As long as I can remember, I have never had the ability to close my
eyes and see a mental image.  It is something that has always puzzled
me and is something I would love to correct.  I am of above average
intelligence, but I feel I could do so much more if I could "acquire"
this ability.  When it comes to sports, memorization, hobbies, etc.,
the ability to visualize seems to be a large component of being
successful.  I may be imagining this, but it seems the directions for
so many skills require an individual to close their eyes and
"visualize" some aspect of the required training.  This is where I
have to stop and do it without using any form of visualization.  I know
there must be a way to learn this skill, or turn on the mental switch
that exists within all of us.  I have researched this topic on the
internet and all I end up with is a link to some website related to an
eastern art or religion.  It usually tells you to close you eyes,
focus on an image, and so on.

I am hoping there is someone out there who is knowledgeable in the
area of mental development/neurology who can point me in the direction
of a book, academic literature, research, etc., that specifically
addresses this issue and can show some success with the methodologly
proposed.

My main area of interest is the development of an individual's
concentration abilities and memory, and the research I have done keeps
pointing me in the direction of developing my visualization abilities.
 So any insight, suggestions, comments, etc. on developing/increasing
an individual's ability to
concentrate would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to anyone who can provide any information with this request.

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 03 May 2005 21:14 PDT

Hi...

I'd like to know the extent of your current abilities, however
limited. Are you able to visualize a simple red circle, or a 
yellow triangle, for example? If so, it's just like any other
skill - it's a matter of moving to progressively more complex
images, while being able to hold the simpler ones in mind for
an increasingly longer period.

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by exceedpotential-ga on 04 May 2005 13:16 PDT

Sorry for the delay in responding, but this is my first time using
Google Answers and I wasn't sure how to respond.  To answer you
question - I am complete blank.  I can't see a single thing.  I dream
vividly when I do dream, but nothing when I close my eyes.

Hopefully, this helps.  Thanks for your interest.

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 04 May 2005 14:59 PDT

Okay, I'm gonna throw a mind-twister in here, and see what
you come up with. You say you dream vividly when you dream.
So how do you know that's true, unless you are, at some point,
conscious, while remembering, however vaguely, some imagery
from the dreams? Perhaps you could build on that moment of
memory, as you are waking, to further your abilities.

Also, imagery tends to accompany certain brainwave frequencies,
which occur more easily in sleep and meditation. Perhaps you
could enhance the ability by spending a fair amount of time
in a dark room for at least 20 minutes, a few times a day,
allowing the usual stimuli and activities of thought to 
fade to the background.

How long have you spent, at a time, in the effort to perceive
internal imagery?

Ultimately, depriving the mind and body of stimulus tends to
create a situation where the mind makes up the difference.
People who have spent time in sensory-deprivation tanks (a
lightproof, soundproof tank filled with salt water at body
temperature which reduces outside stimulus to almost nothing),
often experience vivid hallucinations, akin to waking dreams,
due to this phenomenon.

sublime1-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 04 May 2005 15:08 PDT

Here's another thought. Most people experience some type
of imagery when they are listening to another describe
something, or when they are reading a descriptive section
in a book. It may be pretty far in the background, for 
some people, but it's usually there to some degree.

Perhaps you can learn to catch yourself having an image
as someone talks to you, or as you read. If I describe
to you a bright yellow lemon, which I'm about to cut in
half so I can squeeze the juice into a tuna salad, can
you see the sharp stainless steel edge of the knife as
I place it on the dimpled skin of the lemon, and start
to move it forward, slicing into the flesh of the lemon?

Does you mouth water at the thought of the taste of that
tart juice, which is beginning to escape from the cut
I'm making? If it does, you're probably seeing something.
You just need to learn how to focus on it.

Having someone read descriptive passages, while sitting
in a dark room with your eyes closed, might help you 
with that process.

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by exceedpotential-ga on 04 May 2005 20:44 PDT

You present some interesting thoughts.  You are correct in that I may
have a very vivid dream early in the morning and I awake while in the
middle of the dream and the stimulation/emotions are very real and so
is the memory of the immage.  I can't recall or reproduce what I just
saw in the dream, but I do remember just seeing it.  And after waking
I have tried to recall the images I just experienced, but I can't.  I
have fallen back to sleep and the images come right back.

I have been reading a fair amount on meditation and it seems that
meditation should help with focus and possibly slowing down the mind
to the point where some type of images are attainable.  I do remember
reading years ago that everyone has some form of a mental screen, but
some people's minds label the images so quickly they are never
consciously seen or remembered.  I am wondering if slowing down the
thought process is what is needed to see the images.  I hate to admit
this, but I have not started meditation because I don't want to be
disappointed.  I don't know anyone personally who has meditated for
any extended period who I can talk to about the experience and
benefits.

I do like your idea of going into a dark room and trying to create a
mental image by focusing and eliminating as much outside stimulus as
possible.  As I alluded to above, I have yet to sit and try to create
an image.  Granted, I have layed in bed in the morning and evening and
earnestly tried to create an image, but with no luck.  I was hoping to
find an actual program or method that someone can testify to the fact
it works.  I guess I could just start experimenting and see what
happens.  But I wanted to do some investigating before spending time
on something that won't work, especially if someone already knows
exactly what should be done.

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 04 May 2005 22:29 PDT

You mentioned having read that, "...some people's minds
label the images so quickly they are never consciously 
seen or remembered."

This is true, and speaks to what wordsmth-ga noted about
different people having different native abilities.

Here's an article from AllAboutBaby.com about the different
modes of perception among children, which can be mixed and
matched in varying strengths and combinations, so the there
are almost endless possibilities:

"There are eight ways of being smart. Everyone possesses
 all eight intelligences, but some intelligences are more
 dominant than others. If given the appropriate encouragement,
 enrichment, and instruction, everyone has the capacity to
 develop all eight intelligences and to perform in them at
 a reasonably high level."

"If a child is linguistic, he is gifted in the language
 areas of reading, writing, listening and talking. A child
 who is logical-mathematical has an unusual ability for
 problem-solving and mathematical concepts. A spatial child
 has an ability to see mental images or pictures. A child
 who is primarily bodily-kinesthetic has a keen sense of
 body movement and activity. A musical child is gifted at
 processing rhythmically. A child who is intrapersonal has
 an extraordinary sense of his own affect. If the child?s
 most dominant intelligence is interpersonal, then she has
 the ability to perceive and make distinctions in the moods,
 intentions, motivations, and feelings of other people.
 Finally, a child who is a naturalist enjoys being outdoors,
 understands nature and is capable of identifying flora and
 fauna."

Much more on the page:
http://www.allaboutbaby.com/schoolage/multiple_intelligences.htm


Nonetheless, if your desire is strong enough, I'm certain that
you can develop the skill, with practice, since, as you noted,
your have the ability while sleeping.

Most courses which involve visualization are geared toward
helping you use what imagination you have to produce changes
in your life, and, of course, strengthening those skills as
you practice.

Very few are about actually developing the ability to visualize,
in and of itself. I did find one which offers this as one of
the specific benefits. Acoustic Brain Research offers tapes
which they say are useful for the following applications:

- The increase of I.Q. and Creativity

- The increase of visualization abilities

- Deepening Meditational Experiences

- Psychotherapy and self-exploration

With regard to the increase of visualization abilities:

"...the tape also comes with instructions for increasing
 visualization skills. Many people desire to increase
 their ability to "see" mental images, but do not know
 how to go about such a task. The protocol for increasing
 visualization abilities (included with the tape) has
 been reported to be highly effective with a broad range
 of persons. The tonal matrix on the tape seems both to
 facilitate and accelerate the acquisition of
 visualization abilities."
http://www.elixa.com/mental/ABRresearchCI.htm

If what I've provided here, and in previous clarifications,
satisfies your interests in posing this question, let me
know, and I will post it as a formal answer so I can be
reimbursed. I didn't want to make the assumption that I
had been successful in my efforts up til now, but with 
the addition of what I've posted here, it would seem you
may have gotten what you hoped for. If not let me know
what else you need.

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by exceedpotential-ga on 05 May 2005 14:30 PDT

The following should have been a question clarification and not a
comment - I'm new at this.

In response to the 2 most recent postings from wordsmith and nicholas
the wizard - thank you.  You ask why am I trying to obtain this skill
and what am I expecting to see.  Answering the second question first -
no, I don't expect to be able to see images as a movie.  I wish our
mind worked that effeciently.  I am more interested in memory and that
is one of the main reasons I am interested.  I am in the real estate
industry and I sell industrial investment properties around the
country - and I an quite good at it.  But I get so frustrated when I
am in a meeting or on a call and someone can recall exactly how many
truck dock were on one side of the building, or they can remember
layout of a warehouse.  I can't actually recall the image - I just
feel the building I walked through.  Or someone can remember a bunch
of facts from a spec sheet.  I ask how they can remember such detailed
information and they respond - well I can just see the spec sheet and
read from it.  And this isn't the first time I've heard this.  All of
my memories from the time I was a kid to the adulthood have been a
blur.  I can't recall a single image from the past.  I just remember
the event, but without images.  As time moves on my recollections get
weaker because I don't have an image to add to the memory.  Whereas,
my recently deceased brother (43 years old) could remember us playing
in the courtyard of an apartment building we were in and the names of
the neighbors, what they looked like, etc.  I have two other brothers
who have similar abilities to recall events.  We will be sitting
around and discussing past events from our childhood and they can
remember the most detailed information.  I know the event happened
because I was there, but I can't really remember as much as others
because I have no visual memory.  I have 2 young children and my wife
is constantly saying - do you remember when...?  And I have to say no
or pretend I do.

As for work, I can remember the most obscure data about a property or
transaction - sometimes for years.  Most of it is verbal recall or
recall from reading something because I have a habit of subvocalizing
when reading important data.

A great example would be my wife and going to Disney.  We took the
kids for the first time 2 years ago, and when we went back my wife
could remember where everything was located as if she were there a
week ago.  She just "see it".  My wife can remember what I was wearing
on our first date 17 years ago.  I can remember the restaurant and
nothing much about the event.  I think it is sad, especially with
kids.

As I said early, I am successful and I can spend 10 plus hours on the
phone discussing with accuracy complex transactions, but I can't
recall the most basic thing if it is something that I need to
visualize.

I'm not sure where to turn.  Do I work on concentration exercises,
which everyone I have ever seen talks about different exercises that
have differing degrees of of difficulty as it relates to visualation.

Thanks for everyone's help.

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 05 May 2005 16:45 PDT

exceedpotential...

It's not uncommon to post remarks in the comment area, especially
when directing your remarks to commentors, and especially if the
commentors are not Google Answers Researchers. You can tell the 
difference by the fact that Researchers' names are blue, and are
linked to their records. Only Researchers can post an official
answer in the answer box, while all members are able to comment.

Since you didn't add anything to your most recent Clarification
in reference to the Request for Clarification I posted prior to
yours (above it, now), it's not clear whether you read my post,
so I'm posting this and requesting that you read it and let me 
know what you think.

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by exceedpotential-ga on 06 May 2005 07:32 PDT

i'm sorry - I remember typing the response, but I must not have posted
it.  I saw one of the 2 websites you referenced before.  No
disrespect, but I feel I can come across information such as you
provided by searching on the internet myself, so I am not looking for
the type of help you have provide, though I greatly appreciate the
help you have provided.  What I was hoping is a response from someone
who can point me to a method they know from personal experience will
work.  I was hoping for an academic or lay person who had experience
with a particular method that helps create and/or increase
visualization.  I'm not prepared to start buying tapes off the
internet that "claim" results.  I am looking for an unequivocal - "try
this method, it works - it worked for me(either through research or
personal experience)."  I hope this answers your question.

Thanks again,

---

Clarification of Question by exceedpotential-ga on 09 May 2005 23:01 PDT

To gautamthor - I hope you aren't implying that I got an answer to my
question and I have decided not to pay a researcher?  I asked a
specific question and did not get an actual answer.  I got some
possible direction, but not an answer.  And what you provided was your
opinion - nice generalities on a very complex subject.  I would gladly
pay to have a concrete answer to my question.  If an answer doesn't
exist, then I will continue to live life as I have in the past.  Your
implication that people aren't really seeing what they think they are
seeing when they close their eyes is false.  Do research on people
like Nicholi Tesla and Tom Clancy - they claim to be able to vividly
see images in great detail.  Those are just 2 individuals who have
extraordinary visualization capabilities, though I am not looking for
that level of visualation.  This is the first time I have used Google
Answers and possibly my expectations were unrealistic.  But to imply I
won't pay a researcher is insulting.  According to your answer I am
pissing up a rope and on a hopeless quest.  Should I pay you for your
response?  You might be right?

A few random thoughts on that. (I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist,
etc. So I'm commenting with no real expertise, and of course you get
what you pay for. Nevertheless....)

I can understand your desire to be able to visualize things. But let's
leave that aside for a moment. Are there functions you feel you'd
perform better if you had some additional visualization skills? You
mention sports, memorization, hobbies, and so forth. How are your
skills and abilities in those areas, even without your ability to
visualize? If they're already good, it's entirely possible that your
mind has compensated for its inability to visualize by strengthening
some other skills that the rest of us are generally weak in.

Second, visualization is only one method to improve performance in
those areas. A quick story: My son practices martial arts. Relatively
soon after he began, he had to learn how to break boards. A short time
later, he learned how to break cinderblocks. He had a hard time at
first, until I taught him some pre-visualization techniques--seeing
his hand smashing through the boards, rather than being stopped by
them. And it worked great. But there would have been other ways to
learn. Muscles have a "memory." You do the same thing over and over
again and you build up a skill with that. I could have had him slam
his hand hard against a bullseye painted on a soft mat--getting him
used to extending power all the way down through the arm motion. After
his muscles "learned" that, I could have placed some boards, say, 6"
above the mat. Had I done so, he could have broken those boards just
as easily...not by visualizing the process but by drawing on "muscle
memory." Basketball players shooting free throws do the same. Some
"visualize" the ball swishing the net. But most also practice for
hours at a time, training their muscles, then relying on the muscle
memory during competition. (Just to be clear, it's not muscle
strength, but an actual linkage between the muscles and the brain.)
There are lots of other ways to compensate for an inability to
visualize. I realize that's not the answer to your question, if your
burning desire is to be able to visualize for the sake of being able
to visualize, but if you see visualization as a means to an end, and
not the end in itself, then recognize that there are other ways to
accomplish the same goals.

Im no proffessional but i think i might have somthing to say on this
subject. What are you really expecting to see when you close your
eyes. How do you think this mental image should look? Do you think its
like sitting in a theater watching a movie? When i close my eyes i see
the image but its as if im looking through a black screen. But there
are times when i read a book that i dont even close my eyes and it
appears in front of me almost as if im hallucinating. but i think the
best thing you can do is dont force it. Its one of those things in
life that happen on its owne when it wants to. Sorry if im bursting
your bubble but whatever.

                                                             Sincerly Nick
                                                                  The Wiz

In response to the 2 most recent postings from wordsmith and nicholas
the wizard - thank you.  You ask why am I trying to obtain this skill
and what am I expecting to see.  Answering the second question first -
no, I don't expect to be able to see images as a movie.  I wish our
mind worked that effeciently.  I am more interested in memory and that
is one of the main reasons I am interested.  I am in the real estate
industry and I sell industrial investment properties around the
country - and I an quite good at it.  But I get so frustrated when I
am in a meeting or on a call and someone can recall exactly how many
truck dock were on one side of the building, or they can remember
layout of a warehouse.  I can't actually recall the image - I just
feel the building I walked through.  Or someone can remember a bunch
of facts from a spec sheet.  I ask how they can remember such detailed
information and they respond - well I can just see the spec sheet and
read from it.  And this isn't the first time I've heard this.  All of
my memories from the time I was a kid to the adulthood have been a
blur.  I can't recall a single image from the past.  I just remember
the event, but without images.  As time moves on my recollections get
weaker because I don't have an image to add to the memory.  Whereas,
my recently deceased brother (43 years old) could remember us playing
in the courtyard of an apartment building we were in and the names of
the neighbors, what they looked like, etc.  I have two other brothers
who have similar abilities to recall events.  We will be sitting
around and discussing past events from our childhood and they can
remember the most detailed information.  I know the event happened
because I was there, but I can't really remember as much as others
because I have no visual memory.  I have 2 young children and my wife
is constantly saying - do you remember when...?  And I have to say no
or pretend I do.

As for work, I can remember the most obscure data about a property or
transaction - sometimes for years.  Most of it is verbal recall or
recall from reading something because I have a habit of subvocalizing
when reading important data.

A great example would be my wife and going to Disney.  We took the
kids for the first time 2 years ago, and when we went back my wife
could remember where everything was located as if she were there a
week ago.  She just "see it".  My wife can remember what I was wearing
on our first date 17 years ago.  I can remember the restaurant and
nothing much about the event.  I think it is sad, especially with
kids.

As I said early, I am successful and I can spend 10 plus hours on the
phone discussing with accuracy complex transactions, but I can't
recall the most basic thing if it is something that I need to
visualize.

I'm not sure where to turn.  Do I work on concentration exercises,
which everyone I have ever seen talks about different exercises that
have differing degrees of of difficulty as it relates to visualation.

Thanks for everyone's help.

interesting stuff folks! too bad the researcher didnt get his bucks though! 

in the same way that one can never real imagine a color one has never
seen - i think this business of "convincing oneself" of a "visual
image" is a slippery eel. that is to say - actually i too can not  do
this thing that you call "visualisation" - what really is this? that
is, that i can literally close my eyes and "see" whatever i will???
hmmm and i ask - can anyone really do this or rather think that they
can do this? wait lets go step by step  -

you go to a movie and you see a visual image in front of you right?
 
well - that image actually falls through your eye lens onto your
retina and then guess what? it becomess little electrical signals from
there on till that wonderful brain fianally leaves you with the
impression " i see this image right in front of me and i am
visualizing it right now.." ok lets start there. a "real
visualization".

what i want to emphasize to you is that - the  movie image that you
think you are seeing "live"  on your retina is actually about as real
as the  image you see on a screen of a tv versus its box behind it!
think of your eye as a projection screen and your head as the
biological tv box that creates all thes eelectrical stmuli as 
aconsequence of some image that fell on your retina - such that it
gives you a "screen like" effect of showing images that you swear are
real. you can see them with your very eyes.........

our entire perceptions of the universe are linked directly to our
capability to interpret the world with our senses. our brains do this
- like how the eye "sees" things, or the "ear" hears things and so on.
the point here is that actually its electrical neural activity taking
place in a very COMPLICATED way that give us the "feeling" that a
particular set of signals is "real".


you can go into peoples heads and stimulate certain regions  and
they'll start saying stuff like - oh i can hear my grandma playing the
piano as she used to 50 years  ago - or you can specifically make
people recall faces (the brains facial info processing is  another bag
of fish entirely so lets pass that). theres no stimulus going into
these peoples heads through their eyes but they can recall sounds and
images as though its really happening in front of them - i can see
grandma - she is wearing her red robe etc. its her birthday party etc.

the bottom line here is that its merely a question of recognizing for
yourself what you think visualization means. the fact of the matter is
that you are able to function and i truly think that the place you are
trapped in is in your interpretation of "visualization". more of a
fundamental trap, you are heading towards a difficult road as
youvmight try to understand "what is reality" "what is visualization"
what is my brain doing ? forget searching for your answer by the
internet - internalize and meditate. try zen?

the entire process of visualization is a neural phenomenon that we
convince ourselves of. no amount of effort can ever tell us (today
that is - who knows what happens in a few decades? centuries?) but
today, the process of visualization itself is certainly no
representation of the "real reality" whatever that is. however we are
totally convinced that "seeing is believing" even when things like
simple optical tricks show us how untrue that is! i did once read -
the universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits
to get sharper so that we can recognize them!

Just in case you were worried that you are the only one out there, I
have been aware of this 'feature' that others have and I do not for
quite some time.  I was astonished when I learned that most people can
recall what their mother looks like in their "mind's eye"...I can only
remember *facts* relating to images.  On the other hand, if I close my
eyes I can decide to see a dot which grows and then shrinks, or splits
into two dots....although it doesn't really feel like imagery, more an
imagination of a *feeling*.