Untamed monkey brain

So I was trying to do some visualization for something specific and I got myself calm and tried it, except it didn’t go well.

Instead of having intrusive thoughts in which I assume are words, phrases or having an entire dialogue, I have another problem:
The fact that I can’t hold an image still.
I can visualize something perfectly fine while reading or just do it extremely vague on my own without anything else, but with actions or detailed things my mind just go nuts.

“Oh you’re trying to imagine going into an underground city or something? Nope, you’re now in a random forest, and now you’re in space instead.”
“You wanna take one step down the stairs? Nope, all the way down. Actually, let me teleport you into another place.”
The shit that my mind shows is so random and I just get so agitated at myself for not being able to control it.

Neither can I do it in first person and when I try it just pushes me out quickly. Sometimes I can’t even progress or walk further for some reason and I have to force myself to go. Sometimes I can visualize better with my eyes open than closed.

I don’t know if it’s just the lack of practice or focus or what it is. Hell, maybe even something external.
This is me venting but I hope you guys can give me some tips and help on how to “tame” it or control it.

3 Likes

Are you talking about visionary magick, right? The method in Lucifer and the hidden demons and one or two more grimoires.

Just relax as much as you can, meditate everyday and try the method first just reading the lines. For practice, invent your own, once you can do that, try again with the grimoire.

3 Likes

my trick is just to let the mind take you to the place. All the places you’re imagining to go to, there is a level of just letting all the areas pass through. Be calm within the areas it brings you to. Practise makes perfect yes but everyone is prone to their own mind being a level of frustration. Let go the illusion of control so to speak

4 Likes

I’m not sure if you’d call it visionary magick, but o was trying to do the Core Shamanism thing which requires visualization.
I can visualize to feel things fine but to see? Nope

3 Likes

But that’s the thing, I have a specific place and goal in mind. I can’t have my mind take me to random places for 5 seconds and go off into another one. Playing an entire script or movie

1 Like

My mind jumps around as well - wim hof breathing

1 Like

I just know what you mean. It happens to me all the time.

Spend some time in preparation for the exercise, do some rituals for cleansening and charging up your aura with fresh energy. Crowley would do many many rounds of chants before trying to scry an aethyr. This really helps escaping the wilderness of the mind.

5 Likes

This might be more to do with the visualization technique than your abilities. Someone mentioned LHD, and you could maybe try applying their style of visualizing mental journeys to the work you’re doing.

Instead of trying to hold and maintain an entire environment while moving around through it, you allow the movement between important milestones to be implied, like in a movie when it cuts from one place to another. This way you just have to picture one thing at a time, and then move on to the next.

Short, succinct written descriptions are probably important, too. Being able to focus my mind on a descriptive sentence while picturing that location, just like I do when reading, has been helpful.

You also shouldn’t need to go super in-depth on describing every little detail. I would try focusing on the important landmark or symbol or whatever the main feature of the location with the description is, and then allow other details to arise naturally if they will.

By way of example, the first line of Paymon’s pathworking is, “A white horse stands motionless on the opposite bank of a rushing river.” You may wonder, where is this river? Is it in a forest, or running through a rocky plain? Is it day or night? What season is it? What can you smell? All of these little details will sometimes change for me, and sometimes they will remain consistent. Sometimes the image arises with astounding clarity, sometimes I barely see anything at all. It doesn’t matter, so long as I focus on the descriptions with the intent to summon, I will arrive at the place where Paymon resides.

5 Likes

Your mind is fun. It goes places. Like free movie. lol. The key is to be observer with no judgements. My mind often blank majority of times… Unless i’m stress like the crazy noisy neighbor which gets me to keep thinking of ways to curse the guy. =o)

You can do self hypnosis with self suggestion to how you want your mind to work. reprogram it.

5 Likes

Y’all are awesome for taking your time to explain the most basic of stuff :+1:t3:

1 Like

Check out the recent post I made.

Tips for Monkey Mind

1 Like

I get you. I’m a visual person. So my issue comes in toning down the amount of info I let in. I currently still suck at still meditations and following directions. So what I started to do is just let my mind do its thing when I meditate. If it gets too off course I pull it back a bit but i stopped beating myself up about my spastic mind. It has helped immensely. Also have a clear defined goal for each meditation. It helps 100% to do that.

2 Likes