Minds eye

I’m wondering, or hoping at least if anyone has experience with developing their minds eye. No I don’t mean your third eye, but rather what most people call their imagination. Until I started researching and learning about magic I had no idea that most people are able to form vivid pictures in their mind when they close their eyes. Unfortunately I am not. All I see is usually dark/black or brown or red if there is a bright light.

After image work does leave bright colors, however I am unable to manipulate or change the image formed from after images. When I’m trying to fall asleep I do reach a point where my mind flashes images vaguely that are more like something very far in the distance or semi transparent, never anything clear.

Strangely I’ve always had bright vivid and lucid dreams in which I can touch, taste, feel and even smell.

I find it somewhat discouraging that I am unable to visualize anything when everything magical requires visualization. I definitely imagine and say dream… but it’s more like a mental dialogue with myself than an image.

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Magic does NOT require visualization. So do not be discouraged.

In developing your minds eye, it will come with practice and time (most likely. I cannot say for sure, as I am not you :stuck_out_tongue: but that is true for most things). In the meantime, get comfortable with meditation, learn a banishing ritual, and just do you. There is a lot you can study (such as the above subjects) that do not require any sort of visualization at all.

If you want to practice visualization and developing your imagination try taking everyday household objects. Things that you own, that are simple in design. A spoon for example. Hold it in front of you and get really comfy and familiar with the spoon. See the spoon in your hand. Then close your eyes and try to see the spoon in your head. Or hold the spoon and then put it down and hold your now empty hand up, and try to picture the spoon there in your hand. These practice sessions don’t have to be long. Like five minutes a day until you start to get the hang of it.

Just don’t get hung on visualization and the ability to hold pictures in your mind. It is something that comes with practice, and it is hard, for us who can visualize without effort, to hold something in our heads, a steady image, for more than a minute even!! It takes practice and training and effort, and its going to be even more of a challenge for you. That’s just the hand your dealt. So don’t stress over it, and take it smoothly. Be gentle with yourself when you practice this.

This is a 3 AM rant for me xD so Im going to bed before I ramble even more incoherently.

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You have aphantasia, the inability to form mental pictures. Luckily, it’s not a death sentence for magic. Go to the following website to learn about image screening, it’s a technique that will cure you.

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Do not try to imagine something just expect it to be imagined and your mind will fulfill the request. You do not need to visualize something but instead imagine it in whatever form that takes for you. The key is to have perfect clarity and focus on the thought of that thing. So imagine an apple and tell me what comes to you? Is concepts and sensations related to the apple that are unmistakable to you as being related to an apple even if not in the traditional photograph of an apple in your mind? This is what you need to perfect the ability to imagine with perfect clarity without disruption from outside thoughts. So if you imagine an apple you want only the apple in your mind and nothing related to say the cereal you had for breakfast.

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Mmm that does make perfect sense. The other ideas are fair as well, but I have been working them since October with little or not success to gaining images. But yes with an apple per say I can imagine the taste, feel,texture, and even the crisp sound of biting into it.

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Then focus on keeping your imagination of ever more complex things clear and held as long as possible. Maybe start with the apple until you can hold the imagining of it for 10 minutes without interruption and work your way up to an entire forest glade or other things for practice. The image aspect itself will likely come with time as your focus on holding concepts and other senses improves.

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Really curious… ppl who can “see” things in their mind… where do you see them? Like does the image feel as if its cone from your eyes, or does it appear with in the area occupied by your head? I so cant imagine being able to see stuff!

Edited to add… i have posted about the apperance of spirits before, that image has come from an impression or dream rather than a visualisation

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This is just an odd thing not being able to do. I don’t remember it ever being a problem before for anyone.

Maybe so but that doesn’t change that I can’t. If you research it something like 2% of people can’t. Throwing a number out there because I don’t remember but it is a low number and the advice here jives with what I’ve found.

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