To: K-list
Recieved: 2000/06/03 03:22
Subject: Visualization vs Imagination was Re: [K-list] Digest Number 170
From: John Rushworth
On 2000/06/03 03:22, John Rushworth posted thus to the K-list:
Lesley and John pondered:
>>what if I hold
>> up this orange
>> ball...you look at it...then I take it away...can
>> you still see it?
>Very interesting question, John:
>Except I often see a picture before I find out what
>the object is.
Hmmmm...So this is what I'd term spontaneous imagery (either hypnagogic,
hynapompic, lucid dream or awake imagery) wheras the example I give of the
orange ball, would be willful visualisation? Terminology gets tough I feel
in these areas, yet somehow matters in communicating the experience?
>Usually seeing the picture sends me
>looking for the object in an encylopedia or online. I
>often see even a word as a picture, sentences as a
>string of words. I see pages of text almost like a
>photograph.
This moves into another area which I think is termed eidectic memory?
Interestingly it occured to me that maybe folk that could see words as a
picture could almost cheat in exams! I checked this out with a friend as I
felt dis-advantaged by not being able to re-call formuale etc as real
visual images in my mind. One friend said, although he could visualise well
(full colour movies) he couldn't quite memorise as a clear image a crib
sheet for exams. What he could do, was recall an image in the exam of say
a sheet of paper with formulae written. He couldn't actuually see the
formulae but he could recall a process where he had written them down when
revising in an indented form on a sheet of paper. He was then able to
recall positional information by visualisation of where any particular
formuale would be. This was sufficient to trigger the memory of the actual
formulae. Now I know why, I didn't do as well in exams;) My exscuse and I'm
sticking to it...anyhow that rememinds me of the neumonic (Sp) method of
recalling lists as in mind mapping techniques by Tony Buzan. Another
subject that..
>Some of my dreams have text in them so
>vivid I actually can read what the text says from the
>image in my mind and remember some of it when I wake
>up.
OK so that seems to be something like eidetic memory but whilst dreaming.
Hmmm.....have you tried doing this when awake? e.g. read a small poem.
Close the book and recall it into memory as a real and clear image and
complete. Is this the way memory artists remember whole books?
>I also see symbols that I later find in books
>(like the spoked wheel spoken of in esoteric texts or
>the core star).
Again this seems a variation on the theme. I've seen a hypnagogic
(borderland falling asleep) image of a geometrical figure that cannot exist
in relality. I wonder what that is about? It was a 3D hexagonal structure.
I don't think mathematically (any mathemeaticians out there) that can work.
e.g.A football (soccer ball..I'm a Brit) I think is made up of Pentagons?
i.e. all panels are pentagons and sewn together to make a sphere. Imagine
the pentagons being flat and I still think that is a possible 3D shape but
hexagon..No?
>I get snapshots that suddenly appear
>in my mind and I don't know what some of the stuff in
>the image is. Then, sometimes years later, I will
>suddenly be driving along and the snapshot will
>suddenly move over what is outside and I know I am
>where the picture in my mind predicted I would be.
Fantastic. What events for example OOI?
>I
>frequently see moving images that are literally like
>short films and I can usually replay them in my mind
>like a video.
That, to me, is visualisation whether a real "life" scene or a created one
and could include, past, present or future.
>I also get fully formed pictures of art
>that I am going to paint in my mind. I used to design
>sweaters and would just get a picture of a finished
>sweater in my head, right down to the stitches and the
>colors.
Wonderful...what a gift or normality. For me as a sometime Engineer...now
try and conceive how I would build a structure such as an engine or
gearbox. For me I need to "think" it through (no pictures) and experiment
with modelling it in my mind as a 3D thought. I do well on spatial tests.
This though seems to me to be a linear process as it were wheras a
visualiser would see an image as a real kind of hologram that they could
manipulate in their mind's eye. I tested or checked this out with my
brother and friend. I found it interesting as my friend visualises well and
my brother not at all. The visualiser is faster in conceiving BUT in that
process the visualiser may miss detail or a potential problem in
constructing an idea into reality. This seems to be a key difference. The
linear non visual thinker will to my mind arrive at the answer more slowly
but in, possibly, a more thorough way?
This was a fun discussion I had. Both my friend and brother were Directors
of a company I sold to them...in their differences they then complemented
each other in their skills when developing web based content. You may know
the feeling...create a sentence made of words spoken in a pictorial way and
speak it...the visualiser seesm to grasp the import or concept faster
wheras the thinker may do it in more time but more thoroughly? Maybe the
key is to do both!
>I do paint but I earn my living writing.
I write mostly for a motorcycle magazine for a living. I paint technically
very poorly, but use it as a way to express some of my awakening experiences.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience Lesley. It really does give me
perspective into our various modalities. Surely understanding this
perception area is one key to the process of documenting and sharing ones
changes in awakening?
John R.
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