually use visualization. Apply it to improve your life as soon as possible… and… get better at it in the process.
So, in case you’re wondering what you could get started with, I’ve added some links that I think you’ll find very useful:
The best books – (in my opinion) using visualization to improve your life
Memory courses – when learning the art of memory you create memorable images in your mind. In the process you develop a sharpened focus and you’ll automatically train the part of your brain that enables to you gain clarity in creating images.
Meditation course – We all know that meditation not only greatly improves your quality of life, but it also helps you to increase your focus and gain clarity of thoughts. To my opinion, both are crucial factors when trying to visualize
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Hello Marko i used to try those exercises for like a month but uncostantly and then i stopped because of boredom.. I want to start again, and this time i want to to do it seriously. But before start i have to make you two questions:
1) often i have troubles talking about my experiences, stories i have lived, things i have seen, because i have problems at recalling them. my memories are in blurry images that comes to my mind and changes to other images very fast, and i cant hold them for more than a fraction of a second. So when i try to think about these experiences i miss a lot of important details, and i have trouble to translate them in words. Do you think that developping my visualization skills i could solve this problems? Do u think i could recall my experiences and memories easier and with more details? I hope you understand what i m trying to explain.
2) if increase my visualization skills to good/high levels will i have always images and videos in my mind s eye? Or just when i visualize consciously?
Thank you
Dear Alex, Thank you for leaving your comment here!
1) Okay, you’re already able to produce images. That’s excellent (even though not yet clear or stable). Let’s work on getting better.
In terms of memory, I love this one exercise. If you do this every night, for a few days, just before you go to sleep, you’ll get some astonishing results:
–Sit or lie down, deeply relax (use your preferred method), close your eyes.
–Now review your day in your mind. Begin with the very first thing you did when you woke up and go through your whole day in sequence. Just like a movie. What kind of conversations did you have? What did your friends wear? What did you do after you left the house? Etc.
You can push this really far and spend a lot of time on this. The thing is, you will get better really quickly, and, you’ll be amazed how quickly you develop your memory-biceps.
If do not want to commit too much time on this exercise, you can select just a particular part of your day but focus on remembering more details.
Here again, what you focus on… you will strengthen. Focus on holding a certain image in your mind, you’ll get better at stabilizing fickle images. If you constantly dig for details, then… you get the point.
2) I believe when you’ve invested the time to hone your visualization skill, you’ll begin to employ it more or less automatically. For example, I’ve found that I (first consciously, later automatically) began to use it when reading a book. Or, when I think about traveling a certain route with a goal in mind, I do this subconsciously. Or, just last week, before drawing some images (for a video presentation) I switched into “mind-mode” and visualized how I’d draw a heart or a glass of sparkling wine.
The bottom line: First you have to push yourself all the time and whittle away at the resistance and blurriness. But later, the more you do it consciously, the more you run your ‘visualization-software’ on autopilot.
Marko
These are the answers i was looking for, thank you!
You’re always welcome Alex
Another thing: the exercize of focusing to remember the details of the day passed will increase the ability to recall memories of the past or will it work only for the present/future?
You can reach into all directions. You can delve into old memories and over time rediscover lost details or you can use the mechanism of your mind to go into the future (using the principles of Psycho Cybernetics): Rehearsing a future scenario (like a meeting with yours boss, a lovely evening with your loved ones, the ideal golf shot, etc.) — basically creating a future memory so that you’re likey to act as you’re ‘used to do’ (in your mind).
I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but it is very ignorant of the condition of aphantasia. Contrary to your belief, aphantasia is a real thing. It was discovered accidentally when a man in his 60’s underwent a cardiac procedure and afterward complained about no longer being able to visualize. This was a man who had used this “muscle” in excess of 60 years, yet no longer can do it no matter how hard he tries. His brain was not affected in any way otherwise; it was only a cardiac procedure. If this man who had been exercising this “muscle” for 60 years can’t do it, how do you expect people who haven’t been able to do it their entire lives to do it? Anyone who follows this guide and learns to visualize things does not have aphantasia; they simply haven’t been using their ability to visualize. If you have aphantasia, then it is not possible to learn how to visualize. To anyone reading this with aphantasia who gained some false hope only to be let down when all their effort was rewarded with nothing; don’t worry about it. Aphantasia allows you to “view” (process?) the world in a unique way and has many advantages. Everyone I’ve ever met with aphantasia has had a greatly above average ability to learn and memorize information. I think of it as a gift; it keeps me more down to earth and realistic, and better at solving problems. Having to visualize everything to learn and solve problems just slows you down anyway.
Hello, yes, I agree there is a confusion about what Aphantasia is and is not. I’ve explained this, likening it to telling a person with no arms to try to pick up a penny off of the table. Perhaps the prehensile toes on the feet can do it? I’m an artist and have been creating for quite some time. Never have I referenced an image seen in my mind’s eye. Additionally, I am one of the blind who is devoid of other mind sensories, such as smell and taste experienced in the mind. Aphantasia is a spectrum, like autism is a spectrum. I appreciate your efforts here and believe it will help some who are mildly different. But, nothing in these exercises addresses the concurrent situation of nonexistent sensories. But, keep at it and don’t give up hope, it’s just good to know that if you aren’t successful it’s for a very valid reason. Perhaps, you are as different as two people with different colored skin. One has more melonan than another. No matter how hard you try to imagine yourself a different color, you’ll stay the same. Thank you!
Kathy
Not enough is known about “aphantasia” to say much of anything about it. Even if it were comparable to someone losing neurological control of a limb, even that has been overcome with enough determination. I have been struggling for years with this disability or weakness or whatever you want to call it, but I know I must overcome it. I meditate for hours in an attempt to calm my mind, and I try my best to retain afterimages as long as I can. I can only hold them for a second, but even in the past few days I have grown more aware of the mental images that flicker away as I wake from sleep. I think there is a way to overcome this, and likely other internal senses will fall into place after the visual element is working.
My 31 days are up and unfortunately I have not improved. My visuals are just as vague and distant as when I started. I did the candle, colors and shapes exercises for 15 minutes a day. In addition I also tried to visualize and memorize hiragana. I really wanted this to work and kept an open mind throughout, even towards the end when it was becoming very clear that it was not working for me.
Can you describe what your current level is? Do you see anything at all yet?
Depending on how important this is to you: instead of declaring your endeavors as ‘failed’ I suggest you take a break of 2-3 days, then test some other approaches.
I’d like you to try this guided mediation/hypnosis from Michael Sealey. It will take you into a very deep relaxation and you’ll be guided through an exercise to enhance your visual perception and your visual memory.
The deeper you can let go and relax during your exercise sessions the easier the access to your realm of imagination.
I don’t have total “aphantasia” but my visualization skills have always been very, very poor to the point that they might as well not exist. I’ve been doing the candle and shapes exercises for 12 days now. At first I thought it was working, I did seem to be getting slightly better. But now I seem to be slipping backwards and I’ve lost all of the tiny amount of progress I made in the first 5 days. It’s like I hit a mental wall and bounced backwards off it. Any tips for solidifying progress and preventing reversion?
This is totally normal. Since I published this article I continued practicing almost every single day. Sometimes it seemed I made a major breakthrough to a new level… just to find out, the next day, all progress was gone again!
But here’s the important part:
DO NOT STOP! Because it’ll come back and you’ll become even better. It’s comparable to a muscle, that when strained, needs some time to recover and grow. Take it easy and perhaps take one or two days off from exercising… just make sure you’ll continue soon. Perhaps you want to alter your exercise a bit to prevent boredom through repetition. You could exercise with some simple objects or, what I love to do, go to Flickr and experiment with some of the many breathtakingly beautiful photos there.
I’ve been doing this for a week or so and I’m finding all my after images to be all negative colour. Is this supposed to be like this?
Dear Shane,
Some people here already told me they had the same “negative color issue” like you have.
Please try practicing with some ‘real’ but simple objects (spoon, dice, perfume bottle, …). Furthermore, I’ve found that if you stare for too long at a very bright object (especially on the computer screen or a light source like a candle) the chances are you’ll see negative colors. Shorten, experiment with the time you spend observing the object/image.
I’m certain, if you stay with it, you’ll find you can recreate images in their true colors.
Marko
I’m beginning to see burning white flashes that slowly come and disappear shortly after, did you ever experience these type of visions or could this just be visual hallucinations?
Hi Shane,
Hm, I’m not entirely sure what you’re experiencing. It could be a glimpse of the after images. Then, this also reminds me of the white flashes you see when you apply pressure to your eyes. Please make sure you consciously relax prior to the exercises and keep testing.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood something here but I think you are confusing two different things and I’m not sure which one you are actually talking about. From my own experience there seem to be two modes of visualization. Firstly there is the dull, lifeless visualizations that are vague and distorted. The images are more like silhouettes or outlines moving about behind a cloud of black fog. I can control them and direct the scene, but it takes a lot of mental effort. And then secondly there are the perfect clarity, full color, detail-better-than-real-life visualizations. These ones appear randomly and only for a split second. Often they are of things I don’t want to see, like corpses or faces of people I don’t like. I cannot control them. Does thing make sense to anyone else? Which one are you guys talking about?
Thank you for your comment Blue.
What you describe as random, better-than-real-life-images, I haven’t experienced yet, but I heard of others who indeed have.
We are mostly concerned here with the self-manufactured visualization that you can shape, create, control through mental effort… thus enabling you to harness its power to improve your life through, for example, braking bad habits, inciting passion, memorizing, envisioning your ideal future, etc.
All the exercises here are simply a means to an end to gain more control and clarity over the images you fashion purposefully though willpower.
someone posted this on the aphantasia facebook page and I thought i will give it a try I have been trying to learn for 40 plus years to visualize used about every strategy going and nothing and I find the same with this it has made no difference to me at all I have no minds eye to visualise. but i also can not do it with smell sound and taste either. I have no other problems suffered no trauma it is just who i am and I am one of those who will never be able to visualise.
Dear Phoenix,
Thank you for your comment. May I ask, how have you been practicing?
From my personal experience (and from others who emailed me) “aphantasia” merely means that the specific mental muscle responsible to fashion visual imagery lacks practice. Not occasional practice. But at least 15min. (better 30min) every single day.
I’ve interviewed a couple of friends and people who have been using visualization as an integral part of their lives. No one told them how to do it. They apply it naturally on many occasions during the day to review the past, to rehearse the future, etc. They spend a great deal of time visualizing every day routinely, automatically… honing this asset.
In a nutshell, as someone who starts from scratch, I think we have to invest a good amount of time to bring this muscle to life, strengthen it… and then… apply it frequently and routinely in our daily life.
I’ve heard some people say that they don’t have complete control of their visualization. That they may see things they don’t want to and sometimes visuals come unbidden. Do you find that starting from scratch gives you complete control? Or do things come to your mind randomly at times? I want to learn to visualize but there are memories I just don’t want to see.
Dear Kimberley,
What you’ve heard, I think is very natural. Especially if you start from scratch, images will be hard to tame and you have to gently fight for stability and control. The more you hone visualization the more you become the active director of your internal movies. Yet I doubt that you’ll be able to control your mental images 100% at all times… which is probably a natural mechanism of our subconscious minds.
As the transition from crawling to walking is an amazingly complex process, so, I think, is the learning to visualize in great clarity and stability. Your first few steps will be shaky and unstable. Later, you’ll walk without thinking about it consciously anymore.
Thank you for your response. Learning to walk seems like an apt analogy. I read through the the whole process and from what I know about the brain and the mind you make sense. I’ve done guided meditations for years but never have seen the scenes. I imagine things all the time. I feel like the image is there behind a door in another room. I am going to give these exercises a go. Thank you.
The more you resist unwanted images the more the unwanted images try to appear. That was my mistake, for years I shut off all mental imagery because I didn’t want to see the bad images and ended up not seeing any images at all. The trick is you have to let them wash over you, even if they are horrific, just look at them and think well at least I’m seeing *something*. Eventually they will dissipate if you just view them clinically without any emotional reaction.
Hi Marko, thanks for the exercises. I have a question about the after images (I’m still trying the candle exercise), I hope I can word it properly.
I look at the flame (actually it’s a youtube video of a candle lol) for a while and when I close my eyes it seems there’s an after image that fades almost instantly. It looks just like the candle and I’m aware it’s there, but it fades too quickly to hold onto, sometimes I can barely see it. If I keep looking into the darkness, after a few seconds another after image will appear, though this one has the colors inverted (only light/dark at this point) . This one stays for a lot longer and I can focus on it. My question is, which of these two after images am I supposed to try and hold onto? Should I only worry about the initial brief image? Or are both valid for practicing?
Also, do you think using black and white images is a good exercise instead of a candle? Or is this maybe a bit more advanced?
Thanks again!
Thank you for your comment!
“It looks just like the candle and I’m aware it’s there, but it fades too quickly to hold onto, sometimes I can barely see it.” — This is the particular after-image you should try to hold on to. I know, in the beginning it vanishes almost instantly but with constant practice you’ll be able to keep it for much longer (or you can recreate it). If the image is completely gone, try to recall details mentally even if you can’t see them. You could think about the shapes, the colors, the proportion, and you could also imagine holding the object, feeling its contours.
For some people black and white images seems to be easy to replicate. I found it more difficult. In fact, my mind seems to have an easier time with colorful, vivid images.
Thanks for your response. Even though I’ve been practicing for only a few days, I have a feeling I’m able to hold onto the after image for a fraction of a second longer… sometimes. And even when it’s gone I feel like I have a better idea of it’s shape/size/orientation, as if I can look into the darkness but still remember where the image was (a bit hard to explain). Some black and white images seem to work for me, though not the whole image. I guess the contrast helps. I’ll give other images a try. It’s also fun to practice while, say, stuck in traffic. Looking out of a bus window and closing my eyes, trying to hold on to what I was just looking at, has been fun and helpful. I’ll keep it up!
Thanks for article!
But the question how you visualize the image? I mean, you imagine the canvas in front of your closed eyes? It seems I am trying to reconstruct the image and paint it in the black space when I closed my eyes. Or image should be somewhere in your head and you should avoid concentration on your kinda eye area?
Thanks
Slava
Hi Slava,
You can certainly imagine a canvas or a screen (monitor, cinema, phone, …) in front of you… and even painting on a canvas works well. I like to imagine a canvas (white, back, blue, ..) because somehow it helps to have the canvas’ texture to ‘paint’ on. This I do, when I have trouble getting a clear image of, for example, of a blue rectangle. Thinking of using a crayon or a paintbrush to paint makes it more tangible.
Yet, I don’t give my images a location. Even if I imagine painting on a canvas… well, I see the canvas, but I don’t visually place it in front of me. It all happens in your head and you don’t need to focus on projecting the image to a location.
But, please take some time to experiment. It may work better for you to focus on a specific location. See what works best for you.
Hi Marko,
Thanks for putting up this post. I am practicing from the past one month, (I started from almost zero), and I can conjure mental pictures in my head, but they lacks clarity to a very great extend.
So after you have reached a primitive stage of conjuring pictures in your mind, what are the steps/exercises to improve clarity of the pictures ?
Hi Paul,
That’s great feedback Paul! Thank you for sharing your experience.
After you’ve overcome the initial phase of seeing ‘nothing’, try focusing more on details when you observe an object (before visualizing it). Use an imaginary pen and retrace details (outlines, sub-shapes, light reflections, colors, …) while observing. With your eyes closed, repeat the process of using your imaginary pen to recreate the object. It’s like as though you’d need to draw an object from memory. The more careful you observe, analyze and internalize the little things… the better, clearer will be your final drawing.
Hi Marko,
Thanks again. Sounds cool !
How the little things are internalized ? By practicing again, again and again or are there any special methods on internalization ?
Also, how the colors can be made more vivid ?
Paul,
Yes, that’s right. You’ll get better by repetition. You’ll be able to automatically capture more details with a single look.
As with colors, you’ll also get better over time. For me it helps if I suggest to myself the color I want to see. Like, “This shape is filled with a deep blue, like the blue of phone case.”
I have recently started to do that, (for around three to four days), with absolutely zero gains. Are you sure it would work if I practice persistently ? My current state is extremely accurately described by this quotation: “You close your eyes, and all you see is blackness or, at best, you see some blurry shapes.”
Hi Arka, I appreciate your comment. Yes, I can confirm you that it worked for me and other people who started from scratch like you too. Vital key is you keep practicing on a frequent basis.
My name is Arka, not r 🙂
What is frustrating is not only that I am not seeing mostly anything, but after trying hardly (moderately hard), I only can see extremely blurry images which stays almost 1~2 seconds .
Did this happened to you ? How you persisted to get rid of this situation and for how much long ?
Arka, I’m sorry about misspelling your name (fixed now).
I understand your frustration and, let me assure you, this is normal. The only way you can get better (both in clarity and stability) is to practice a lot. For me it took about 6 months of daily practice go from where you are to right now to being able to see clear images.
I wish there would be an “easy hack” to improve very quickly… but so far I haven’t found one. All I know is that with endurance and persistence you will improve.
Think about it for a moment: How important is it to you to acquire this skill? I think, if you plan to benefit from visualization for the rest of your life, it sure is worth practicing a few minutes every day.
Thanks for your (early) reply.
I can now guess that persistence and determination is probably the (only) key.
1. As you have succeeded in visualizing, among these which exercises were most beneficial for you (surely some of them should be more beneficial than the other) ?
2. At the beginning, when you couldn’t visualize almost nothing, how you did the exercises then ? That’s the major problem I’m facing now.
I have a routine that I followed (and still do). It’s a mixture of some of the exercises. On my phone, I created a folder with a) shapes and b) photos (goal images, landscapes, fruits, symbols, etc.). So, every night, just before bed, I open up that folder and I go through some of these images.
This, I think, helped me most. Try adding new images to avoid boredom. Also use images that are meaningful to you and evoke emotions (breathtaking landscapes, images of your goals, family photos, …).
In the very beginning, when I couldn’t see anything at all, I mostly did the candle exercise because of the strong after image you get from looking at the flame.
But this might be different for each individual. Please test working with emotional, meaningful photos, and landscape photos. You can also practice when watching a movie or when you’re waiting somewhere. Observe, close your eyes and try to keep the object or scene in your mind’s eye.
Hello Marko, thanks for sharing these exercises that i started practicing since 3 days.
At second exercise i noticed that when i close my eyes i see blackness for 2 seconds, then if i try to recall the color the afterimage of the square (with inverted colour) comes in the back of my eyelids and it lasts like 5-6 seconds and then it vanishes. My question is: Do i have to focus on the afterimage? or just think about the colour? Because i have issues at recalling the colour.
At #3 and #4 excercises i have troubles too: I can see single parts of the images when i close my eyes, but they are blurry and i can’t hold them more than a fraction of seconds. I’m unable to visualize the picture as a whole, but as i said i can see only parts of it.
Last question: Do i have to practise all five exercises everyday? Or maybe i need to try only the basic ones and when i get better (if i get, i hope to) i need to try also the last exercise?
Thank you very much
Hi Alex,
You can focus on the afterimage while thinking about the color. You’ll be able to recall the colors with some practice.
If you can only see small parts of the image, and that only for a very short time, that’s totally normal. You’re on the right track. Keep practicing and you’ll gain both clarity and stability.
I’d suggest you pick 2-3 exercises you feel comfortable with. It’s crucial, if you want to get better, you keep working on it. Best you practice two times daily. If you really get bored with any of these exercises, try to get some variation. I like to use, for example, a simple memory (match) game from Googleplay. When I play I try capture the details and the position of each single image.
Then, whenever you’ve a free moment, observe a nearby object. Close your eyes and attempt see the object (or scene) with your mind’s eye. Repeat the process, collecting more details and close your eyes again.
Tanks Marko, i will follow your advices!
Will this help me imagine the fiction I am reading? I have never been able to picture the books I read, and have always wanted to.
Hi Luke! Yes, you can enhance your reading experience dramatically when you consciously envision a story. You can start practicing this right away but you’ll have to slow down a lot (in the beginning). Perhaps you pick your favorite book, one you’ve read already. Like with the other imagination exercises, this is about patience and details. Read a line and internally replay it on your mental screen. Even if you initially see nothing, internally describe details. The more the better. The more you dig for details, the ore you magnify the little things, the more clarity you’ll get as a result.
Start maybe with 2-3 paragraphs a day until you get better. If you make this a strong habit, this will help you to create a phenomenal memory for anything you read this way. Persistence and discipline are your best friends.
If you want to take the principle of ‘picturing what you read’ to the next level (for clarity, speed, and comprehension) then I’d suggest check out the content preview of the book “Reading with the Right Brain” by David Butler, on Amazon. Butler gives you lots of examples and exercises on how to imagine what you read.
Marko
Thanks for the reply. I will check out that book. I struggle because I want to be a writer, and have natural talent, but I do not enjoy reading because I do not imagine it, and describing things visually is difficult. I excel instead at metaphor and description of characters’ thoughts, motives, etc. I notice that if I even notice the outside world at all, I am often at a loss of words to describe it. I often find myself resorting to poetic similes to describe what I see. I am usually too lost in deep thought to even notice most things. If I could manage somehow to create a link between the verbal part of my brain and the visual, I think I would be a great writer. Hopefully these exercises will work.
Hi Luke, it sounds like you’ve acquired a very special skill already. Now I think that you can, with some training, train your observational skills too. You could do this anytime during your day. For example, you enter a restaurant and you make it your goal to perceive as much as possible. What kind of people are there? What are they wearing? What are they talking about? What does the environment look like? Etc. Observe with great care for some time and later recall as much as possible on paper. Here again, the more details the better.
William Walker Atkinson teaches in his books a great deal about perception and observation and clearly states that observation is a skill that can (and should) be acquired by anyone who is willing to put some time into it.
Another method you can use, which has been introduced as Image Streaming, can also help you a great deal with ability to observe details. What you do is you consciously relax through with preferred method. When you reached a state of calmness and relaxation, focus on your mental imagery. Then, and this is most important, describe out LOUD what you see in as much DETAIL as possible. Even if you see blackness, or blurry images, keep describing something. You’re forced to observe and find details and your vision will grow in clarity. (Apparently, some studies stated that these exercises increase your IQ when performed frequently).
Marko, let me just say that I am happy to have found this site! I started doing these exercises 3 days ago and have only had success with the first three, with a tiny bit of success with the fourth, and none at all with the fifth. I was wondering though, since the exercises involve afterimages, is visualization really being trained? As in, can I go from only ever seeing afterimages to being able to conjure up images at will? That is my goal.
For a bit of context… I do dream in full color and sound, so I feel that I do have at least some capacity for visualization. Sometimes, I “see” things that aren’t directly in my field of vision, but the images tend to be extraordinarily dim, almost to the point of invisibility (it’s very hard to describe, but maybe this is what visualization is as described by ironwheal?)
Anyway, yeah, I just wanted to know if doing the afterimage exercises led to being able to create mental images at will?
Hi Leo, I think you can compare the visualization process to something like this:
1. “Recording Ability” Storing away visual information in great detail — requires training of analyzation, focus, careful observation and perception.
2. “Recalling Ability” Recalling information from your file cabinet built in step 1. The more info and detail you stored away the more you can recollect.
3. “Redesign Ability” Take the images you already got and merge, rearrange, redesign them to your liking.
So, with persistent training you will be able to keep the images firmly in your mind and even recall and recreate then from scratch.
And I think the process is somehow comparable to dreaming and the ability to recall dreams. If you start keeping a dream journal you will begin to remember more dreams (up to 5-7 per night) every single morning. The more effort you put into describing the DETAILS of your dreams, the more details you will be able to extract out of future dreams… and, what’s more even more important, the more vivid, colorful, and ‘real’ you dreams will become.
Marko
Wow this REALLY WORKS! like you I could only ever see black when I closed my eyes. After 15 minutes of doing your exercises last night I could see all 5 squares and their COLORS! (though they were opposite – blue is red, red is blue etc). What does it mean that I could do this on the first day??? AMAZING! SO HAPPY 🙂
I would love to connect with you and share my results. Send me an email. Would love to know more about how your visualization is going too. This is great stuff!!! thank you so much!
How long can you practice for each day? is 15 – 20 minutes okay? and will it improve faster the more time you spend on it?
I usually spend 10-30 minutes per day. You may want to test for yourself much much is good for you. In the beginning you might get tired from trying too hard. But yes, in my experience, the more you practice the faster you get better.
This is great and I think with your enthusiasm you’ll be able to develop this skill much further rather quickly… and eventually you won’t spend another day without applying this skill consciously to your benefit.
I’ll send you an email.
I’ve actually been doing these types of techniques for years now. Seriously years, since I was 15 or 16 years old and I’m 23 now. It’s never worked once. I still only see black and I’ve read up about a thing called aphantasia which could explain it. But anyway no matter how much hard work and effort I put in, I get no results….and I’m very sad about it. This is so important to me
This has not worked for me, either. The only time I can visualize is while sleeping. I think it may be a dissociative symptom of clinical depression and depersonalization. However, a large reason why I am depressed right now is because I cannot visualize, and keep failing school consequently. Very frustrating.
Marko – just discovered something and thought I would share it with you. As I mentioned in one of my posts above, I had been seeing images in my mind’s eye for weeks now, but often the colors were inverted. I thought it had to do with my using my eyes against the backs of my eyelids instead of my mind’s eye. It turns out it’s something more scientific. When you stare at a color for a length of time, you will see the opposite color when you close your eyes. Here’s one of my articles I found about it: http://www.worqx.com/color/after_image.htm
That explains why I can imagine objects in the correct color, but could never see objects I was looking at on my screen to appear in the correct color. The best news of all, however, is I am seeing the objects very clearly and I have you to thank for it!
Brandon, you did it!
I’m so glad you persisted and proved to yourself that everyone can learn this. Most people would have given up already.
Now that you made it that far; how are you going to apply this new “mental-power”?
Personally, I started rehearsing my future goals with their associated actions — finally in vivid detail and clarity.
Another thing I picked up again is memorization (quotes, content of books, vocabulary, …) So much more enjoyable with good visualization skills.
P.S. Thank you for the link – I’ve also experienced the inverted color effect after staring for 10-20 seconds on a bright image on the screen.
Sorry for the grammar errors above. Obviously, it’s not my article, that was supposed to be ‘many.’ I was so excited to discover I was visualizing correctly I didn’t bother to proofread before posting. 🙂
I’m working on the dreams right now, but your comments about goals is interesting. In the Remembering Your Dreams course, Dr. Metivier talks about writing your goals/desires down in a journal every day so I’ve started that. I think I’ll add visualization to that process as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi Brandon, I have struggled to visualize for a long time. Is there anyway I could contact you to ask you a few questions? Thanks.
Jon, did you try the exercises? Key is to stay with it for at least 14 days to see somewhat of an improvement.This, unfortunately, takes long to develop but daily practice will pay off.
Marko, I have done these exercises in the past. I do not remember for how long. I will try again. I just wanted to know if you guys started from absolute zero in terms of mental imagery. Was the very concept of visualizing completely foreign to you? There seems to be talk of the afterimage eventually transitioning into a mental image. That has never happened for me. In any case, this inability to visualize has recently been dubbed “aphantasia” by scientists, and has been receiving a lot of press recently. If this exercise works, it would be a major breakthrough.
Jon, yes, I started from zero and, as far as I understood, Brandon did so too.
And I don’t believe in aphantasia or,let’s say, I think it’s rather comparable to an atrophied muscle that merely needs workout. You also can’t do any pushups if you haven’t used your arms for 10 years.
As a note, for some reason it seems easier for me to to work with happiness-teasing photos like beautiful beaches, lush landscapes than with anything else.
Try out Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/explore) choose a photo that triggers some good emotions and then work with that single image for at least 10 minutes.
When you visualize, are you seeing things “on the back of your eyelids” or “somewhere in your head?” It’s a debate with my wife.
What I described above I see on the backs of my eyelids. It’s gotten to the point where I often close my eyes and see what I was just looking at. It’s in black and white, almost always reversed from the way it’s supposed to be.
My wife says real visualization is not there, but out in your mind. I can often see things this way, but it’s in milliseconds – I know the image was there, but I can’t hold it long enough to tell you anything about it.
I’ve been focused on improving what I see on the “back of the eyelids,” but am starting to suspect that’s not really what people mean by visualization.
Any thoughts on that?
You’re already get some images that means you’re on the right way.
I think it purely takes part in your mind only and, if you focus on the backs of your eyelids, you might prevent yourself from getting the best results.
Every time you close your eyes make sure they are absolutely relaxed. Then, while you visualize, can you try focusing on the center of your head? This works for me when I realize I try to see with my eyes instead of my mind.
Much of the confusion goes from the fact is that when you visualize something, you don’t actually SEE it. You just IMAGINE it with high enough level of detail. It’s NOT really a VISION, but a mental construct. After you get well accustomed to this idea, everything tends to go on just fine. The keys are persistence and regular exercises.
1. Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a simple geometric shape on it, such as a circle. Use a black marker, so the lines are thick and sharp. Observe the circle for 10-15 seconds, then close your eyes and try to hold the image as long as possible. (Don’t forget you are not trying to see it with your eyes, it feels to be residing “somewhere else”, at least in the beginning of practice) As soon as the image begins to fade, open your eyes and look at the real drawing. Then close your eyes and repeat the visualization attempt. You should use different shapes for every practice session. Today it’s a circle, tomorrow a square, then a triangle, and so on. Your goal is to learn to hold those mental pictures for at least two minutes without losing them or getting tired.
2. Now let’s learn to “dissolve” them, that means make visualized shapes vanish at will. It’s generally very simple, but if you can’t do it for whatever reason, you may try to move a shape in any direction until it is no longer in the field of view. Or you could try to make it smaller and smaller, until it turns into a dot and then completely disappears.
3. When you are comfortable with holding and disappearing the mental images, let’s try morphing. It’s a more complex task, and many people have problems when the transformation doesn’t go as it should. For example, when you try to morph a square into a circle, it turns into a hexagon instead. When this happens, don’t get annoyed and don’t start the exercise from the beginning. Try to continue a botched transformation and repair it into a successful one, like morphing that hexagon into a real circle.
4. Let’s do color. Again take a blank sheet of paper and paint a color spot. It should be quite big, at least 5x5cm. Color doesn’t really matter, because you’ll have to repeat the exercise with all primary colors anyway. Observe the spot for 10-15 seconds, then close your eyes and try to hold the mental image of it for about 2-3 seconds, then open your eyes and repeat. You should do this at least 30 times during one practice session. If everything’s ok, then for the next session you increase the time of retention of the image. If it’s easy for you to hold the image, increase the time by 2-3 seconds, if not, just one second will do.
Persist and don’t allow yourself to get discouraged. You should dedicate some weeks or even months to regular practice before complaining that it “doesn’t work” 😉
5. For this exercise you’ll need your dearest cellphone and some other phone, such as you home landline. Sit comfortably, take you cellphone and observe carefully it for about 1 minute. Now close you eyes and picture it in your mind with highest possible detail. Dont blame yourself if the image is vague and unstable, any result will do. Now open your eyes and compare your mental image with its real prototype. What did you miss, what are the differences?
Again close you eyes and visualize the corrected image of you cellphone. Try to imagine what happens when it receives an incoming call from your home line. Try to see the screen lighting up, your home number appearing on it (or whatever name is associated with it), feel it vibrating in your hand, hear the ringtone. Now open your eyes and call yourself from the other phone. Compare the look, feel and sound of the real call with your mental image. Note the differences.
Close your eyes and once again imagine the call, the corrected version this time. Utilize all your senses — read the caption on the screen, hear the ringtone and feel the vibration.
6. Take a lighter or a box of matches. Work it through the above mentioned algorithm: first study it visually, then close your eyes and visualize it in front of you. Imagine a fire popping out of the lighter, or a match bursting with flame. Now light it for real. Once again, visualize, correcting the difference.
When you have learned to reproduce real objects more or less sharply and accurately, try altering their mental images. Try changing the number or font on the phone screen, color of the flame, lighter design, etc.
5. Books are usually full of very detailed descriptions of people, places, objects, etc. that almost automatically turn into vivid mental images. Grab your favourite novel or story and begin reading. After some lines and paragraphs close your eyes and try to picture whatever you have just read. Try to note as much detail as possible: places, scenery, atmosphere, objects, people and the words they are saying, and so on. Visualize for about a minute, then get back to the book. Read some more, then repeat visualization. Don’t do this exercise for more than 5 minutes.
Also, 3-5 minutes of breathing practice greatly improve visualization results energizing your body and calming your mind. Just do some rhythmic breathing, or still better, 1:4:2 breathing exercise. That means, for example, inhale in 4 heart beats, then hold your breath for 16 heart beats, and slowly exhale in 8 beats. You can improve the practice by making the phases longer, just observe 1:4:2 the proportions.
Thank you so much for your valuable input here!
Especially:
This is very true. Especially in the beginning it’s every easy to give up. But once you experience you’re making an actual progress it’s like opening a door into a new world of possibilities.
Yes, I’ve been through all this. In the beginning I also thought that I was somehow “defective” and could not visualize 🙂 But persistent work and discipline paid off eventually 🙂
PS. During my research I found out that at least for some people (I didn’t really have this issue) common incandescent lights present a huge problem. It seems that 50Hz (60Hz) powerline flickering “overloads” visual processing core in the brain, somehow locking them into their objective mind and preventing the subconscious from opening. If that’s the case, one may practice in daylight, or use fluorescent or LED lighting, or even go really old-school and use candles or oil/kerosene lamps (which also add to the atmosphere if you’re doing something occult).
I’m a little over a month into my daily practice and have made some progress. With the candle exercise, I can typically see the candle and flame (but it doesn’t look like the flame, and the color is totally off). I also see whatever else is in my field of vision. I’ve made similar progress with Exercise #2, particularly the first video.
My general challenge is colors. Most images are black and white and reversed (e.g. dark colors appear light, light colors appear dark). For example, I am unable to see the shapes I’ve drawn on piece of paper (ironwheal’s first exercise) because the white piece of paper appears black to me so I can’t see anything I’ve drawn. Another example is when I do the candle exercise, I can see the black rubber band on my wrist, but it shows up as a fluorescent white color. The rare times I see color, it’s in the wrong place. For example, the very first image in Exercise #2 is a red ball on a black/gray background. When it’s not appearing as a black circle on a light background, I see a black circle on a reddish background.
Any suggestions?
Brandon,
I’m happy to hear that you kept at it and that you’re making progress.
If you’re having trouble to imagine the right colors then you may want try working with solid colors only.
Please check out the article as I’ve added an extra exercise.
Marko
Marko – thank you for all of the ideas to try! With The Honest Guys, did you just listen to the audio or watch the accompanying video as well?
Hi Brandon,
Maybe you could use the video’s images as after-images. But myself, I actually never watch the videos. Usually I just download the mp3 and listen to it on my phone while lying on the bed.
An additional tip when you listen to their videos is to “zoom in” into the details. F.e. you see a meadow – now, how does a piece of grass look like? Remember how it looks like. Grab one and squeeze it with your fingers. How does it feel and smell? How about its texture, etc.
Marko
Thanks so much for this info! Unfortunately I’m still struggling. I’ve tried the online videos a few times, but a microsecond after my eyes close I have no idea what the thing I was just looking at looks like. I’ve tried the candle exercise for the first time tonight (I’m leery of looking at a candle as it can burn your retina if you do it too long). Even with the candle, the light source is visible as a white on dark for a second, maybe two, but the candle it was attached to is gone the instant my eyes close. Is there any sort of trick of how I look at the items I’m supposed to imagine? Do I start at the candle flame? Do I try to take in the entire peripheral vision all at once (like I’d do if I’m playing sports), or just casually look at various elements of the candle/flame a bit like a pinball?
Derek,
I understand your frustration. It’s hard to start from ground zero.
It doesn’t really matter how you look at the candle (or whatever item). Just make sure to relax your eyes and your eyelids when closing them.
Personally, I think I had the biggest breakthrough with the videos from the HonestGuys. I kept listening over and over again to one audio that resonated with me most (the Sanctuary and actually one of Middle Earth Meditations) and suddenly I could ‘see’ parts of the guided environment very clearly.
So, if you’re listening to these, try to feel the grass under your feet, the touch of the walls, etc. Use all your senses. The more often you listen to one, the more “color” you can fill in over time.
Did you try to visualize with open eyes? For some people it appears to be easier.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to stick with one repeatedly and see if I can start filling in detail.
I have tried to visualize with open eyes as well, but without much luck. I almost feel like with all these visualizations that I’m visualizing like a blind person. If I think of a triangle I don’t see anything, but I can choose to “feel” myself tracing the 3 sides of the triangle over and over again if I choose. Or I might think of a soda tin, and while I can’t see it, I can sort of “feel” the shape of it, and even turn it or spin it or whatever without seeing anything. The weird thing is that I need to feel movement for me to see it. If I just imagine having a tin in my hand, I can’t see or feel anything. But if I imagine grabbing it, or the act of touching it, I can get some rudimentary “touch visualization”. That said, listening to guided meditations of walking through a forest or putting my hand in a cool stream I can’t seem to visualize either.
Anyways, I’ll keep plugging away and hopefully make some real progress. In the near future I might be seeing a psychiatrist and getting some lithium supplement to see if that will help. A buddy of mine is convinced it would help me since it helped him with his mental issues he was dealing with.
I have heard that afterimage retention is the key to unlocking the ability to visualize in the waking state. I can do it while asleep, so I know my brain can do it. I will keep at this, hopefully something will click.
Hello, I am on my fourth day of this. I hope it works. I can only visualize in my dreams. While awake I can think only in words and concepts. I have been very frustrated about this for years, and have seen many doctors. No one understands. Any other tips?
Hi Jon,
Keep on practicing – It helped me and it certainly will work for you. Persistence is the key.
Make sure to be relaxed, when you do these exercises.
You do see an after image when doing the candle exercise?
Yes, I think so. What is the difference between an afterimage and a mental image?
When you look into a light source then close your eyes, you’ll see a bright duplicate (usually fades quickly), no matter how good your visualization skills are.
The more your practice the easier you can transition from an after-image to a controlled mental image.
Mark, thanks a ton for your article! Your candle exercise worked wonders!
Regards,
Daniel