E.A said about a visualization exericse, in which he said we should look at a lamp/any object and try to bring the image in our mind without seeing it.
Here’s a question I have:
I have been practicing visualization exercise of the image of a face. My question is ‘how’ should I try to remember the face? Should I look at the contors first, dark and light parts, general face structure etc like an artist/sculptor? Or should I go like the way Donald Kraig suggests in his book ‘Modern magic’?
In this method , you scan the object/image line by line from right to left in a ‘Z’ fashion, about one inch strip at a time. Once you scan a line from right to left, you go below and again start from right to left.
After this is done, you try to ‘remember’ the object in the same way, project it from memory, from right to left in a z-fasion, again.
(Steps 1-4 are not related and are about performing LBRP, relaxation exercises etc before the exercise)
STEP 5: Scanning: This step works in a way similar in nature to
the method by which a television produces a picture. In a picture tube
is a device called an “electron gun” which shoots electrons in a small
single beam toward the screen, forming a “scan line” across the front
of the tube. The beam from the electron gun then jumps back to just
below the first line and repeats the process. If you look closely at the
fromtof your set when it is on, you can see the lines. But you cannot see
the lines being made because the process is done so fast that your eye
cannot follow it, so it appears that you have a solid picture.
In this meditation technique, scanning is done this way:
Start by looking at the upper right hand comer of your
chosen card.
Look at a horizontal strip of the card about a half-inch from
top to bottom. Move your vision from right to left across the
width of the card. Thus you should have a strip of the card in
your mind composed of the uppermost half-inch of the card.
Now return to the right-hand side of the card and scan
again across the card, from right to left, covering another halfinch
immediately below your previous scan.
Repeat this process until you have totally covered the
card.
What you are doing is observing the card, from top to bottom, a
half-inch at a time. Try to remember as much of each strip or "scan"as
you can, but don’t worry about perfection. You will get better with
practice.
STEP SIX. Contemplation: In this step you will become fully involved
with the object. Put simply, the technique is to reproduce the
previous step of scanning, but within your mind’s eye.
Put down the card so that you can no longer see its face.
By memory, go through and visualize the entire scanning
process.
Go one strip at a time until you have reproduced, to the best of
your ability, the entire card in your imagination. The first time you do
this you may miss many things and colors, and perhaps you will only
be able to recall and mentally create the outline of shapes that were on
the card. It is not importantthatyou are completelyaccurate with your
visualization, but your visualization abilities will improve with practice.
This does not mean that it is permissible to be lazy or overly brief
in this process. You must do the very best that you can. This step
100 / Modern Magick
should take between three and four minutes, but if you wish it may
take longer.
STEP SEVEN. Negation:
Starting again in the upper right-hand comer of the card
which you have now visualized through the scanning procedure,
take the topmost scan and, moving from right to left,
erase the image. That is, “de-scan” it; make it disappear. In your
mind’s eye you should still see a card, but with its top halfinch
removed.
Return to the top right-hand comer of what is left of your
visualized card and take off another strip.
Continue this de-scanning, erasing process until the entire
card is gone from your mind. Duration for this step: about I1fz-3
minutes, maximum.
STEP EIGHf. The State of True Meditation: At this point, a very
interesting phenomenon will occur. Your consciousness which has
been caught up in the act of de-scanning the visualized card, will also
be “gone” (actually it will only be silent) by the time the card is gone.
Your consciousness will be silent and the monologue in your head
will be stopped. This will give your subconscious a chance to speak to
you and give you possibly important messages and information.
Usually the first time somebody tries the process described
above, the true meditative state lasts only an instant. The inner voice
returns and asks something like “Am I silent? Did I do this right?” As
soon as the voice comes back, the meditation is over.
As you practice this technique you will be able to make that instant
of true meditation last a minute, five minutes, or more. As this
state stretches out in length you will have a new feeling come over
you, a feeling of being in total harmony with the universe, of having all
knowledge and knowing that although things must evolve to a better
state, all things are exactly as they should be at this instant in time. This
is known as cosmic consciousness or enlightenment. It is, as I have
said, really impossible to speak of this state of feeling, this state of existence.
You must try it and discover its beauty for yourself.
The DMK exercise described is for meditation; fully preoccupying your mind in memorising a tarot card (or some such other image) in detail, and then erasing the image from your mind…the theory being that your mind will then be clear of all thought and preoccupation, and so you will go into a true meditative state.
The EAK structuring exercise if for a different purpose, really. By all means try to visualise objects or people etc. however you like.