From: casspa@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU (Paul Cass)
Subject: Inner Journeys Visualizing
Date: 7 May 1993 19:37:37 GMT

There has been some question on visualizing and how difficult it is
for some people to accomplish this.  Personally I think it is a matter
of practice and exercising mental muscles that we do not normally
use.  Infact I think that in many ways we are trained not to use the
abilities that we are born with.  We are consistently directed toward
what we can feel, see, touch, smell etc..  There is no doubt that
these are all good and necessary but there are other ways of seeing
things, and imaging and visualization are simply tools to help us do
that.

To help I have typed up a few exercises from a book on shamanism by
Jose Stevens plus a few from some other sources and a couple of my
own.

I.
1.  Find a safe comfortable place where you will not be
interrupted.  it is best to turn the lights low and lie down on
your back with your body stretched out.
2.  Take three deep breaths and blow out all the tension you might
feel.
3.  Become aware of your body.  Start with your feet and gradually
move upward through each joint until you reach your head.
4.  Begin to notice the effect that gravity has on your body. 
Notice that it pulls you downward, pressing various parts of your
body more deeply into the carpet or floor.  Notice how it holds
down your clothes an you arms and legs.  Feel its effect on your
face.  Realize that without gravity you would float up and drift
around the room.  Gravity gives you body weight.
5.  Let go of any resistance you have to gravity.  It is a natural
and constant force.  Give into it.  allow gravity to pull out all
the tension left in your body.  Let it drift downward deep into the
earth where all energy is renewed.
6. Notice, however, that the thoughts and images in your mind are
not subject to gravity.  You are free to travel with them anywhere
you wish to go.
 
II.  Choose an object in your home.  Relax and close your eyes.
Re-create the object in your mind as carefully as possible, including
every detail you remember.  If you need to, open your eyes and look at
the object again.
 
When you have re-created this object to the best of your ability,
begin to focus on each part of it.  Notice everything: color, texture,
smell, sound, temperature.  Take each quality that you have noticed
and describe it to yourself in natural terms.  For instance, if you
are looking at a lamp with a rough brownish ceramic base and a silk
white shade, you might see the base as have the same qualities and
color as a rock, and the shade may resemble the white petal of a lily.
Go through the entire object in this way using every sense you can.
 
Now let your imagination take over.  Begin making some changes in your
object, again using natural qualities and all the senses.  You can
make these changes humorous for added benefit.  For example the lamp
now can become furry like an animal, smell like cinnamon and dance
around the room singing loudly.  This step is an important one since
it exercises your imagination as well as your ability to empower your
images with the spirit of nature.  Spend as much time here as you
like.  You may even try to allow the object to change on its own
without your instruction.  See what comes in; it may surprise you.
 
III.  Close your eyes and visualize a cube floating about six feet in
front of you.  Mentally paint the cube red and then picture cuts being
made in the cube; two from the top surface down, two from one side to
the other, and two from front to back. Finally you are left with one
large cube composed of a whole bunch of smaller cubes.  Without
opening your eyes count how many small cubes go into making up the one
large cube.  How many have red paint on 3 sides, how many with red
paint on 2 sides, how many with red paint on 1 side and how many with
no paint at all.  This exercise actually combines a number of
different facilities and helps promote mental acuity.
 
IV.  In your area locate a plant, an animal and a rock that attract
you.  In turn, for each of these entities:
1.  Become friends with that entity.
2.  Imagine yourself becoming smaller and smaller until you become
smaller than an atom.
3.  Enter into the entity and travel to its center.
4.  Slowly allow yourself to grow larger and flow into every part
of the entitity until you become it and all its affinities.
5.  Come back and as this entity, write down what you think and
feel, what's enjoyable about being you, what attarcts you, your
hopes, opinions, tensions etc.
 
V.  In a place free from poinsonous plants, ticks or other dangers,
get down on all fours.  Imagine that you are a microbial cell crawling
around in this planet's gigantic global life community.  You are,
after all in its atmosphere, therefore you are functioning as a
bacterium or cell in the Earth organism.
 
VII.  For each of the above exercises write a Haiku. A Haiku is three
line prose whose first line contians 5 syllables, second line contains
7 syllables and third closing line contains 5 syllables.
       Orange sunrise leaves.
       Awaken deep within me.
        The dawn of being.
 
oooops more next time...
BB
casspa
-- 
                          * * * * * * *
"It is possible to join forces, to identify common goals, and to agree on
 common action." - U.N. World Commission on Development and Environment
		       casspa@jacobs.cs.orst.edu